[HANASHIR:13001] Re: Fw:Jewish Education, Jewish continuity...

[Batiya5723 <Batiya5723...>]

I grew up isolated from Jewish community, both geographically and 
financially. Never went to Hebrew school, didn't belong to a synagogue. The 
only thing we did at home was Passover seder and occasionally light Shabbes 
candles. It took me years to figure out that while my parents had given me 
lots of familial love, the thing they didn't know how to give me was 
community. Thinking "logically", I decided to start my search for community 
with my roots. I liked what I found and stopped looking. I took classes, 
joined a synagogue community and learned and grew like mad. That was seven 
years ago. I feel as comfortable now in a Jewish community as I imagine I 
might if I'd grown up with it all along.

I'm not absolutely sure now that raising a kid fully in Jewish this and 
Jewish that makes a difference. I think it depends on where you live. I now 
teach in a synagogue ("supplemental") religious school in a not-very-Jewish 
city; and I see the whole spectrum, from kids whoask for lyric sheets to take 
home after music time, to kids who show up once a month if they're lucky 
because they're playing club-level soccer.
 
Perhaps we need to remember to honor the kid who plays soccer in creatively 
Jewish ways (I gave one of my student athletes the respective brachot for 
healthy bodies and outdoor activities, and he DUG them). Perhaps we need to 
find ways to allow the outside world into our Jewish lives in creatively 
Jewish ways, rather than seek to always separate the two. In my music class, 
I occasionally include some 1960's protest songs if they touch on Jewish as 
well as American social action themes. 

Talk to your students' parents and ask what they want. *Many* are as lacking 
in Jewish experience and education as I was; and we have learned together as 
a result of my daring to ask. 

Happy Chanukah! --Beth Hamon -- Portland, OR