San Diego (special) -- There is much to be learned about a school during semester break. Although the students are not present, numerous artifacts which they have left behind may be seen and reflected upon. 

During such a visit to the Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, while waiting to speak with Rabbi Simcha Weiser, the headmaster, I was drawn to a place in the central lobby where drawings and little cut-out airplanes were posted for passersby to see. 

Under the title derech eretz -- a Hebrew term literally meaning "the way of the land" but colloquially meaning "politeness" or "courtesy" -- about 15 posters illustrated the ways in which the children who drew them lived up to this key concept which permeates Soille's educational philosophy. 

"My sister and me were being quiet while my father and mother were taking a nap," one poster announced. 

"I helped my grandfather go down the stairs," said another. 

One poster told a story of a sibling who had failed to practice derech eretz, and a friend who did: "My brother and me were playing. He wouldn't let me in the club and I cried. My friend helped me and I stopped crying."  Yet another depicted a conversation between cartoon characters. One says to the other: "You are the best at basketball." The other replies: "I know I am good at basketball but Hashem gave this gift to me."  Hashem is a Hebrew word meaning "The Name," a reverent way to refer to God during mundane conversations.  The cutout airplanes are called kadmah cards -- kadmah being a Hebrew word meaning "moving forward." Children who fill out the cards -- or who, in the case of the younger ones, have the cards filled out for them -- like the airplanes in flight are "moving forward." From the same Hebrew root comes the word, Kadima, the name given by many synagogues to their children's activity groups.  One card said that "I went to take a bath when my mom asked me to."  Another said that a certain young man "listened to his mom and helped to get the breakfast table ready for himself and his sister."  Another child reportedly "was polite to her mother, even when she was being scolded."

Kadmah cards at Soille  SD Hebrew Day School

A certain boy had been "in front of the mirror in our narrow hallway. Mommy needed to glance at the mirror and (he) moved out of the way for mommy." 

And there was the girl who "set the Shabbos table with cutlery, glasses, napkins and all other things." 

Weiser later told me that the derech eretz program to promote good "character development" is a theme that helps unify coursework taught by both the "secular" and "Judaic studies" teachers. 

"People really do mesh and work together," the headmaster said. "If you hear one of our teachers saying, 'that is not a good example of derech eretz,' you might automatically assume that person is Jewish, but she may not be." 

The emphasis on character development at Soille and other Jewish day schools results in such schools being "by and large insulated places where kids live in a value-rich, uplifting environment," Weiser said. 

It also is reflected in Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School's attitude toward class size, he added. 

"Once a class reaches 18 students, there will be a teacher's assistant in the classroom full-time, and once a classroom reaches 24 we divide it into two," he said. "Typical class size is 15-16 in a class with a qualified licensed teacher, and generally with a teacher's assistant. 

"The fact is that this stress on derech eretz means that we as a faculty are very respectful to our kids, so there is a real sense of relationship that goes on here between teachers and students -- a real sense of learning to respect the kids, and kids upholding standards of respectfulness." 

I asked the headmaster to take me on a conceptual tour of the school, starting in pre-school and ending with graduation from the eighth grade. What, ideally, will children at Soille experience? 

"Preschool through kindergarten: the focus is purely developmental, the socialization of the child, the idea that children should learn that their own natural curiosity leads to learning and to doing constructive things," he began. 

"You can channel everything through play and exploring the world around you," he said. "Celebrating Jewish holidays and Jewish events is very important. Exposure to the notion of prayer and the idea of davening (praying) which you start very young for a child. It goes beyond celebrating holidays to linking everything so that it is as holistic as you can possibly make it. 

"For example," he explained, "when Rosh Hashanah approaches and kids (in California) don't really know what the fall season is, it is taking kids out to beehives and seeing how honey is made and linking back with the joyous wishes and prayers for a sweet, new year -- dipping the apple and the honey. 

"From the standpoint of a 3- or 4-year old, what do you get? 'Gee, this is the beginning of a new year, a new chapter in my life.' Part is the sweetness of the honey, and where the honey comes from, and the understanding of the world around you to a better extent," Weiser said. 

