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Sunday, January 7, 2018

Derech Eretz in Kitah Aleph

Today Kitah Aleph students learned about the Jewish value of derech eretz, treating others kindly and with respect. We read the children's book "As Good As Anybody" by Richard Michelson. "As Good As Anybody" tells the parallel stories of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. The stories begin when both men were boys and continues as they grow up. Both men grew to manhood in worlds that discriminated against them; Dr. King faced the racism in the south and Rabi Heschel faced antisemitism in Poland and Germany. Both men were inspired by their fathers to become religious and community leaders. Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel became life long friends and literally joined hands to march against racial prejudice and injustice in this country.

After hearing the story, Kitah Aleph students each completed a recording sheet with questions about the story. The children also shared ways that they could be "upstanders" and show derech eretz like Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel. Answers to the question: How can you be an upstander in your life? included:" I can stand up to people that are being mean to other people; I can give tzedakah; I won't fight; By being a better person; Sharing; If someone is teasing I can tell her to stop teasing; I can tell people to stop fighting."

In other Kitah Aleph news, the new Hebrew letter for today was dalet. In addition to learning a new letter each week, we review all the letters we have learned this year. We are almost half-way through the aleph-bet! As always, the children really enjoyed their time with Bar who taught them about the Hebrew scouts. We reviewed the colors in Hebrew with our color bingo game and had tefillah with Cantor Ken. I look forward to being back with the children in two weeks on January 21st.

Shavua Tov, Joanne

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