Category Archives: Crime

The computer teacher, the techie, is often the most powerful member of the teaching staff in a high school. He controls the keys to the kingdom of the Internet. He can enable teachers and students to enter the portals of Google, Wikipedia, and a variety of social networks. He can expand their worlds.

As a school principal for many years, I observed the transformation of the school office via computer applications. Instead of two or three secretaries, we eventually needed only one. Instead of dictating speeches and correspondence through a Dictaphone machine, we now wrote and corrected our own material using Microsoft Word. Furthermore, we mostly used the more convenient and speedy electronic mail rather than snail mail, which was slower and used so much paper. Currently, when I have to inform my parents and students in Israel of school news and changes in class schedules and syllabi, we use email and social media outlets, not letters or phone calls.

The computer guru, in truth, can be a beacon of light bringing wisdom and enlightenment to the world, but he can also be a sinister force for evil if he uses the computer to lord over others and take advantage of them. In truth, the computer can be a powerful means to control and shape politics and economics in a destructive way. Such is the premise of Live Free or Die Hard, part of the Die Hard series of movies starring Bruce Willis. In it, a computer genius, Thomas Gabriel, designs a plan to create worldwide chaos so that he can profit from the ensuing panic and destruction. Can he be stopped in time is the classic question in this formulaic but exceptional action-packed thriller. Gabriel begins by sabotaging the nation’s infrastructure. Traffic signals malfunction, trains and planes come to a halt, the stock market closes, and the financial systems of the nation are breached. He then launches a plan to take out the nation’s power grid. Gabriel is able to do this because, as a former national security director responsible for building the security systems, he knows the systems inside and out, including all its vulnerabilities.

Why is he so hell-bent on causing so much human damage through computer manipulations?  The back story informs us that many years earlier he attempted to interrupt a Joint Chief of Staffs meeting to share his professional expertise and to point out weaknesses in the nation’s security system using only his laptop. At the time, he was rebuked and publically humiliated. As a result, he now wants to show all those who mocked him that he truly does have the power to control events and they do not. He wants money and he wants revenge.

Watching this film reminded me of the many people I have observed in positions of power. The best of such people work selflessly for the community with no personal agenda. The worst see the possession of power as an opportunity for payback, to control, and to intimidate. It can be very scary for one who falls within their orbit.

The Talmud tells us in many places that the possession of power brings with it responsibilities. The classic example is King David. He does not seek kingship. Rather it is thrust upon him, and he struggles to leave a positive legacy. He is not perfect, but he tries to be loyal to God and beneficent to his subjects. All he wants is for his people to actualize their spiritual potential, to be all they can be. David understands that power may corrupt, and that it is wise to temper power with an abiding sense of community responsibility. Power is neutral. It is our job to harness it for good.

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When I served as principal of Yeshiva High School of Atlanta, I was always interested in discovering ways to become a better principal. One influential book I read was about Frank Boyden, who, for over 60 years, was the headmaster of Deerfield Academy, a prestigious private high school in New England. The essential idea behind his supervisory style is MBWA, management by wandering around. This meant that a principal should not squirrel himself in his office, but rather be a ubiquitous presence in the hallways and classrooms of the school. A sure path to administrative mediocrity is to isolate oneself from his students. A token of his total involvement with his pupils was his placement of his desk in the corridors of the school. He wanted to be visible to his students. Boyden’s story was inspiring, and for a brief time I also situated my desk in the hallway to be more available to my students.

The memory of this management approach resurrected itself as I watched A Bronx Tale, a profanity-laced coming of age story of growing up in a mobster-infested neighborhood of the Bronx in the 1960’s.

Calogero, a young boy with Sicilian roots, is raised in a loving and ethically focused home by his hard working parents, but he is entranced by the charisma of the local Mafia boss, Sonny. For a number of reasons, Calogero, later called “C,” sees Sonny as his surrogate father and begins to emulate his ways, and Sonny views C as the son he never had.

