COMPILED BY ELIZABETH APPLE
Good Old Mom
I
Molly Picon, third from left, in the
1936 film Piddle with His Fiddle.
Tidbits from
Jewish history.
S hneur Zalman Shazar
was the third president
of Israel.
He was born in 1889
in Mir in Belorussia. His parents
were dedicated Zionists, and ear-
ly on their son became involved in
Jewish defense groups and in sup-
porting the Zionist movement.
In 1911, Zalman spent the sum-
mer in Eretz Yisrael, then went to
Germany in 1912 to attend a uni-
versity. There, he was a founder
of the Labor Zionist movement of
Germany. In 1924, he left perma-
nently for Eretz Yisrael.
Shazar served in the first Knes-
set, as well as the second and the
third. His first post was minister of
education and culture, and he was
active with the Jewish Agency.
In 1963, Shazar was elected
president of Israel. In addition to
his political activities, he was in-
terested in the arts. He wrote sev-
eral books on various subjects,
from biblical criticism to poetry,
and was the founder of AMOS, a
fund that subsidized Israeli artists
and scholars.
here is no person in the
world more hard-work-
ing than your mother.
Most likely she does
many of these regularly: fix-
es your meals, takes care of
you when you're sick, helps
with your homework, works
out of the home to provide you
with food and shelter, does
your laundry, takes you to
baseball practice or dance
lessons, gets you candy treats,
helps you in the middle of the
night when you've had a bad
dream.
When was the last time you
told your mother how much
you love her? (And in case you
don't remember, one of the
Ten Commandments directs
us, Honor Your Mother and
Father.)
Here's a way to send your
mom a secret message she is
T
Jewish Things
certain to appreciate. You will
need:
a white crayon
watercolor paints
paintbrush
white paper
To begin: write a secret
message, in white cray-
on and on white paper, to
your mother. It could be
something as simple as, "I
Love You." (And why not
add the same thing in He-
brew. If you're a girl it's Anee
ohevet otach, and if you're a
boy, Anee ohev otach.) Your
message will be almost invis-
ible. Now here's how to make
it show up.
Deliver the paper to your
mother, and ask her to go
over it with watercolor
paints. In seconds the secret
message you wrote in white
crayon will become visible.
Parsha Project
he coming week's
Torah portion,
Deuteronomy 26:1-
29:8, is Ki Tavo.
The parsha opens with in-
structions for the famous de-
claration made on the
occasion of bringing first
fruits to the Temple: My an-
cestor was a homeless
Aramean...(26:5-10). Verses
5-8 later were incorporated
into the Pesach seder and put
into the Haggadah.
My Favorite
The Jews are commanded
that once they enter Eretz
Yisrael they are to engrave
the words of the Torah on 12
large stones on Mount Eival
in Samaria.
Hearkening back to parshat
Re'ey, Moshe specifies which
tribes were to gather on
Mount Gerizim to witness the
blessing and which on Mount
Eival to witness the curse.
Moshe recites the 11 curses for
Mount Eival and commands
the people to respond to each
curse with "Amen."
Moshe recites the covenant
of the Jewish people with
God: the blessings that will
accrue to the Jews if they
obey the Torah, and the curs-
es if they disobey.
For a project: Various opin-
ions exist as to how the 12
stones in 27:2 were supposed
to look. Some say there were
12 pillars; others maintain
they were to be built into an
altar. Draw a picture of what
you think the 12 stones would
have looked like.
B'Not V'Barnashim
I
f you've ever been to
Camp Ramah, you know
one of the highlights of
the summer comes at
the end of the program
when campers per- • ,..,.>
form a famous play tv,
— entirely in Hebrew.
Now, why not try the
same thing at your own
home? Think of your favorite
play or movie or TV show. Or,
if you're a beginning student,
think about starting with a
song. Write a script (it's best
to keep it fairly short, since
translating is a lot of
work) first in Eng-
lish. Next, trans-
late it into
Hebrew. There
will be challenges,
but do your best to keep
the Hebrew version true to
your original script (if you get
stuck, your Hebrew teacher
or rabbi can lend a hand).
Future Steven Spielbergs
also should consider putting
their production on the stage.
In fact, that will be the easy
part. If you can manage the
translation, no doubt you'll be
able to master a makeshift
stage and costumes in no
time.
(By the way, b'not v'bar-
nashim is a Hebrew version
of Guys and Dolls.)
You probably won't be able to
get it published in New
York, but your edition of My
Favorite Jewish Things is
something your friends and
family, and of course you
yourself, will enjoy for many
years.
All you need is a blank
book, a pen and a good
imagination.
Begin by thinking up as
many different subjects as
you can: Jewish holidays,
foods, movies, and places to
visit in Israel are some.
Now, designate one page for
each subject. At the top
write: Favorite Jewish
Songs, or Favorite Jewish
Book, then decide how often
you want to consider this
topic (once a month, or once
every other month, is a good
idea). When you have filled
as many pages as you can
with topics, you're ready to
begin.
Underneath each heading
write the date, including the
year, at the left, then answer
the question:
FAVORITE JEWISH
FOOD
March 12, 1995 — gefilte fish
April 12, 1995 — gefilte fish
May 12, 1995 — gefilte fish
June 12, 1995 — gefilte fish
July 12, 1995 — latkes (I am
sick of gefilte fish)
It's fun to add pictures,
too, (either ones you have
drawn or cut out from a
magazine).
Try to keep your book go-
ing for many years. It will
be an interesting record of
who you are, and you'll en-
joy looking
back at some of
the things you
used to
love.