HELPING OUR CHILDREN BECOME RESPONSIBLE JEWS

You are your child’s primary Jewish role model.  How you express your Jewishness matters more than a dozen sermons or one hundred lesson plans.  There are many ways to help your child become a responsible Jew.  For example:

·        Light Shabbat candles together

·        Recite kiddush and hamotzi together

·        Come to Shabbat services, particularly morning services, together

·        Put on tallit and tefillin at the morning minyan together

·        Reminisce about your own childhood Jewish memories

·        Visit the graves of some loved ones

·        Watch a Jewish movie or see a Jewish play together (Exodus, Fiddler on the Roof, Schindler’s List, Keeping Up with the  Steins, etc.)

·        “Putting God on the Guest List: How to Reclaim the Spiritual Meaning of Your Child’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah,” by Rabbi Jeffrey K. Salkin