Jerusalem and Athens Meet in Manhattan - WSJ
Is truth truly beauty, and beauty really truth? And is that all ye know on earth, and all ye need to know? This was under discussion on a January morning on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. The moderator was Chana Ruderman, a former university seminar instructor, and the spirited participants, wearing crisp uniforms, were 11- and 12-year-olds, approaching John Keats’s immortal lines with the enthusiasm their peers usually reserve for Spider-Man or Juan Soto.
Creative ideas were welcomed but textual proof was demanded to back up each statement. The students dived back into the “Ode on a Grecian Urn,” shouting with glee when they discovered lines that supported their theses. As the pace grew quicker, they exhibited something you rarely experience in middle school: joy.
This was simply another morning at Emet, the country’s first Jewish classical-education preparatory school, more than halfway through its inaugural year. Walk its halls and you will see portraits of Churchill, Plato and Maimonides, urging students to plant one foot firmly in Western civilization and the other in Jewish tradition. Although it has been operating for only a few months, the school has become a sensation, holding public events with luminaries like writer Douglas Murray. It is attracting applications from hundreds of parents, including some who never thought they would send their child to a Jewish school, let alone one that teaches Latin and requires students to attend recitals at Carnegie Hall to develop an appreciation for Paganini.
Which is all the more remarkable considering the school wasn’t supposed to be running yet. Working under the aegis of Tikvah, a Jewish cultural and education organization, Eric Cohen, who leads the group, and Abe Unger, a former college professor and now Emet’s head of school, wanted to take their time. The classical-education model, which emphasizes canonical texts and traditions of Western civilization and which is enjoying a resurgence among Christians, is heavy on Greek and Roman culture. How, then, to infuse it with Judaism, a tradition whose values sometimes contradict those of the Hellenized world?
They were grappling with the question when Oct. 7, 2023, happened. Many parents, shocked to see Hamas sympathizers plant themselves on college campuses and in city streets, urged the school to open as soon as possible. More than 500 families expressed interest and, after rigorous aptitude tests, 40 students in the fifth, sixth and ninth grades were chosen. That number is already slated to double next year.
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If there’s one thing that can devastate even the most dedicated community it’s the abundance of screens, which is why Emet doesn’t permit them. Rather than iPads or Chromebooks, the students carry textbooks, as well as notebooks, index cards, pencils and pens. When they write, it’s in cursive, another classical skill prized at Emet.
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Mr. Leibovitz is editor at large of Tablet magazine and author, most recently, of “How the Talmud Can Change Your Life: Surprisingly Modern Advice From a Very Old Book.”