The Charlotte Jewish News - February 2012 - Page 13
Local Chapter’s Name to be Inscribed at Hadassah Medical Center in
Ein Kerem
By Hadas Kosher, president,
Charlotte Chapter of Hadassah
We have just eompleted 2011,
and thanks to our members, asso-
eiate and supporters it was a won
derful year for our ehapter.
We have grown signifieantly
and now have over 1000 members
and assoeiates. It is a wonderful
feeling to see how Hadassah eon-
tinue to be signifieant foree in our
eommunity and be as relevant
today as it was 100 years ago.
Eaeh of Hadassah’s programs
requires signifieant and long term
finaneial eommitment. Medieal
researeh takes years before it
eomes to fruition. Youth villages
that serve as homes for at-risk kids
need support to be a stable envi
ronment and so on. Hadassah
members and assoeiates gave gen
erously with donations ranging
from a few dollars to millions.
Thanks to Charlotte ehapter
donors we were able to signifi
eantly exeeed our finaneial goals.
We raised over 125% of
our speeial goal for the
new hospital Tower in
Jerusalem that will open in
Mareh, and we also sur
passed our overall
fundraising goal.
As a symbol of grati
tude our ehapter’s name
will be inseribed on a
briek in the “Centennial
SAH
Path” at Hadassah Hebrew
University Medieal Center in Ein
Kerem, Jerusalem. Hadassah’s
Centennial Path will serve as a
legaey of what has been—and
what ean be—beeause of you.
This is a gift for generations. It
will be there for you and your
loved ones to see whenever you
visit Israel.
Now we are looking forward to
an even better 2012. We have
plenty of events for our eommuni
ty to enjoy in the 2012.
Our volunteers are putting it all
together, enabling us to edueate
ourselves, meet old and new
friends, and raise funds to support
our eore mission programs.
In April of this year our ehapter
will host Hadassah Regional
meeting and will weleome other
ehapters from our region to
Charlotte. We will be honored to
have Hadassah’s National
President as well as other distin
guished guests joining us for a
eelebration of the eentury.
This will be a wonderful
event to learn all about
Hadassah and more, all in
a fun way ,delieious
kosher food and great net
working opportunity.
Thank you all for your
support in 2011, Thank
you Charlotte Chapter
board members, donors
and volunteers.
With your support we will
make 2012 a year to remember.
The Deadliest Forest Fire in
Israel’s History - a Year Later
One year has passed sinee the
devastating Carmel forest fire, the
worst natural disaster in Israeli
history, whieh killed 44 people
and destroyed 7,500 aeres of
forested area.
In February 2011, The
Charlotte Chapter of Hadassah, in
partnership with the Jewish
National Fund (JNF) and with the
help of Temple Beth El, Temple
Israel, Charlotte Jewish Day
Sehool, the Sandra and Leon
Levine Jewish Community
Center, Jewish Federation of
Greater Charlotte, and other eom
munity groups, organized a eom-
munity-wide initiative to raise
funds for JNF’s Operation Carmel
Renewal (OCR).
With your support, OCR eam-
paign has raised more than $7.5
million worldwide to rehabilitate
the burnt landseape of the Carmel,
to purehase new firefighting
equipment and trueks, and to re
green effeeted eommunities.
Loeally in Charlotte, in addi
tion to giving monetary support,
we also learned about the forest in
Israel and the reeovery effort from
the JNF forester who leads the
reeovery effort. We ereated eon-
Schtwis
Learning to Appreciate “Kid-isms”
By Dedee Goldsmith, director, the
Jewish Preschool on Sardis
“Mom, is ‘Mother Nature’
God’s wife?”
“When you die, do you go to
heaven the same age you die at?”
“How did the first person show
up on Earth?”
“Do you know who Zayde’s
Zayde Zayde is and where he is
from?”
These are Kid-isms. You know
those questions and statements
that kids toss your way. They
seemingly eome from nowhere
while you are tying their shoes,
driving along to soeeer or snug
gling before bed. You never know
when they will happen.
We live in a hurried world of
seheduled days moving from
aetivity to aetivity but it is often
those transition times, the unstrue-
tured or less struetured parts of the
day that allow us the insight into
the brains of our ehildren. We get
to see what they think about and
how they learn to make sense of
this ever ehanging world.
Why are these moments impor
tant? These preeious moments
allow you to develop a eonneetion
with your ehild that is rieh and
deep. It is often the one question
or eomment that allows your
ehild’s personality to shine, to see
the depth of who they are develop
ing into. It is a time to pause and
proeess the past paeed world in
whieh we live. By taking a few
moments to talk about the ques
tions and eomments, we not only
hear what our ehildren think about
but it allows us as parents and
teaehers to think about our own
knowledge and values. There is
also room for ereativity in these
moments. When I am asked ques
tions that are open ended or
abstraet I like to ask more ques
tions, allowing the ehild to use
their ereative energy to think
about what is possible. When ehil
dren eonneet their eurrent knowl
edge to new things, we boost their
eonfidenee and sense of self. Of
eourse, when I don’t know an
answer to a relatively eonerete
answer I use that as the opportuni
ty as well. It is ok to not have all
the answers. Showing ehildren
how to investigate and researeh
gives them useful life skills. That
may be making a phone eall, using
the internet or a trip to the library
to find more answers.
When my oldest was about five,
she had numerous questions about
God and religion. The questions
never seemed to end and I had
limited information to offer her.
Finally, after a flurry of questions
about Judaism eompared to other
religions, I asked if she would like
to sit down with our Rabbi to find
out more. In her preeoeious man
ner, she went to town making a list
to take in to see our Rabbi. It was
great to see her engage in her own
learning for the sake of learning
and no other reason. No grade, no
assessment, just for knowledge
sake.
How ean we eapitalize on these
random and preeious moments?
-Write them down. Keep a kid-
ism notebook (or in our eurrent
day and age, on your e-gadget).
ips
The Jevtis^ Preschool c
neetions between the fire depart
ments here in Charlotte and Israel.
Thanks to the generosity of the
Jewish Federation of Greater
Charlotte, a delegation of three
firefighters from the CFD visited
Israel and built a bridge of friend
ship and eooperation with their
Israeli eompatriots. Out of the
ashes of this deadly fire, the spirit
of brotherhood and eollaboration
was bom. ^
Kids eome up with great names
for things and have great ideas.
We think we will remember the
keen, insightful and witty eom
ments or questions, but so often
we don’t. Having one plaee to
refer baek to is a wonderful trip
down memory lane for you and
your ehild. It is great to look baek
at periods of time to laugh about a
eomment or to see it differently
now that your ehild has more life
experienee.
-Ask more questions. “Tell me
more,” “How did you think about
that?” or “that’s a great question,
where do you think we ean find
more information about that?”
-Find time to ereate more
opportunities for kid-isms. This
may be easier said than done, but
take note of patterns. Is there a
time of day, a spot in the house or
a loeation that seems to be notable
for your ehild? Use that informa
tion to make time for spending a
few extra minutes to allow your
eurious ehild to ask away or ehat
away. I know for my family, it
seemed like ear trips and “getting
dressed” times were the moments
that ereated the question times. ^
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