Hebrew As Culture - But Of Which People?

This story is going to be quite interesting.

The essence:

State Weighs Approval of School Dedicated to Hebrew

Nearly two years after a wave of protests over New York City’s first public school dedicated to the Arabic language and culture, state education officials are expected to consider greenlighting a Hebrew-language charter school in Brooklyn this week.

The school would open in the fall if it is approved...and be in District 22, which includes the Sheepshead Bay, Midwood and Mill Basin neighborhoods. The district is 45 percent black, 13 percent Hispanic and 15 percent Asian. It also has a substantial population of Jewish immigrants from Russia and Israel.

...Organizers are taking pains to assure state officials that the school, called the Hebrew Language Academy Charter School, would not cross the church-state divide...They are also in negotiations with a candidate for principal who is not Jewish but who has experience in dual-language education.

The application states that students will receive daily, hourlong Hebrew lessons, and that Hebrew will be woven into some art, music and gym classes — with children learning the Israeli folk dance Mayim in gym, for example. In addition, the social studies curriculum will include lessons on “Hebrew culture and history in the context of both American and world history,” according to the application.

“The H.L.A. planning team understands fully that no instructor or staff member can in any way encourage or discourage religious devotion in any way on school premises,” the application states. “We also understand that the full study and exploration of any language necessarily includes references to the rich cultural heritage inextricably tied to that language, including elements touching on religion.”

...Ms. Berman...said last year...“I hope that we’re very clear that this is not a Jewish school,” adding, “There will be in no way any religious devotion at this school.”

If approved, the academy would join a growing collection of charter schools nationwide...more than 4,600 charters nationwide, 113 have mission statements speaking to a particular cultural theme. Those include the country’s first Hebrew language charter school, Ben Gamla, which opened in Hollywood, Fla., in 2007 amid heated public discussion, and the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy in Minnesota, which has generated debate over whether it encourages the practice of Islam.

...Adem Carroll, the executive director of the Muslim Consultative Network, a community group, said that he would “be watching to see that due diligence be done, that the school is inclusive of New York City kids from all backgrounds and that it doesn’t pander to any national interest.”

This, though, was just typical, a Jew knocking Jews:

Saul B. Cohen, a member of the Board of Regents, said...“There are youngsters who study Chinese who are not Chinese in origin, but they want to study it for linguistic purposes, business purposes,” he said. But he questioned whether Hebrew was similarly useful. In Israel, he added, English was “completely widespread.”

And who else comments?

“It seems to me that if it’s successful, it’s the type of thing that could grow,” said Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. “With enough charitable funds to kick it off and government funds to support it in Jewishly dense areas, I think there’s a population that would want to use the product.”

Still, he said, navigating the church-state divide could prove tricky. “They’re going to have to walk a very fine line between Jewish as culture and Jewish as religion, and there will be people who are looking to disqualify the school for teaching religious practice,” he added.

Dr. Cohen noted that in Israel, nonreligious Jews “can learn Talmud, Bible, Jewish religious customs and regard it as a secular activity.” He said, “Is that possible in the United States of America?”

“The problem is that Jewish religious practice is part of Jewish culture,” he added. “So how does one make a sharp division between religion and culture?”

What is the motivating factor?

“I think his [Steinhardt's] hope is that Jews who are completely turned off by religion, by rabbis, by Jewish texts, religious texts will find their identity within this school,” said Jonathan D. Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. “I think he does deeply care that there be a Judaism for another generation, and his sense is that if we just go business as usual, that won’t happen.”

Here, in Israel, there is a problem, most extremely described as the phenomenom of 'Hebrew-speaking Canaanites', where Israeli Jewish secular kids leave school with not only with a small part of what Jewish education is, quantitatively and even qualitatively, - but with a imbibed anti-religious prejudice.

Here, we are, in the "Jewish" state, and while I fully recognize the cultural element of Judaism (okay, so playing dreidel isn't that crucial), one cannot understand, for example, the various layers and interplay of Hebrew literature, from Agnon to Greenberg (Uri Tzvi, that is) to Alterman to even Amichai, without knowing religion, knowing about religion enough to appreciate the hints, reflections and concepts.

Well, maybe Brooklyn is different.

And as we were taught in Betar: עברי דבר ערבית - Hebrew, speak Hebrew.