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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Why Does My Son Only Like the Bad Guys?

By Tova Ross for Kveller.com

If you have an evil cackle, malicious facial expressions, the odd wart or two or green-colored skin, and pick fights with heroic, selfless individuals, chances are: you are a storybook villain, and my son just adores you.

For the past few months, my 3 ½-year-old has been utterly entranced by the “bad guy” in everything from biblical stories and children’s books to comic strips and movies. In discussing the Purim holiday, he perked up only when we told him of Haman, asking numerous questions: “Mommy, is he a bad guy?” “But why is he mean to Mordechai?” “How come he wants to hurt the Jewish people?” Though he is interested in Batman and other masked heroes of his ilk, my son is way more transfixed by the Joker, as made evident when he pulls his pants down several times a day, bends over to prominently display his character underwear to me, and asks, “Mommy, who do YOU want to be on my underwear? I want to be the Joker because he’s mean!”

We all love a good story, with the usual suspects: protagonist, antagonist, and adversity before the ultimate triumph of good over evil. It’s a simple formula, interpreted time and again in so many interesting ways, and it goes without saying that most of us tend to root for the protagonist. But almost without fail, my child cheers on his or her crooked counterpart. And while it’s cute to watch him practice his mean face by scrunching up his nose and squinting his eyes, and playact at being the villain by using the best threats he knows–”I’m going to…. take away your snack and put you in a time-out, Mommy! BOO AHH AHH!”–I wonder if there’s something amiss in the fact that he seems so drawn toward the antihero.

It happened again last night. I’ve been impatiently waiting to watch the Disney movies of my youth with my children. Because my son is also currently fascinated by sharks and sea life, I decided it was time to start with The Little Mermaid, perhaps against my better judgment. There’s possibly no Disney villain as frightening as Ursula, along with her eel minions, Flotsam and Jetsam, but God invented the fast-forward button for a reason, I figured. With a bowl of freshly-popped popcorn that we generously split 90/10 (you can guess who belongs with which ratio), we settled on the couch to watch Ariel’s adventure under the sea.

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The Latest Parenting Trend–Radical Amazement

By Rabbi Danya Ruttenberg for Kveller

The other day, kind of by accident, my 1-year-old figured out how to drink from a straw. He put his mouth on the tube attached to the cup in his hand and started sucking–recreationally, it seems. I don’t think he had any expectations that something interesting would happen. His face, as cold milk pooled into his mouth, registered shock, surprise, delight–and, dare I say it–wonder.

Watching kids learn how things work down here on Earth is, as every parent knows, hilarious, amazing, and even inspiring. Seeing kids’ excitement when they pet a puppy, see fireworks, eat ice cream (or a lemon slice), or just find a good stick on the sidewalk can be magical for a lot of reasons–including the fact that they remind us how to encounter the world fresh ourselves.

The 20th century rabbi and theologian Abraham Joshua Heschel writes often about “radical amazement,” that sense of “wow” about the world, as the root of spirituality. It’s the kind of thing that people often experience in nature, for example, on the proverbial mountaintop. But not only–a lot of it is about bringing that sense of awe into the little things we often take for granted, or consider part of the background of our lives. This includes not only flowers on the side of the road, the taste of ice cream in our mouths, or how groovy it is to use a straw, but also things we generally don’t even think of as pleasures, like the warm soapy water on our hands as we wash dishes.

Obviously, radical amazement isn’t only for kids (though they do it really, really well). It’s about bringing that wonder, that wow-ness, to as much of the mundane as possible–to the dishwashing, to the gorgeousness of the tomato we’re about to slice, and, of course, the tushies and toes of the cuddly, sticky, demanding little monsters we so love.

But there’s something of a paradox about this for parents. In some ways, we’re already set up for enough unfair expectations piled on our heads. We’re not only supposed to only feed our children morally superior food and stimulate them according to the most cutting-edge psychological research, but now we also have to constantly find some sort of rapture in the drudgery as well? Parenting is hard enough–and, for most of us, it’s pretty much a win if we manage to get through the day in one piece and manage to not leave our children at the bus station or let them play with the knives. Not to mention that the many pressures on parents–economic, socio-cultural, psychological, and more–can add additional layers of frustration and distraction.

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Soap opera at the safari: Granny taking over newborn elephant

Ramat Gan safari park officials worry that the grandmother, La Petite, is interfering in mom and baby elephants' bonding.

By Ruth Schuster for Haaretz

Congratulations to La Belle, the Asian elephant who on Friday gave birth to a 200-pound baby girl at the Safari Park in Ramat Gan!

At least that weight is the best guess of officials at the Safari Park, more officially known as The Zoological Center Tel Aviv - Ramat Gan. They also think the dewy-eyed cutie is about a meter tall.

"We didn't measure her in order not to interfere – it's very important to intervene as little possible," explains Sagit Horowitz, Safari spokeswoman.

Newborn Asian elephants are typically around 100 kilos, Horowitz says, but this one is on the small side, as is her proud mother La Belle, 7, and also her diminutive grandmother, La Petite, 25, who – as the pictures show – both hover lovingly over Baby.

And here lies a rather large rub.

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Someone Invented a Baby Wig, So Your Little Girl Won't Be Bald

by Callie Beusman for Jezebel 

I'm pretty sure that we as a society have just officially beat our own record of "youngest age to expose a child to daft and absurd gender policing." We've done it, guys. We have all contributed to a world in which something like "the baby wig" can exist.

Baby Bangs!, as the infernal creations are called, are "made just for little girls," according to the product's website. What is the function of a pair of Baby Bangs!? To let your infant daughter tell the world, "I'm not a boy!", duh. They're billed as "a very comfortable, extremely natural-looking, fun and fashionable hair accessory/alternative for mothers with baby girls who have very little or no hair." Because god knows how much damage being bald could do to a newborn's self-esteem.

Here's some more insight into the company's philosophy:

At Baby Bangs! we believe in the beauty of childhood. Our unique designs are sprinkled with MAGIC! ~inspiring a world of whimsical wonder and mystical magical memorable moments for you and your baby girl to cherish Forever! For she is, and always will be,
Your LiTTLe PRINCESS!

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