Becoming a Jewish Parent: How to Explore Spirituality and Tradition With Your Children - Hardcover

Gordis, Rabbi Daniel

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0609604082 ISBN 13: 9780609604083

Publisher: Harmony, 1999

Synopsis

Raising Jewish children in today's secular culture poses unique and serious challenges. How do parents pass on a positive, vital sense of identity, religion, and heritage without turning their kids off or overwhelming them? How do you explain what it means to be Jewish if you are ambivalent about it yourself? And perhaps most important, how do parents who have had little or no formal religious training themselves pass on rich, multilayered traditions that may have been missing from their own childhood experiences?
In Becoming a Jewish Parent: How to Explore Spirituality and Tradition with Your Children, Daniel Gordis has written an invaluable guide for parents who are interested in introducing Judaism into their homes so that their children can grow up loving, understanding, and cherishing their heritage.

Filled with delightful and inspiring anecdotes, thoughtful information about the history, holidays, and traditions that shape Judaism, as well as a useful glossary and incredibly thorough reference section, this book is a vital resource that you will want to refer to again and again. Becoming a Jewish Parent tackles major issues in contemporary life and offers thoughtful approaches and insights to dealing with such complicated subjects as using ritual to make space for feeling, talking about God when we have doubts, incorporating girls into what has been primarily a male tradition, and becoming part of a community that supports your ideals. Becoming a Jewish Parent is the book to turn to at every phase of a family's spiritual quest.

If being a good parent means having a subtle, sophisticated, and appropriate sense of what is "honest" when it comes to love, sex, police, the government, or other complicated issues, the same is clearly true with God.  We could, when our children ask about God, tell them about all the things we're not sure about, all the reasons we could come up with to doubt that God is "out there."

About this title

About the Author

Daniel Gordis teaches and lectures widely across the United States and beyond. A rabbi and professor, he is the author of two previous books, God Was Not in the Fire: The Search for a Spiritual Judaism and Does the World Need the Jews?: Rethinking Chosenness and American Jewish Identity. He and his wife are raising a daughter and two sons.

From the Back Cover

"This book is a gem. It shows us how to enrich our childrens' lives with Judaism, from the moment they wake up to that blessed moment they fall asleep--and everything in between. In the process, we become better parents and smarter Jews."         
--Ari L. Goldman, author of The Search for God at Harvard

"Once again, Rabbi Daniel Gordis takes the lead in showing us the spiritual fire at the heart of Judaism. This time, he teaches us how to make a Jewish home-fire--a warmth we can teach to our children, an illumination of the soul that will brighten the family life of every reader."        
--Rabbi David Wolpe, Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, author of Making Loss Matter: Creating Meaning in Difficult Times

From the Inside Flap

sh children in today's secular culture poses unique and serious challenges. How do parents pass on a positive, vital sense of identity, religion, and heritage without turning their kids off or overwhelming them? How do you explain what it means to be Jewish if you are ambivalent about it yourself? And perhaps most important, how do parents who have had little or no formal religious training themselves pass on rich, multilayered traditions that may have been missing from their own childhood experiences?<br>In <b>Becoming a Jewish Parent: How to Explore Spirituality and Tradition with Your Children</b>, Daniel Gordis has written an invaluable guide for parents who are interested in introducing Judaism into their homes so that their children can grow up loving, understanding, and cherishing their heritage.<br><br>Filled with delightful and inspiring anecdotes, thoughtful information about the history, holidays, and traditions that shape Judaism, as well as a useful glossary and incredibly

Reviews

Rabbi Gordis, dean of the University of Judaisms rabbinical school, has written extensively about why adult Jews should care about Judaism (Does the World Need the Jews?, 1997, etc.). In his latest book, he explains why parents should care about their children's Jewish identity and suggests strategies for getting the kids themselves enthusiastic about Judaism. Gordis provides some basics for those parents whose memories of Hebrew school are fuzzy: When is Purim, why do Jews fast the day before, and what are those triangular pastries people eat at Purim-time? What is that archaic Aramaic document our rabbi wants to read at our son's wedding? But this is more than a how-to. In characteristic fashion, Gordis addresses the larger spiritual questions that lurk beneath the surface of seemingly innocent hamantashen: Should we bother introducing our kids to the Jewish God if ``we're sure we don't believe''? What role should rituals invented by men zillions of years ago play in our life? Though aimed at Jewish parents, Raising Jewish Children will prove thought-provoking for a wider audience. Gordis recounts his daughter's asking him, `` `What was God doing when she was a little girl?' . . . . Talia's question . . . taught me that when we nonchalantly call God `He,' we steal something from our little girls.'' That is just one of many lessons in Gordis's book that will benefit both Jews and Gentiles, parents and those with no plans to procreate. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

A professor and rabbi tackles the topic of raising Jewish children in a secular society. Gordis is particularly clear-sighted on this issue and doesn't miss hitting any hot buttons. For instance, he understands that many Jews are ambivalent about their religion, and he explores the difficulties that develop when parents try to convey the importance of traditions that they either don't fully understand or don't accept. Another issue he confronts is the problem of raising girls in a religion that is not always female-friendly. Gordis' willingness to tackle the tough subjects notwithstanding, most of his book's thrust is in the direction of promoting the positive, not parrying the negative. Whether its introducing the holidays, exploring the history, or showing children how to live Jewish lives, Gordis offers useful, often creative ideas. His book is a responsive answer to many parents' questions. Ilene Cooper

Gordis (G-d Was Not in the Fire: The Search for a Spiritual Judaism) deals directly with an issue that, arguably, embarrasses Americans more than money or sexAspirituality. Never hortatory or facile, always understanding and caring, he delves into the problems of parenting for those Jews who want, or are forced by circumstance, to bring Judaism into their lives through their children. He explores how spirituality adds depth and meaning to the yearly cycle of Jewish holidays and to everyday life, emphasizing community and family and suggesting a road to wise choices. Also included is a glossary of terms and names, a quick bird's-eye view of Jewish history, and excellent suggestions for further reading. An act of love and faith on the part of its author, this is one of the finest treatments of spirituality and parenting ever published. The writing is a masterpiece of intelligence and clarity. Highly recommended for any community library where there are people looking to inject faith into their lives, this would also make an excellent teaching tool for community leaders.AIdelle Rudman, Touro Coll. Lib., New York
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harmony
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0609604082
• ISBN 13: 9780609604083
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336