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Manhattan High School For Girls on PBS: Don't Speak Lashon Hara

rabbifink — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 06:25:18 +0000

Yesterday I wrote about my high school. (Mr. Miller Was My Math Teacher at Ner Israel) I went to a pretty well known yeshiva high school but this kind of media exposure for Ner Israel is not too common. Of course I was proud so I told my sister to check out the video and article.

Not to be outdone, my sister told me that her high school was also famous!

It seems that WNET, the New York PBS affiliate, has a segment called “Religion and Ethics. A few weeks back they did a piece on hateful gossip in schools. With the advent of the internet and specifically sites like Facebook, it has become so easy to say nasty things about others and leave a permanent record of the comments.

Cyber Abuse is what they call it. Saying things that are not nice on the internet about someone else can have a much more drastic and long term effect on the subject. Perhaps even worse than originally intended. The internet is a danger zone!

They talk a little bit about JuicyCampus which was one of the first and one of the most prolific sites for College students slander and gossip. It got shut down eventually and there is a new movement in its stead to try and promote good manners and ethics on the internet and limit evil speech about others.

The piece then moves from the extremely dangerous internet world of anonymous speech that could harm people’s lives to Manhattan High School for Girls. MHS is a Bais Yaakov style girl’s high school in Manhattan. My sisters attended MHS and I have heard really great things about the school. It might be the 2nd best girls high school in the world. Obviously the best is my father’s school, Ateres Bais Yaakov in Monsey.

At MHS, the girls learn about the harms of Lashon Hara (evil speech), work together to prevent and stop evil speech and care passionately about avoiding Lashon Hara. This is a stark contrast to the world of gossip that exists at high schools and Universities across the U.S.A. and has spawned shows like Gossip Girl.

Of course, there are times when it is permissible, in fact, even obligatory to say negative things about another person. The idea is to learn when and how to implement those exceptions. The best thing about a conscious effort to avoid speaking Lashon Hara is how it affects the way you speak by making you consider the value of your speech. Is it something that must be said? Or is it something better left unsaid?

The girls that are interviewed are very candid and perform very well in front of the camera. The message of the video is that we can all learn from MHS and the Jewish approach to Lashon Hara. I can only reiterate what a great message that is and congratulate MHS for truly being a light unto the nations.

For a clearer video than the video below and a transcript click here. (recommended)

Poor quality youtube video below: (only if you are really lazy)

Simple Justice | The Story of Brown v. Board of Education: The End of Separate But Equal in Schools

rabbifink — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:16:02 +0000

Last week I spoke at Pepperdine University about Jewish Lessons in Parenting. I began my talk by complimenting my parents and expressing my desire to emulate their parenting in the raising of my own children. One such example occurred today.

At Law School we are reading some of the most well-known Supreme Court Cases. A few weeks ago we read Roe v. Wade (banning 1st term abortion is unconstitutional) and the even more important Casey v. Planned Parenthood (upheld Roe) cases. Last week we read Plessy v. Ferguson (after Civil War, Separate but Equal schools were ruled constitutional).

This week we are reading Brown v. Board of Education. This case overruled Plessy and made Separate but Equal unconstitutional in Public Schools. Brown v. Board of Education paved the way for Civil Rights activists like Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to fight for equal rights for all people in all areas of life, beyond public education.

As I was reading the case I remembered a very influential “Parenting” episode from my youth. Growing up, we did not watch many movies. I saw a few movies on TV, like E.T. and The Wizard of Oz but that was about it. But I vividly remember my father strongly encouraging me to watch one particular movie with him when I was twelve years old.

That movie was a PBS special called The American Experience: Simple Justice. It beautifully told the story of Thurgood Marshall as he learned the law and was groomed into the perfect counsel for the Supreme Court cases to reverse Plessy. The climax of the movie is the Supreme Court case of Brown v. Board of Education and the Court’s ruling that Separate but Equal was not constitutional.

My father wanted me to see it and I recall a strong desire to study the law and become a lawyer after watching it. My preferred career path took some detours along the way, but several years later my interest in the law returned in earnest.

Today, our professor at Loyola Law School, Marcy Strauss, showed the very same movie to the class in lieu of a more traditional lecture and Socratic discussion. All the memories I had as a youngster were re-energized and I was quite moved by the movie, again.

Brown v. Board of Education raises some very important issues that are still very relevant to modern discourse. In just 56 years, much has changed in the landscape of race relations in the USA. Some things are still the same, or at the very least follow the same bigoted roots. There are other minorities seeking equal rights as well. Sometimes, we can go overboard in our sensitivities as I will write about tomorrow. And sometimes, one part of the world can be slow to see that Separate cannot be Equal, as I will write about the next day.

This movie is a must see. My father was very wise to encourage me to see it and I will always remember watching it together with him. (Thank you.)

The part of the movie that moved me most when I was a youngster stuck with me until today. I was talking with some friends at school and I mentioned that while reading Brown v. Board of Education I recalled a scene from this very movie. I had no idea that we were going to be watching the movie in class. I recounted the scene as best as my 12 year old brain could understand it and it was just as I remembered it when I saw it tonight.

The scene is of a study that was being conducted to analyze the way segregated black children felt about themselves. The tester would ask questions of the children using dolls, one black and one white. The results of the test showed conclusively that black children felt inferior. The dramatization of the test was very powerful and I found it on youtube so that you can see it for yourself below.

“To a better tomorrow”

KCET Visits PJC and Interviews Me

rabbifink — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 18:13:40 +0000

KCET (the local PBS affiliate) has been working on a city-wide project. It is called Departures and it focuses on the people and places that make the neighborhoods of Los Angeles. For the last six weeks they have been working on Venice. Today they came to the Pacific Jewish Center Shul on the Beach to learn about us and to be included in their upcoming Venice piece.

It was a true honor and privilege to be a part of this worthwhile project. The production should be finished in February and I look forward to seeing that.

The camera crew shot some footage of our morning services and did two interviews. First, they interview Gary Dalin. Gary has been part of PJC since 1979 and provided great insight into the rich history of Pacific Jewish Center and the greater Venice Jewish community. He was eloquent and impressive in his interview and represented us very well. Great job Gary!

I was interviewed next. I hope I did okay. I myself have interviewed so many Jewish College student on camera and made those interviews into documentaries, so I know how hard it can be. (For two of my videos click here for JAM 2006 and click here for Chase Edler.) Among many topics, we talked about the juxtaposition of the historic quality of the Shul on the Beach to the future of outreach including this blog and my relative youth as a Rabbi. We also talked about the role the Shul plays in the boardwalk community, surrounded by the wild atmosphere of the boardwalk. It wasn’t too long, maybe a 35 minute interview in total, but we covered a lot of topics. Of course, there were some delinquents that felt the need to disturb us, that is just life on Venice Boardwalk…

I hope the final product reflects well on our special community and those who see it are inspired at least to check us out some time. I ended the interview with an open invitation to anyone who would like to see what we are all about and I extend that invitation to all of you reading this right now.

I also, want to thank Justin, Dan and Matt for including us in this project. I wish you much success in this endeavor and anything you do in the future.

Here are a couple pictures that Leslie Friedman took with her BlackBerry during the interview.