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Holding the Center: How One Jewish Day School Negotiates Differences in a Pluralistic Community

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Holding the Center: How One Jewish Day School Negotiates Differences in a Pluralistic Community ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation / Thesis: HOLDING THE CENTER: HOW ONE JEWISH DAY SCHOOL NEGOTIATES DIFFERENCES IN A PLURALISTIC COMMUNITY. Allen Harold Selis, Doctor of Philosophy, 2010 Dissertation / Thesis Directed By: Professor Steven Selden, Department of Education Policy Studies This study centers on the experiences of students and religious study faculty in the high school division of ―CDS,‖ a successful Kindergarten through Twelfth grade Jewish day school that defines itself as a ―community‖ institution. The school affirms a high-profile commitment to including ―the widest spectrum of Jewish practice and belief‖ in its recruiting materials. While the student body comprises individuals who are diverse in their affiliations and beliefs, the school employs a religious studies faculty that overwhelmingly draws from the most theologically conservative subset of the larger community. Almost none of these instructors share the same orientation with respect to religious practice, beliefs or general cultural frames of reference as the students they educate. Nonetheless, the school‘s administrative leaders claim a high degree of success at creating an embracing community, where individual differences are honored and respected. The purpose of this study was to examine and critically evaluate this claim. By employing a range of classical ethnographic research strategies, including participant observation and individual interviews, this study explores the following question: How does a culturally heterogeneous group of religious studies faculty and students negotiate the challenge of communal participation in the high school division of one Jewish day school? While the results of field work were analyzed using a range of classical anthropological methods, this study makes special use of the communities of practice literature to create an interpretive schema for understanding the cultural life and experiences of this school community. Coding and analysis of field data suggest that a commitment to defer engagement around significant areas of ritual practice as well as the construction of a value system which reinforces the merits of coexistence create a loose framework for the notion of ―community‖ at CDS. These findings expand an emerging literature on pluralism within Jewish institutions and suggest new interpretive tools for understanding the meaning of community within the growing field of pluralistic Jewish community day schools. HOLDING THE CENTER: HOW ONE JEWISH DAY SCHOOL NEGOTIATES DIFFERENCES IN A PLURALISTIC COMMUNITY. By Allen Harold Selis Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2010 Advisory Committee: Professor Steven Selden, Chair Professor Bernard Cooperman Professor Barbara Finkelstein Professor Francine Hultgren Professor Linda Valli © Copyright by Allen Harold Selis 2010 Preface Hats Off to Pluralism On the first day of faculty orientation at CDS (my pseudonym for the community day school that served as the focus of my study in this dissertation), millinery fashion statements reverberate within the large auditorium of this Jewish day school. Some women‘s heads are uncovered, while others sport fashionable hats. Some angle their hats back at a jaunty angle, while others pull them low to the ears, concealing each wisp of hair. Several women wear wigs of varying lengths and colors. There is a pattern. The bare-headed women are mostly wearing pants. The women in skirts almost all cover their heads. Later, I come to learn that there is a ―pecking order‖ of sorts. The pants and bare heads are liberal in their religious orientation. The jaunty hats are ritually observant, but progressive. The tightly fitted chapeaus are more conservative. The women donning wigs belong to the most religiously and theologically rigorous subset of the community. I also come to learn that there are many different reasons for choosing one style of dress or another, as some female faculty cover their heads out of modesty and piety, while others see the head covering a part of a uniform that they wear in school, out of deference to customs that are normative in parts of the Orthodox Jewish community. A similar hat-trick plays itself out among the male faculty and administrators, just with different colors and materials. The language of ideology and religious association is transparent to most in the room—but as a newcomer, it overwhelms me. I am very conscious of the degree to which the staff display their labels. I also note pockets of unmistakable homogeneity, especially among teachers of Judaic studies. Given the religious fashion statements of orientation day, I am intrigued by the headmaster‘s ii opening address. It speaks of breadth, inclusive community and a commitment to the notion that ―there is more than one way to be a good Jew." I look towards a new acquaintance, a teacher in the High school, and ask ―Is that really what happens here?