משרד החינוך האמריקאי

00:00 This is Igris, and in the coming weeks leading up to Gimmel Tammuz, we're going to be looking at letters and sichas that discuss some of the Rebbe's takanos or top priorities that we either haven't covered in the past or that we've touched on and that some people don't know about, rather than going through our normal seder of Sefer HaIgris. Uh, I think most of us know about the Rebbe's push for prayer in public schools. This was later transformed into the more attainable goal, uh, of moment of silence. Incredibly, I looked this up just before this year, thirty-four states currently allow a moment of silence, and some of them mandate a moment of silence. This has been incredibly successful. This is part of the Rebbe's goal of turning public schools into more moral places and part of the Rebbe's overall philosophy expressed in countless letters and sichas that public education done right will create a more moral world and usher us into a geulah that he calls Lo Yisa Goy Goy Cherev, where one nation's not gonna raise a hand, a sword against the other nation. So I think most of us also know how adamantly the Rebbe opposed Jewish students going to public school and indeed secular public school syre-- style education creeping into Jewish schools. These are things we all know about. We know about moment of silence in public schools and getting the Jewish kids out of the public schools, and that's not what we're going to talk about today, although it might

01:03 be what we talk about next time or in a future shiur. Today, we're going to look at something that people don't know so much about, which is the Rebbe's interest in strengthening federal support, funneling more taxpayer dollars toward public schools specifically. That is that the government should get involved in public schools, and that public schools should be funded, uh, better than they are now, that the, the money should be diverted toward them. Uh, we'll look at letters and sichas demonstrating the Rebbe's shita again and again is that the government should be spending more money on public schools, raising teacher salaries, the Rebbe says explicitly in one letter, emphasizing education and exporting that emphasis in education to the rest of the world. Along the way, we'll see that the Rebbe constantly reminds the US that it also needs to do more to make sure that the school-- uh, that the public schools are places that teach morality and fear of Hashem. But we'll also see that even a deeply flawed system that did not have any of this in place yet still totally had the Rebbe's support, and the Rebbe wanted more money put toward it. Uh, note as we read that the Rebbe's advocating for money and time and federal priorities to be directed towards public schools that do not fit the bill of what the Rebbe believes a public school should be. So with that long introduction, and without further ado, I wanna show you a letter, and this letter is typewritten, and I

02:08 wish I could have found it in something that looks prettier than this 'cause it's really difficult to read, but, uh, I couldn't find it anywhere else. This is a letter-- this is the original copy of the letter-- copy of the original letter that the Rebbe sent to President Jimmy Carter. Now, he sent this letter to President Carter, uh, right after Yud Shevat of Tav Shin Lamed Tes, and this was, was right after the Rebbe gave a, uh, very famous sicha on the subject of what education should look like in the world at large. Uh, he'd given that on Yud Shevat. The run-up to this also unfortunately requires a bit of an introduction. I know you guys love my introductions. So another introduction in order to make this letter make any degree of sense. But you have the letter on your screen, so you can already start reading it if you don't wanna hear my introduction. And, uh, the intro to this letter is that I, I didn't know this. I, I, I, I was born in the '80s, and to me, the world started in the '80s, but apparently, education in the United States was essentially a state and local government issue until nineteen seventy-eight. I didn't know that. In nineteen seventy-eight, it was consolidated under the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, uh, which meant that the Department of Education basically didn't exist. There was no federal interest in ed- in education, and once in nineteen seventy-eight, they decided to take

03:11 federal interest in education, the United States government decided to give it the lowest priority possible and shoehorn it in along with the Department of Health and Welfare. Uh, when that happened, that meant that, uh, education was going to get no funding, was going to be entirely deprioritized. If you're in charge of the health of a country and the welfare of a country, uh, you're gonna focus on that and not the education of a country. So people started saying that maybe they should make the-- they should make a Department of Education. Up until then, the DOE had not existed. There was no Department of Education, uh, but there was a lot of pushback, and every time a bill was raised in Congress for a Department of Education, it was struck down. Uh, the reasons why at the time were that there were a bunch of small government advocates, which is a really nice way of saying conservatives, who argued that it would, uh, add to the bloat of the federal government in general. You know, you don't want a bigger government. Add a Department of Education. Now, the feds are in charge of that too. Religious groups, including Jewish religious groups, were afraid the private schools would lose funding to public schools, so they really pushed back against this and said, "We don't want a Department of Education because the private schools, the Jewish day schools, will have trouble being funded." And finally, uh, states' rights proponents were afraid that the federal government was overreaching into

