Blessed Sacrament for Jewish family?

[Anonymous]

You can always try Maret!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All of you all who are responding about poor immigrate who go to catholic and are fine don’t understand blessed sacrament. It’s a whole differnt animal and I would not send. A Jewish child there.

Those comments were about Catholic education in general. The specific comments about BS agree with you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely not

NP. Care to elaborate?

BS is a very old, established Catholic parish in CC/DC. Many of the families have gone there for generations. They are Catholic and want to be with their own. They will send their kids to Catholic high school. You are Jewish. They will be nice to you, but you will never fit in.

Maybe it's different because I'm a 2nd gen immigrant, but "not fitting in" doesn't necessarily rule out any schools for me. We did rule out several really rich, cutthroat, competitive privates. But having been in and out of several different public and parochial schools over the years, we have found that we don't really fit in anyway as a mixed race, educationally conservative, politically moderate, wealthy family that doesn't buy name brands. We are never going to be the majority. We ended up choosing Catholic schools because we are Christian (but not Catholic), but the Christian schools were too conservative for us, and because of the low ed and behavior standards at our nearby publics. It is what it is.

That’s great for you but OP specifically said they are interested in a “a welcoming community, where our kids and we can make friends.” Q is whether BS is that place.

[Anonymous]

Try an Episcopal school instead. Catholic schools are ok for HS, but not prior to that for a non observant student.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi — Thoughts on Blessed Sacrament for our kids?

We’re a liberal Jewish family (but not very religious) in the neighborhood.

Our neighbors seem to like BS, and we like that it’s nearby, affordable, and smaller than public but not too small.

We are looking for a school that will provide a good education, in a welcoming community, where our kids and we can make friends.

look at Milton. It has a liberal parent body (many are not religious) and offers sicnifigant financial aid to many families. It sounds like you and your family would fit in well there. Good education, welcoming community (many in Chevy chase), not super far away, will be a place for you and your kids to make friends for sure. It is also pretty diverse.

Interesting. I just looked at the websites for both schools. In addition to tuition at BS being only 1/3 that of Milton, it says on page one of BS’s website:


“As Catholics, we invite students and families of all faiths and beliefs to enrich our learning environment and school community.”

Contrast that with Milton:

“Students attending MILTON belong to Secular, Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, and inter-faith families. All streams of Judaism and perspectives are celebrated and respected.”

Quite a difference when it comes to acceptance, eh? Yet everybody is jumping all over the Catholic school . . .

[Anonymous]

As a Jewish person in DC this is *insane* to me. If you do in fact live in the neighborhood, you have potentially Janney, Hearst, Mann or Murch as your inbound schools for elementary. You (and your kid) will feel like a complete outsider. Sure it's cheap (like 1/4 of the price of any other private) but just go to your free, excellent neighborhood school!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All of you all who are responding about poor immigrate who go to catholic and are fine don’t understand blessed sacrament. It’s a whole differnt animal and I would not send. A Jewish child there.

Those comments were about Catholic education in general. The specific comments about BS agree with you.

OP’s question was about Bs. Why even go off topic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a Jewish person in DC this is *insane* to me. If you do in fact live in the neighborhood, you have potentially Janney, Hearst, Mann or Murch as your inbound schools for elementary. You (and your kid) will feel like a complete outsider. Sure it's cheap (like 1/4 of the price of any other private) but just go to your free, excellent neighborhood school!

I take it your kid went to Blessed Sacrament? I mean, how would you be in any position to know this otherwise?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi — Thoughts on Blessed Sacrament for our kids?

We’re a liberal Jewish family (but not very religious) in the neighborhood.

Our neighbors seem to like BS, and we like that it’s nearby, affordable, and smaller than public but not too small.

We are looking for a school that will provide a good education, in a welcoming community, where our kids and we can make friends.

look at Milton. It has a liberal parent body (many are not religious) and offers sicnifigant financial aid to many families. It sounds like you and your family would fit in well there. Good education, welcoming community (many in Chevy chase), not super far away, will be a place for you and your kids to make friends for sure. It is also pretty diverse.

Interesting. I just looked at the websites for both schools. In addition to tuition at BS being only 1/3 that of Milton, it says on page one of BS’s website:


“As Catholics, we invite students and families of all faiths and beliefs to enrich our learning environment and school community.”

Contrast that with Milton:

“Students attending MILTON belong to Secular, Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, and inter-faith families. All streams of Judaism and perspectives are celebrated and respected.”

Quite a difference when it comes to acceptance, eh? Yet everybody is jumping all over the Catholic school . . .

It’s not that Milton doesn’t accept non-Jewish families. They are telling you what the student body consists of, and given that much of the day is spent learning Hebrew and Judaic studies, it’s not at all surprising that it’s not somewhere that most non-Jewish families choose. And they are explaining that they are a pluralist Jewish school, which is in contrast to some Jewish schools that are Orthodox or Conservative - again, not that non Orthodox or Conservative families couldn’t go but they are explaining what the prayer and teaching philosophy will look like. There are a handful of non-Jewish families at Milton that I know of, but of course there aren’t many.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi — Thoughts on Blessed Sacrament for our kids?

