{"id":38,"date":"2026-04-16T18:50:48","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:50:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/?p=38"},"modified":"2026-04-16T18:50:48","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T18:50:48","slug":"sephardi-representation-in-jewish-day-schools","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/sephardi-representation-in-jewish-day-schools\/","title":{"rendered":"Sephardi Representation in Jewish Day Schools"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Jimmy Bitton<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

One<\/span>\u00a0erev shabbat<\/em>\u00a0while I was reciting\u00a0<\/span>kiddush<\/em>, my then five-year-old son made the following untimely proclamation: \u201cAbba,\u201d he pointed out, \u201cyou should say\u00a0<\/span>kiddush<\/em>\u00a0the normal way.\u201d<\/span>

Throughout the rest of the Moroccan-style recitation, which I had been performing in his presence since his birth, I tried to imagine what influenced my son\u2019s conception of normal vis-a-vis this Jewish ritual. Wanting to nurture critical thinking, I challenged him to a question: \u201cWho decides what is normal?\u201d\u00a0My son gave me a long and blank stare and then responded with great conviction, \u201cMy [Jewish day] school.\u201dJewish day schools have the difficult task of being agents of Jewish cultural and religious reproduction that serve a community whose majority is, according to common anecdotal knowledge, Ashkenazi, and whose minority is not. The majority\u2013minority dichotomy exists in most Jewish day schools, which simply are not monocultural environments. Instead, they are places with a vast array of Jewish ethnic, linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Today, most Jewish day school caters to students whose parents or grandparents came to North America not only from Europe, but also from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. The former group is commonly classified as Ashkenazi, while the latter is often lumped together in a single overarching category called Sephardi.The demographic composition of the Jewish community in North America has undergone extensive changes in the last half-century. Jewish immigration to North America by non-Ashkenazi families has changed the Ashkenazi demographic of many Jewish day schools. How each Jewish day school responds to the challenges and opportunities presented by an increasingly diverse student population will play into its overall success and the unity of the respective Jewish community.\u00a0It seems that in an admirable effort to homogenize the students of diverse backgrounds and to create a monolithic school ethos, Jewish day schools have adopted a model in which the majority (Ashkenazi) culture is predominant. In many schools, this means that prayer melodies, prayer books, ritual practices such as the laying of\u00a0tfillin<\/em>, verbalizations and pronunciation of Hebrew letters all lean toward Ashkenazi models. This model places \u201cminority students\u201d in a kind of contra-culture learning environment where their particular Jewish heritage is being devalued, and even substituted for someone else\u2019s, at the very place where they should expect it would be validated.\u00a0When the \u201cminority experience\u201d is not given the attention it deserves at school, \u201cminority students\u201d are likely to exhibit identity confusion such as withdrawal, and even negative behaviour. In this atmosphere, \u201cminority students\u201d may reject their culture of origin and, in some cases, come to reject the \u201cmajority culture.\u201d Devaluation of one\u2019s history and culture would also be expected to have negative effects on the general well-being of \u201cminority students.\u201d Also, the marginalization of \u201cminority students\u201d at the curricular level would likely negatively impact the informal relations between students.\u00a0Not only is cultural marginalization a \u201cminority\u201d problem, it is a \u201cmajority\u201d problem as well. There is a risk that Ashkenazi students may come to uphold one perspective and experience as a universally Jewish norm against which others look not normal. This outlook makes it difficult to cultivate mutual understanding, tolerance, empathy and respect for differences. In addition, to overlook the heritage of non-Ashkenazi Jews is to not give Ashkenazi students a well-rounded Jewish education.\u00a0Each Jewish day school must ultimately determine how to create religious and cultural opportunities of expression for all its students. It is important that in doing so, non-Ashkenazi culture not be idealized and romanticized as being exotic, trendy and mysterious. Stereotyped representations such as belly dancing, spicy foods and elaborate clothing only exoticizes \u201cminority cultures\u201d and further perpetuates the notion of otherness.\u00a0In addition, it is important to avoid lumping together all non-Ashkenazi heritages into one imagined homogeneous \u201cSephardi community.\u201d To think of all non-Ashkenazi Jews as being the same is as inaccurate as it is culturally insensitive. In one of several cases of cultural insensitivity, a Jewish day school showcased Sephardi culture with the Spanish hit\u00a0Macarena<\/i>, a song with no Jewish connection whatsoever. One can imagine the justifiable disappointment if an Ontario public school tried to showcase Japanese culture by serving dim sum, a distinctly Cantonese cuisine.The aim of each school should be to present \u201cminority culture\u201d as part and parcel of the overall Jewish experience. In order to understand the cultural heritages of fellow Jews, it is essential to understand their complex interconnection with history. Jewish culture is born out of a broad historical and intellectual context. Students should come to appreciate the context that helped to cultivate the distinct cultures that today make the Jewish community so rich and diverse. A more culturally inclusive Jewish day school will help lay the groundwork for greater understanding and respect within our community.<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Jimmy Bitton One\u00a0erev shabbat\u00a0while I was reciting\u00a0kiddush, my then five-year-old son made the following untimely proclamation: \u201cAbba,\u201d he pointed out, \u201cyou should say\u00a0kiddush\u00a0the normal way.\u201d Throughout the rest of the Moroccan-style recitation, which I had been performing in his presence since his birth, I tried to imagine what influenced my son\u2019s conception of normal […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimmybitton.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}