Rob
Sherman Advocacy
Click on either picture for larger image and picture description.
"Fighting
injustice, one victory at a time."
School Prayer Dispute Gets
Worse
Lawsuit Increasing Likely
The
school prayer dispute involving my daughter is getting increasingly worse.
In the past week, I've learned more, much more, about the two songs at issue.
Supporters
bring you Rob Sherman Advocacy.
Click here to join them.
It turns out that the first song, Hashiveinu,
is one of the most significant prayers in all of the Jewish tradition. The
lyrics of the song are the words of Chapter 5, Verse 21 of the Book of
Lamentations. Here are the Jewish
translation and the Christian
translation. However, there's more.
One of the most sacred of Jewish holy days is Tisha
B'Av. The Orthodox (Jewish) Union
describes Tisha B'Av (Tisha means the ninth day of the month; B' means
in; Av is the eleventh month of the year in the Jewish calendar) as
"the saddest day on the Jewish calendar because of the
incredible series of tragedies which occurred on that date throughout Jewish
history." Each year, many observant Jews fast the whole day on Tisha
B'Av and go to the synagogue to pray. The most sacred, most significant
and most important prayer of the annual Tisha B'Av observance is Hashiveinu.
The Orthodox Union even has a special page on the internet to discuss the intense
sacred meaning to Jews of Hashiveinu.
Not only that, the final phrase of the Hashiveinu verse, Renew
our days as of old, also has very intense and significant religious meaning
to Jews. The Orthodox Union's web page on that phrase concludes as
follows: It is for this and many other aspects of a life of Torah and
Mitzvot, that we pray, HASHIVEINU HASHEM EILECHA V'NASHUVA, CHADEISH YAMEINU
K'KEDEM. The words in upper case letters are the lyrics (Hashem and Adonai
are two different names that Jews use for God) to the Hashiveinu prayer that my
daughter has been asked to chant in her public school chorus because, according
to School District 21, it is "just an Israeli folk song."
For School District 21 to characterize the intensely sacred Hashiveinu prayer as
"just an Israeli folk song" is an insult to the Jewish religion and an
insult to all Jews everywhere. It would be calling a tallis
just an Israeli scarf. It would be like calling a kipah
just an Israeli hat. It would be like calling a crucifix just a piece of
Italian costume jewelry, as if it had no sacred significance. It would be
like calling "Our Father Who Art in Heaven" and "Hail Mary"
just a couple of Italian poems.
What we're left with, then, is School District 21 taking the central prayer from
the intensely sacred Tisha B'Av holy day observance and passing that prayer off
as just an Israeli folk song. How can School District 21 do that? I won't tolerate that level of
insensitivity towards the Jewish community and neither should you. School
District 21 must not use one of the most sacred prayers in all of Judaism as a
song to be casually sung in one of its choral programs, as if it this most holy
of prayers is a mere throw-away folk song. I will go to court to stop it
if I have to. It's time for School District 21 to stop playing games
with peoples' religious beliefs.
Then there's the other song, Going
Up Yonder. The song is a Negro spiritual, which would be OK if it
merely had religious references and was non-proselytizing. However, this
song is intensely religious and proselytizing.
The lyrics refer to the Lord as being the savior. There is only one
particular Lord who is regarded as "the savior:" Jesus Christ.
The lyrics of the song, then, have the singer proclaiming, in effect:
"Jesus is Lord. When I die, which is about to happen, I will go to
heaven to be with Jesus because Jesus is the savior." That song may
be fine for church on Sunday, but it's hardly the kind of thing that School
District 21 should be asking my atheist daughter to proclaim in a program of
secular education at a public school.
There's more.
The School District engaged a guest conductor to both lead the chorus and
provide staff development instruction, which is fine. The guest conductor
is the highly regarded and nationally reknowned Emily Ellsworth of the Glen
Ellyn Children's Choir. She surely is an outstanding talent.
However, according to the web site about the GECC, her specialty seems to be
"Christian sacred choral music." That's fine for a private group
in central DuPage County, Illinois, which is one of the most Republican places
in the country, but such songs are inappropriate for a public school setting
that has a diverse constituency, particularly when one member of the chorus is a
well-known atheist.
It is the job of the School District to establish the ground rules for Miss
Ellsworth's participation in the choral program, not the other way around.
If Miss Ellsworth will only participate on a condition that we include intensely
religious Christian or Judeo-Christian sacred music, then the school district
must tell Miss Ellsworth that her requirement is not doable in a public school
setting.
We, in this country, no longer condone or tolerate sexual harassment of
women. Such harassment may still take place, but as a public policy
matter, we don't put up with it, any more. Similarly, we, in this country,
no longer condone or tolerate racial harassment of Blacks. I am doing, and
will do, whatever is takes to end publicly condoned and tolerated religious
harassment of atheists. I won't stand for it, and if it takes going to
court to stop publicly sponsored anti-atheist harassment, that's exactly what
I'll do.
School District 21 wouldn't think of including racist or sexist songs in one of
their choral programs. I won't put up with songs that harass atheists,
either. Those two songs must be removed from the program or I will go to federal
court to make it happen.
Up until this point, the School District has contended, to me, that the two
songs represent cultural diversity. That assertion, however, is
preposterous. It's reminiscent of the line from the Blues Brothers movie
in which either Jake or Elwood asked the woman who owns the bar, "What kind
of music do you play here?" The response was, "Oh, we play both
kinds: Country and Western." So much for
diversity. Now, School District 21 wants me to believe that their
selection of music constitutes cultural diversity because they have included
both kinds of music: Judeo and Christian.
No Hispanic music has been included, even though about one third of the District
students now are from that culture. No Korean, Japanese, Polish or Russian
music has been included, even though there has been substantial immigration from
those lands. No rock-and-roll or disco music has been included, even
though most parents of students at the school grew up in the '50s, '60s or '70s
and like that kind of music. There is no country and western music, even
though some residents presumably grew up in the South. There is no adult
standards (Frank Sinatra-type) music, even though the grandparents of many
students fell in love listening to that stuff. There's no Native American
music or even Arab music (do Arabs listen to music, or is that a sin to
them?). There is no opera music nor songs from American musicals. To
School District 21, musical diversity is achieved solely by including
proselytizing Judeo-Christian sacred music that either promotes belief in Jesus
or urges atheists to convert to being god-believers.
The Pioneer Press
Newspapers Buffalo Grove Countryside had a story about this dispute in last
Thursday's weekly edition. The story was entitled, Song
Raises Ire of Local Atheist. They also had an editorial supporting my
objection, entitled Singing
Wrong Tune. The School Board will be meeting on Thursday evening to
decide what to do about this matter. They must remove both songs from the
program or I will go to federal court on Friday. They also must ensure
that any songs that they select which have religious references are not bible
passages, non-proselytizing, and do not ridicule, insult or condemn atheists or
atheism.
With all this going on, there is yet another major holy war happening right now
in Buffalo Grove. Details on that other holy war will be presented in the
next Liberal News & Commentary.
Rob Sherman
P. O. Box
7410
Buffalo Grove, IL 60089-7410
A post office box is used
because
the street address uses a curb mail box,
which is not secure.
Telephone: (847) 870-0700
Fax: (847) 870-1156
E-mail: rob followed by
the at symbol followed by robsherman dot com