We’re a liberal Jewish family (but not very religious) in the neighborhood.

Our neighbors seem to like BS, and we like that it’s nearby, affordable, and smaller than public but not too small.

We are looking for a school that will provide a good education, in a welcoming community, where our kids and we can make friends.

look at Milton. It has a liberal parent body (many are not religious) and offers sicnifigant financial aid to many families. It sounds like you and your family would fit in well there. Good education, welcoming community (many in Chevy chase), not super far away, will be a place for you and your kids to make friends for sure. It is also pretty diverse.

Interesting. I just looked at the websites for both schools. In addition to tuition at BS being only 1/3 that of Milton, it says on page one of BS’s website:


“As Catholics, we invite students and families of all faiths and beliefs to enrich our learning environment and school community.”

Contrast that with Milton:

“Students attending MILTON belong to Secular, Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, and inter-faith families. All streams of Judaism and perspectives are celebrated and respected.”

Quite a difference when it comes to acceptance, eh? Yet everybody is jumping all over the Catholic school . . .

It’s not that Milton doesn’t accept non-Jewish families. They are telling you what the student body consists of, and given that much of the day is spent learning Hebrew and Judaic studies, it’s not at all surprising that it’s not somewhere that most non-Jewish families choose. And they are explaining that they are a pluralist Jewish school, which is in contrast to some Jewish schools that are Orthodox or Conservative - again, not that non Orthodox or Conservative families couldn’t go but they are explaining what the prayer and teaching philosophy will look like. There are a handful of non-Jewish families at Milton that I know of, but of course there aren’t many.

Sure but they’re not exactly laying out a welcome map, unlike BS.

[Anonymous]

[img]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hi — Thoughts on Blessed Sacrament for our kids?

We’re a liberal Jewish family (but not very religious) in the neighborhood.

Our neighbors seem to like BS, and we like that it’s nearby, affordable, and smaller than public but not too small.

We are looking for a school that will provide a good education, in a welcoming community, where our kids and we can make friends.

look at Milton. It has a liberal parent body (many are not religious) and offers sicnifigant financial aid to many families. It sounds like you and your family would fit in well there. Good education, welcoming community (many in Chevy chase), not super far away, will be a place for you and your kids to make friends for sure. It is also pretty diverse.

Interesting. I just looked at the websites for both schools. In addition to tuition at BS being only 1/3 that of Milton, it says on page one of BS’s website:


“As Catholics, we invite students and families of all faiths and beliefs to enrich our learning environment and school community.”

Contrast that with Milton:

“Students attending MILTON belong to Secular, Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Modern Orthodox, and inter-faith families. All streams of Judaism and perspectives are celebrated and respected.”

Quite a difference when it comes to acceptance, eh? Yet everybody is jumping all over the Catholic school . . .

It’s not that Milton doesn’t accept non-Jewish families. They are telling you what the student body consists of, and given that much of the day is spent learning Hebrew and Judaic studies, it’s not at all surprising that it’s not somewhere that most non-Jewish families choose. And they are explaining that they are a pluralist Jewish school, which is in contrast to some Jewish schools that are Orthodox or Conservative - again, not that non Orthodox or Conservative families couldn’t go but they are explaining what the prayer and teaching philosophy will look like. There are a handful of non-Jewish families at Milton that I know of, but of course there aren’t many.

Sure but they’re not exactly laying out a welcome map, unlike BS.

Why should they have to? The point is to educate Jewish children there.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's also a very competitive admit for K. They almost always have enough parishioners to fill slots, any open slots then go to Catholics outside the parish. So I wouldn't bet on admittance.

Not OP but swooping into this thread to ask about this. Is there no chance for non-Catholics at BS for K? We are specifically looking for a religious school but the DC area ones are $$$ except Catholic, and we live closest to BS. I was hoping we had a fighting chance.

It's pretty tough. I'd definitely have an alternative on your list.

[Anonymous]

Just convert. You don't lose your ethnicity by converting to a new religion. You're already "not very religious". Potato potahto.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just convert. You don't lose your ethnicity by converting to a new religion. You're already "not very religious". Potato potahto.

There's more to that process than you think.

And then there's the ethics of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Absolutely not

NP. Care to elaborate?

BS is a very old, established Catholic parish in CC/DC. Many of the families have gone there for generations. They are Catholic and want to be with their own. They will send their kids to Catholic high school. You are Jewish. They will be nice to you, but you will never fit in.

Maybe it's different because I'm a 2nd gen immigrant, but "not fitting in" doesn't necessarily rule out any schools for me. We did rule out several really rich, cutthroat, competitive privates. But having been in and out of several different public and parochial schools over the years, we have found that we don't really fit in anyway as a mixed race, educationally conservative, politically moderate, wealthy family that doesn't buy name brands. We are never going to be the majority. We ended up choosing Catholic schools because we are Christian (but not Catholic), but the Christian schools were too conservative for us, and because of the low ed and behavior standards at our nearby publics. It is what it is.

It makes a difference to a lot of people. It’s not like sending your kid to Georgetown U which is largely secular, diverse and welcoming of other faiths. Blessed Sacrament is far more closed