The Charlotte Jewish News - August 2001 - Page 13
Charlotte Jewish Preschool Welcomes
New Director
Elementary Education from State
University of New York at
Oswego. She has been teaching
second and third grade in Union
County. She has received numer
ous awards including Model
Teacher for Union County Public
Schools in 1999 and Jaycees
Teacher of the Year in 1998. Most
recently, Rebecca coordinated the
annual “Read Across America” for
Sardis Elementary School in
Union County. Rebecca has also
worked with Big Brothers/Big
Sisters.
Rebecca’s co-workers say she
is a “visionary” educator and can
truly make a difference in-a child’s
educational journey. She loves
children and helping them learn
by experiencing all the joys and
PresdKxd
New Charlotte Jewish Preschool
Director, Rebecca Shoniker.
The Board of Directors of the
Charlotte Jewish Preschool wel
comes Rebecca Shoniker as
Director. Rebecca joins CJP in
July.
Rebecca received her BS in
A joint venture of
Temble Beth El and
Temple Israel
wonders that school has to offer.
Rebecca is very excited about
using her skills and experience at
CJP. Her enthusiasm, creativity
and love for children will make
Rebecca a welcome addition to
the Charlotte Jewish Preschool
family.
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Back to School Special
Liberal Jewish Schools Update
Curriculum —: by Adding Christianity
By Julie Wiener
New York (JTA) — At Charles
E. Smith Jewish Day School in
suburban Washington, Jewish his
tory courses cover the rise of
Christianity and Church-sanc
tioned anti-Semitism, and then go
on to teach how Jewish-Christian
relations have improved in recent
years.
Reconstructionist rabbinical
students are required to take at
least one course in Christianity,
and also have the option of taking
a course with Lutheran students
on Christian-Jewish dialogue.
And the Jewish Theological
Seminary is considering develop
ing a required course on other reli
gions.
Outside Orthodoxy — where
interfaith studies and exchanges
remain rare — Jewish learning
about Christian tenets and history
appears to be on the rise, reflect
ing a growing climate of trust
between Jews and Christians in
the United States.
Next week, 50 faculty members
and administrators from 21
Christian and Jewish seminaries -
including ones representing the
Conservative, Reconstructionist,
Reform and traditional wings of
Judaism — * will gather in
Baltimore for two days of discus
sions on how they teach future
clergy about other faiths.
And at a meeting earlier this
month, the International Catholic-
Jewish Liaison Committee, a
group of top Catholic and Jewish
leaders, issued a recommendation
calling on both Catholics and Jews
to make learning about the evolu
tion of relations — particularly the
Church’s 1965 repudiation of the
concept of Jewish guilt for
Christ’s death — a core part of the
curriculum for new clergy.
According to the statement,
Jewish institutions — due to dif
ficulty overcoming “generational
memories of anti-Semitic oppres
sion” — have not made as great an
effort as Catholic ones to revamp
their teaching about the other in
recent years.
Increasingly, however, liberal
Jewish institutions are incorporat
ing the history of Christianity into
their curricula and are promoting,
exchanges with clergy of other
faiths. Many also participate in
exchanges in which rabbinical stu
dents study periodically with stu
dents in Christian seminaries, or
share training in things such as
chaplaincy.
While still rare, a growing
number of Jewish day schools are
integrating Christian history into
the curriculum or participating in
exchanges with neighboring
Christian schools.
In a pilot program jointly spon
sored by the Archdiocese of
Boston and the local Anti-
Defamation League chapter, 13
students at the New Jewish High
School of Greater Boston are tak
ing an elective course on the
development of Christianity,
Catholic holidays and liturgical
cycles.
The students met six times this
year to study together and do joint
social action projects with local
Catholic students enrolled in a
course on Judaism.
In a similar program, the
American Jewish Committee’s
Catholic-Jewish Educational
Enrichment Program, parallel
courses are set up between
Catholic schools and Jewish day
schools. Jewish leaders teach in
the Catholic schools and Catholic
leaders teach in Jewish schools.
The 10-year-old project, known
as C-JEEP, currently is in New
York, Chicago, Philadelphia, San
Francisco and Los Angeles, and
will expand to Pittsburgh next
year.
Proponents of interfaith learn
ing argue that it actually strength
ens Jewish understanding of
Judaism and prepares Jews to con
verse intelligently with Christian
neighbors and colleagues.
“From my own involvement
with such conversations, I don’t
feel there’s anything to fear from
them,” said Rabbi Allan Kensky,
dean of the JTS rabbinical school.
“My own sense of being anchored
in Jewish tradition is enhanced by
such conversations. I often gain a
deeper understanding of my own
tradition by seeing it in light of
another.”
A familiarity with Christianity
also is useful to rabbis when coun
seling congregants who converted
or, as is increasingly common,
talking to Jews who are married to
Christians.
“Most Jews are unbelievably
ignorant about Christianity,” said
Rabbi Nancy Fuchs-Kreimer,
director of religious studies at the
Reconstructionist Rabbinical
College in suburban Philadelphia.
While many argue that
Christianity pervades American
culture, Fuchs-Kreimer said most
of what Jews consider Christian is
simply a “paganized” version of
the religion, and few Jews know
“the actual history of how these
religions developed.”
Her husband, she said, grew up
thinking Christians believed that
Jesus had come back to life as the
Easter bunny.
Nonetheless, Orthodox leaders
have generally been reluctant to
discuss Christianity, citing con
cerns that it will undermine
Jewish learning or even shatter
people’s faith in Judaism.
The late Rabbi Joseph
Soloveitchik, whose writings
remain an authoritative voice for
centrist Orthodoxy, responded to
the Vatican’s 1965 call for more
Jewish-Catholic dialogue by per
mitting joint work on social prob
lems, but not theological explo
ration.
Yeshiva University’s rabbinical
school does not offer courses on
Christianity, and few Orthodox
day schools study other religions
or offer exchanges with Christian
institutions.
Rabbi Zevulun Charlop, dean
of YU’s rabbinical school, could
not be reached for comment.
Rabbi Joshua Fishman, execu-
(Continued on page 25)
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