trAtvas,

Question of the Week: Oscar Hammerstein II (1895-1960)
is best known as a librettist of such work:: as South Pacific and The
King and I. He also set up a leading fund in Israel. Do you know
what it was for?

(

ays
Happy
Are Here i

It's time for school — and some
Jewish education facts and
ideas, from A to Z

ELIZABETH APPLEBAUM
Apple Tree Editor

hatever you do, don't
buy the pencils with
Barbie on them. Your
daughter is 9 now
Barbie pencils are, duh, for someone
else — someone less mature.
Also, Dad, notebooks with cute,
furry kittens are out: O-U-T. That's
for the little sister who still insists on
playing "kitty" ("You be the owner
and I'm your little kitty. Meow!") —
absolutely not for a girl about to
enter 7th grade. How embarrassing.
And another thing. Mom, when
your son's friends get in the car,
puleeze don't say anything like, "I am
proud of you for helping out at
Grandma's party!" In fact, Mom,
when your son's friends get in the car
do the safe thing: just don't talk.
Yes, starting a new school year is
challenging for the children.
But what about us adults? Are we
buying the correct school supplies?
Are we behaving properly around
our children's friends? Will we be
able to successfully arrange our
schedule according to when we must
drop off and pick up our children?
And, above all, will we actually be
able to help our sons and daughters
with their homework, or is it going
to be so impossibly difficult we will
scream our heads just thinking about

Ariana Heyman, 3, of
West Bloomfield
prepares to slam dunk
a basketball during
'.congrgation Shaarey
d.ek's Beth Hayeled
oc summer camp
obi sports day.

tonight's 40 pages of word problems
for math class?
Preparing for all this takes work —
and not just the shopping and the
scheduling. It's time for some brain-
work, too, to get us going. So get
into shape with a little Jewish educa-
don below. Your mind will thank
you for it.

LI Aleph bet
Learning the aleph bet can be fun if
you challenge children to transliterate
the names of their favorite stars into
Hebrew Since there is no real "right"
way to spell these, children won't feel
the kind of pressure that memorizing
can bring, and they will enjoy being
challenged to come up with exactly
how to write "Britney" (as in Spears,
naturally) or "Justin" (as in
Timberlake, that dreamy guy from
`N Sync). For children who already
know a great deal of Hebrew: ask
them to translate the lyrics of their
favorite popular song.

q : Breakfast

Prepare your child a great back-to-
school breakfast featuring that
proverbial favorite — bagels. Unlike
many foods that have come to be
identified as Jewish but really have
no specific Jewish connection (like
brisket), bagels actually are a Jewish
food. Meanwhile, see if you can learn
a few bagel facts to share at the table.

Reform movement of Great Britain.
You can read about the CJE, its goals
and publications, at
wvvw.knowledge.co.ukkje/

(For example, did you know that the
word "bagel" is Yiddish from the
German word for "ring"?)

E : Centre for Jewish Education

D): Dough
Turn ordinary bread dough into a
Jewish celebration. Thaw a one
pound loaf of frozen bread dough
(any kind will work, but white is
preferable) and allow to rise, accord-

If you've ever been interested in
Jewish education in a foreign land
(but not a foreign language), check
out the Centre for Jewish Education
(CJE), which serves the entire

41,

8/24
2001