ON EDUCATION
Succot, 1942
MANY years ago, at a time when the memory of the last war was still fresh, and large crowds used to demonstrate in the streets of the European cities shouting “Never again”, when the Nazi even in Germany was only a ridiculous figure whom nobody took seriously, one of the ablest writers of our times published an essay that unfortunately did not receive the attention which it deserved.
In the concluding paragraph the author summed up his ideas in two sentences. First, he said, Europe was in a state of chaos; secondly, the only hope for Europe, and indeed for all mankind, the only force that would ultimately bring order into the chaos, was religion. That there was chaos in Europe between the two wars no one will doubt to-day. But who realises that it is Religion, the word of God, that alone can introduce order into the “Tohu va’Vohu” of our times?
People do not understand it yet because they do not see the cause of the confusion clearly enough.
1
Well, let us consider this matter. What was the ultimate cause of the chaotic state of affairs that culminated in this terrible catastrophe in which the whole world is involved to-day? Many answers are given to this question.
There are people who blame European politics. Politicians, they say, were blind; they were men without foresight, men without principles. And this is true to a very considerable extent. Then, there are those who will tell you that the confusion was mainly due to economic causes, that social and economic inequality within the nations was bound to lead to international conflict. And this too is true.
There are many clever and good replies, but most of them do not go deep enough, they do not reach to the root of the evil. The root of the evil is not bad politics, not bad economics or bad social conditions; the root of the evil is bad education. The world has failed in all the important spheres of life, in politics, in the organisation of trade and industry, in the solution of social and national problems, because it has failed in the education of its youth.
You cannot have politicians of character, faithfully serving great principles, unless those whom they represent are people of character, themselves insisting on their ideals in their private life.
You cannot have decency in politics, if there is little of it practised in the much narrower sphere of our everyday existence.
You cannot have a just social order, if the sense of justice is not deeply rooted in every one of those of whom society consists.
Ultimately, everything depends on “the man in the street”. In the manifold failure of our generation it was man, the individual, man, the responsible moral being, that failed. We have witnessed the moral collapse of the human personality. This is a tragedy which represents not a political or an economic or a social problem, but a spiritual problem of the first order that can only be solved by a New Education. We hear much of the re-education of Germany that will be necessary after the war. This is true, but not enough. What is needed—already now—is the re-education of all mankind, of the individual human personality all over the world. Whether the outcome of the war will indeed be the famous New World, so eagerly discussed in these days, depends entirely on this re-education of all mankind on a moral basis. You may have the best of political, national, or international orders, the theoretically most excellent economic or social systems, the finest organisation, yet they all must break down and disintegrate, unless they are deeply rooted in living human beings, in human character.
The task before the world is not so much the creation of new systems, new organisations, new governments. The fundamental task before all the nations is the creation of the New Man. And that means that the basic condition for a happier future is—Education.
2
Naturally Jews are directly concerned in this task. For firstly we are part of the world, and secondly, we are not in the least better off than the rest of the world.
Just as the future of mankind depends on a successful moral re-education, so does the future of our people depend on nothing else but on successful Jewish education. It can easily be shown that every problem with which Jewry is struggling to-day is intrinsically connected with the problem of Jewish education.
One of the main conditions of a successful Jewish national policy, for instance, is that such a policy should be supported by an intelligent Jewish public, which thinks in terms of Jewish history, Jewish culture, and Jewish religious faith. This demands thorough Jewish education.
Or take the case of the Community. If the Community is indeed to mean something more than the Burial Society, or the institution for the organised stammering of the “Kaddish”; if the Community is to be a living organism, the creative and guiding centre of all Jewish activities at any one place, the “K’hillah K’doshah” of olden days, the safeguard of Jewish existence in the Galut; then the community must consist of Jews who know their responsibility because they know their Judaism, and because knowing Judaism they understand the needs of Judaism. But this again calls for Jewish Education.
In these days, it has already become a truism to say that the Jews are passing through one of the most critical periods of their history. We have suffered defeat at the hand of our enemies as well as at that of our evasive friends. But the Jewish situation is tragic and almost hopeless not because of the nature of our defeats, but because of the nature of the Jews who have been defeated.
In former generations, when Judaism was alive in Jews, defeats could never be mortal; for Jews had time, they had time to wait, they had time to recover. Not so to-day. To-day time is pressing, to-day we are in a hurry; we have no time to wait because Jewish education has failed in our generation.
Owing to this failure, Judaism is in the process of rapid dissolution. Before our own eyes a race is taking place between this process of dissolution and the process of salvation. Will the Jewish nation break up from within before salvation is achieved, or will salvation come quickly enough to save, at least, the remnant of the people? This is the harrowing question of the day. We have no time to wait and to recover; we are in a great hurry, because we did not educate. There is no future for this people without nationwide successful education of a Jewish character. If we achieve this, nothing can be lost. If we fail in this, we must fail everywhere and in everything.
3
Innumerable problems are involved in the task of successful Jewish education.
We need teachers; the best of teachers would be just good enough for the task. We have no teachers.
We need well-tried methods; the best of methods would just do. We have no approved methods.
We need a proper atmosphere within which the educational process must be conducted; there is no proper atmosphere conducive to Jewish education.
We need understanding and sympathy on the side of the parents, but parents look on Jewish education merely as a thing which is very useful indeed for such strange creatures as future rabbis or ministers.
We need money, but Jewish education vegetates on charity.
We need organisation, a strong educational organisation, backed by the whole community, but we have only weak and fragile private institutions.
We need a communal educational conscience and we have indifference. There is a tremendous task to be tackled. In order to be successful we shall have to educate on all fronts. We must educate children and parents, families and congregations, teachers and leaders. A great scheme must be envisaged that embraces the whole community. But before this can be done, the whole community must wake up to its responsibility; every one of us must realise that Jewish education is no luxury, but the very bread without which we cannot exist.
One more word on the kind of education that is needed. It is summed up in one epithet: Jewish education. Not necessarily the education of the “Cheder” in Poland or Russia of old. On the contrary, we need new methods. We need a new and modern representation of the whole of Judaism. Judaism must be translated into the terms of our times. But Judaism it must be. And this means that Jewish education must be basically religious education.
We have argued that the present chaos in the world was caused by the failure of education, but we must add that the educational failure of our times was due to the complete neglect of religious education. To keep pace with the progress of science, education became secular. And thus the moral basis of education was undermined. For science is neutral. It knows nothing of good or evil. It recognises only one test: success.
Scientific education is success and career education; it is power education. It has created the mechanised monster of the super-man.
We do not want super-man; we want man. And one cannot educate man on a neutral basis.
You cannot educate without a “bias”; you cannot educate without the “bias” God.
You cannot save Judaism without basing Jewish education on those ideals and intentions by which we have lived in the past.
There is chaos in the world—educate!
There is chaos within Judaism—educate!
But educate with God….