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PDF FormatThese must not be isolated initiatives; their success depends upon combining them. Only if they are combined under a single principle, the civic principle, are they likely to be a decisive factor in the formation of the character and fate of the people. We must recognize that the task of maintaining mental, spiritual, and moral resolve, social solidarity, intellectual achievement, technological prowess, precision, and responsibility is, in essence, the task of shaping the character of the Israeli. This is not simply a question of technical skill or intellectual ability. It is a question of life and death for us, as a people and as individuals. If the next generation attains a high level of intellectual achievement, if it is strong in spirit, if it possesses initiative and independence of thought, this is a guarantee of the nation’s future.
Those completing high school form the pool from which most of our leaders emerge, for all segments of society and in all walks of life. In acquiring these qualities, they fortify the entire nation. This will only come to pass, however, if education is infused with a great spirit, the spirit of “this day you have become a people” and of “I have set before you life and death… therefore choose life.” (Deuteronomy 27:9, 30:19) The magnitude of the enterprise and the short time allotted us should spur us on to a profound and collective sense of awe and trembling, a feeling that will surely accompany us always, given that every moment is dear and every delay is fraught with peril.
How do we incorporate all of this into a high-school education? How do we imbue the educational experience with that spirit of resolve and social cohesiveness, with the fierce desire for intellectual achievement and technical proficiency? This can be accomplished only through the complete identification of the individual with the nation and with society. The achievement of such identification must be the guiding principle that directs not only our behavior as a community but the behavior of individuals as well, and it must be fostered through heartfelt sentiment and careful preparation. Not by talk alone, but by girding the educational system for a great spiritual and cultural initiative.
Such an initiative is required in two realms, that of knowledge and that of experience; but we encounter serious difficulties in both realms. The difficulty is especially pronounced in the realm of experience, and for a simple reason. The basis of national education, indeed of all social education, is a shared cultural background: A common set of manners, a feeling of communal partnership in everyday life, and a shared set of sensibilities that is the product of a common culture. However, the need for a shared background is unmet in our case—to put it mildly. Communal diversity is a fundamental fact of our national and social life, and we must not forget that every group, every community, has a past of its own that is not at all identical to that of European Jewry.
Over a year ago I lectured to a group of highly educated immigrants from different communities, all of them active in cultural affairs, on the subject of “The Transformation at the Beginning of Modern Jewish History.” I spoke about Hasidism as well, and on this latter subject I began to receive dozens of handwritten notes from immigrants from Morocco, Yemen, and Iraq, from Tripoli and Turkey, all with the same question: Did we not have Hasidism? Did we not have a Jewish Enlightenment? And so they were pleased when I spoke of the foundations of Hasidism that may be found in Shar’abi and R. Haim ibn Atar, and of the Enlightenment assumptions to be found in the Darda movement in Yemen. Yet overall, I saw in the representatives of these communities another world, which does not include the ingredients of Hasidism, the foundations of the Hebrew Enlightenment, the influences of the wissenschaft des judentums. The entire recent history of the Jewish people, even of the last generation, which shaped the society and culture of modern Israel, passed over them but not always through them. The modern Israeli and contemporary Israeli society are the products of a certain development of movements and streams, organizations and institutions, efforts and initiatives that they did not experience at all.
Therefore, one of the elements of the shared culture that is a condition for national education is missing. Hasidism and the Enlightenment, emancipation and participation in the political and social life of the nations, a complete upheaval in economics and labor, social stratification, the Jewish socialist movement, the struggle against anti-Semitism, Hibat Zion and Zionism, the great migration and the formation of new Jewish centers—all of these forged the character of the contemporary Israeli. And now, at least half of the Israelis have been outside all this, unaffected by these experiences. And on top of this we must add the differences in sensibilities, the enormous gulf separating the different worldviews, and the contrast in the style and standard of living brought about by cultural and environmental factors over the generations.
Thus a precondition for high-school civics education must be the fostering of mutual understanding, of a spiritual rapprochement without which any attempts at “integration” will be unsuccessful, even harmful. Let us not presume to erase facts by ignoring them. This habit is one of our society’s great flaws, and the damage it inflicts can hardly be overstated. How, then, should we proceed? First, we should emphasize precisely those processes, movements, and events that were decisive in the molding of our collective character. At the same time, we must encourage and emphasize the images and motifs, values and creative works of all the communities. We must find in each of the communities echoes and reflections of the major movements and orientations among the Jewish people in recent generations, and include them in the historical and literary framework that is imparted in schools to the next generation.
For five years now I have been repeating this call, and even though “there was no voice, nor any that answered,” (I Kings 18:26) I will not desist from calling out. There is a need for textbooks and books for general reading that include literary works from all segments of Jewry. Just as a high-school student may not graduate without knowing the works of Peretz and Mendele, it is inconceivable that he should be ignorant of Shalom Shabazi and his writings, or of the corpus of R. Haim ibn Atar. This is not merely in order to enhance the stature of students from the Yemenite and Moroccan communities by demonstrating their share in our common legacy. Nor is it because this "bringing forth of the hidden sparks" will enable the exiled communities of Yemen and Morocco to experience a sense of fulfillment. It is important for the entire younger generation, which must be educated with an inclusive Israeli identity, so that they may view the past differently. The fact is that R. Haim ibn Atar’s commentary on the Tora (Or Hahaim) was one of the most widely disseminated books of world Jewry in its time, in the East, in Italy, Poland, and Russia; and that, following the failure of Sabbateanism, it expressed the Jewish desire for redemption, as well as original Jewish social ideas of the time. This and similar facts obligate us to devote greater attention to such singular phenomena in our history, and to introduce the various diasporas and their values into the historical consciousness of our generation.
Examples of relevant documents would be the description of the aliya of R. Haim ibn Atar and his followers to the land of Israel, which is contained in the letters of Ishmael Sanguinetti; Samuel Romanelli’s portrayal of Moroccan Jewry in his book A Trek in Arab Lands; records of the dispute in the communities of Yemen over the works of Maimonides; and the Dardaite controversy, among others. These documents should not be addressed from a literary perspective alone; they have a more fundamental value as a way of embracing the diverse communities and rendering Hebrew literature and history more inclusive and better understood. The education of the next generation of citizens demands such a curriculum, because education for citizenship is not merely a subject of study; it is, first and foremost, a way of binding people together, of creating a common identity and understanding among all parts of the nation, as they undergo a process of national and cultural fusion.
Educating for citizenship also requires making a serious effort to foster the individual’s identification with the state. Through education students learn to live the life of the country as their own, and to carry the country in their hearts every day. How is this to be accomplished? First, the school must itself constitute a well-ordered society, a state in microcosm, which continuously establishes practices and sanctifies proper habits for the nation. Here I must reiterate certain truths that always bear repeating. The way teachers treat students, both collectively and individually, the way students treat teachers, and the way students treat one another—in every school, but especially in high school—determine in practice the way citizens will relate to their country. Showing respect for one’s fellow student, respecting human dignity, while at the same time having the moral courage to say openly what one really thinks, possessing the intellectual vigor and strength of mind to think independent thoughts and to dare to say them out loud, however unpleasant this might beׁthese are fundamental conditions for the development of a free and autonomous society.
