Letters
LETTERS (Last month, we printed the story of Nicki Glasser and, given the volume of comment we've already received about it, the famous test her congregation administered in order to determine...
...It turned out that the tutor selected was an orthodox rabbi and we determined that a program geared to the family's conservative loyalties would be in the child's best interests...
...I can only surmise it occurs out of desperation...
...Frustration To the Editor: It was our intention at first to ignore the article by Benis Glasser, but it was so full of fabrication that we felt that in order to clarify the record, a reply was necessary...
...I think the latter is really the truth and we could not go along with the phoniness of a bat mitzvah service devoid of the accompaniment of commitment...
...Glasser admits, is a good school, and we have high goals and objectives as part of our curriculum...
...By any standards, we failed...
...But the philosophical alliance that is implied between Neturei Karta and the PLO is frightening...
...This then is the other side of the very sad tale of an innocent young woman and one synagogue's frustration...
...On some questions we could give partial responses but generally we were unable to come up with acceptable answers...
...She indicated at that time that she enjoyed our services, respected our staff and was willing to make the long drive weekly to attend our worship...
...Our synagogue was equally disturbed over the development of circumstance surrounding Nicki's education and its lack thereof...
...And Nicki's mother would not permit or encourage her daughter to engage in a real learning atmosphere...
...My husband went to Yale, studied Hebrew for three years, spent six months on a kibbutz, taught Hebrew school, etc...
...Several times we went running to our source books and through old notes, amazed at our own inability to articulate what we thought we knew...
...The test was her idea...
...We did not, in preparing the story, invite the officials of Nicki's congregation to present their version of the sorry events...
...Instead she opted for the rote tutoring towards a bat mitzvah service, an item which does not even appear in our curriculum for the 7th grade...
...If yes, then why not continue to send her to one of the two Day Schools in our area...
...I don't know how I'm going to stay uninvolved but—and this has nothing to do with peace in the Middle East—if I wanted to live under Arab rule I could move to Iraq...
...Then why did she not participate in our synagogue programs, encourage her daughter to take part in our youth activities and school program...
...In our special program where she would study with the rabbi and a tutorial staff selected by our educational director, she would be given the opportunity to meet other children her age...
...We were angry at ourselves...
...LETTERS (Last month, we printed the story of Nicki Glasser and, given the volume of comment we've already received about it, the famous test her congregation administered in order to determine whether she was qualified to become a bat mitzvah...
...We do have students in our synagogue family currently enrolled in local day schools who will celebrate their bar and bat mitzvah in our sanctuary...
...And now the "test...
...The Cantor and Rabbi in two units go through the marriage ceremony, reenact a pidyon ha-ben service in a later session...
...I can't imagine why either group would want to ally themselves with the other...
...Eventually, and long before Part III, our energy gave out...
...Glasser want her family, uprooted and moved so frequently, to feel a part of community...
...She could not identify Maimonides or other major historical figures in Jewish history and theology...
...Remember that they had decided not to affiliate with another synagogue closer to their home and also affiliated with the United Synagogue...
...We merely reproduced a copy of the curricular outline for the 7th grade, the material that we planned on covering that year...
...This emphasis on the bat mitzvah ceremony also requires some elucidation...
...Nicki's family had moved so many times (Vermont to Massachusetts and then to Connecticut) that we felt it important for Nicki to feel a part of a community, have her own friends and feel part of the synagogue community as well...
...Nicki's mother chose a program of no quality, with a teacher who did not meet our specifications, and without a knowledge of our curriculum...
...We give children that opportunity so as not to turn away any child because of the failures of their parents...
...We hesitatingly agreed (that was our first mistake) provided that she have Nicki tutored and agree that the following year she send Nicki to our school...
...Glasser said that she would not do that inasmuch as our local Day School was Torah Um'sorah oriented...
...Through our conversations with Benis it became apparent that part of her reason for not enrolling Nicki in any synagogue program was due to her unwillingness to transport Nicki the long distance to our synagogue...
...Thus, it was easier to hire a tutor who would travel there and meet with Nicki in that isolated home setting...
...What I'm getting at is that we consider ourselves reasonably educated, with substantial Jewish involvements...
...Ann Cohn-Lehman Boston, Massachusetts Arab Money To the Editor: Al-Fassi might have bought Beverly Hills ("The Buying of America," October 1978) but he has yet to buy me...
...By the way, Nicki's older brother Jimmy was enrolled in our synagogue high school division and later graduated with distinction...
...Or did she only really seek a place to hold a bat mitzvah service and reception...
