Jewish Post, Indianapolis, Marion County, 22 May 2002 — Page 9

Mav 22. 2002 NATS

About Books L’dor V’dor: Generations Classic ‘Quiet Street’reprinted Overprotection = underpreparation

By JACK FISCHEL A lassie novel surrounding the birth of Israel in 1948 is Quiet Street, by Zelda Popkin, with a new introduction by Jeremy D. Popkin, the author's son.

Mrs. Popkin, who died in 1983, originally published this tale of an Israeli family in 1951, and now the University of Nebraska Press has reprinted it in paperback. Jeremy Popkin is a professor of history at the University of Kentucky at Lexington. (this month, $18.95). Cambridge University Press published this month Being Israeli: The Dynamics of Multiple Citizenship, by Gershon Shafir and Voav Peled ($65 hardback, $23 paper). Drawing on the historical record, his own childhood memories, and interviews with Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians who lived in the small eastern Polish town of Brzezany, histo-

rian Shimon Redlich's new book is Together and Apart in Brzezany: Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians, 1919-1945. This is an important historical book that will add to our knowledge of how the Holocaust unfolded under the Nazi occupation. Indiana University Press (this month, npa). Professor Redlich holds the Solly Yellin Chair in Lithuanian and East European Jewry at Ben-Gurion University. Additional new titles of books on the Nazi years that will soon appear include; The Hitler Kiss: A Memoir of the Czech Resistance, by Radomir Luza, history professor at Tulane University. Louisiana State Press ($34.95, June); and Rescuing the Children: A Holocaust Memoir, by Vivette Samuel. The author recounts her work with the French organization OSE (Society for the Assistance to Children), one of the groups responsible for keeping thousands of Jewish children from the concentration camps. University of Wisconsin (June, $32.95); and That Time Cannot Be Forgotten: A Correspondence on the Holocaust, by Georg Sold, a Catholic Wehrmacht medic and Paul Friedhoff, ajew wlio escaped Germany in 1934. The book is translated from the German by Ivan Fehrenbach, with an afterword by John K. Roth. Indiana University Press ($29.95, this month).

ANNOUNCING PUBLICATION

WHAT JEWS KNOW ABOUT Salvation by Rabbi Elliot B. Gertd In timei ol tear, people reek comfort, purpose, and direction. We feel tadners and depression. We think about such issues as responsibility, error, guilt, forgiveness. We explore spiritual recourses such as prayer and sacred scripture. This book deals with such issues and concerns. These pages draw upon the world's longest continuous discussion of salvation, the precious traditions of Judaism, as preserved in the Hebrew Bible, the Talmud, the Midrash, and the Zohar (Kabbalistic commentary on the Bible) This book will inspire, comfort, and challenge readers of all faiths and backgrounds and show how "old time religion" can help individuals and nations face both personal and social problems in order to build on the salvations which God has given us.

Price: $19.95 Induces and tax ISBN 1-57168-679-7 Size: 6 by 9. 113 pages

1 Solvation Foi - »tT n ,rom *Misukci I *Depr*i»ion

Saluafion Through . ♦ Peoplchoad ♦ Prayer* alwnii Rain ♦ Comfort ♦ Forgivcnei* ♦ The Right Time ♦ Sanctuary ♦ Peacemaking

Rabbi Gertel is an innovator in synagogue programming, author, historian, media critic, and spiritual leader f Congregation Rodfei Zedek, the distinguished Conservative synagogue on the South Side of Chicago.

By SUSAN WEINTROB A mother hurried into the lunchroom of the school I run where I was lunching with our third-through-fifth graders.

