Sholem Educational Institute
The Sholem Educational Institute or Sholem Community was founded in the early 1950’s as a Sunday school by a group of parents and mental health workers, led by Dr. Carl Sugar. At that time there were four groups of Yiddish secular Sunday Schools/supplementary schools meeting in the afternoons or on Sundays. All of them were aligned politically with one or another leftist group.
The parents cooperative would not ally with any of them because most of the parents were Hollywood writers and actors who had been blacklisted. The health workers recommended they provide the opportunity for getting together for the children, aka a support group, because the children were being prosecuted in their public schools as their parents names were being splashed about the newspapers.
The largest group “The Jewish Peoples Fraternal Order of the International Workers Order” at the time was pro-Soviet. The second was The Workmen’s Circle, who were enthusiastically supporting the witch hunt. The third group were Labor Zionists. So it didn’t make sense for this group to affiliate with any of them.
Overview[edit]
The Sholem Community is a secular and progressive Jewish educational, cultural, and social institution. Sholem (the Yiddish word for “peace”) members view the Secular Jewish part of their identity as one that is relevant to contemporary life and committed to justice, peace, and community responsibility. Sholem is a warm, welcoming place where Jewish and intercultural families can come together in an open and stimulating environment. Sholem offers a Sunday school, a bar and bas mitsve program, as well as adult education, secular alternatives to religious holiday observances, and social activities. Members come from all over Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley.[1]
Sunday School[edit]
The Sholem Sunday school offers a curriculum for toddlers to teenagers that focuses on the history and culture that make up Jewish identity. Bar/bas mitsve candidates study and analyze the Book of Genesis, and deliver presentations to the Sholem Community and to their families and friends about some aspect of Jewishness that is significant to them. Adult seminars often cover Jewish history, literature, culture, the Torah, and the roots of ever-changing holiday observances, and include stimulating lecture, discussion, seminar series cosponsored by the Arbeter Ring/Workmen’s Circle.[2] The Sholem School meets most Sundays at leased facilities, including at Short Avenue Elementary School in the Del Rey neighborhood of Los Angeles.[3]
Celebrations[edit]
Sholem’s secular adaptations of Jewish holidays are based on Jewish history and folk traditions such as in the Humanistic Judaism.[4] This approach emphasizes that most Jewish holidays pre-date religious observances They sometimes involved magical rites aimed at human control of supernatural forces, such as pouring water to encourage rain or lighting fires to invigorate the sun. Sholem emphasizes Jewish cultural development within an overall human context in which Jewish folk traditions often reflected the customs of the surrounding majority peoples among whom Jews lived. Sholem celebrates the New Year Festivals with music, readings, and discussion relevant to our daily lives and challenges. For example, Hanuka is a powerful holiday that celebrates freedom and reminds of the need for light, as well as the common themes shared by other cultures, while Peysakh (Passover) give us stirring reminders about liberation and freedom.[5]
Adult Activities[edit]
The school has also staged original theatrical productions such as the March 2000 production of “Bread and Roses”[6] which dramatized the Triangle Fire tragedy and 2008’s “Oy, What is A Jew?”[7]
Affiliations[edit]
Sholem is affiliated with the Congress of Secular Jewish Organizations[7], Builders of Jewish Education (BJE) in partnership with the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles[8] and frequently cosponsors programs and activities with the Arbeter Ring/Workmen’s Circle, Yiddishkayt L.A.[9], the Los Angeles Yiddish Culture Club[10] and other Secular Jewish groups in Southern California.
References[edit]
- ↑ "Jewish but not Religious Sholem may be for you". Tolucan Times. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ↑ Margolick, David. "Workmen's Circle: 85 Years of Aid to Jews", The New York Times, November 10, 1985, accessed May 7, 2020
- ↑ "Sholem Community celebrates new home at Short Elementary". Culver City News. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ↑ "What is Humanistic Judaism?". Society for Humanistic Judaism. Retrieved 7 May 2020.
- ↑ "Who We Are Sholem Community". Sholem Community. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ↑ "Bread and Roses". Sholem Community. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ↑ "Yiddish Films: Laugh! Cry! Learn!". The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ↑ "Mission!". JKidLA. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ↑ "Yiddishkayt". Yiddishkayt. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
- ↑ "Los Angeles Yiddish Culture Club". Yiddishkayt. Retrieved 30 April 2020.
External links[edit]
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