CJMR Interview: Religious Education in a Pluralistic Society
As religious minorities in the United States, Jewish and Muslim educators have an important role in preserving their community's faith and culture. Yet, in a pluralistic society these educators face the challenge of engaging their students in the larger society. CJMR interviewed two principals of well-respected New England Jewish and Islamic schools.
Rabbi Daniel Lehmann (left) is the founding headmaster of Gann Academy - The New Jewish High School of Greater Boston. Rabbi Lehmann is currently a Research Fellow at Brandeis University's Mandel Center for Studies in Jewish Education.
Sadia Khan (right) is the principal of Al-Hamra Academy, the first Islamic school in New England to gain accreditation.
CJMR: How do you educate towards keeping up your own tradition while being engaged in the wider society?
Rabbi Lehmann: It is important to create an educational environment in which the culture of the Jewish tradition is an integral part of everyday living. Our teaching is based on the ability to integrate Jewish themes and texts into general education - history, art, community service - to both connect to the Jewish community and feel part of the American society. It is equally important for religious day schools to go beyond the bubble they are creating and to connect with other communities as well.
There can be more done for kids in faith-based education systems to deepen their understanding and commitment to the their particular faith by reaching out to members of others faiths. It is an opportunity to build bridges among peers who are students in faith-based schools. For example, our school had for many years a joint education and social justice program with a local Catholic school. Together, our students studied Biblical texts and how different traditions interpret similar texts. They then would go off-site to volunteer together as well. Another example is that we took some of our Jewish students to volunteer in a rural community in El Salvador, a predominantly Catholic country, as part of the American Jewish World Service, an organization that engages the Jewish community in places of need. We consider it important for our students to volunteer in places that expose them to issues of social justice and the way different religious communities confront those challenges. In addition, all of our students are required to take a senior seminar in comparative religion in which they study different faith traditions and hear from religious leaders representing a variety of religious communities.
We have had a more difficult time in finding a partner in the Muslim community, partly because they have fewer schools, especially high schools, but also due to their reluctance to engage with us. We invited an Imam from the Muslim community who came and spoke to our students. When we asked if we could visit his mosque and youth group, he said that it would not be feasible because of the tensions produced by the Israeli-Palestininan conflict. Our students very much want to connect with Muslim peers, but it is not easy to make it happen.
Ms. Khan: We live in a society that is very diverse, but we have common values as Americans. We emphasize the commonalities and teach our students to respect the differences. We also encourage the preservation of our Muslim values and ethics, for in this preservation we can appreciate one another's diversity. But amongst all this diversity, what unites us with the society at large is our common American values. Our students have opportunities to visit other public and private schools and interact with peers from other cultures and faiths. This gives our students an opportunity to learn and discuss issues that are common among them and also learn to respect the differences.
CJMR: To what degree do you think that the education of other faith traditions should be a part of your school's curriculum?
Rabbi Lehmann: It is vitally important, first, because we are a minority living in the midst of many faith traditions. Secondly, we need to prepare our students to enter a pluralistic, multi-religious world, especially here in America, which is a very religious country. Most of our students go to college and university settings which will force them to engage with others. We need to instill in them the confidence and curiosity to engage their peers thoughtfully. For our students to be knowledgeable participants in American society, they need to have the working knowledge of other faiths. They need to understand the interdependence and interconnectedness of the world. As an example, we provide our students the opportunity to go to Jerusalem as a part of their education, to witness it as a crossroad of three major world religions, and to appreciate how integral that interdependence is.
Ms. Khan: Education of other faith traditions is a valuable part of our curriculum. Through the study of world religions our students learn to be active members of a pluralistic society. We teach them to respect people from all faiths and cultures. Our curriculum in different grades addresses respect, tolerance and understanding of other cultures, traditions and faiths. As a part of our curriculum students in Middle School study Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism and other world religions. When we discuss our holidays, we also talk about holidays that other faiths celebrate. We try to help them understand why we celebrate certain holidays and not others. We always emphasize that although we have different beliefs we are all created by One God. As human beings we all have the same needs and core values and we need to respect all people from different faiths and traditions. As part of our Circle Time discussions as well as our Religion and Social Studies classes, we teach our students the diversity in our society and how to respect and learn to accept others for who they are.
CJMR: In what ways do you think the religious values you are teaching your students can be translated for their work in the broader community after they graduate?