In one telling encounter, Sonny reveals to C that he learned his management style from Machiavelli, the celebrated Italian author of The Prince, a wise and ruthless treatise on how to gain and keep political power. Machiavelli always wanted to be close to his enemies to prevent their plots against him. His ubiquitous presence, or as Sonny terms it, his “availability,” placed him in the best position to control events around him. When C asks him whether it is better to be loved or feared, Sonny tells him it is better to be feared, for ultimately that is where the power is.

What does this have to do with supervising a school or management in general? In managing any enterprise, those in management positions sometimes are compelled to assert their authority and tell people things they do not want to hear, to be the bearer of ill tidings. But that is what a supervisor occasionally must do. It is not pleasant, but it must be done. Although we want people to love us, this cannot always be.

The Torah tells us that the mourning period for Aaron was longer than for Moses because the people loved Aaron more. He loved peace and pursued peace. In contrast, Moses was the law giver, the one who gave rebuke and correction to the people. He was respected but not necessarily loved.

The message of the Torah is love others, but to know that there are times when fear and respect are called for. Nowhere is this more relevant than when we function as parents. We want our kids to love us, but we have to strike a balance between love and fear. That is why the Torah expresses the commandment of honoring parents twice, to manifest the balanced way we have to parent.

A Bronx Tale, grounded in the violent and crime ridden streets of New York, obliquely echoes the reality of parenting with different paradigms and, more directly, the reality of successfully managing any important enterprise with a blend of love and authority.

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When I was going through a number of professional challenges many years ago, I questioned the motives of those who were undermining my position as Head of School. I aired my feelings in front of a small group of people, and I regretted it soon after. My critical comments did not improve things; in fact, they made me feel smaller. I had spoken about somebody negatively and it gnawed at me. The full realization of what I had done hit me many years later. The person to whom I attributed these base motives was no longer living in the city and our professional paths were totally different. In time, I forgot about my offensive remark; but, strangely, about 20 years later, as I was reciting the confessional of Yom Kippur, my offensive behavior of many years ago surfaced in my mind. I resolved to see if I could locate the person I maligned and ask for his forgiveness. Fortunately, I was able to contact him and ask for his forgiveness, which he readily granted. As often occurs, he did not even remember the incident which had been haunting me and was gracious towards me throughout the conversation.

My motive in finding him was to do teshuva, to repent. In Jewish tradition this means to stop the offensive behavior, ask for forgiveness from the injured party, and resolve not to commit the sin again. The ideal setting for teshuva would require you to be in exactly the same place as before, and choose to do the right thing. Instead of succumbing to ego and personal hurt, you would respond differently and not make the ethical mistake that you did in the past. If the exact same situation did not present itself, then you would still follow essentially the same protocol of repentance.

In the Line of Fire is an action thriller; but at its core, it is a narrative of repentance. Frank Harrigan, a veteran Secret Service agent, is haunted by his failure to protect President Kennedy from assassination. He continually relives the incident in his mind and questions whether he did his best to guard the president from Oswald’s fatal bullet. Did he not protect him adequately because he feared for his own life? He wonders: “I don’t know why I didn’t react. If only I reacted, I could have taken that shot. That would have been alright with me.” Here lies the crux of the film: Frank is given an opportunity to protect another president from a threat to his life, and to redeem himself. He has a chance to do teshuva, to repent, in the ideal sense by facing the same challenge, but now he can make the right decision that will enable him to emerge whole again.

Things, however, are different now. He is older and wiser but physically he is weaker. He pants and sweats as he runs after the killer, and we wonder whether he possesses the physical stamina to protect the president. The climax of the film takes place in a large hotel where the president is scheduled to speak. Frank has to locate the killer and neutralize him or stand between him and the president and take the bullet intended for the president.

In the Yom Kippur liturgy, we ask for forgiveness for the sin we might not have remembered. Frank Harrigan’s story reminds us to remember the mistakes of the past, and to try to find a way to correct them even many years later. Confronting the past in this way allows us the freedom to move forward, knowing that we have done our best. The ghosts of the past will then no longer haunt us.

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