Jewish Teacher/student named Adonai

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Teachers are getting fired left and right for refusing to call trans students by their names and saying "it's against my religion" (usually 'Christian') to call them their chosen trans name. OP sounds like she's headed toward that. You can't decide it's against your religion to call someone their name. Especially their legal, given name. SHE DIDN'T PICK THIS NAME.

"left and right"? So, many teachers are being fired for this? Funny, I haven't heard of a single teacher fired for refusing to call a student by his or her chosen name.

https://www.richmond.com/news/virginia/virginia-high-school-teacher-fired-for-refusing-to-use-transgender/article_65be1826-50b2-5d38-be58-47d9b9480917.html

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/teacher-fired-refusing-use-transgender-student-s-pronouns-n946006

https://www.insideedition.com/virginia-teacher-fired-not-using-transgender-students-chosen-pronoun-because-religious-beliefs

https://wtvr.com/2018/12/06/west-point-teacher-fired-for-refusing-to-call-transgender-student-male-pronouns/

Those appear to be all the same teacher. So *one* teacher was fired for insubordination because he refused to use male pronouns to refer to a student, despite being repeatedly told to do so by school administrators. Hardly a rash of teacher firings.

[Anonymous]

I googled "baby name Adonai" and it is not as rare as you would think.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How, pray tell, am I hurting her by calling her Miss ( add her last name)?

If you call all the other children similarly, it would be okay. If not you would be singling her out as different because of her name.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to follow up for those who were curious. The rabbi said that it would be ok to call said student by name. Thanks for encouraging me to call. I feel better going into this with his blessing.

I've got to say, however, that I was really disgusted by all the negative and nasty comments. I don't think it was very nice to jump to conclusions about my character. I was simply trying to gain some perspective. Hopefully you'll think twice before slinging the nasty comments. Or not. Your choice. Thanks to those who showed empathy and gave my quandary some real thought. It was helpful to hear your comments.

I am glad you got your answer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to follow up for those who were curious. The rabbi said that it would be ok to call said student by name. Thanks for encouraging me to call. I feel better going into this with his blessing.

I've got to say, however, that I was really disgusted by all the negative and nasty comments. I don't think it was very nice to jump to conclusions about my character. I was simply trying to gain some perspective. Hopefully you'll think twice before slinging the nasty comments. Or not. Your choice. Thanks to those who showed empathy and gave my quandary some real thought. It was helpful to hear your comments.

New poster -

I want to suggest you reflect, especially as a kindergarten teacher. You did not present yourself as very open minded, willing to adapt, or kind / compassionate.
To quote you:

"I'm actually a little pissed off. I don't mind people naming their kids whatever they want, but this smacks of ignorance and disrespect.

I even feel weird writing the word. I don't feel comfortable saying that name outside of prayer. Considering calling her by her last name...Miss ______. WWYD?

How, pray tell, am I hurting her by calling her Miss ( add her last name)?
?I have rights too, you know.?"

She's a FIVE year old. You're a grown woman. Think about that. Come ON. You really wanted to belittle and dehumanize her. Get over yourself, or maybe consider a new career.

+1 am Jewish, but come on OP. You are the adult here.

You are Jewish, but do you believe it is forbidden to say Adonai in this context? I assume the answer is no, which makes it much easier for you to say OP should simply be the adult. But your interpretation as to what is permitted under Jewish law is not binding on OP.

But how Judaism works, is that if they won't say something, they won't write it either... And she had no problem writing it, because she posted it. SO- she didn't *actually* have a problem saying it...... That's not anyone's interpretation, that's how Jewish law works.

No, how Judaism works is that there is a long tradition of rabbinic discussion and debate that can often lead to different sects/rabbis having different interpretations as to what is permitted and what is not. I am not presumptuous enough to decide for OP what she truly does and does not believe. Her going to her rabbi and being assuaged by his ruling is further evidence that she had a good faith concern about the propriety of saying the name, not using it as an excuse because she didn't like that someone used it as a name. (Plus, who knows, maybe she had the equivalent of a shabbos goy type it for her.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm just going to call my rabbi. I should have know better. Thank you , by the way to those that at least put themselves in my position before sharing. I do appreciate that. I have rights too, you know.

I am SO SO SO glad my children will never have you as their teacher. Maybe you should reconsider your career choice. Signed, Another Teacher

Seriously. I was sympathetic until I saw your follow up posts, op. You sound obnoxious.

—another teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I googled "baby name Adonai" and it is not as rare as you would think.

This isn't really relevant to OP's concerns though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I googled "baby name Adonai" and it is not as rare as you would think.

This isn't really relevant to OP's concerns though.

No but it may mean that it’s not the offense op initially perceived.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to even further, and advise you discuss this with your own spiritual advisor. If your rabbi is anything like those I've known in my life, they will tell you that calling her by her name is not only the right thing to do as a teacher, it is the right thing to do as a Jew.

I mean, Judaism leaves a lot of room for "rule breaking" when the rules would hurt someone.

+1

Amazing that this post wasn’t the end of it. Judaism is very practical.

[Anonymous]

In an effort to reflect on this from another angle, Muslims...What would your reaction be to the name Allah ?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wanted to follow up for those who were curious. The rabbi said that it would be ok to call said student by name. Thanks for encouraging me to call. I feel better going into this with his blessing.

I've got to say, however, that I was really disgusted by all the negative and nasty comments. I don't think it was very nice to jump to conclusions about my character. I was simply trying to gain some perspective. Hopefully you'll think twice before slinging the nasty comments. Or not. Your choice. Thanks to those who showed empathy and gave my quandary some real thought. It was helpful to hear your comments.

New poster -

I want to suggest you reflect, especially as a kindergarten teacher. You did not present yourself as very open minded, willing to adapt, or kind / compassionate.
To quote you:

"I'm actually a little pissed off. I don't mind people naming their kids whatever they want, but this smacks of ignorance and disrespect.

I even feel weird writing the word. I don't feel comfortable saying that name outside of prayer. Considering calling her by her last name...Miss ______. WWYD?

How, pray tell, am I hurting her by calling her Miss ( add her last name)?
?I have rights too, you know.?"

She's a FIVE year old. You're a grown woman. Think about that. Come ON. You really wanted to belittle and dehumanize her. Get over yourself, or maybe consider a new career.

+1
OP, is basically trying to use her religion to discriminated against this child. OP, if your religion is preventing you from giving this child respect by calling her name, then please leave the teaching profession. There are already far too many bigots hiding behind religion, culture, politics, etc. in the teaching field. Schools don't need any more. Your religion has no place in public school education! If you can not embrace this child's name, then you really need to take a deep look at yourself. I swear schools need to start conducting bigot evaluations to weed out the bad teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm actually a little pissed off. I don't mind people naming their kids whatever they want, but this smacks of ignorance and disrespect.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In an effort to reflect on this from another angle, Muslims...What would your reaction be to the name Allah ?

Or, Hitler?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Thanks to this thread I am reminded that religion is ridiculous.

My reaction exactly!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In an effort to reflect on this from another angle, Muslims...What would your reaction be to the name Allah ?

Or, Hitler?

Funny you mention that. A very common Muslim name format is Abdel-_____ (insert one of God’s names here - such as Latif or Rahman, which mean The Kind and The Forgiving, respectively, so the combo means ‘Worshipper of The Kind,’ etc. There are 99 of those names (yeah religion is ridiculous) and of course there is also Abdallah which just means Worshipper of God. While in the West, people often leave the Abdel part off and just call the person by what is essentially one of God’s names, they would never be ok with someone named Allah.