...And so the following year we insisted that Nicki attend our school in a program geared especially for her...
...I then suggested a school a mere twenty minute drive away, a school associated with Solomon Schechter...
...That Nicki could not identify the three festivals of Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot is a fact...
...It was determined by our staff that her background in customs and ceremonies, ritual and holidays was weak, her knowledge short...
...Jeremy Landers Los Angeles, California Neturei Karta To the Editor: As a basically live-and-let-live theologian I can ignore the Neturei Karta (October 1978) without too much difficulty...
...I don't want to suddenly find out that Arab countries are publishing my books, making and distributing my clothes, designing my curricula, running my banks, making my cars...
...We withhold their names, as we did in the original article, not wishing to become embroiled or to embroil others in personal controversy, thereby losing sight of what really matters here.—The Editors...
...I am sorry that I didn't do well on the exam but I am sorrier still that it was written...
...It was, at base, malicious...
...During that first year, we occasionally saw Benis Glasser in the synagogue but not Nicki...
...That exam, the Glasser story, is a horror house...
...Glasser as well...
...Inasmuch as her home was a far drive to our synagogue, she insisted on a pass for that year's schooling for Nicki...
...Did Mrs...
...Glasser's complaints...
...That Nicki could not outline even in the sketchiest of terms the parameters of kashrut is also a fact...
...The children do participate in each of the three daily services held in our chapel and together, our school puts together a program that meets our standards...
...Did Mrs...
...The Rabbi The Chairman of the Board of Education To the Editor: I am a graduate of Brandeis University and the University of Chicago, I've spent a year in Israel, worked in Jewish camps, taught Hebrew School...
...We felt that that too was not in Nicki's best interests...
...We were also angry for Nicki, that she was put through such an experience under the guise of Judaism...
...Obviously, we approached it in the most comfortable of circumstances, but we failed...
...Their study program is rich and vigorous and their Jewish education is continuous and steady...
...We were therefore further impelled to require Nicki's presence in the synagogue for study and worship...
...But we do reserve the sanctuary on Friday night or Shabbat morning for the sake of those parents and children who have sacrificed and studied in our context...
...Andrew Levine New York, New York...
...Glasser want Nicki educated...
...Bear in mind that Nicki's 2300 hours of Day School education only went up to the fifth grade and that her areas of "expertise" were in Hebrew reading and vocabulary...
...We do not give such a test to our children, nor did we want Nicki to take that exam...
...That option was presented to Mrs...
...Jimmy on the other hand drove and was able to take himself to the synagogue weekly for our high school classes...
...Nicki's performance on that examination was dreadful...
...Here is where her article was most fabricated...
...But it was her mother who insisted on putting Nicki through that charade...
...Later I suggested that she enroll Nicki in our local Day School in order to reap the benefits of her Day School investment...
...We never sought such an examination...
...I wish I could apologize to Nicki...
...We teach kashrut, holidays, the Jewish life cycle, tefillah and history...
...Nonetheless, in the interest of fairness, and because the point of the story is not one child and one congregation, but a system that is too often awry, we are happy to open our letters column to a response which has come to us from the rabbi and the chairman of the congregation's education committee...
...It was based on the material we teach earnestly and sincerely in class during the 7th year...
...We furthermore felt it important for Nicki to meet other Jewish children her age since the family had opted to live so far from our synagogue community...
...Thanks for opening my eyes before it's too late...
...We allow children to celebrate their bar or bat mitzvah service on Monday, Thursday mornings and Shabbat afternoons even if they do not meet our educational requirements...
...Our school provides remedial learning for children with learning difficulties and so we reasoned that we could provide Nicki with a custom designed program based on her superior background...
...We felt that there are other areas for a bat mitzvah to learn...
...Our school, as Mrs...
...the test seemed (and seems) to us to speak for itself...
...To that, we had to shout "gevalt...
...We could have remained silent, but that silence might have been interpreted to signify acquiescence in Mrs...
...She turned us down on that as well...
...Our students are prepared for their consecration outside of the six hours of Religious School instruction...
...When the Glasser family first moved to our general community, we suggested their affiliation with a conservative synagogue near their home instead of ours, a long drive from her suburban address...
...For you see, we really are in the business of education and it is a terribly difficult task when one has to come up against the likes of people who really in the end don't give a damn about real content, real study, real community involvement in synagogue life...
...We took the test—the one given to Nicki Glasser (October 1978)— or we tried, anyway...
...She declined that suggestion as well...
Vol. 4 • November 1978 • No. 1
