Shiurim
USCJ EC Staff Meeting Shiur - December 2005
It happened the same way every winter, when the world grew cold and afternoons became dark long before dinnertime…
One morning, Emma's father raised the shades in her room and said, "Sweetheart! Tonight's the first night of Hanukkah! Time to get out the menorah!"
Then one day, Emma's mother pulled down boxes of Christmas ornaments from the top shelf of the closet. "Well, Pumpkin, shall we pick out the Christmas tree this morning?" she asked.
After the holidays, Emma helped wrap the Hanukkah menorah and the Christmas ornaments and putthem away for next year. But she remembered the bright winter lights in the dark winter nights for a long, long time.
- Excerpts from Light the Lights! A Story about Celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas, by Margaret Moorman, Scholastic, Cartwheel Books, NY: 1994.
More and more, our preschool children bring varied experiences to school with them. Every winter we grapple with the "December dilemma," when Christmas and Hanukkah go head to head in our schools. We must remember that children living in the general American culture, and especially children from interfaith families, will be exposed to diverse religious lifecycle practices. We must strive to create an atmosphere that provides acceptance, respect and value for diversity. Our sensitive support and reinforcement of both our children's experiences and our school's mission will best offer the opportunity for children to feel connected both to the communities of which their family are a part and their school communities.
Questions for Discussion:
- How typical is Emma's experience among the children you teach?
- How familiar is this experience to you personally, among your family and friends?
- How comfortable are you with this family's practice?
- We strive to validate every child in our program. How do you respond when a child wants to talk about her family's Christmas tree?
- Hanukkah is the celebration of the Maccabbees' successful struggle to redeem our right to live a fully observant Jewish life. Given your school's population, how can you teach Hanukkah, with its true message of taking advantage of our hard-won freedom to live as Jews?
Resources:
- Albee, Sarah. Celebrate with Blue! A Book of Winter Holidays, Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon, 2005. (board book)
- Axford, Elizabeth. Merry Christmas Happy Hanukkah: A Multilingual Songbook and CD, Piano Press, 1999.
- Gertz, Susan Enid. Hanukkah and Christmas at My House, Willow and Laurel Press, 1992.
- Older, Effin. My Two Grandmothers, Harcourt Children's Books, 2000.
- Santomero, Angela. A Blue's Clues Holiday, Simon Spotlight/Nickelodeon, 2004
- Zeskind, Margie and Sheila Silverberg. The S.A.G.A. Approach (Sensitive Alternatives for Guiding Affectively), SheMar Productions, Inc. 1996.
Articles to share:
- The December Dilemma by Ron Wolfson (Especially good for a Jewish family considering borrowing some Christmas traditions.)
- Holiday Guidelines for Interfaith Families by Julie Andrews Horowitz
- December Dilemma: Interfaith couples face emotional choices by Robin Galiano Russell
Maxine Segal Handelman
Consultant for Early Childhood Education,
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
