Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Revising Jewish History

Maybe it isn't actually history, but revising the past to fit our current zealous over chumra'd lifestyle.

To clarify: A local Bais Yakov is putting on a play (more on this in my next post) and one scene has girls from an out of town high school performing in a talent show. Okay, it's possible! But the clothes they must wear for this scene? Uniforms!

Hello- which out of town high school on which continent-certainly not North America- wore uniforms TWENTY years ago? And this gets better: the girls playing the part were told to wear white knee socks.

I graduated high school, to be vague, between 20 and 25 years ago. I wore argyle socks, patterned socks, short socks, funky colored socks. But white? Hey, even back then white knee socks were kind of nebby. White knee socks were for chassidish men.

My issue with this is that we are trying to revise history. There was nothing wrong with NOT having a uniform for a Bais Yakov school back in the 1980's.

It's like people who refer to the alter zaidy whose name was Hymie as Zaidie Chaim, when no one except for the rabbi during an Aliya called him Chaim.

You know what's a shame? The principals, teachers, and people who decide on plays and content and costumes don't usually read blogs.

Or listen to opinionated parents, either. They just label those parents as "not supporting the beliefs of the school".

My stomach roils (is that even a word?)

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