"And then there are the focused values (the derech eretz) ," the headmaster continued. "Getting all together as a group, being more interested in sharing what I have, being more mindful of the kids around me, playing more nicely, being more aware when another kid in the group gets hurt. 'I can offer assistance. I can tell another child I am sorry you got hurt, even if it is not my fault.' 

"These are the kind of linkages that take place particularly in a Jewish preschool which has the goal of giving kids an uplifting, happy, joyous experience, while developing them in so many directions and linking them to so many things around them." 

Weiser said another example of the approach occurs in Soille's kindergarten classes. "After the High Holidays, there is going to be a focus on Genesis and the creation of the world," he said, referring to the Torah portion read at that time of year. "The focus in the Judaic classroom is beginning an aquarium from scratch. First you have an empty aquarium bowl and you put in the water with the idea that is where fish live. Then developing an environment in which the fish will live, putting in the gravel, the plants, putting in light, all the different stages, and then, finally, putting in fish. 

"There is no greater way to inspire curiosity, or being kind to others -- in this case animals -- or being mindful of the needs of someone else, and the idea that God created the world, and getting all of them to focus and fit together in a very stimulating, happy way. At the end of the day, kids come home and say, 'Gosh, you have to come to my class, mommy, and see the wonderful fish tank we have, and see the great fish that we have, and this is the parsha (Torah portion) where God created the world!'" 

Grades 1-3 are focused on "skills development," particularly reading, which is a core issue in both the secular and Judaic areas, Weiser said. "Reading skills, reading comprehension, being expressive about what one reads, bringing to life something that someone reads. Here again I think there is important linkage to making the study of the Torah very alive for our kids. ...This is where we have art projects, plays, vignettes, doing the Haggadah (script for the Passover seder) through different characters...giving the kids the creative outlet to design a set." 

Weiser said the "essentials of a really excellent program in grades 1-3 are making education as lively and relevant as possible and getting away from the idea of just reading and answering questions." 

He said because the Judaic department implements its goals successfully, students remember not only the Hebrew reading skills that they acquired, but also "something that we laughed about, something that tied in with a field trip, or something that tied in with the secular department. That is what makes it come to life." 

In grades 4-6, Weiser said, students are maturing their stills, and they are beginning to see how the skills might become meaningful in their own lives. For example, students can learn that "you can use a simple geometric concept to calculate how tall a building is based on the angle of the sun."  "The same with Judaic studies," Weiser said: "There is a real effort to get kids to think about and express in writing that which they are beginning to absorb."

Rabbi Simcha Weiser points out a Torah passage to Soille students

Then, finally, the 7th and 8th grades, "the push is for kids to evidence their own thinking, their own individual viewpoints," Weiser said. "In the Judaic program, they are studying Talmud, advanced Jewish sources, and they are doing things with much more layered complexity. But what we are looking for most is for the child to be able to draw conclusions based on what they have learned. ... When someone is faced with a real situation, to be able to relate to something that they have learned." 

An example, he said, is "creating a science project: it is an opportunity to really draw upon written skills, science skills, math skills, but beyond that to create something ... to extrapulate some new conclusion from a body of information. 

"And then, we are doing the same thing in the Judaic program: 'Based upon what you have learned, what would be your viewpoint about this or that chapter of Jewish history?' 'What relevance does this section of the Torah have with issues having to do with euthanasia?' Show kids that they can draw conclusions and that they can utilize what they have learned." 

* * * 

Cherice Kelso of Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School was named the county's science teacher of the year after more of her students won awards at this year's Greater San Diego Science and Engineering Fair than from any other school. 

Because Kelso is not Jewish and is a scientist, Weiser said some people may falsely conclude that she might have difficulty fitting into an Orthodox Jewish school. 

"When we sit down as a staff and talk about seventh grade and the development of the kids in the class, and where the class is heading and take the temperature of the inter-personal climate in the class, she has as much to say as any other teacher," Weiser observed. 

"She doesn't sit back and say, 'well, I am the Nobel laureate here and my job is to produce science winners and I don't really care if they curse while they are working on a project, or whether this kid is picking on another kid'; she is as involved in those aspects of the school as is any other teacher." 

