The Jews: People of The Books

The Jewish people have long been known as the people of the book and of course the holy Torah is the center piece of Judaism. But as a proud Jew, one of the greatest things about our religion is our rich past, present and future as people who love books. As an avid reader and an author one of my favorite parenting activities is reading to and with my kids.  Reading opens one’s mind in such a special way and truly does last a lifetime.

Within the Jewish community it is so special that so many charities uniquely cater to education – from Kars4Kids where donations benefit education to the Jewish Education Project.  Educational charities can literally change a life. Reading and education offer such great wisdom, it is necessary sometimes to reflect upon the beauty of reading and education.

Some great quotes on the importance of education and reading wanted to share:

•  “I will suggest that the great aim of our education is to bring out of the child who comes into our hands every faculty that he brings with him, and then to try to win that child to turn all his abilities, his powers, his capacities, to the helping and serving of the community which is a part.” Annie Besant
• “Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves.” Ernest Dimnet

• “Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.” Alfie Kohn

• “It is because modern education is so seldom inspired by a great hope that it so seldom achieves great results. The wish to preserve the past rather than the hope of creating the future dominates the minds of those who control the teaching of the young.” Bertrand Russell

• “Instruction ends in the schoolroom, but education ends only with life. A child is given to the universe to be educated.” Frederick William Robertson

• “We have entered an age in which education is not just a luxury permitting some men an advantage over others. It has become a necessity without which a person is defenseless in this complex, industrialized society. We have truly entered the century of the educated man.” Lyndon B. Johnson
• “Intellectual growth should commence at birth and cease only at death.” Albert Einstein
• “No one has yet fully realized the wealth of sympathy, kindness and generosity hidden in the soul of a child. The effort of every true education should be to unlock that treasure.” Emma Goldman
• “If we were forced to choose just one, there would be no way to deny that Judaism is the most important intellectual development in human history.” David Gelernter
• “It must be remembered that the purpose of education is not to fill the minds of students with facts… it is to teach them to think, if that is possible, and always to think for themselves.” Robert Maynard Hutchins
• “Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.” John Locke

There are so many great things about Judaism – books and the encouraging of education is certainly amongst them.