•

—

,

•

'

„ : .

TWO GREAT STORES
ONE GREAT SALE!

OBSERVATIONS

THE
WAITING
GAME

Moternity—Infonts
Toddlers—Boys 4-7

Fashions for Girls 4-14 & Young Juniors

357-1123

352-9799

FALL & WINTER MERCHANDISE
STARTING DEC. 26--50% OFF
STARTING JAN. 2-60% OFF
STARTING JAN. 9-75% OFF

WHAT:

WHEN:

Corner Northwestern & Inkster
Hours: Mon.-Sat. 10-5
Thursday 10-8.}

Bill Pugliano

APPLEGATE SQUARE

Southfield celebrates the "holiday season."

How. Do You Explain
Christmas To A Child?

IDELLE DAVIDSON

Special to The Jewish News

0

—

No matter how you
• turn the globe

•

The Jewish News

I

keeps you posted on Jewish happenings
everywhere!

•
•
t •

Call 354-6060

TODAY and order
your subscription.

I

•

44

-

...

spiridowi

ee'

I

'

ne day, a four year old
named Benjamin
came home from his
neighborhood synagogue
where he and other
preschoolers had met with a
rabbi. They learned about
Chanukah and each made a
holiday card and a paper
menorah.
"That's a very nice card,"
said his mother. "Would you
like to send it to grandma and
grandpa?"
"No," replied the little boy.
"I'll just leave it outside for
Santa Claus."
Often, young Jewish chil-
dren are intrigued and con-
fused by the Christmas holiday
and its symbols, said Rabbi
Jacqueline Koch Ellenson,
formerly of Kehillath Israel in
Pacific Palisades, Calif., a Re-
constructionist synagogue.
The attention paid to Christ-
mas by the general public, and
the fact that the holiday usu-
ally falls within the same
month as Chanukah, contrib-
utes to that confusion.
That's why Ellenson, as well
as other rabbis and educators
spend time during November
and December explaining
Christmas to Jewish children.
Ellenson said she would ex-
plain to a child that there was a
man named Jesus who lived
about 2,000 years ago. He was
learned in Judaism and many
believed he was God becaus4kof
certain events attributed to
him. .
"I might even show them
some of the things in the New

,

32 Friday, December 26, 1986 . THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS •

Testament about Jesus, -be-
cause the stories are wonderful
and the parables are wonder-
ful."
However, it is important for
children to know that, al-
though Jews may believe that
Jesus did live, they don't be-
lieve that he was God, said the
rabbi.
"God is spiritual and can't be
bound by physical form.
There's not a concept (in
Judaism) that God can have a
child."
Ellenson believes that it is
educational for children to
understand the meaning be-
hind. Christmaa symbols, but
that it is inappropriate to have
those symbols in a Jewish
home.
"You can't separate a symbol
from the religious roots from
which it sprang. I would look at
,it in the other direction: if a
Christian family decided that
they were going to celebrate
Chanukah by lighting the can-
dles, or if they were going to
have a (Passover) seder, just
because they like the foods, I
would feel very insulted. Those
are my symbols and they can't
be removed from the religious
context in which they were de-
veloped. So I think that for a
Jewish family to adopt symbols
that religious Christians be-
lieve are reflective of their val-
ues, is an insult (to them)."
Rabbi Neil Comess-Daniels
of Reform Temple Shir Shalom
in Var Vista, Calif., feels that
Judaism is something that is
done; it is an active identity.
JOIE; who celebrate Christmas,
saict Corness-Daniels, create a
riPplinieffect on those in their
houbehold and on neighbors