04:11 education. But then in nineteen seventy-nine, President Carter, right before Yud Shevat, gave his State of the Union Address. And in the State of the Union Address, he talked about the importance of opening a Department of Education, threw his support behind it, and put it on the agenda for the coming year. Uh, so in response to this, the Rebbe had a farbrengen, which we're gonna look at at length in a moment, but the Rebbe also sent a letter to President Carter and several other letters. Uh, long story short, the Rebbe was an enormous fan of this idea. Uh, the Rebbe wants a Department of Education. The Rebbe was not swayed by the idea that it would take money away from the private schools, and, uh, the Rebbe wanted an emphasis on education at the federal level. So let's take a look at this letter that the Rebbe wrote to Jimmy Carter. This was, again, twelve Shevat of Tav Shin Lamed Tes. It's on your screen. Can I make it any bigger? It's so hard to read. By the way, nothing today is easy to read. This letter is hard to read, and the sicha I have is from one of the years they haven't rewritten yet, so it's all in, like, typewritten Yiddish. But we'll, we'll, we'll squint together. "Greeting and blessings." This letter was originally written in English. "In light of your gracious letter of September eighteenth, nineteen seventy-eight, with reference to the resolution passed by Congress designating April eighteenth as Education Day USA, which

05:14 you signed into law, it will come as no surprise to you, Mr. President, that your proposal to establish a cabinet-level Department of Education has received my fullest endorsement and acclaim." So those are the Rebbe's words. I'm now commenting. I have to say that when we're reading in English, you won't know when I stop-- when the Rebbe stops and I start. But, uh, the Rebbe here is saying, "You passed Education Day USA in honor of my birthday. You, you know that I care about education, so it's not gonna surprise you to discover that when you started talking about making a Department of Education at the federal level, that I'm on your side." The Rebbe's "fullest endorsement and acclaim for the Department of Education." This was one-- um, the Rebbe's, um, the Rebbe's words begin now. "This was one of the main topics of my public address on the occasion of the annual observance of the Yahrzeit of my saintly predecessor on the tenth of Shevat." My words are that we're about to see this inside. We're gonna look at the sicha. The Rebbe made this a big deal in his sicha, and right after the sicha, right after that farbrengen, sat down to write a letter to President Carter essentially summarizing the things he said in the farbrengen. "At the same time, I expressed my ardent hope that not only will the proposal be expeditiously acted by Congress-- acted upon by Congress, but the governments of other nations will emulate your example. For although some countries

06:14 already have a separate Department of Education, there are those that have not, and all those where education has still be placed as top na-- and all those where education has still be placed as a top national priority." So the Rebbe says here in this paragraph that I'm hoping this will be an American thing, and I'm also hoping that this will spread around. America influences the entire world, as the Rebbe says in the sicha, which I hope we'll see because I hope I'll be able to find that line for you. Uh, the Rebbe describes America as the breadbasket of the entire world and therefore says the entire world has to listen to us because we feed them, so if we make education a priority, they'll make education a priority and stop killing each other. So the Rebbe says, "I want this to happen in America, and I want this to happen around the world." The Rebbe continues, "I am, of course, referring to education in a broader and deeper sense, not merely as a process of imparting knowledge and training for better living, but for a better life with due emphasis on character building and moral and ethical values." The Rebbe, every time he talks about public education, supports it first of all, and then after supporting it says, "I'd like to see it done better." Specifically done better means that it should have ethics and morals in it. And the Rebbe is much more explicit in his sichas and in his letters, not to presidents,

07:13 to Jews, saying that we need to make sure that, uh, that, that fear of God is in the public schools. Uh, the Rebbe initially wanted prayer in public schools, wanted God in public schools, and it seems that when we weren't able to win that one, we switched to a moment of silence as a hope that that would become a moment of prayer anyway. But the idea is that without yiras Shamayim, you end up with people killing each other anyway. Nonetheless, the Rebbe seems to support these public schools even before they have these changes. Indeed, the US government and you, Mr. President, personally, are in, are in, are in a unique position of influence among the nations of the world, particularly those benefiting from US economic, cultural, and other forms of aid, to encourage them to follow your example and to share your conviction, and he quotes, he quotes Carter's address, your, quote, "conviction that the noblest task of government is education," to quote your statement in the State of the Union in two twenty-eight seventy-eight, a conviction which has been translated into bold, comprehensive action. So the Rebbe quotes Carter back to him, evidencing that he either got a transcript or listened to the State of the Union, 'cause he quotes the State of the Union, and apparently Carter had said that the noblest task of government is education, and the Rebbe says, "Great. I think that, uh, you should be not only acting on that in America, but also using the bully pulpit of

08:14 America to force other nations that want your aid to take that approach as well." The Rebbe concludes, "I'm confident that the response will be positive, and I venture to say that it would leave-- that it would have a favorable feedback impact on those in this country who, for one reason or another, are not yet enthusiastic about Congress's legislation on the submitted project." The Rebbe says, "If you start exporting this to the world, I think you'll be able to bring Congress onto your side, because as I told you already, the conservatives in Congress were not in favor of this Department of Education." Uh, I do want to inter-- I, I like to inject my own, my own positions into things occasionally. Let me remind you that, uh, there is a misconception that for some reason, frumkeit has a political party that it affiliates with, and for some reason, people have decided that that one is usually the Republican Party. Uh, I don't know whether it is more and more or not-- more often or not. You'd have to lay the two sides side by side to figure it out, but I will tell you this. On this particular issue, the Rebbe came down firmly on the Democrat side. So there is not a political party that Chabad associates with- Traditionally, traditionally, traditionally, Jews are much more on the Democrat side than they are on the Republican side. It's only the last few years that it switched a little bit. The most important thing to note, though,

09:14 is that the Rebbe doesn't pick a side at all. The Rebbe defends issues that make sense, and in this case, what the Rebbe's writing here is in support of the Democrats and against every Republican in Congress. So, uh, this is not this, uh, Chabad has to side with the Republican agenda that I don't know how this got into people's heads. But, uh, we don't have agendas. We have truth. And in this case, the conservatives were wrong, so the Rebbe sided with the liberals. Said, "I want a Department of Education. I don't care about bigger government." As a matter of fact, the Rebbe wanted a bigger federal government regarding education specifically. Okay. So we see-- we saw this letter, and this letter keeps on hinting at the fact that the Rebbe had talked about this at considerable length in a sicha. The sicha is, as advertised, one of the ugly typewritten sichas that Teres Menachem is still in the process of redoing and making pretty. So we will stare at this together. It's not as bad as some of the other ones, but it is here. Here we go. So let me bring this up on the screen. This sicha's from 5739 of Tav Shin Lamed Ches. Here, the Rebbe speaks at length about this State of the Union address that President Carter had given in his support for a Department of Education. So up here, the Rebbe says that there is a custom in America that at the beginning of every year, when they, when

10:15 they start counting their year, the way the Goyim count their year by the sun, the president res-- the president puts out a general letter, or he puts out a general hora'ah, and he tells the entire country what's going to be his, uh, his setup for the year, what his, uh, what, what his plans are for the year. And among his words this time, when he was putting out his president-- his, uh, his message for the year, he said that one of the most important things was going to be the Traditionally Jews are much more on the Democrat side than they are on the Republican side. It's only the last few years that it switched a little bit. And the Rebbe here continues in this section here to say that, uh, things haven't changed for two hundred years. For two hundred years in America, uh, they've been doing things a certain way, and they've now decided that education is so important that it's worth changing two hundred years of precedent and worth spending a lot of money and worth rearranging the government just to make sure that education becomes a priority. And this is something that the Rebbe says on this page all over the place that he considers an enormous priority as well, and that, uh, uh, he began, says, He understands that it's going to cost extra money and nonetheless thinks that it's a very good idea So we have the Rebbe backing up this idea, saying that, uh, saying that, uh, be-because of

13:13 the great importance of education, we need to make sure that it's worthwhile and we need to, uh, emphasize that it's worthwhile to make this sort of change. Something that we have all the way down here, I was going to find-- let me see if I can find it. That . Everybody needs the people who are the masters of the wheat. Everybody needs somebody who can support them financially. And since every one of the other countries in the world, uh, since , Hashem decided that America was going to be the one who can provide food for the entire world, and everybody else relies on for their food, therefore, America is in a very unique position to, um, to force its values on everybody else. And since it's going to force its values on everybody else, the Rebbe says, "Instead of forcing your social values or instead of forcing your, uh, your weapons on everybody else, perhaps force your educational system on everybody else." And in this, uh, sent-- in this page over here, talks at length about how important it is for America to not just make their education system better, but to push that education system on the entire world. So we see this in the Sikha, and, uh, I think our Internet's holding out, so I wanna show you at least one more thing before we're done for today. I think we're gonna have to continue a lot of this tomorrow. I have a lot more to show you, but, uh, that's the, that,

