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Left: Philip and his
Learning Their ABCs
A child brings home the basics of Judaism.
JULIE EDGAR STAFF WRITER
t was a given: The children would get
a Jewish education, even if their par-
ents didn't care much for organized re-
ligion d their father hadn't been raised
ligion
in a Jewish home.
What Freya Weberman and Richard
Helfrick didn't anticipate was the change
in themselves that resulted from send-
ing 4 1/2-year-old Philip to Temple
• Emanu-El's preschool.
Ms. Weberman's cultural identity was
shaped in the heavily Jewish community
of Oak Park in the 1960s and '70s. While
she rarely questioned her upbringing —
there were few non-Jews around — the
extent of her religious observance was
going to Sunday school at Congregation
B'nai Moshe and watching her mother
light candles on Friday night.
Although Mr. Helfrick took classes in
Judaism before his marriage and easily
slipped into the holiday routines of the
Weberman family, religion was an in-
significant part of life.
Aside from a mezuzah on the door, the
couple's house in Royal Oak had scant
evidence of a Jewish presence within.
Things are different today.
Because of Philip, the family, including
2-year-old Talia, routinely brings in the
Sabbath together. And Philip's colorful,
Jewish-themed pictures made at Tern-
ple Emanu-El's preschool program occupy
most of one wall in the kitchen.
Friday night dinner begins with
prayers, candle-lighting and a song Philip
taught everybody:
Shabbat is a happy time, with the chal-
lah and the wine, candles burning oh so
fine, Good Shabbat.
On their Sabbath table is a paper chal-
lah, a tzedakah canister and two candles
Philip made from cardboard cylinders
topped with bright orange and red tissue
paper. The real candles are placed in
wooden holders he decorated with
sparkles, and a real challah is placed
under a cloth cover he also made in school.
On Shabbat, Philip and his father drink
juice from kiddush cups, whereas on other
nights they drink water.
Tzedakah, Philip explains, is "for people
who don't have as much toys as us, people
who don't have as much food and clothes
as us."
Ms. Weberman and Mr. Helfrick, both
attorneys, were married by a rabbi, "but
I didn't feel compelled to have a Jewish
home," she said. "When Philip brought it
home, it fit. You realize it matters to have
a Jewish home."
If not to learn about Jewish traditions
himself, sending Philip to Temple Emanu-
El was, for Mr. Helfrick, the only way
to impart a Jewish identity to his son.
"It's important for us as a family to do
that so he grows up having those tradi-
tions and knows what those traditions are
so he can decide later if he wants to con-
tinue them," he said. "Because he has
brought these things home, even Hebrew
words he's learned, we as a family have
discussed them over dinner, so my knowl-
edge has grown."
Philip, who started Temple Emanu-El
preschool two years ago, has not only
brought religion into the home, but he has
brought his parents into the larger Jew-
ish community. The family recently at-
tended a Havdalah dinner and Simchat
Torah service at the Oak Park temple and
met other parents who are in the process
of discovering or rediscovering Judaism
through their children.
But the central reason for sending
Philip to a Jewish preschool was to arm
him with a sense of belonging, both to a
culture and a religion, Ms. Weberman
said.
"We need more help because we're an
interfaith family. We need that boost. In-
dependent from that boost, I think it's good
to integrate religious education early in
life so it becomes part of the fabric of your
life. Philip really identifies as a Jew. I think
we're on the right road; I really do."
❑
35