Asperger's Mom Seeks Friend For Her Son

by Rabbi Rebecca Schorr for The Jewish Week

Hi! I’m a 12-and-a-half-year-old guy from California who now lives in Pennsylvania. I love Nintenedo 3DS and Wii. I got a WiiU for Chanukah and it’s pretty cool. My favorite games are SuperMario Bros., MarioCart, and Just Dance 4. On the computer, I really love Minecraft. I want to design video games for Nintendo when I grow up. My favorite book is “Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing” by Judy Blume. And I really like Legos too. But I don’t like sports. And I don’t even like to go outside very much. I hate spiders and I REALLY hate bees. I get along really well with younger kids and adults.. If this is like you, maybe we could have a hang-out.

If only it was that easy to find a friend for our son.

Ben was diagnosed with Asperger’s at the end of Kindergarten. One of the most painful aspects of parenting a child who has autism is knowing that your child doesn't have friends. Not a weekend passes without hearing Ben cry that he has no one to hang out with. His loneliness is exacerbated by his siblings’ playdates with their friends. It is heartbreaking.

Ben had very few playdates as a young child. Most of them were, with hindsight, opportunities for me to hang out with moms whose company I enjoyed. Ben wasn’t a very fun playmate. His style of play had more in common with much younger children rather than with his peers. He would be completely engrossed in his toys, but rarely displayed any interest in what the other kid was doing. The fact that we rarely arranged for playdates was brushed aside as an unfortunate reality owing to my very busy schedule as a congregational rabbi. It wasn’t until Ben’s sister, Lilly, came along that we realized it had less to do with schedules and more to do with Ben.

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Simchat Torah Edible Craft

A Torah-filled way to eat your turkey sandwich

By Meredith Jacobs for Kveller

I'll be honest...I'm not planning on spending the day in synagogue on Simchat Torah. I know I should probably go. And I don't even have a legitimate excuse--I work at a Jewish newspaper and have the day off! But I’m a full-time working mom, and when given a day off, I have a whole list of things I need to do to take care of my family. Being in shul all day just isn’t one of them.

That being said, it would be nice to recognize the day in some way. And, even nicer to find a way to help my kids realize that it’s a holiday and have a chance to discuss the significance of Simchat Torah with them. After all, the Torah is really the foundation of Judaism. It’s where of our stories, law, and traditions come from.

So, once again, I'm turning to food. It just seems like a no-brainer. We have to feed our kids, so with just a little creativity (and just a smidge more time) their turkey sandwiches become turkey Torah rolls!

This is something you can easily do with your kids, and take advantage of the moment as a teaching opportunity. Talk to them about how we read the Torah every year—as soon as we end it, we begin it again. I’m sure they’ll have some age-appropriate insight into why it’s important to reread the Torah each year. (Personally, I find that I learn something new from the stories and laws when I hear it now as compared to when I was younger.) Or, just talk about your favorite Torah stories (Noah's ark, how Abraham and Sarah welcomed guests to their home, Jacob wrestling the angel, the golden calf, Joseph and his brothers... the list goes on.)

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Enjoy with your child this G-dcast for Sukkot

Booster Shot for Jewish Values

Jewish teaching and public health agree: Vaccinate your kids. What should be done about the opt-outers?

By Marjorie Ingall for Tablet

Last week, we got an email, two printed letters, and a phone call from Josie’s public school, all informing us that unless she got a tetanus booster in the next six days, she would not be allowed to attend classes. I called the school in a panic: Josie had just turned 11 and hadn’t had her annual checkup yet. Too bad, I was told. Rules are rules. No shot, no school. I quickly called the pediatrician’s office, and they assured me that there were a couple of hours every day in which I could bring Josie in to see a nurse, and they’d provide all the paperwork I needed to prove my child was not a tetanus-laden disease vector. And so it came to pass. But I had to miss a morning of work, and Josie had to miss school, just so she could get inoculated at an arbitrary time the school had laid out instead of a month later at her scheduled checkup.

Compare this rigmarole to what goes on in private schools, including Jewish ones. They often allow kids to opt out of vaccines entirely. (Forty-eight states allow religious exemptions from vaccines, and 18 allow “philosophical” exemptions.) A recent survey found that at one Waldorf school in the Bay Area, 84 percent of students were unvaccinated. There have been increasing numbers of major measles outbreaks around the world, including in Orthodox communities. (The one thing a Mill Valley mama in Lululemon leggings and a Bnei Brak matron in shapeless layers and a headwrap may have in common is an aversion to inoculation. Well, that and a tendency to raise backyard chickens.) Measles cases in the United Kingdom have risen by a factor of 10 since 2010, and rates of measles and rubella in the United States are skyrocketing.

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The Best Kids Books for Rosh Hashanah

By Carla Naumburg for Raising Kvell

In her beautiful post about her sons’ Jewish identities, Tamara mentioned getting her first Rosh Hashanah book from PJ Library, and then pulling several more off the shelf.

That’s right, folks. It’s time to start thinking about the High Holidays. Rosh Hashanah starts on SEPTEMBER 4th. Once you’re done freaking out, you might want to think about getting some books of your own to read with the kiddos. Here are some of my favorites, courtesy of PJ Library and my local library:

1. Classic Symbols & Themes

If you’re looking for books specifically about the symbols and themes of Rosh Hashanah, you might want to check out Engineer Ari and the Rosh Hashanah Ride by Deborah Bodin Cohen or Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur by Cathy Goldberg Fishman. The first book is a fun story about a conductor taking his train on its first trip across Israel during Rosh Hashanah, and the second one explores the traditions of both Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur through the eyes of a young girl.


Tashlich is my favorite part of Rosh Hashanah, and I think it’s the best part for children. It’s outside and it involves throwing things into water (I don’t know about your family, but that’s a recipe for success in mine). New Year at the Pier by April Halprin Wayland and Tashlich at Turtle Rock by Susan Schnur and Anna Schnur-Fishman are lovely picture books that follow two different children and their families as they participate in this meaningful tradition.

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