Thursday, June 16, 2005

Kosher Prom Dates?

Well, most of you already know about My Secret Yeshiva Prom. (Which, I guess, means it ain't a secret no more.) But although the event itself was a little underground, I'm pretty sure that everyone's date was Jewish. But according to this article in the Jewish Week, a Westchester area Solomon Schechter school (Conservative) announced that students would only be allowed to bring dates who were Jewish:
While the school saw the directive as a way to stave off interfaith dating, Bertrand [a student whose father was Catholic when her parents married] and other students at the Hartsdale school said it encouraged creating a “self-imposed ghetto” that could generate resentment and even stoke the flames of anti-Semitism. “It was intended to promote Jewish continuity, but instead it insults non-Jews, it insults Solomon Schechter students, and it doesn’t reflect well on the school,” Bertrand said of the Jewish-only prom policy, which remains in place today. Worse, she said, the decree might inadvertently prove racist. “Most people can pass as Jewish,” said Bertrand, now 18, noting that school officials would be hard pressed to determine at the door who was Jewish. “If the school was going to investigate students they suspected brought non-Jewish dates, the only red flag would be if someone was another race.”
And I was worried about bringing someone Conservative to my underground yeshiva prom...

2 comments:

Lyss said...

I brought a non-Jew. I give credit to my religious friends for treating him well and not making him feel ostracized.

(Of course my prom also involved me being held hostage by a friend's prom date who felt she needed to discuss their 'relationship').

Anonymous said...

I think that it is smart for the Jews to prohibit race-mixing with prom dates. The only problem that I have with the Jews on this issue is their evident belief that ONLY they are entitled to keep their bloodlines pure. Such hypocrisy.