Rumors spread in an Eastern European Shtetl that a Christian child had been murdered and a pogrom was in the offing. The whole community went to the local synagogue to pray and gird themselves for the imminent onslaught, when, Moishe runs in breathless, saying, “Good news, it was a Jewish child.”

Now, New York Jewish investors are mollified by the fact that Madoff’s primary targets were Jews which has mitigated the perceived inevitable anti-Semitic backlash. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Rumors spread in an Eastern European Shtetl that a Christian child had been murdered and a pogrom was in the offing. The whole community went to the local synagogue to pray and gird themselves for the imminent onslaught, when, Moishe runs in breathless, saying, “Good news, it was a Jewish child.”

Now, New York Jewish investors are mollified by the fact that Madoff’s primary targets were Jews which has mitigated the perceived inevitable anti-Semitic backlash. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Click on “Follow this blog” on the top of the right hand column. It’s a way for me to know who is out there–besides family members.

We, who teach in the murky world of multiple Jewish temperaments, where nuanced explanations so often replace fervent commitment, sometimes–maybe often–question the value of what we do. Now that most community day school attendees are not for the most part synagogue attendees, we can assume they may not become adult members of any shule in the future. If this is true for non-Orthodox day school kids, how much more so for others? The following article that appeared in Hayidiyon, the RAVSAK (Community day School Network)periodical is an attempt by me to picture what’s coming down the road and how to reckon with its complexity.