Page 16-THE NEWS-Juna/July, 1983
L^Chaiiti
By L. Louis Albert, ACSW
Director Federation
Social Services
“My father is getting
older. He’s going to be eighty
five years old this year, bless
him. For all of his life he
worked hard and managed to
save $15,000. We’ve pleaded
with him to enjoy the money,
to spend some on himself,
but he insists on holding
tightly to it. That money is
for a rainy day when I’ll real
ly need it, he’ll tell me.
Meanwhile, he barely
scrapes by on his Social
Security income.”
For a generation who lived
through the Depression it
can be very difficult, if not
impossible, to give up the
security which that nest egg
represents. The harder you
push the greater the re
sistance. The other side of
the coin is that a hospitaliza
tion or a major illness will
run through that money
faster than you’d ever
believe possible. So what to
do?
I regularly encourage older
adults to relax and spend a
little of their savings for
their enjoyment. Sometimes
that permission is needed to
use the telephone for a few
extra long distance calls or
to buy some new clothes. If
giving presents to family and
friends is a pleasure then go
ahead. You might consider
making a trip to visit a
special grandchild or even
indulge that lifelong wish to
visit Israel on a local mission
tour.
Have you ever heard some
one say, “When I retire I
want to ... Next year we’ll do
... Once the children are
grown and on their own we
can ...” When it comes to
issues of life and health there
can be no guarantees that
tomorrow will ever come.
Planning ahead for possible
needs or crises is important,
but so is the ability to take
pleasure in the relationships
and opportunities available
to us in the present. As in
dividuals we often worry and
plan for the future, but as
Jews we’re also taught to en
joy our lives in the present,
too.
Issues like this are very
common as families deal
with the aging of a parent. If
you know of someone who is
going through this kind of
situation then encourage
them to call Jewish Social
Services for some help.
JUJB
Suggested Summer Reading
forCbUdren
The Castle on Hester Street.
By Linda Heller. Jewish
Publication Society, 1930
Chestnut Street,
Philadelphia, PA 19103.
1982. $8.95. Ages 5 to 8.
Gooseberries to Oranges.
Barbara Cohen. Illustrated
by Beverly Brodky.
Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 105
Madison Avenue, New York,
NY 10016. 1982. $10.50. Ages
7 to 10.
Call Me Ruth. Marilyn
Sachs. Doubleday, 245 Park
Avenue, New York, NY
10017. 1982. 134 pp. $11.95.
Ages 8-12.
King of the Seventh Grade.
Barbara Cohen. Lothrop,
Lee & Shepard. 1982. $9.50.
Age 9 and up.
Reviewed by
Rita Berman Frischer
Do you remember an old
Lag B *omer Picnic
On May 1, Lag B’Omer, a
picnic, was held at the
Lubavitch Residence. It was
arranged by Rabbi Yossi
Groner and Mrs. Eleanor
Weinglass.
Parents and children en
joyed delicious Glatt Kosher
hot dogs that Lior Schwartz-
man and Simcha Bar Lev
busily prepared. The par
ticipants enjoyed Sephardic
music, played games and
some took their best shot
with the basketball.
The tbeme of the picnic
was Lag B’Omer and its
lesson. Stories about Rabbi
Akiba and Rabbi Shimon
Bar Yochai were told of how
they resisted Roman oppres
sions and encouraged the
study of Torah through uni-
ty.
It has been a tradition that
on this day Jews rejoice and
take their children out to the
field. Indeed, our picnic-
goers fulfilled that tradition.
The outing was in response
to a call from the Lubavit-
cher Rebbe, Rabbi Mena-
chem M. Schneerson, who
called for outings to be held
all over the world. Reports
came into Lubavitcher head
quarters in Brooklyn, N.Y.
that more than one million
Jewish children participated
in Lag B’Omer parades and
outings all over the world.
mm
More than 30,000 people gathered near Lubavitch World Headquarters in New York for the
Lag B’Omer children’s parade, carnival and fair. The Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem
M. Schneerson, addressed the crowd and was heard live around the world. Upper right, the
Rebbe on the reviewing stand on the steps of Lubavitch Center, Upper left, one of many col
orful floats portraying Jewish themes. This one depicts the unity of the Jewish people
through their representative letters in the Sefer Torah. Below, a section of the huge crowd.