14:14 that's, that's the Sikha. Let's take a look at this letter. So the Rebbe in the Sikha talks a lot about how much he supports the Department of Education forming. He writes a letter to Carter saying that he supports it. The Rebbe also went around sending letters to other people, uh, in government telling them that they should back the idea of the Fe- of the Federal Department of Education. And I wanna show you this letter. This letter was written in English by the Rebbe, and it gives-- the Rebbe lays out five reasons why he thinks it's important to have a Federal Department of Education. And if you're interested in this topic, then you, then you'll understand immediately that these are not five reasons why the Rebbe wants a Federal Department of Education, but five reasons why the Rebbe values public education for non-Jews. And so we're gonna read it inside. The Rebbe says, "I'm certain you will agree that the state of education in this country..." By the way, I asked, uh, people below the line here on chabad.org, asked who the Rebbe sent this letter to, where you can find the source. I looked around. Chabad.org seems to have the only version of this letter that exists that I can find. Um, I don't know where they got it from, but they say it was sent around to a lot of people in nineteen seventy-nine. It's not published anywhere else as far as I know. So it's on chabad.org. "I'm certain that you will agree

15:14 that the state of education in this country, as in many others, leaves much to be desired, that the status quo, as reflected in juvenile delinquency, et cetera, is far from satisfactory, and what is worse, has been steadily eroding, and that some determined nationwide effort is called for to upgrade the quality of public education in this resourceful country." So the Rebbe is saying that we can agree that the youth are messed up. We need a better educational system. Uh, the Rebbe says it better than me. "I trust you will agree that such an enormous effort, which is surely in the highest national interest, can come only from the federal government with the fullest cooperation of state, county and city." The Rebbe likes the federal government. The Rebbe says something that is that important to the country can't be run at the state, county or city level. "In my view, a separate, adequately funded, cabinet-level Department of Education, subject to legislative standard safeguards to ensure the traditional primacy of states and localities in education affairs, would not to be jeopardized-- could-- that, that those would not be jeopardized, could, could well meet the challenge." Wow, I should learn to read in English. In any event, the Rebbe says that, uh, uh, if we do put this in place, a cabinet-level Department of Education, and we make sure that states' rights are protected, I think that could help make people stop killing each other and children stop being juvenile delinquents. And the Rebbe now says, "The main reasons

16:19 why I support the proposal are as follows. Reason number one, the creation of a distinct cabinet-level Department of Education would have a salutary impact on all who are involved in education, particularly parents, teachers, and students. The very innovation of upgrading the status of education from that of an adjunct to or division of another national agency would poignantly underscore its proper place among the nation's highest priorities." So point number one from the Rebbe, if you make a federal Department of Education, you are sending a message to parents, teachers, and students that this matters as much as health and, uh, as health, and it matters as much as, as much as transportation and anything else that has a cabinet-level department. So you're making education a priority just by putting it at the forefront of the federal, uh, interests. "Reason number two, the workshops of child education are the school and home." Children are educated in the school and at home. "For various reasons, which need not be discussed here, contemporary parents in this country, as in many others, have virtually abdicated their educational responsibility, leaving the school and the street as the primary, almost exclusive factors in the child's education. Insofar as the street is concerned, there's very little that can be done as things now stand. More can be done and needs to be done to get parents more involved in the education of their children. But in the final analysis, it is the public school where the greatest improvement can and must be achieved." So

17:27 point number two from the Rebbe, parents aren't doing their jobs of educating their kids, which means kids are being ed-- are, are being educated by the street and the school. The street is doing a horrible job and we can't fix it. But the public schools, by making them, by making them better, we could fix that. We could help educate the children who aren't getting it at home through the public schools. "Point number three, among the factors that lie at the root of the shortcomings of public, of public education, two, in my opinion, command primary attention." So the Rebbe says, "I think there's two big problems with public school. One, one has to do with the general curriculum, which should have-- which should place much greater emphasis on character building and moral and ethical values." So the first point is that they, they aren't teaching about God, they aren't teaching about morality, they aren't teaching about ethics, and that one the Rebbe is not going to address in this letter. "The other has to do with the quality of teaching by qualified, dedicated, motivated teachers." But there's a second problem, says the Rebbe. It's not just that the schools are not moral, it's also that the schools have rotten teachers. "And the latter point requires the upgrading of teachers' salaries on par with comparable professions in fields of science and relieving them as far as possible of other frustrations and stresses." So the Rebbe says, "I want teachers to be paid as much as scientists are

