Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic in Retrospect, Part III: Bad Timing
This week, let’s attack something a little more mundane: scheduling of the school day. ...
Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic in Retrospect, Part II: No Literature Created Equal
An Analysis of the Clashes Between Judaic and Secular Studies in the Jewish Day School ...
Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmetic in Retrospect, Part I: Introduction
An Analysis of the Clashes Between Judaic and Secular Studies in the Jewish Day School ...
The Jewneric Leadership Series: Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein
Jewneric recently had the opportunity to speak with Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who currently dedicates his time and energies to The International Fellowship for Christians and Jews (IFCJ) – Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) Partnership for Children in the Former Soviet Union, committed to ensuring the well-being of tens of thousands of Jewish children in that area. The group also responds to emergencies and crisis all over the world. Rabbi Eckstein has devoted the past 30 years to building bridges of understanding and active cooperation between Christians and Jews. An Orthodox rabbi, he has helped hundreds of thousands of Christians around the world discover and understand the Jewish roots of their faith. In 1983, Rabbi Eckstein founded The Fellowship to give Christians the opportunity to meaningfully express their support for Israel and promote the well-being of Jews in Israel and around the world. In 2005, Rabbi Eckstein was appointed Goodwill Ambassador of the State of Israel, with special emphasis on Israel’s relationships with Christian communities in Latin America. ...
Real Estate, Real Problem
I grew up in a pretty insular community. I went to a Jewish school, had carpools to take me to and from wherever I was going, and almost never used public transportation until I was in college. It's not that I didn't like non-Jews or had anything against them - they seemed alright when I passed them on the street. It's just that I never had much to do with them. When houses went on the market in my neighborhoods (first Beverlywood, in Los Angeles, sometimes called the Pico-Robertson Area, though that's a much more expansive designation; later Teaneck, NJ and the accompanying Northern New Jersey towns like Englewood, Fair Lawn, and Bergenfield), sometimes Jews would move in and sometimes not. Especially in Teaneck, as the prices went up and up, the Jewish homes began to outnumber the non-Jewish ones, at least in the areas where synagogues caused Jews to view housing as optimal. There didn't seem to be any conspiracy; we needed to live within walking distance of a shul. And while that distance could be extended beyond a block or two, your universe of housing options could often be drawn with a simple circle extending between half a mile and a mile around the shul building itself. But matters of convenience were also social, cultural, and economic. A wealthy shul would create wealthy homes around it, and make it harder for those outside the economic class of the shul members to move there. And then we have the bizarre example posted at the top of this article. Apparently, a realtor or mortgage broker (there seems to be some debate) seems to want the neighbors of the area to band together, influencing the type of people who move in to an auctioned house. ...
Statistically Speaking…
Today I met a fascinating man. Well, that's deceptive. He's rather nondescript. His job sounds, and probably is, rather boring. He works with numbers, though not financially. He analyzes data, though nothing classified or secret. He is Yeshiva University's in-house statistician. His job is to analyze data in using advanced statistical tools (I've been in a class about advanced statistics, so I know a little more about this than I used to). Simply put, if a professor thinks students are coming from wealthier homes, he can use data from all areas of the university - admissions, finances, alumni, registrar, etc. - to find out whether this assumption is true. The value of this is tremendous as far as YU is concerned - the more an institution knows about itself, the better it can form policy to best benefit its students and the community it serves. For example, he mentioned that he had been asked to investigate grade inflation (a frequent accusation in Jewish schools). He found that while the numbers did support the claim of higher average grades, the average SAT scores had risen as well, as had rejection rates. The conclusion? Yes, grades are higher, but the students, statistically speaking, are smarter. This has far more powerful implications than just for Yeshiva University policy. While many people went crazy following the publication of the infamous NJPS study several years ago (where we discovered that 52% of Jews were intermarried), there were some serious problems with the statistics. Poor statistics lead to poorly analyzed results, and deceptive information. This can lead to poor policy choices - all because some researcher was eager for scary-looking numbers. ...
God Bless Atheists, or, How to Find Faith in Colorful Moving Pictures
Many television shows seem to have a heavy religious component. Nowhere is this more evident than in the recent slew of science fiction that has invaded the airwaves over the past few years. If you pull reality television and unscripted television off the list (translate: game shows with bugs and game shows with bald men, whether dancing or still), a far larger proportion will fall under the formerly nerds-only category of comic-book-y or Star Wars-y than would have been considered normal in the past. Science fiction seems an odd choice for major religious focus. After all, the past century’s most influential sci-fi writer, Isaac Asimov, rarely dealt with religion or religious themes, and when he did, it was invariably negative. However, Asimov was an avowed atheist who considered religion inherently ridiculous, and his influence on sci-fi notwithstanding, nowhere is God more relevant than in the discussions of the past’s influence on the future or technology’s ability to dehumanize us. ...
What a Wonderful World It Could Be, or, My Way or the Highway
For several years, I have been involved in a radio show, going back to my days as YU radio station manager, called Dead Air. We discuss politics, religion, satire, movies, current events, and whatever else strikes our fancy. Despite our advancing age, the members of the Dead Air crew have consistently discussed and often predicted the cutting edge issues of that day – and the next. One of our recurring themes is religion and its role. The topics on Jewneric seem to have been addressing this theme for a while now, so it seems appropriate to consider the major differences – what is it about our religion (Judaism, for those new to the site) that sets it apart? In seeing articles like this, this, and this, I have come to wonder: as the extremes of Judaism’s right and left wings take them farther and farther from the ideals I consider most Jewish, what exactly separates Us from Them anymore? I think the answer lies in the ideas that seem the most prolific – the ones that get the most attention. What scared the author of the Mike Huckabee article mentioned earlier was that Huckabee stated that we should change the Constitution so that it is more in line with Christian values – or, at least, the stated Christian values of the group he was talking to. I have no way of knowing how sincere Huckabee is when he makes statements like this; it is altogether possible that, in presenting himself as the conservative hope for the Republican Party (as opposed to McCain’s more liberal sense of inclusiveness, scaring base conservatives away), he feels he has to make statements like this. The crowd’s reaction certainly seemed to justify that impression. However, he may also really believe everything he says. What does that mean? Simply put, it means that Christians (at least this particular stripe) believe that the entire world should function in a Christian utopia. They believe that the best of all possible worlds is one in which Christian ideals and Christian values are the only ones that run the table. All other abstracts – the Bill of Rights, separation of powers, the Constitution – would only exist in a form that conforms as closely as possible to the Christian ideal. ...
Keep Monopoly From Being Monopolized! …Or Something…
My own delightful alliteration notwithstanding, there seems to be a bit of democracy being introduced to the Monopoly process. Parker Brothers has announced that there will be a new, internationally themed version of Monopoly. Happily, instead of restricting the streets and businesses to American playboy towns (as the original Atlantic City) or other, cheesier renditions (numerous available editions of New York, ...
Salami Sonar or, How I Learned To Stop Worrying and Love the Schnitzel
I know we seem to have had a bit of a lull here at Jewneric, but it's sometimes hard to remember to post when life comes at all of us so fast. That's why I love to attend the Kosher Fest convention at the Javits Center in New York, normally held in the second week of November. Due to a number of scheduling conflicts, it was held this year on a Sunday for the first ...
