Hanukkah, Jewish Education, and the Present Moment

Image

Nearly 2200 years after the rededication of the Second Temple, in Jerusalem, Jews around the world will begin the holiday of Hanukkah, Wednesday night (the start of the 25th of Kislev, corresponding, this year, to the 25th of December).  There is much about Hanukkah that relates to Jewish education, particularly at this moment.  The very (Hebrew) words Hanukkah (dedication) and hinukh (education) are related.   

Over the 150 years following the conquests of Alexander the Great (who died in 323 B.C.E.), Hellenistic culture became pervasive in large parts of the Middle East, including Judea.  There were Judeans who fully embraced Hellenistic culture and hoped to see Jerusalem become a Greek polis (city), with all the associated religious and cultural trappings.  Beyond battles with Greek occupiers, there was internal strife between Judean Hellenists and Judeans committed to traditional Judean ways. 

The Talmud relates that it was toward the end of the Second Temple period that school-based Jewish education was broadly instituted.  Over the ensuing 1900+ years – until the establishment of the State of Israel – Jewish education, in all times and places, functioned in lands in which Jews were a minority; often, a despised minority.  Yet, Jews saw themselves as legatees of a way of life that was well worth maintaining.

In recent centuries, Jews have charted a variety of paths to synthesizing Jewishness and the prevailing culture.  At times when Jews have been maligned as Jews there have, typically, been two concurrent responses; both are important.  One is to defend against unjust critiques and decrees (be they discriminatory laws, blood libels, calls for the destruction of Israel, antisemitic literature, media caricatures, or other).  The second is Jewish education.  

Responding to anti-Jewish conduct and vitriol is, to be sure, an important project.  At the same time, when Jewish children are all too aware of prevailing anti-Jewish tropes, they surely deserve grounding in the wisdom and beauty of their heritage.  Living in the Greco-Roman world, at a challenging time in Jewish history, our forbears recognized the importance of Jewish education for Jewish children.  The present moment calls for no less: Hanukkah is a reminder of the importance of hinukh (education) at this time, as in those days.