Are We Haimish?

Many people in the Kadima community often refer to our school as being haimish which means generally cozy or unpretentious. These are good values; the last thing we need is more pomposity and pretentiousness in our school community. I think it is wonderful that we can view our school as haimish and not elitist.

However, we have to be careful. In our zeal to be unpretentious and non-elitist, we have to be careful not to risk lowering our goals and accepting less than true excellence in our practices. For these reasons, Jewish communal professionals often cringe when they hear an organization defined as "haimish." They recognize that an organization might describe itself as "haimish" and thus not strive for excellence since "good enough" is fine; after all, the organization is haimish.

Kadima's leadership has had discussions about this in the past. We certainly want Kadima to be haimish; a place that is comfortable, accessible, warm, and communal. We think that it is, and we don't want to change it. But we also will not use, and never have used, the idea that we are haimish as an excuse for accepting mediocrity at our school. We remain committed, in all of our practices, to high standards and excellence. And to being haimish, too.