18:27 paid, and if you start ta-- paying teachers as much as you pay professionals in those fields, the best, the best of the best will end up going into teaching, and then you're going to get better teachers." "Point number four, the upgrading of the nation's educational system will of course require considerable federal spending." The Rebbe says, "I know this is gonna cost money, but this is one area where spending has built-in returns." You get money for spending money in this case. "Not only in the long term, but also in almost immediate gains in terms of diminishing expenditures in the penal system, crime prevention, reduction in vandalism, drug abuse, et cetera. In the longer term, it will also bring savings in expenditure on health and welfare, and one may venture to say, even in the defense budget, since a morally healthy, strong and united nation is in itself a strong deterrent against any enemy." Point number four, the Rebbe says, "This is gonna cost money." And you know when the Rebbe says this is gonna cost money, he means this is gonna cost money for everybody. It's not just, you know-- It's silly to say that moving around federal funds only affects the federal government. That means taxpayer dollars. So the Rebbe is saying in this letter, federal spending is going to need to go toward education, and taxpayer dollars are gonna need to go toward education. But here, for once, spending money actually gives you enormous returns. You end up getting returns in the penal system,

19:29 crime prevention, vandalism, drug abuse. The Rebbe says even the defense budget, you get savings everywhere when you end up investing your money into public education. Number five, the creation of a separate cabinet-level Department of Education, as I understand it, has not been-- has been conceived not for the purpose of merely improving administrative efficiency, nor merely as coordinator of existing programs or for similar technical reasons. The main purpose is to breathe new life into the whole educational system of this nation and to involve the whole nation through its federal government in this massive and concerted effort. As such, I am convinced it deserves everybody's support. So you couldn't get stronger words of support from the Rebbe before the Federal Department of Education. But if you know how to read between the lines, we're getting a lot of other things out of this. Uh, in number one, we're getting the idea that every time we emphasize as a country-- the United States emphasizes as a country the importance of education and puts it on a pedestal, everybody gets lifted up. That's really what you get from point one. From point two, we get that even though public schools need to do a better job at teaching morality, they are, for many children, the only place that they are taught morality 'cause they're not getting it at home, and they're not getting it in the street. So we need to do something to make these places more moral because the public school is the only place they're gonna

20:30 get it. Uh, in point number three, you have the Rebbe saying that he wants teachers' salaries to be higher, that it is important that public schools pay their teachers better because the better the public school's, uh, teachers are paid, the more qualified teachers you will get. And as the Rebbe says in point two, a lot of these kids, they don't have any other access to any role models. If you want good role models to be in these public schools, you gotta pay them better. Uh, point number four, the Rebbe saying that I understand this is going to cost money, and you know what? Spend money on it because it's going to save you money when it comes to vandalism, drug abuse, crime prevention, penal system, and, uh, even the defense budget. And finally, the Rebbe says, "I'd like to see the whole country working on education together." I wanna just conclude by telling you, uh, something very funny that I read in a Der Her article. Let me see if I can find the quote here. I wanna find the quote. Uh, this is a great one. Let me see. And then we're going to be finished, and maybe we'll have a bit of a discussion, maybe a spirited discussion. Uh, where is this? Ah. Many years later-- There's a quote from the Der Her article that, uh, that was on the subject of the Rebbe's interest in public education and specifically in prayer in public schools, uh, side moment of silence. But there, apparently

21:29 Secretary of Education, Richard Riley, I don't know what year he was the Secretary of Education, but somebody asked him about the Rebbe's support for creating the department, and he said, quote, "I owe my job to him." So the department-- the Secretary of the Department of Education ultimately commented that he owed his job to the Rebbe, who spent a lot of time pushing, writing letters, really pushing the idea that a, that a moral and smart America begins with a strong federal emphasis on better public schools. Uh, what I hope to do in the coming days, actually, is to continue this topic. We haven't really gotten into moment of silence or how the Rebbe wants to improve public schools, so that's for next time. But for now, thanks very much. Comments, questions?