NEW Royal Oak Auction House Gallery Opening Early April '96 Specializing in 20th Century Modem So Many Hamans Anti-Semitism can be scary for children. But parents can help by being comforting and urging respect for others. GAIL LIPSITZ WITH BETH LAND HECHT SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS (Formerly Decorative Arts - 20th Century Modem) Consignment or Cash Buy-Outs Wanted For Upcoming Monthly Auctions WANTED • • • 20th Century Modem & Antique Furniture • Paintings • China • Silver • Rugs • Glass • Art Deco • Mission Oak • Jewelry and Collectibles (Specializing in Heiman Miller, Knoll & Haywood Wakefield furniture and furnishings) DON'T WANT AN ESTATE SALE? DON'T HAVE ENOUGH FOR. AN ESTATE SALE? CALL NOW!! We buy for cash or consign it all! Home visits scheduled at no charge! Royal Oak Auction House and Gallery 600 East 1.1 Mile Road, Royal Oak, Michigan 48067 Call LES GOODMAN Office 810-398-0646 or Res. 810-932-3148 Your Name For Our Auction WANTED • • Mailing List. Please Send Post Card. Gallery Hours: Tues.-Sun. Auctions Monthly THE DETRO IT JEWISH NEWS The Choice is Clear... Clear Bottom Lug Soles Made Exclusively for... Greg Orchard Mall Orchard Lake Rd. N. of Maple W. Bloomfield • 851-5566 SHOES "Serving the community for 39 years" I t's 9 a.m. on the Sunday before Purim. A mother and son are having a delightful, sticky time making hamantashen. Suddenly their happy mood is shattered by a radio broadcast. Another bus has been blown up by Hamas terrorists in Jerusalem. At least 19 Jews are dead in the third attack in a sin- gle week. Tears of anguish and anger fall on the hamantashen. In an in- stant, the questions and mes- sages of Purim have come to life. "Why do they want to stamp out the Jews?" asks the child. Why has it repeatedly been so during our history? The Talmud says, "When [the Hebrew month of] Adar arrives, we increase our joy" because Purim is coming (Ta-anit 29a). But how can we celebrate our survival as a people with total joy when me are still under attack? Driving home this question, a fourth bombing, this time in Tel Aviv, occurs the very next day. "So many Hamans, but just one Purim," goes a Yiddish proverb. Does this mean that our sense of vulnerability and perse- cution weighs as the heaviest el- ement of our Jewish identity? Is this a message we want to give our children? How does the awareness of anti-Semitism af- fect a young child's sense of se- curity and positive identification with the Jewish people? Hatred of Jews is a reality we can't hide from children. We are affected by terrorist attacks on our fellow Jews in Israel or any- where in the world. Even ele- mentary school-age children hear about these events on the news, listen to adults discussing them, and observe their parents' reac- tions. In addition, they are be- ginning to learn about the Holocaust and other tragic chap- ters ofJewish history in Hebrew school. What about when children are directly and personally touched by anti-Semitism? Although American Jewry today is more secure than Diaspora Jewry has ever been, the Anti-Defamation League still logged 1,843 anti-Se- mitic incidents in this country in 1995. Beth Land Hecht is director of the Jewish Outreach Network in Baltimore. Gail Lipsitz is Baltimore Jewish Family Service director of community relations. We have been spared the kind of brutal terrorism to which Is- raelis are subjected. Instead, anti- Semitism in America takes the forms of harassment, threats and assaults; anti-Jewish and anti- Zionist writing and rhetoric; and vandalism ofJewish institutions. A young child may first expe- rience anti-Semitism by seeing her synagogue defaced by a face- less perpetrator. Or she may hear an adult make a derogatory re- mark about Jews. Perhaps it's a teacher who says, "What? You're missing another day of school for one of those Jewish holidays?" Some children encounter teasing or taunts from other children in the neighborhood or at school. "The idea that people hate you just because you're Jewish is a scary thing for little children," says Marsha Tishler, coordina- tor of Holocaust Programs for the Baltimore Jewish Council. AP PH OTO BY BRYAN M CLELLAN Royal Oak's Hottest New Property Haman's genocidal plot against the Jews of Persia was hatched in response to Mordechai's re- fusal to bow down to a human. "It is discomforting to be sin- gled out for being different — for any reason ... For young children who are still struggling to feel se- cure in the world of others, per- secution is an evil that is truly terrifying," writes Rabbi Steven M. Rosman, co-author, with Ker- ry M. Olitzky and David P. Kasakove, of When Your Jewish Child Asks Why.