A Talmudic Story Comes to Life

Thirty-nine is the number of transfer students JCDS accepted last year, and that is the number of kids who were in need of, and deserving of, individual attention to ensure that each felt an immediate sense of belonging upon entering our school. Yet with no intention of exempting these students from any classes, we faced two challenges: how to maintain our excellent and rigorous Hebrew language program with a wide range of new students who had little or no prior knowledge of Hebrew, and similarly, how to accommodate those students newly arrived from Israel with little to no understanding of English. Our dilemma was reminiscent of a Talmudic story which presents two approaches to a similar challenge. One is the selective approach of Rabban Gamliel, who asserted that, “Any students whose insides are not like their outsides, will not enter the study hall of learning,” or in other words, students who do not fit clear and specific requirements should not be allowed in. On the day, however, that they removed Rabban Gamliel from his position and appointed a new Rabbi, Elazar ben Azarya, came a fundamental change in the general approach of whom they would accept as students. “They dismissed the guard at the door and permission was granted to many new students to enter. On that day several benches were added . . .” When he saw the tremendous growth in the number of students, Rabban Gamliel was disheartened, saying: “Perhaps, Heaven forbid, I prevented Israel from engaging in Torah study.” (Talmud Bavli, Brakhot 27b) Similarly, at JCDS in years past, our Hebrew Mechina (preparatory) program was created with clear and specific expectations for Middle School transfer students – that they would be integrated into a novice class the following year. We requested that those who enrolled with little or no Hebrew background also take Hebrew classes over the summer to accelerate the process of their integration into our language program. In this unprecedented year, however, as our enrollment process continued well after the school year started, and as the number of transfer students requiring various levels of learning increased, so, too, did the number of Mechina* classes needed, including, suddenly, English Mechinot for Israeli transfer students! Thus, we had to offer more classes, and add even more benches to accommodate our many new students.

What we could not have predicted when ‘adding more benches’ was the many unexpected blessings that came as a result of creating these language opportunities for our new students. We all noticed an increase in the use of Hebrew throughout the school. In the hallways, during lunch, free time, and even on the athletic fields, kids began conversing more in Hebrew as it became the “cool” thing to do. This outgrowth also added a sense of comfort to the eleven Israeli transfer students whose native tongue was being spoken regularly in the halls and classrooms of their new American school! And equally joyful and deeply heartening was that students novel to either language – Hebrew or English – felt comfortable enough to muster up the courage and humility to try and speak that language with their new JCDS friends and teachers!

Yes, at JCDS, we embrace the inclusive approach of Rabbi Elazar Ben Azarya, accepting each student for who they are, accommodating their individual needs, and making them feel welcome. The Talmudic approach we took was crystal clear, as is our mission, to alway keep our commitment as a pluralistic, bi-cultural school with our doors open to all who seek to study.

*In addition to the Hebrew & English Mechinot, we also created mechinot in: T’fillah (prayer); chaggim (Jewish holidays); Tanakh (Bible); and Toshba (Jewish oral law) to help students overcome their lack of content knowledge and to guide and teach them why it is important to learn Jewish texts, thus enabling them to engage in Torah Study.