Jewish Day Schools Are Accused of “Preaching Dual Loyalty To Israel”

A teacher who has taught at six Jewish Day Schools charges, in an article published in The Forward (Feb. 21, 2020), that these schools are “preaching dual loyalty to Israel.” The Forward notes that it “is publishing this article anonymously to protect the author, who currently teaches at a New York day school, from repercussions at work.”

The author writes that, “A recent survey by the Anti-Defamation League found that nearly a quarter of Americans believe American Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the United States. Based on my experience teaching at a half dozen Jewish day schools over the past 12 years, I am shocked that the figure is so low.”

When you walk into the building, the author notes, you “see Israeli flags hanging all over the place. Lessons are delivered in Hebrew—often at the obvious expense of student comprehension. Children sing Hatikvah in the morning with reinforced gusto.. Israeli soldiers regularly address the student body. Children wear kippot and hoodies emblazoned with the logo of the Israel Defense Forces.”

Beyond this, he reports, “Zionism is messaged in these schools as the most essential attribute of our students’ identity... I’ve heard teachers or administrators say at assemblies things like ‘You don’t belong in America,’ ‘Israel is your country,’ and ‘The IDF are your soldiers.’ When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the U.S. Congress in opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, against the wishes of President Obama, the high school where I was working canceled classes to watch ‘our prime minister’ That’s a real quote.”

At the six high schools where he taught, the author reports, Hatikvah was sung more often than the Star Spangled Banner and Israeli national holidays “are taught with a reverence and solemnity that outstrips what is accorded to religious or American ones... Veterans Day was never discussed but Yom Hazikavon, Israel’s Memorial Day, had special projects and schools receive grants from the Avi Chai Foundation which requires recipients to declare that they ‘seek to instill in our students an attachment to the State of Israel and its people.’”

Zionism, not religion, is the essential curriculum in these day school,” argues the author: “There is no similar enthusiasm for the Torah in these schools. There was an understanding that we don’t push religion, that we must teach about religion in a detached way. So while we may teach what the Torah says, we are pretty much forbidden from actually saying the key point— that ‘as Jews we have to do what the Torah says.’ It’s like a very lame, extremely limited, comparative religion class.”

The author concludes: “If our loyalty is, as it must be, to the United States, then it is time to think about how we show it in our Jewish day schools. We're really not being at all clear about it in our Jewish day schools. Until this is addressed in a meaningful way, we are in no position to feign shock at how it is perceived.” *