THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS Friday, December 20, 1985
BOOKS
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Teaching Values
Through Tales
How Jewish fairy tales can
serve as a spring-board for
teaching Jewish values and tra-
ditions is the subject of a new
Teaching Guide issued by the
Coalition for Alternatives in
Jewish Education (CAJE).
Based on the Elijah's Violin
and Other Jewish Fairy Tales
selected and retold by Howard
Schwartz, and published by
Harper and Row, the Guide
shows how these tales incorpo-
rate such Jewish themes as love
of learning, a sense of fate, and
moral and ethical teachings.
Mr. Schwartz wrote in the in-
troduction to his book: "The
characteristic Jewish fairy tale
can best been seen as a fusion of
the Jewish sacred legend or the
Jewish secular folktale with
universal fairy tale, conditioned
by the biblical and post-biblical
tradition in which Divine Provi-
dence takes the place of magical
devices and resolutions and the
moral element is preeminent."
Mr. Schwartz recently elabo-
rated on this concept. He said,
"Among the treasures of Jewish
folklore are fairy tales with
Jewish kings, Jewish wizards,
Jewish demons. These tales re-
veal the fantasies and longings
of past Jewish generations more
closely than any history or
commentary ever did. They are
tales told from the heart, affirm-
ing Jewish faith and longing
which have remained alive for
more than a hundred genera-
tions. In every case, the essen-
tial source of power underlying
the magic of these tales comes
from God and God alone."
Mr. Schwartz pointed out that
Jewish fairy tales derive from
both written and oral tradition.
Elements of fairy tales are pre-
sent in a number of biblical
stories, he said. They were pre-
sented in a more clear-cut way
in about a dozen tales in the
Talmud, were further elaborated-
in the Midrash, and reached
their crowning expression in
medieval folktales.
For information on "Teaching
Guide to Elijah's Violin and
Other Jewish Fairy Tales," con-
tact Dr. Eliot Spack, National
Director, Coalition for Alterna-
tives in Jewish Education, 468
Park Avenue S., Room 904, New
York, N.Y. 10016.
Walk to Shul in Farmington Hills
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HOTOGRAPHERS
PORTRAITS
WEDDINGS
VIDEO
New Figures
Jerusalem (JTA) — Some
350,000 Jews have emigrated
from Israel since the establish-
ment of the state, according to a
report presented to the Cabinet
by Absorption Minister Yaacov
Tsur.
These figures are substan-
tially lower than previous esti-
mates of between 500,000 and
750,000. The report, compiled by
the Central Bureau of Statistics,
also noted that a further
120,000 non-Jews had left dur-
ing this period. Some 170,000
"yordim" (emigrants) live in the
U.S., according to the report.
Thirty-two thousand of them are
academically educated, includ-
ing about 8,000 engineers.
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