Quebec – A display ad in yesterday’s Gazette seeking an exemption for Jewish schools from a major aspect of Quebec’s new religion course does not represent the community position, officials said yesterday.
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The large ad, covering one-third of Page A3, was placed by a group calling itself the Council of Jewish Education in Quebec, created and run by Rabbi Shalom Spira of Montreal. (An ad of this size costs about $6,000-$7,000.)
Although he describes his group as “a grass roots organization,” officials at the Association of Jewish Day Schools and Jewish Community Council say it is not a representative or recognized group.
Spira is the spiritual leader of the Kol Yehuda Congregation, located in a duplex on Baily Rd. in Côte St. Luc.
The ad’s essential message, however, deals with an issue that is important for some Orthodox Jewish families, as well as parents in at least two Catholic high schools.
The ad asks that the new ethics and religious cultural program that Quebec’s Education Department has made mandatory in all state-supported schools be amended so teachers can “pass value judgments on the beliefs being studied.”
Parents of students who are boycotting the course are in court in Drummondville and a majority of parents at Montreal’s Loyola High School have asked that their sons be exempted.
The courses teach about Catholicism and Protestantism in Quebec culture, the contributions of Judaism and aboriginal spiritualities and elements of other religious faiths that are now part of Quebec’s spiritual tapestry.
Teachers have been told not to bring in elements of their own beliefs when teaching the program, making it, Spira contends, “not presently teachable in Orthodox Jewish schools.”
“The program requires significant improvement … before it can ever be applied in practice,” he said in an email.
Charley Levy, director general of the association representing 14 Jewish schools, but not the more rigorously Orthodox and Hasidic ones, said Spira is voicing a personal opinion.
“He certainly does not represent anybody in the school network,” Levy said.
The course is being taught in Jewish high schools “within the parameters of the program,” he said.
When a teacher at a Jewish school deals with issues of doctrine in other religions, “the best you could do is have a neutral voice,” he continued, but conceded it is not easy.
“When you’re talking about things that are so fundamental and so close to things that we cling to as a society for a long time, it is quite difficult to become neutral.”
Hasidic schools and those that are more Orthodox are lobbying separately from the 14-member association about how to teach the course. The outcome of the two court cases, however, is expected to affect how the issue is resolved.
teaching Religion wouldnt pose a problem, if it was to be taught with all the ‘true’ facts.
but I am sure that teaching with the ‘true’ facts will not be allowed…
so then its should not be taught to any Jewish Children..
When the Ontario elections were happening, a great Posek told me that we should vote Conservative, but only out of Hakoras HaTov for the fact that they were fighting for “equal funding” for our schools (as well as for all non-catholic schools).
But the Emes is, he said, we don’t want the funding, because that will give them a perceived sense of entitlement to tell us what to teach and how to teach it. It’s not k’day.
And this is exactly what happened in Montreal.
The one Jewish school in Ireland teaches similar courses to that propsed in Quebec. The requirement was instituted for all schools in Ireland by that country’s government so that it might have a chance to avoid the sectarian strife that has plagued Northern Ireland. And indeed today Ireland is pretty devoid of such. (Even before the requirement it had had less history of anti-Semitism than almost anywhere else in Europe.)
Maybe schools in Israel should be required to teach about other sects and the importance of getting along with and showing respect to other jews even if you don’t agree with their theology or lack thereof.
This is one of the reasons why I am against any school prayers, good for the Jews in the US we don’t have this issue.
Shalom Spirah is one of the top Talmidei chachamim of our time. he has a fluent knoledge in talmud and tanach and can answer any question on Judaic subjects. i would take everything he says very serious
Rabbi Shalom Spira writes “My ability to have made a small contribution to the Montreal Gazette…” I don’t know which planet you live on, but for most people $6,000 -$7000 for a newspaper ad is enormous! Furthermore, Kiddush Hashem is performed by actions, or refraining from actions, not by putting ads in the paper. Finally, he writes that his ad reflects the sagacity of all Jews in general. Unfortunately, writing in a non-Jewish newspaper (as he did in the ad) that this legislation is a landmark achievement in world history and cause for celebration, when all frum mosdos have decried it and refused to implement it, is not a mark of wisdom.