Heading back to school can be a stressful time for families. The kids (or grand-kids) are a year older, and as they say: little kids have little problems, big kids have big problems. Registering for sports and activities, meeting new teachers, and taking on new responsibilities are all part of the package. This year, our Jewish kids face even bigger challenges.
We have seen the “new normal” of discrimination and antisemitism, and our children see it too. Visit any popular social media site like TikTok or Instagram, find a popular Jewish creator, and open the comments under any of their posts or videos. You will find an absolute torrent of the most vile and violent words that you are likely to read. It’s not a matter of any creator’s political stance, whether right or left. It’s not a matter of their position on Israel or the war in Gaza. You will find the same comments on any video of any Jew who has the audacity to be publicly Jewish.
Beyond the filthy and flimsy opinions of strangers, we increasingly see a disturbing message even in civic policy. The message at times seems to be, “if you are different, you are not valid.”
One such example is the institution of posting the Ten Commandments in our public school’s classrooms. It may surprise you to hear a Rabbi – who very much believes in the Ten Commandments – criticize the public posting of these foundational principles. Yet, I believe that it is part of sending a message to signal which groups are acceptable, and which are not.
This display in places of mandatory public education signals that Jews, for one, are not. We are part of the “other.” For starters, there is no such thing in Judaism as the “Ten Commandments.” Many of us use the phrase as a shorthand, and a simple way to communicate commonality with our non-Jewish neighbors. However, at its heart, it is a Christian phrase. In Hebrew, this important passage is known as עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים – The Ten Statements. The first (I the LORD am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, the house of bondage) is not even a commandment, but a declaration. There are not 10 commandments in Judaism. The Hebrew word for commandment is mitzvah. We have 613 of those in the Torah, not 10.
The Texas law prescribes the exact wording of the commandments that is to be used. The choice of the language is not neutral. It is based on the King James Version of the Bible, which is a distinctly Christian translation, and one not even shared by all Christians. However, it is also edited, so as not to include the complete text of the passage from Exodus. In fact, the exact version is one created by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in the 1950s, at a time when the Order’s bylaws barred anyone who wasn’t white from becoming a member.
The argument in favor of including these 10 commandments in our classrooms centers around our National History and the moral instruction of our children. It’s true that our nation’s founders leaned heavily upon their profound connection to Judeo-Christian values. The Ten Commandments were a part of their lives and the values upon which they founded our Union. However, they also believed strongly in protecting and uplifting all the diverse voices that made up our great country. It is this principle, perhaps more than any other, that has made America great.
They enshrined in law the most basic protection for Americans to practice any religion or creed, or none at all. Many of them had fled from nations that enforced a state religion. They were determined to make America different. Guided by the moral principles that they were taught, they aspired to make America into a promise of equal opportunity for all good people.
Even more objectionable to me than the erosion of our national value of freedom is the moral abdication of our religious institutions. The arguments that moral and religious values must be taught in public schools completely undermines the moral authority of families and religious institutions. What is a child, Jewish or Christian, to say when they open their family Tanakh or Bible and find a different version of the text? Is their teacher wrong, or is their mother? Should they trust their school, or trust their synagogue?
It’s unfair to place children who are learning the moral lessons of life in such a situation. Religious leaders who support this policy are actively ceding their moral authority. Religion should be learned in the home and the synagogue, where loving teachers can offer the foundation of a community and a tradition of thousands of years. Religion should not be mandated in schools, taught by teachers who lack the religious training and community knowledge.
As our children enter their public school classrooms this year, they will find framed posters on the wall, listing the 11 statements that make up the Ten Commandments (different groups divide these statements differently, according to their own traditions). For them and for their peers, it will send a message, not of moral clarity, but of social confusion. They will know that these commandments are not their “עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים,” but a very particular Christian display, endorsing a certain narrow religious understanding of the world.
Fortunately, our students also have an extremely potent outlet. They have a place where they can come to be around other Jewish children. They have a place where they can be taught by caring teachers who know their families and the history of our people. Here at Temple Emanuel, they find a place in which they can be themselves, without fear of being “other,” without fear of antisemitism, and with a joyous celebration of who they are. Here, they can ask questions. Here, they can learn the stories of our People that have been the foundation of our moral teaching for thousands of years.
Here, they have a home.