by Jonathan Tobin

How do you educate Jews who don’t know how to ask a question?

With the aid of some neat toys, my daughter Moriah, and my wife and I have been practicing for the big night when we’ll sit and tell the story of the Exodus.

This involves a lot of “Dayenu” singing, playing with the toys representing the 10 plagues, hiding and finding the Afikoman, rehearsing the preface to the four questions in Hebrew and English, mock pouring of grape juice and the recitation of blessings, some already familiar to her from Friday nights.
For my soon-to-be 4-year-old, this entertaining game dovetails with the barrage of Passover books we’ve been reading to her. But for us, the fun and games have a serious purpose: We’re trying to turn a little girl into a Jew who not only takes her heritage and faith seriously, but who will ultimately draw the right conclusions, and make Jewish values and identity the keystones to decisions she’ll make in life.

We are but a tiny minority swimming in a sea of non-Jewish popular culture, and it takes a conscious effort to ensure that Moriah knows who she is and what that means.

The demographic facts of life tell us that not only are Jews a shrinking, aging population, but one whose children are often not receiving the sort of instruction that would enable them to make informed Jewish choices.

In Philadelphia, a smaller percentage of children attend Jewish day schools — the best possible venue for combining Jewish knowledge with a superior secular education — than the national average. More than 80 percent of our kids get their Jewish education at part-time congregational schools. Of these, the overwhelming majority don’t continue their Jewish education after Bar or Bat Mitzvah.

Just when their identities are being formed, their Jewish learning ends. That’s what we’ve reaped as American baby-boomers have come to maturity as perhaps the most accomplished generation in Jewish history in terms of secular knowledge, while achieving the distinction of being the most Jewishly illiterate. We’ve earned that title with growing rates of disaffiliation and dropping concern for Israel, Jewish observance and donating to Jewish causes.

We’ve all become fourth sons, the Passover character who is not able to ask a question.

Many of us are as clueless as the slaves of Egypt about what it means to be a Jew. It took a Moses — the greatest teacher and prophet — to teach those slaves the meaning of freedom.

One answer is to improve the synagogue Hebrew schools, since the reason so many young Jews don’t want to learn more is that their initial experience was not good. Special Programs are trying to raise the teaching standards and resources to transform afternoon Hebrew schools from being a symbol of Jewish communal failure into beacons of excellence.

But is that a panacea for all that ails American Jewry?

Clearly not. Day schools remain our best investment in Jewish continuity, and making them more affordable must also receive priority funding and attention.

Jewish camps and trips to Israel are other vital tools battling for scarce funds. Unfor-tunately, the process of changing communal policy to give education the greatest share of our resources is far from over.

Yet even the best of schools or camps can’t make up for a lack of interest in the home and parents, many of whom are also Jewishly ignorant. If children are merely dropped off at these schools with no family follow-up, then the quality of the school will, in the long run, won’t matter much.

A few nights ago during my bedtime reading of a Passover book, my daughter wanted to go to Israel to see the Burning Bush and meet Moses. But that wasn’t all! We also needed to go with Moses to see Pharaoh and take him to see the bush, and that maybe then he wouldn’t be so mean to the Jewish slaves.

Moriah’s grasp of the Jewish history timeline will improve in the years to come, I don’t think she’ll do better in getting at the essence of Jewish values, even if I fear she is a trifle optimistic about softening the hearts of the wicked.

Let’s hope more of her generation will do as well in the future.

Jonathan S. Tobin is executive editor of the Philadelphia Jewish Exponent.