Rabbi Lehmann: There are many ways that religious values are pertinent. Our school places a strong emphasis on religious pluralism, particularly within the Jewish tradition. We place a premium on conversation across differences. These kinds of conversational skills - listening deeply, lovingly critiquing the other, and genuinely being curious about other people - produces a kind of humility that encourages students to engage others who are different. These are the same skill sets that enable our students to listen to other sides of an argument and understand other interpretations. It is not "us vs. them": there are lots they can learn from others. Other faith traditions help you understand your own faith, not just through the contrasts, but through the profound similarities. I believe the next step for teaching faith in American schools is the development of multi-faith schools, where students not only learn about their own traditions, but to do so in the presence of other faith traditions, thus creating a new type of interreligious learning.
Ms. Khan: Our mission at Al-Hamra Academy is "to coordinate the efforts of parents, teachers, and community members to empower all students to develop, through education, the knowledge, skills, and values needed to create better lives for themselves and build a more just society based on Islamic values."
Islamic values are based on the Quran that states that all people are created equal. Students are taught to respect others, tell the truth, help the needy, take care of others, keep the environment clean, and to excel in academics and behavior. Our Middle School students volunteer at a homeless shelter and nursing home as a part of their curriculum. We also have our older students work with our younger students as buddies on projects, which teaches them to take responsibility for the younger ones. During the month of Ramadan, our students collect money and food to distribute to the needy in the Muslim community and the homeless shelters. We not only advocate the importance of community service, but also do our best to implement the values we teach.
CJMR: Both of our communities in America are religious minorities educating with a strong emphasis on teaching Hebrew and Arabic: Where do you see opportunities for collaboration between educators or educational institutions.
Rabbi Lehmann: There are tremendous opportunities for collaboration. It is just as important to study others' texts in which there are significant commonalities as well as profound differences. To understand the religious self, it is helpful to understand the worship of others. In our school, a number of students desire dialogue with Muslim students, but it has been hard to set up. The realities in the Middle East often make it hard to understand each other.
The interconnectedness between both faiths and cultures is significant. In addition to the need to understand the other, a tremendous amount of historical Jewish culture was written in Arabic. Jews lived in Arab countries for thousands of years and produced rich materials. Baghdad, Cairo and Damascus were major Jewish centers. Much of the writing of Maimonides, the greatest Medieval thinker, was in Arabic. Today, a significant number of Jews living in Israel come from Arab speaking countries.
At Gann Academy, we recently offered Arabic classes because of the tremendous wealth of Jewish culture written in Arabic. We also wanted our students to be able to engage Arabic and Muslim culture in dialogue. There are examples in Israel where Arabic and Hebrew are taught in the same school. Arabic is one of the official languages in Israel, as 20% of its population is native Arab speaking.
There should be compelling opportunities for Jewish, Muslim and Christian students to study religious texts together. For example, the story of Abraham, Isaac, and Ishmael, is very important to each of these faiths, but each faith has a very different interpretation. There is a great opportunity to explore these difference with high school students if we would only seize it.
The Arab-Israeli conflict shouldn't be a roadblock to building bridges among our communities. It should instead propel us to deal with it as Americans. We must understand that we are each connected and concerned, but we have a different reality. Most importantly, we can be a model for how to engage with each other thoughtfully. It is critical for the future of both our communities as otherwise we misunderstand each other and can not maximize our potential for mutual understanding. I regularly offer a prayer for the children of Sarah and Hagar to come together because the alternative is not viable. We need to understand and engage and we need to find partnership.
Ms. Khan: Starting from Pre-School Arabic is one of the subjects taught in our curriculum. All the other subjects are taught in English. As Muslims we are required to pray in Arabic; and we feel that this helps our student learn and understand our prayers. It also allows the students to learn a second language starting at an early age.
As a school we had always strived to have our students interact with other private and public school students in the community. For four years our second graders had been pen pals with the Rashi School in Newton. At the end of the year our students and their students met and spent the day together getting to know each other personally. Last year at the end of the school year three of our teachers and I met with David Dolev from the Center for Jewish Muslim Relations and Stephanie Rotsky of the Rashi School. We discussed different programs that we could work on. We did not finalize the programs, however we discussed having literature circles and pen pals. Our students in the past visited the Notre Dame Academy and Solomon Schechter School in Worcester. Every year we host high school students from a local church as a part of their Conformation class. Some of our eighth graders upon graduation have attended Notre Dame Academy and St. John's in Shrewsbury. The interaction of our students with the students from other faith based schools and other private and public schools help them to understand each other's values and traditions. | 