Further, he said, just because the school is observant does not mean that there are topics which are forbidden for Kelso to teach. If students ask Kelso about sexuality, she is authorized to discuss it. And though the Orthodox school believes in the literal word of the Torah -- including the Torah's account of creation -- Kelso is able to present a contrasting scientific view of creation and evolution. 

"We are ready to teach everything at the school," Weiser said. 'What we want the kids to do is to look at a Jewish viewpoint as well, so when the kids are studying evolution, or biology, they will have the opportunity to ask questions of Rabbi (Chaim) Hollander (the senior Judaic teacher) and to address questions in a forum sometimes to Rabbi Hollander and to Mrs. Kelso together." 

Another example of the derech eretz philosophy, Weiser said, is that "we don't want create at all an image that anyone is talking behind someone's back because that is ultimately disrespectful. " 

In Weiser's view, a special quality of the school is that "both Mrs. Kelso and Rabbi Hollander can sit down together with a class, field questions openly, discuss different viewpoints, and ultimately have kids walk away with an appreciation that there is a Jewish viewpoint and what it is ... and how it impacts a person's understanding of science as well." 

Although the school teaches Torah, Kelso need not feel that what she is teaching is somehow antithetical to Judaism. "There are a range of beliefs within traditional Orthodox Jewish thinking," Weiser said. Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School students "should understand and appreciate the complexity of those viewpoints. 

"The notion of God creating human beings is integral to the way that we would like them to see themselves," he added. "The notion that a human being was created by God and imbued with a spiritual soul." 

Before Soille's Kelso was rated the best science teacher in the county, some parents may have had the mistaken idea that religion and science cannot coexist in the same school, Weiser said. 

Among other misconceptions held by the parents of prospective students, Weiser said, is the idea that someone has to choose between a religious school education and making a success in the secular world. 

"Parents are not trading Harvard for Jewish education because there are plenty of yarmulkes (skull caps) when you walk onto the Harvard campus," Weiser said. "They are worn by faculty members, by students and by benefactors. You see them everywhere." 

The headmaster remembers a conversation he once had with a politically active member of the Jewish community, who predicted that there never would be "someone from a school like yours" who would become a United States Senator. 

Weiser said he wrote a note to that person after Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn,) was sworn in as a U.S.Senator to make the point that "a school like ours can today produce a United States Senator." 

Perhaps, Weiser said, America in the past was so anti-Semitic that it never would have voted for someone who was devoutly Jewish, but if such ever were the case, it is no longer. It is possible, Weiser speculated, that all that was missing before was the sense of self-confidence that now characterizes the Jewish community. 

"It is a question of feeling that there are opportunities in America that I can take advantage of without shedding my yarmulke ," Weiser said. "What is the image that we have from Ellis Island? Pictures of Jewish men cutting off their payis (side curls) once they see the Statue of Liberty in the harbor, taking out the scissors and cutting of the payis, and dropping them into the ocean. Often the tefillin (phylacteries) went into the ocean too -- any visible Jewish markings -- with the idea that 'I have come to the goldene medina (land of gold), and here there is an unending opportunity." But that opportunity, everyone knew at that point, came with a very severe buy-in." 

Did America change or did American Jews change in the interim? Some of both, Weiser replied. 

After World War II, "many of the Holocaust survivors who came to America decided that they were going to live clearly identified Jewish lives, that the answer wasn't...for us Jews to dissolve into the woodwork or become transparent to society. That mistake they understood and therefore they went about the business of building lives in America with a certain blatancy and a sense of 'yes, we are Jews. We are not going to shed the identification marks that we have' and some of them physically weren't able to anyway, because they were tattooed on their arms." 

Many of these survivors propelled the Jewish day school movement throughout the country, Weiser said. 

Another important factor, he said, was that Jews participated along with African-Americans in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s, which 'certainly was a seminal process for America to go through." 

Yet another misconception about Jewish schools versus secular schools, Weiser said, is that because of anti-Semitism, Jewish schools are more likely to become targets of the haters 

Weiser said when troubled youth embracing neo-nazi ideology opened fire earlier this year at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., they vented their rage in their own school rather than going to any of several Jewish schools in the general vicinity. "The notion that our kids are going to be targeted because they are in a Jewish school -- this is not the case," Weiser said. "Thank God, it is not the case." 

