JFS/JONAH incident reflects wider fears Orthodox educators have of modernity
Posted: January 27, 2012 | Author: David Yehuda Stern | | Tags: fundamentalism, homosexuality, jfs, jonah, keshetuk, leviticus, modernity, sex education, single faith schools |1 Comment »
By David Yehuda Stern
It is not difficult to imagine that JFS may have been unprepared to deal with the sensitive issues surrounding sexuality. In many schools across the country teachers do not receive the proper support and training needed for them to run positive sessions on this and related issues. Orthodox Jewish schools face an added challenge: instilling core values such as sensitivity, understanding and acceptance in their students whilst also teaching traditional Jewish texts that can discourage or condem homosexuality. Insensitivity by teachers to LGBT in the classroom, even if the school position is one of disapproval, can create a hateful and hurtful school environment. Responding to the Jewish Chronicle’s article last week Alma Smith, a former head girl of JFS wrote a letter to the school pointing out that she found “homophobia [to be] rife…and institutionalised” during her own time at the school. She went on to add that her LGBT friends who attended JFS were left with, “dominant feelings of repression, homophobia and pain.”
I believe that the issues raised last week around JFS and JONAH goes much deeper than issues of sexuality. Rather it reminds us of the fear and perhaps detestation some Rabbis have towards modern values and concepts.
I received my secondary education at Hasmonean High School for Boys – another voluntary aided, comprehensive with Orthodox Judaism at its core. During my time there in the 1990s rabbis at the school were accused by parents of “alienating pupils by showing hostility […] to the trappings of modern life – like television, theatre and reading for pleasure.” This public outcry, coupled with other serious concerns, led one parent of the school, to relinquish his position on the school’s Board of Governors. Explaining his concerns at the time Rabbi Michael Pollak pointed out that, “there were worries that some of the rabbis’ fundamentalist ideas were leaking into secular studies.” One newspaper reported that children had come home from the school with pages ripped out of biology textbooks and that teachers there were “not reconciled to women’s rights.”
Rabbi Pollak went on to say,
“The majority of parents at Hasmonean are still looking for that synthesis between Jewish values and western culture […] These children are religious children, committed to a religious lifestyle, but nevertheless exposed to modern western values. Parents would like to see their children comfortable in both worlds.”
Hasmonean’s current Sex Education Policy, which is regularly reviewed by the Jewish Studies Committee, tells us that the sex education curriculum is taught in, “context of the school ethos which reflects the Orthodox Jewish point of view based on the Torah.”
Hasmonean’s Sex Education Policy states that;
“Relevant Biblical and Talmudic texts are used […] to discuss the Torah attitude to many aspects of sexual morality including inter-gender relationships, homosexuality, rape and the Torah attitude to the family (e.g. the Flood and its causes; destruction of Sodom; The Family Life of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs; the chapters in Leviticus dealing with immoral relationships, [etc..].”
The framing of sexuality that is formed through the above teachings does not tolerate or allow for deviance from prescribed Jewish norms. It leads to the formation of a public space that can only feel safe to people who identify as hetronormative.
Further concerns arise when the policy tells us that sex education is also taught “through input by the Jewish Studies Department into the biology department.” Hasmonean’s Jewish Studies Department has devised a “lecture/discussion” as an “introduction to the subject of procreation” the purpose of which is to set “the religious, moral and family contexts for the teaching of the Biology Department which follows”.
Judaism’s rich history and teachings speak to every aspect of our lives and we can see the dilemma this can cause for Jewish educators when they cover topics or issues that appear at odds with contemporary science and values. It might be appropriate for a Jewish school to focus part of its curriculum on traditional Jewish approaches to sexuality but many of the teachers are not qualified to address the complexities involved when engaging young teenagers in such sensitive topics. Jewish Studies teachers often assume that the students in their classes all identify as heterosexual, leading to inappropriate educational material being taught as well as callus or hurtful remarks that can cause serious emotional and psychological damage.
If last week’s news is to have a real, lasting positive impact on Jewish education and schooling we must extend the conversation to include the very institutions that guide the orthodox community. We need to get these leaders to engage in conversations with reputable organisations, both Jewish and non-Jewish, to develop an approach to sex and relationships education that creates Jewish schools that allow our children to develop and grow without fear, prejudice or pain.