Lubavitch sponsored hundreds of similar parades all over the world involving hundreds of
thousands of children and adults.
6664 Carmel Rd.
Carmal Commons
542-5642
QualitY Color Photoa
In By 10 Out By 4
4360 Colwick Rd.
behind Mardeee at Cotawold
366-4044
Jewish Books in Review
is a service of the IWB lewish Book Council,
15 East 26th St., New York. N.Y. 10010
KING OF THE
SEVENTH GRADE
by Baitaia Cohen
television show which open
ed with a wide-angle shot of a
huge metropolis? The
camera zoomed in on one
neighborhood, one street,
one window in one building,
and finally followed the
story of one person among
the millions the city contain
ed. Well, make the city New
York, the neighborhood the
Lower East Side, and the
time the early 1900’s during
the massive wave of im
migration. Then, let three
talented children’s book
authors tell the stories and
you have the first three
books I am reviewing.
Two are picture books,
widely different but alike in
their skillful and affec
tionate presentation. For
children 5 to 8, Linda
Heller’s The Castle On
Hester Street combines a
warm grandparent/grand
child relationship with
humor, as Julie’s Grandpa
regales her with tall tales
about his journey from the
Old Country and his early
days in New York. He had,
he says, a singing goat for
transportation, Teddy
Roosevelt as a welcoming
committee, and a castle on
Hester Street in which to
live. Grandma Rose, the
pragmatist, listens, shakes
her head and tells her ver
sion of the past: an over
crowded boat, inspectors on
Ellis Island, and an ordinary
tenement home. But she and
Grandpa agree on the basic
and best truth: in America
they had each other and were
free to live as they wanted.
Heller’s flat, stylized pic
tures are just right for this
blend of nonsense, good
sense, and nostalgia.
The
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Open tyewiwn 'IN 9, Usm, *ll SiM
In Gooseberries To
Oranges, for ages 7 to 10,
author Barbara Cohen and
illustrator Beverly Brodsky
present the * first-person
memories of Fannie, who
traveled to rejoin her papa in
America when she was only
eight. This book contains
none of Grandpa Sol’s gloss
ing over of unpleasant
truths, but is told in a
straight-forward manner
and, although not the finest
work produced by award-
winning author Cohen, it is
an involving tribute to the
courage and adaptability of
all the little girls who found
suddenly one day, that
America had become
“home.” Brodsky has evok
ed the Lower East Side effec
tively, softening somewhat
her heavily dramatic style.
Marilyn Sachs, another
award-winning author, has
presented quite a different
picture of the immigrant ex
perience for 11 to 14-year-
olds in her novel Call Me
Ruth. Set in 1908 the story
emphasizes the strain of ac-
culturization on family
bonds. It describes how new
ly arrived young Rifka,
emulating her rigidly conser
vative American teachers,
determines to become
‘‘Ruth’’ an ‘‘ideal
American,” and grows more
and more ashamed of her
timid, greenhorn mother,
Faigel. But when widowed,
Faigel, determined to fight
exploitation, becomes a
Yiddish-speaking firebrand
and leader in the Garment
Workers’ Union, her
daughter’s initial horror
turns to a grudging pride and
she struggles to resolve the
conflict between her two
worlds. This is a sensitive
and honest book about
mothers and daughters,
courage and change.
Prolific Barbara Cohen
takes us from the past of
Gooseberries To Oranges to
the present in one leap in her
new and exceptional novel
King Of The Seventh Grade
(for ages 11 and up).
Thirteen-year-old Vic hates
Hebrew School, hangs
around the mall with his
pals, shoplifts occasionally
for kicks, and tries to find a
place for himself while shut
tling between his divorced
parents. He is truly a child of
our times, and Cohen doesn’t
quibble about it, an honesty
some may find disconcer
ting, However, when Vic
suddenly is disallowed from
becoming Bar Mitzvah, his
reactions aren’t those he ex
pected. And when he gets in
trouble with the law, he finds
an unexpected ally in Rabbi
Auerbach as he struggles to
understand himself and what
it means to become a Jew
and a mensch. King Of The
Seventh Grade is a prince of
a book for today’s child by a
talented and seemingly
tireless author.
Rita Berman Frischer is
librarian at Sinai Temple,
Los Angeles.