As a Jew who belongs to an egalitarian Conservative congregation (Tifereth Israel Synagogue), I raised with Weiser an issue that some might consider to be another stumbling block to sending their child to an Orthodox school. Aren't girls taught that they have no place on a bima; that the synagogue, as opposed to the home, is the province of men? 

"There are certain public roles and public positions which by Jewish tradition are reserved for men and not for women," Weiser replied. "Now that does have to be understood. I believe very, very deeply that if there was a good test to measure self-confidence, and a sense of measuring a person's feeling that 'Judaism really offers me a very open-ended spiritual opportunity as a person,' I think that both the boys and the girls would excel on such a standard. And the reason is that they get past some of these superficial notions, some of the ideas." 

He said "the real index of Jewish life is a sense to what extent do people find meaning and relevance to themselves as people in Judaism. And I will tell you as a Jewish educator, I believe wholeheartedly that there are different channels by and large for boys and girls. And we have to develop those different and unique channels as well as we do developing all those other shared channels they have for spiritual growth and commitment to Judaism." 

Weiser said Soille Hebrew Day School has devised classes for girls in the sixth, seventh and eighth grades "to really explore women's issues, to explore some of the questions like the issue of the mehitzah (barrier dividing men from women at prayer services) -- where does it come from and what is it rooted in? What are the laws of physical modesty and dress -- what do they speak to in terms of the value of the person, in terms of the integrity of the person? What are they based on?" 

Segregating such discussions by gender, according to Weiser, "allows teachers to discuss sexual issues and sexual developmental issues with kids who wouldn't be comfortable doing it in a mixed classroom because it would bring down the maturity level of the group." 

* * *
The school was founded in 1963 as the San Diego Hebrew Day School. A few years ago it was renamed as the Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School in honor or Rabbi Henry Soille, whose generous bequest made it possible for the school to acquire its present property at 3630 Afton Road at the corner of Aero Drive. 

	"The school started grade by grade with a kindergarten and a first grade in rented facilities," Weiser said. "You know the idea of the little signs on the East Coast that say 'George Washington slept here'? Well I think we could put up signs that 'the Hebrew Day School occupied here!' We certainly could put up more than a dozen signs around San Diego."
Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School

The early reaction to an Orthodox school from the more liberal Jewish community was what Weiser described as the "zoo approach to Jewish education. 

"What is a zoo? You want to gather endangered species from around the world like we do so proudly here in San Diego. You create a habitat. ...So when I spoke about Jewish education when I first came to San Diego, sometimes people responded but I felt it was with the zoo mentality. 'Well, gee, wouldn't it be nice to have a little neighborhood of Jewish people that we could drive through and see all those people who have studied Torah growing nicely? And wouldn't it be a nice thing to keep that alive somewhere in our community?" 

Early on, the school's leadership decided it should reach out to the entire Jewish community -- not just to families in observant homes. Today the population of the school ranges from children whose families are strictly observant to those who, though Jewish, keep Christmas trees in their homes, Weiser said. 

Children are sent to the school by parents who have a broad range of viewpoints about the Torah, from those who believe it was given by God to Moses atop Mount Sinai (as the school teaches) to those who believe it was written by various people at various times and edited into a single document. 

Those who disbelieve the Torah's Divine origin have the right to overlay the school's teachings with their own at home, Weiser said. Nevertheless, he said, they want their children to understand the traditional basis of Jewish thought. 

A staff of 32 serves the school's 290 students, who represent 170 families. Of these, 72 families receive "some kind of tuition assistance,' according to Weiser. The United Jewish Federation allocates $95,000 yearly for these scholarships, and three times that amount has to be raised through fundraising events, contributions and other means. 

"And, thank God, we do it," Weiser said. "Scholarships are a core commitment of the school for which I am a very strong advocate. Every time any school or public entity has difficulty making ends meet, people on the board will be tempted to say 'let's stop helping so many kids.' But that would undermine the whole aim of having a day school in town. 

"It is the most fundamental responsibility that a Jewish community has - to offer a Jewish education, " the headmaster said. "We must always have a commitment to offer every child an equal opportunity for a Jewish education."