Shiurim
USCJ EC Staff Meeting Shiur - November 2006
“So here we are now, safe in America. God first brought the Pilgrims and then He brought us, the Jews. The Pilgrims were the first to give thanks to Him, but I believe we also owe Him a Thanksgiving. As much as anybody, we owe Him thanks.”
One of the Rabbis leaned forward and asked, “In what manner is this thanks given?”
“From what my teacher told me, it sounds something like a seder, Rabbi. Family and friends sit down together, offer a prayer of thanks, and then they eat together.”
Two weeks later, Rivka served the food for the first Thanksgiving on Hester Street.
- From "Rivka’s First Thanksgiving" by Elsa Okon Rael, McElderry Books, 2001
Questions for Discussion:
- Is Thanksgiving a Jewish holiday? Is Thanksgiving an ok holiday for Jews?
- What are your favorite memories of Thanksgiving celebrations or traditions? Who do you celebrate Thanksgiving with?
- Some historians suggest that the first Thanksgiving feast was based on the holiday of Sukkot. This makes sense, given what we know of the Pilgrims as a deeply religious people who may very well have looked to the Bible (Leviticus 23:33). “They knew that Sukkot was an autumn harvest festival, and there is evidence that they fashioned the first Thanksgiving after the Jewish custom of celebrating the success of the year's crops.” says Gloria Kaufer Greene, author of the New Jewish Holiday Cookbook (Times Books, $29.95 hardcover). In what other ways are Sukkot and Thanksgiving similar?
- How might you weave the connection to Sukkot into the celebration of Thanksgiving in your classroom? When teaching Thanksgiving, consider the “big ideas” or “enduring understandings” – what really is the most important thing you want your children to remember about Thanksgiving? Is it about Pilgrims and Indians? Is it what turkeys say? Or it is something deeper, more central to their lives as members of a community and as Jews?
Have a happy Thanksgiving, full of blessings!
Maxine Segal Handelman
Consultant for Early Childhood Education,
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism
