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April 13, 2001/Nisan 20, 5761, Vol. 53, No.28
Letters to the EditorApril 13, 2001
Take a standEditor:As a graduate of Horizon High School, I would like to comment on the issue of the Horizon High School Senior Prom, being held on a Friday evening (Jewish News March 9). I grew up in Arizona, extremely uncomfortable about being Jewish in the public school system. I attended an elementary school where I was told I would fail if I did not make a Jewish ornament to put on the Christmas tree. Horizon High School was not always an easy place to be. My junior year, a teacher told me that I would not pass her class if I did not come to school on Yom Kippur to turn in a research paper. I remember the times the skinheads and students defaced the school with swastikas and called us inappropriate names. My family found a home in our temple. We worked extremely hard with Bureau of Jewish Education Director Aaron Scholar (who was most helpful and receptive) and other principals, in educating teachers, students and families about the need to respect others. This problem about prom is not just a Jewish or religious issue. This is an issue of respecting others and understanding that we are all different. I was deeply disturbed when I learned that Horizon High School was still having these issues. I strongly resent the comparisons of prom to a high school football game. Not everyone feels the "need" to go to a football game. High school prom is something that every high school student has dreamed about. School officials would never think of having prom on Easter, Christmas or another major holiday. Friday night may not sound as important, but it is. I now live in Los Angeles and work with kids of all ages. Lately there has been great concern about shootings and disturbances in schools. Let's teach our kids that it is okay to believe and stand up for what they believe in. Let's show them that whatever religion, race or creed, we are supportive of each other and can work together. Beth Goldberg Los Angeles Choose battlesEditor:I sympathize with the position of Reform Judaism's Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Conservative Central Conference of American Rabbis on gays in the Boy Scouts of America (Jewish News, March 30). But I think their support is misplaced. What happened to our cherished principle of freedom of association, or disassociation, as the case may be? May I suggest that the UAHC and the CCAR be more discriminating in choosing their battles and pick causes more attuned to the purpose of their organizations? Martin I. Selling Phoenix |
