A Hebrew-language charter school may open in Brooklyn this coming fall. Opponents of the school worry that this will violate the separation of church and state:
Still, [Steven M. Cohen, a sociologist at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion] said, navigating the church-state divide could prove tricky. “They’re going to have to walk a very fine line between Jewish as culture and Jewish as religion, and there will be people who are looking to disqualify the school for teaching religious practice,” he added.
Dr. Cohen noted that in Israel, nonreligious Jews “can learn Talmud, Bible, Jewish religious customs and regard it as a secular activity.” He said, “Is that possible in the United States of America?”
“The problem is that Jewish religious practice is part of Jewish culture,” he added. “So how does one make a sharp division between religion and culture?”
…“I think [Jewish philanthropist Michael H. Steinhardt’s] hope is that Jews who are completely turned off by religion, by rabbis, by Jewish texts, religious texts will find their identity within this school,” said Jonathan D. Sarna, a professor of American Jewish history at Brandeis University. “I think he does deeply care that there be a Judaism for another generation, and his sense is that if we just go business as usual, that won’t happen.”
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