Why Jewish Families Should Vaccinate Their Kids

By Jamie Rubin for Kveller

Since the news of the recent Disneyland measles outbreak and the subsequent chatter on Facebook began, I discovered I have at least four Facebook friends (and likely a few more) with healthy, non-immunocompromised, vaccine-aged children who have decided, for non-medical reasons, to not vaccinate.

For some of these friends and acquaintances, the news was not surprising considering their views on other issues. With one friend in particular, though, it felt like a betrayal, one that I just can’t get past. Here this person was, in my community, in my home, and I never knew how they felt and what steps they were taking to separate themselves from the herd. I spent some time thinking and talking about it with another friend and realized one of the major reasons it bothered me so much is because this family is Jewish.

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Focusing on Jewish Kids With Disabilities

Focusing on Jewish Kids With Disabilities

All our children deserve love, joy, and a Jewish education

By Marjorie Ingall for Tablet Magazine

So, the Jewish parenting site Kveller has made me cry twice in the last two weeks. And this has nothing to do with Mayim Bialik’s perspective on vaccines or baby formula!

Kveller has partnered with the Ruderman Family Foundation, which works for greater inclusion of people with disabilities in the Jewish community. Ruderman is offering financial support and guidance for Kveller’s coverage of disability-related topics for a year. Kveller will be doing two articles a week, one focused on the bar or bat mitzvah experience and one on general topics related to Jews and disability. The collaboration started at the beginning of February, which is not-so-coincidentally Jewish Disabilities Awareness Month.

The first piece that made me cry was called What I Learned While Planning a Bat Mitzvah for My Daughter With Disabilities. It’s by Cindy Kaplan, and every parent—indeed, every Jew—should read it. How can a nonverbal child with cognitive delays and physical challenges celebrate this event? How to mark this milestone when it’s not clear precisely what it will mean to the child in question? Kaplan’s answer is gorgeous. The day is about celebration of the experience as it is, not a Platonic ideal.

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Purim Books & Games

Looking for some ideas of what to do with the kids for Purim?  Maybe you need some "Pin"spiration, inspiration from Pinterest, that is.

Check out the great suggestions on Pinterest that you and your child can do together:

For more information, recipes and great ideas for Purim, check out Jvillage's Purim Holiday Kit.

For more Purim news, check out our    page.

The Purim Story for Kids

Is Purim just a fun-filled dress up holiday? Or is it something more? Perhaps it's a flip-flop, upside-down, full of surprises kind of day...not at all what you'd expect.

by Yaffa Ganz for aish.com

Over 2,000 years ago, the Holy Temple in Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. The Jewish people were sent away from the Land of Israel and were forced to live in Babylonia.

Fifty years later, Babylonia was defeated by Persia. Achashverosh (that's pronounced: Ah-chash-VEY-rosh) was the second Persian king. He ruled 127 provinces from Hodu (India) to Kush (Africa) the largest, strongest kingdom in the world.

A new king needs a new capital, so Achashverosh chose the city of Shushan. To celebrate, he made a tremendous feast for all the important people in the kingdom. It lasted for 180 days. Then he made a second feast just for Shushan. Everyone in the city was invited, even the Jews.

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For more information, recipes and great ideas for Purim, check out Jvillage's Purim Holiday Kit. 

For more Purim news, check out our    page.

Haman & Children: Making the Purim Story More Kid-Friendly

 From The PJ Library Blog

PURIM IS A JOYOUS HOLIDAY.

We merrily gather, eat, dress, imbibe, and retell the story of brave Queen Esther. Part of the Purim story, however, includes dark references to Haman. So, what do PJ Library parents do when their little ones aren’t quite ready to learn and talk about evil people like Haman?

USING ‘CREATIVE LICENSE’

A child need not know every detail of Queen Esther’s story in order to appreciate it. Shalom Sesame, for example, chooses to modify the story to appeal more to young children. As it explains on its ShalomSesame.org webpage, “The Whole Megillah,” parents can talk to children “about how they help their friends and family” and ask, “What does it mean to be ‘loyal’?”

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For more information, recipes and great ideas for Purim, check out Jvillage's Purim Holiday Kit. 

For more Purim news, check out our    page.

Five-year-old boy gets a bill for missing school friend's birthday party

While this story did not come from a Jewish publication, we deemed it of interest and wanted to get our reader's opinions on this.

By Plymouth Herald from the U.K.

A FIVE-year-old boy has been handed an invoice – for missing his friend’s birthday party.

And now his parents claim they have been threatened with the possibility of court action if they don’t stump up the cash.

Derek Nash and his partner, who live in Torpoint, discovered the ‘no show fee’ invoice for £15.95 in their son’s school bag last week.

Mr Nash, a delivery driver, said he “thought it was a joke”.

Just before the Christmas holidays, Alex, their son, was invited to a classmate’s Birthday party at the Ski Slope and Snowboard Centre.

Alex, who goes to Torpoint Nursery and Infant School, told his parents he wanted to go and so Mr Nash and his partner confirmed he would be at the celebration.

Mr Nash said: “She saw me and asked if Alex was coming to the party. At this time I agreed and said that Alex was looking forward to it.”

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Parents Under Investigation For Letting Their Kids Walk to the Park Alone

by Suzanne Samin for Kveller

My parents were (and still are) very hard-working people, so they didn’t always have time to pick me up from school. However, once I got old enough, maybe 11 or so, they started allowing me to walk home with my best friend Danielle, who lived nearby. We would cut through the campus of a seminary to avoid busy roads–hopping, skipping, and laughing together all the way. It sounds like a totally different time, doesn’t it?

Actually, it was 2002. You wouldn’t know it though, judging from a recent article in the Washington Post about two “free-range” parents from Maryland who are being investigated by CPS for letting their two children walk a mile on their own.

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