martillo@mit-athena.ARPA (Joaquim Martillo) (10/09/84)
I corresponded with Fitzsimmons back when she was pretending to be a non-Jew who wished to attend an Hagadah (Seder). I have the impression a large part of her Judaism is proving to non-Jews that Jews and non-Jews have no real differences in culture or in outlook. I am unsurprised that her daughter comes home singing Christian songs. As for not sending Jews to Jewish school (and I mean real ones not the Soloman Schechter or other Westernizing types), money is a consideration but not a big one since the really Jewish schools grant scholarships. As for the arguement about learning to live with other peoples, this is specious. A young child has to learn how to be Jewish first. A person secure in his identity can probably deal with others more competently. People like Fitzsimmons do not send their children to Jewish schools because as the children learn more about Yahadut (yiddishkeit, Giudezmo) the children will make the parents' ignorance painfully clear, the children will demand that their parents act like Jews and consequently the assimilation of the parents will be disturbed. Not surprisingly my correspondence with Fitzsimmons was not incredibly friendly but it is hard to argue sub rosa. If she has the correspondence, she may post it to the net.