Tough Subjects

by Joel Lurie Grishaver

It is tough to be a Jewish teacher. It is tough to be a Jewish Parent. It is tough to be a Jewish Educator (principal or whatever). And, it is tough to be a Jewish publisher. There is more than enough toughness to go around. Not everyone gets the chance that we do to put our feelings and insights into print. We know that.

Wendy Mogul wrote a best selling book on parenting called, The Blessing of a Skinned Knee. Her central point is that we do our children a disservice when we over protect them—and we need to celebrate their facing of basic challenges. There are times that I wish we had Wendy on staff.

There is a standard story we go through at Torah Aura. We publish a set of materials and then receive a letter from a parent or principal telling us that we have exposed children to material that is inappropriate. Among the offending pieces of content are sex, death, politics, war, current events and even religious choice. We have been told (on occasion) that these subjects have no business being covered in a Jewish school—or at least they have no business being taught in a Jewish school at whatever tender age the given child happens to be.

We live in a post-Monica Lewinsky world. This week beheadings are the lead story on almost every news report and newspaper. The real world is a genie that will not go back into the bottle. We all wish it would. Life would be easier for all of us. But in this crazed world, difficult topics are the ones that need to be talked about in Jewish places. We need to help kids and parents to face the things that scare them with the wisdom and the solace that our tradition provides. It is our job, to bless these first struggles with the difficulties the world offers, much like a skinned knee.

This is not an argument for violating age appropriate standards, for confronting students with that which will traumatize—but rather, an attempt to remind educators and teachers that our tradition provides not only beauty but also strength. This is something we need to remember and something we need to share with our parents. We need to help them understand that war and violence, natural disasters, and even terrorism are Jewish topics—just the things we need to help students face.

All good education is a dialogue—one between teacher and student, content and class, classroom and home. Parents need to be part of the curricular dialogue, but we should involve them using our own sense of what is important.

Sukkot of Peace

by Laurie Bellet

I love the holidays so intensely that I generally reprise them, each summer, with my campers. This past August, I was doing a Sukkot warm-up, to be certain that the learning was in place before the painting began. Although the majority of these 2nd graders had difficulty recalling any past experiences in a Sukkah, one eager camper jumped up and announced, “I know! That’s the paper chain holiday!”

So, before moving on, I do want you to know that, even paper chains, can have meaning. Like those little slips of paper, we so earnestly pry from our fortune cookies, the links in a Sukkah chain can include expressions of commitment to tikkun olam in the coming year, affirmations of friendship, pertinent quotes students scribe in Hebrew and English and specific ways we can each be a peacemaker. You needn’t have access to a laminator to weather proof your chains. Simply seal them in clear postal tape before stringing them together. They will endure beyond the season.

I savor the idea of being an individual peacemaker, to feel the communal peace of gathering in the Sukkah, so exposed that we truly are depending on God’s shelter of peace to drape over us. Our students, in every learning stage, can both absorb and radiate that essence of peacemaking in the Sukkah, beginning with the decorations:

Windows of Peace: To create your window, begin with a piece of overhead “film” and frame it with colorful masking tape. Alternatively, you can cut a frame from construction paper, slip it through the laminator and trim the sides. Students can draw a design symbolizing peace to them, on a piece of practice paper. When satisfied with the design, the student slips the practice paper under the window and traces it onto the clear film with a Sharpie marker. Complete the drawing with Sharpie markers in a variety of widths and colors. If desired, you can put an aluminum foil backing on the completed window before hanging it in the Sukkah. You can do this with pre-drawn motifs, but to do so limits the student’s own personal expression of peacemaking.

Enter in Peace: Welcome signs emphasize our openness to guests in the Sukkah, providing the perfect opportunity to process the difference between a casual “welcome,” and a fervent “blessed are you on your coming here.” As your students brainstorm the ways to make a guest feel truly embraced, they can illustrate their thoughts on wood plaques. In Autumn, craft stores sell plaques with hanging wire already attached, generally for less than one dollar each. Students can paint these with acrylic paint, adding tiles with tacky glue as desired. Finish each plaque with a coat of the Mod Podge designed specifically for outdoor use, and frame the entrance to the Sukkah with such blessings.

Consider extending your shelter of peace to those for whom shelter is scarce. Knit hats and gloves, along with a student generated message or picture, and sealed in a zip-loc bag, can hang in the Sukkah before being gifted to a shelter for those without homes. Students who might otherwise string a banana or carrot to hang, could, alternatively, loop a string through the top of a small bag of candy, beginning a sweet year for shelter based children who enjoy few such treats. A baggie of Legos selected from students’ own toy buckets, can hang in the Sukkah, until given to a child for whom they can build promises of a positive future.

While in the Sukkah, sing songs of peace. Experience the beauty of the liturgy. Read poems and stories. Write letters to world leaders and students in other countries. Imbue each child with the sureness that each of us can be a peacemaker to someone, somewhere.

Do you have more ideas for Sukkot projects? Share them with your colleagues. Just hit the reply button at the bottom of this page.

As the New Year Begins

by Joel Lurie Grishaver

Violence is up in Israel again. We have 1,000 dead Americans from Iraq. The presidential election is anything but on higher ground. Oodles of people are out of work—and the economy still has a long way to come back. The impact of the hurricane in Florida is still major. Then there is the school in Russia. And all of this is against a background of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and Russia. The world seems pretty ugly at the moment—and despite the rhetoric from both presidential candidates about “the best days being ahead,” this depressing background is the one in which we are opening our Jewish schools this year. It is hard to watch the news and get ready to welcome “a happy new year.”

But that difficulty is the whole point to Rosh ha-Shanah. The High Holidays have a simple message: “People can change.” Rosh ha-Shanah begins this process by saying, “You get to start over—try again.” It is part of a larger Jewish narrative.

On the 17th of Tammuz the Ten Commandments were shattered. On Tisha B’av, the ninth of Av, the spies brought back a report that “we cannot conquer the land because the residents are giants.” Later two Temples were destroyed on this same date. The two essential sins happened on these dates. The 17th of Tammuz is the sin of the Golden Calf, idolatry. Essentially, the belief that we can create God and decide what God demands. Tisha B’av was lack of faith, lack of trust in the self, and lack of trust in God’s help. It is giving up on God’s mission. Almost every sin boils down to one of these two primal sins. After Tisha B’av comes Rosh ha-Shanah. The Temple is destroyed, but we still go on, be begin to build again. That building happens on Sukkot. We begin again. We are forgiven. We rebuild. That is the spiritual pattern of the high holidays.

This year as we return to our schools and our classrooms we have an obligation to teach about beginning again. Judaism’s message is that people can change, the world can be repaired. Unlike Buddhism that believes that the world is a giant wheel that goes nowhere, Judaism believes in history. The big obligation this fall is to teach hope. Rosh ha-Shanah is all about belief in the future.

Rosh ha-Shanah Projects

by Laurie Bellet

A New Year and our new students deserve a warm welcome. No matter what “big idea” you are teaching to welcome the year and your students, there is an art based learning activity destined to tantalize and excite everyone involved. The following is a brief snapshot into the “big ideas” you may be teaching this Rosh Hashanah: