Those who grew up in the 1950s and \’60s heard little about the Holocaust. Considered a subject too frightening for children, it was seldom discussed or taught.
Once again we are faced with the annual dilemma of what to doabout Halloween. Should we let the kids \”trick or treat\” or not? Weknow that Halloween is not a Jewish holiday; that is not the problem.We celebrate Thanksgiving and Presidents Day, both American holidayswhich reflect good values. Halloween, on the other hand, does notreflect a value system that we would like to pass on to our children.It focuses on taking, greed and violence, not to mention theconsequences, a nasty trick, played on those who refuse to give.
It\’s only in recent decades that \”children\’smusic\” has mushroomed into a separate growth industry, complete withits own concert tours, TV tie-in shows and recognizable stars.
Project 9865, named after the 18-year-old oil derrick\’s OlympicBoulevard address, has several interwoven artistic, social and evenpolitical components.
Among the Southland\’s some 1,500 Yemenite Jews, \”a conservative estimate is that every third or fourth family has a connection,\” says Eli Attar, 46, the president of Solomon\’s Children, a Yemenite activist group.
\”You, Me & Dignity,\” which officially opened last week at themuseum space inside the Westside Jewish Community Center on OlympicBoulevard, is a thought-provoking, hands-on walk through the world ofdisabilities.
When Dr. William H. Parker talks, women listen. As chair of theobstetrics and gynecology department at Santa Monica-UCLA MedicalCenter and a clinical professor at the UCLA School of Medicine, hisjob depends on being able to give clear, calm answers to the fraughtquestions of women\’s health: \”What\’s an abnormal period?\” \”What doPap smear results mean?\” \”What are the risks of a hysterectomy?\”
Love answering children\’s questions. I\’ll visit a classroom and face an eager chorus of \”DidGod create dinosaurs?\” and \”Where do people go when they die?\” Then,at the end, there\’s always one wise guy, who smirks and asks, \”What\’sthe meaning of life?\” I love that kid. I admire his chutzpah, and Ilove the question.
Here we go again. For the third time in four years, Californians are about to be treated to another racially tinged slugfest, this time over bilingual education.
More news and opinions than at a Shabbat dinner, right in your inbox.