It was urgent; she had to see me. I found an empty classroom nearby to meet with her. Her eyes were watery with tears. "My son was teased in class yesterday. He was called fat." She was indignant. "I simply will not stand for this! If it continues, I will pull him out of the school." I sympathized with the mother but tried to explain to her that some teasing is part of growing up and will occur no matter what school her son attends. As parents, we need to teach our children to handle these situations. Growth is often painful but lack of challenge may be even worse. There is no parent, myself included, who does not get upset when his or her children suffer. We wish our children's lives to be free from difficulties. Not only can't we stop these problems, we can make our children feel incompetent if we do not allow them to handle day-to-day difficulties themselves. Let me give you an example. As many of you know, 1 homeschooled our children when we lived in Indiana. As our family became more and more involved Jewishly, we wanted our children to be educated in a day school. There was none nearby. During August, a board member of the day school in Indianapolis, 60 miles away, offered to find a home in which my son could board and attend the school. We accepted. My son began his first year of school that fall. He entered 8th grade, living at an acquaintance's home. We picked him up each weekend. During this very difficult year, we made a decision. As there was no Jewish high school within five hours of where we lived, we would move to a community that had one. Giving up jobs we had held for many years at a university, we uprooted our family and

moved to Brooklyn. My husband had an opportunity to take an early retirement by remaining with the university for two more years. So for two years, he lived in Indiana and the rest of us lived in Brooklyn, and he came to visit once or twice a month on weekends. In Brooklyn, my son started another school, this time a very competitive yeshiva high school that teaches what is called Ivrit b'lvrit, all Jewish subjects in Hebrew. My son was then on 2nd grade Hebrew level. You may imagine the frustrations and difficulties that he encountered in every aspect of his life. Many nights he would become so angry at all that he had to handle. "Why did we leave Indiana! Why are we living in an apartment instead of our house!" Why, why, why to an entire list of changes to accomplish something that he only vaguely understood — our great desire to live in a Jewish community and have him receive a Jewish education. With the help of the principal of the school and a few teachers, my son struggled on through his Hebrew subjects. When we moved again two years later, my son didn't think he could make another change. I wasn't so sure myself. My son is now finishing his senior year at this second yeshiva high school. I look at him — co-captain of the chess team, a yearbook editor, founder of the physics club, on the tech squad of the Drama Club and all A's in his Hebrew subjects. He made it through those difficult times, but was it worth it? He answered my question when he chose to write the obligatory college application essay on the challenges of the last few years: I grew up across from a cornfield, in a small town in Indiana. My parents homeschooled me until I was 14, when we moved to Brooklyn, New York, and I attended school. While the transition from learning at the kitchen table with my family in Indiana to learning at a yeshiva in New York was a challenge, I feel that, in retrospect, this change has taught me to confront difficult situations and succeed at them... I started at a second grade Hebrew level upon entering high school, but luithin two years I had caught up with my classmates and began to excel. This experience

taught me something I never would have imagined possible during these difficult months of adjustment: to work, to persevere, and to enjoy a challenge. At the end of the essay, he summarized his thoughts with sentiments that gave me a clearer understanding of what challenges may do for our children: I am increasingly grateful for the experiences l have been given....My upbringing taught me to take initiative and to look at the xoorld, not necessarily in the way everyone else does, but always to question and learn for myself. As I look at my son today, 1 know that the difficulties he faced, that I agonized over, were, in fact, a means of allowing him to become confident. He told me the other day that he could learn anything he had to. He became stronger as he learned to make it on his own. The college admissions professionals that we met were all interested in my son's background. I discovered that while grades and activities were important, they were attracted to students who could take initiative, overcome problems and feel confident that the daily challenges of college would not overpower them. What is the balance between protecting our children and allowing them to confront life on their own? This is not an easy question to answer. As 1 look at those who make life easy for their children with their affluence, influence or protection, I wonder if they are helping their children grow into confident and self-sufficient individuals. Certainly we do not want our children to be overwhelmed by problems; nonetheless, we want them to feel that they can make it, that they have the qualities within in them to survive what comes their way. Overprotection is harmful and weakens the selfassurance that our children need in life. At our house, high school graduation and college are just around the comer. As my son's room becomes filled with Columbia University paraphernalia, 1 see him leaving his childhood, filled with good and not so good experiences, gifts and difficulties. And I know that he is ready to go.