Still in previews - The Jewish Standard

The continuing upheaval in Egypt is beginning to look at lot like the saga of “Spiderman: Turn Off the Dark”: It’s dangerous, but also, to a certain extent, thrilling, in a not merely ghoulish way.

We all know that Hosni Mubarak, like Yugoslavia’s Josip Broz Tito, is a despot. He, like Tito, suppressed dissent. And he, like Tito, kept a kind of peace. Yugoslavia splintered after Tito’s death, and its peace was shattered as well.

Many observers fear that if/when Mubarak falls – like Spiderman, he is dangling by a thread – Israel’s “cold peace” with Egypt, and perhaps with Jordan, will break into bits.

But this drama is still in previews, and its end cannot be predicted with any degree of certainty. It is undeniably moving to see the Egyptian people, like the Iranian people in 2009, massing for democracy. Both the United States and Israel have long proclaimed its virtues. We pray that, if the curtain falls on the Mubarak regime, the peace will hold.

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The Hebrew-language charter school – planned for Englewood/Teaneck – is a divisive issue, a local rabbi told us on Tuesday, declining to comment about it. But not to strain a metaphor, the school, like the Spiderman musical, is still in previews. Much is imagined about how it will affect our local Jewish day schools, but little is known about how the school will function.

A meeting about the school was held Monday night at Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, where parents of prospective students could get answers to their questions and concerns.

One of our concerns is that the proponents of the school may be moving a bit too fast. Its website, www.shalomacademycharterschool.org, announced that “[r]egistration is now open until 5:00 pm February 13, 2011,” that’s Sunday, and “[t]he first lottery [for 160 spots] will be held February 14, 2011.” That’s not even a month since it was approved.

The community needs more time to explore its pros and cons. There are undoubtedly both.

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