‖ ―No!‖ he replies, ―not in the High School.‖ The High School students show up later that week, in khaki pants and polo shirts—almost none of them wearing ―the uniform‖ of the Orthodox Jewish community that all of their Jewish studies teachers sport. With that final dose of cognitive dissonance, I begin my year as a teacher—and as a researcher. This disparate collection of teachers, students and administrators calls itself an inclusive community. Is that really the case? What might make this mosaic of individuals into a community? How might such a ―pluralistic‖ community work, if it does at all? As I began my field work, I soon found that in addition to conducting a study, I was also embarking upon a personal journey. While studying this community I became a genuine part of it and that experience both taught and changed me. This dissertation reflects the lessons that I learned. iii Acknowledgements This research is the result of many years of work as well as the influence and support of a broad host of teachers, colleagues and advisors. Different individuals or institutions contributed to this work in distinct ways. Some imparted wisdom, some critiqued my thinking and others allowed me the freedom to make important discoveries on my own. Many invested in this project by affirming the value of the question that I posed, while others quietly but persistently urged me to refine the fruits of my research into the form of this dissertation. Still another group provided the kind of support that is often overlooked but sometimes most important in the arduous journey of research and writing. This included the financial means to sustain my research, technical assistance in the writing and editing process and finally, the emotional support without which I could not have maintained my commitment to this work over the seven years that it took to move from an exciting proposal to a finished manuscript. With full appreciation for the notion that im eyn kemah eyn Torah (without material sustenance, it is impossible to reach intellectual goals), I offer my deepest thanks to the Wexner Foundation for selecting me as a member of the Foundation‘s fifteenth cohort of Wexner Graduate Fellows. Leslie and Abigail Wexner‘s personal efforts to establish and sustain the Foundation have changed the landscape of the Jewish world by affording leaders and thinkers the opportunity to make exciting contributions to Jewish life and scholarship. My deepest thanks to the Wexner family for their commitment to the Foundation and for the broad community of leaders and thinkers that it has convened. iv These individuals made decisive contributions to my professional growth and development, and deserve much credit for the success of this study. Among the staff of the Wexner Foundation, I offer deepest thanks to Rabbi Elka Abrahamson for urging me to enter a program of doctoral studies as part of my professional transition away from the pulpit and towards the field of educational leadership. Throughout that transition, Dr. Robert Chazan urged me forward in my academic work and help build bridges with other scholars in my field. I‘m indebted to Cindy Chazan and Larry Moses for the ongoing counsel and mentoring that they both offered even after I graduated from the ranks of active Fellows. The broader Foundation staff also offered tremendous assistance in ways both large and small. Special thanks to Karen Collum whose tremendous kindness matched her uncanny ability to cut through bureaucratic red tape. Other institutions provided important support for this work. I am indebted to the Department of Education and Policy Studies at the University of Maryland for the fellowship which they provided during my first year of doctoral studies. The Targum Shelishi Foundation offered critical funding during an intense year of field work. Finally, the Network for Research in Jewish Education named me as one of the recipients of their 2006 Young Scholars Award. Each of these institutions provided critical support which allowed me to focus my attention on the demands of academic work. This study is partly theirs, and is offered with deepest appreciation for those who work to expand the horizons of knowledge and deepen our understanding of modern Jewish life and culture. It is difficult to imagine how I might have reached this juncture without the considerable support and guidance of my teachers. Dr. Steven Selden, my advisor and v the chair of my dissertation committee, provided me with shrewd advice from our very first conversation about graduate studies at the University of Maryland. His ongoing support has been complete, and his ability to think through the larger implications of all aspects of this project have been instrumental in helping me reach this stage. Two committee members, Dr. Francine Hultgren and Dr. Barbara Finkelstein, were important intellectual influences throughout my doctoral training at the University of Maryland. Dr. Hultgren was one of the first faculty members to expose me to the range of intellectual discourse that comprised the field of curriculum studies.
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