An Affiliate of the Jewish Federation
of Greater Charlotte
^
'' X
Vol. 35, No. 4
Nisan-lyar 5773
April 2013
Celebrate Yom Ha’Atzmaut with The Fountainheads
ISRAELI 65
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By Roni Amitai, Community
Shlicha
To me, the true meaning of Yom
Ha’atzmaut is not to remembering
a pieee of seroll that 37 people
signed 65 years ago - to me the
true meaning of the day is aetually
to eelebrate our present and our
future. It’s all about eel-
ebrating 65 years of
amazing people, work
ing together to aehieve a
mutual goal of making
Israel a better plaee. My
favorite part of Yom
Ha’atzmaut in Israel is
the eeremonial lighting
of the twelve torehes, one for eaeh
of the Tribes of Israel. Every year
a dozen Israeli eitizens, who made
a signifieant soeial eontribution in
a seleeted area, are invited to light
the torehes on Mount Herzl (the
burial ground of our past greatest
leaders). The eeremony like every
thing else in Jewish life is meant
to honor the past and give thanks
for the present.
For our Israel @65 eelebration
this year, we are lueky enough to
host a group of young people that
is working every day on making
Israel a better plaee and are truly
the leaders of the future - The
Fountainheads.
The Fountainheads are a group
of graduates from the Ein Prat
Aeademy for Leadership. The
group produees musie videos set
to pop songs with original
lyries eelebrating Jewish
holidays. Their videos
have garnered millions of
views on YouTube and
been featured in leading
news sourees, television
shows, and blog sites in
Israel and aeross the
Jewish world. In response to
enthusiastie invitations from
eommunities everywhere, the
Fountainheads have toured North
Ameriea and Europe and we are so
exeited that they are eoming this
April to Charlotte.
Ein Prat Aeademy for Leader
ship is Israel’s largest provider of
intensive pluralistie Jewish eduea-
tional programming, loeated in the
heart of the Judea desert. Students
live on site in dormitory-style eon-
ditions and spend the majority of
their waking time
learning and analyz
ing texts in a pluralis-
tie Beit Midrash. Ein
Prat enhanees Jewish
identity, strengthens
Israel’s soeial fabrie,
and serves as a bridge
between the eoun-
try’s next generation
and young Jews
ON ‘311O1HVH0
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ais idSdd
aeross the world, serving as an
ineubator for modern-day pioneers
and mending the bridges between
seeular and religious. These young
adults are redefining for them
selves what it means to be an
Israeli Jew. Together, they are
ereating new visions and opportu
nities for the Jewish State.
There is no better ehoiee then
have the leaders of tomorrow here
with us to eelebrate Israel diver
sity, energy, aehievements, history,
and future. Please join me and the
Fountainheads on eelebrating Is
rael 65 Independenees Day, April
21 at Symphony Park at South-
park, 5-7 PM. Tiekets are $5.
www.jewisheharlotte.org. ^
The Fountainheads
Yom Ha’atzmaut
April 21 at 5 PM
Symphony Park
at SouthPark
Tickets on sale now.
www.jewishcharlotte. org
Free-Range Children: See What Lenore
Skenazy Has to Say About Setting Your
Children Free and Letting Them Fail
11
Lenore Skenazy
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9ZZ8Z ON ‘9HO|JBMo
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fVhy I’m Raising
Free-Range Kids
By Lenore Skenazy,
excerpted from 2009
Huffington Post
One Sunday morn
ing about two weeks
ago, the phone rang.
“Lenore?”
“Yes.”
“My name is Irv
ing.” I didn’t eateh his
last name. Shipolsky or
something. “I live in Queens. I’m
90 years old.”
“Mazel tov! What’s up?”
“I just ealled to tell you about
the first time I rode the subway by
myself”
Ah - got it. He’d traeked me
down beeause I am The-Mom-
Who-Let-Her-Nine-Year-Old-
Ride-the-Subway-Alone.
Like Irving, you may
have seen me on Dr. Phil or
Nightline or The View. Or
heard me on NPR or the
Today Show. Suffiee to say
that last year, when I wrote
a little eolumn about letting
my fourth-grader ride the
subway solo from Bloom-
ingdale’s to 34th Street then
take a bus to our apartment,
it hit the proverbial
“nerve.”
Then when my Free-
Range Kids book eame out,
the nerve got hit again, whieh is
why Irving wanted to talk.
“You got time?” he asked.
“Sure.”
“Well, I was 10 years old and I
was going to my grandmother’s
house for Hanukkah. She lived in
the Bronx. My mother made me
take my little sister along, who
was 8.”
I eould hear the smile.
“We got on the train and stood
in the front ear so we eould look
out at the traeks. It was snowing
Here’s a guy who’s been mar
ried for 66 years. He has
ehildren, grandehildren,
great-grandehildren, and
even two great-great-
grandehildren. He fought
in World War II. But one
of the defining moments
of his life was that first
time he did something
“grown up” by himself
In 1929.
So these past few
weeks, when I’ve found
myself attraeting eallers who
would like to tie me to the subway
traeks, Irving beeame my new
touehstone.
My whole point is not to deny
that there’s danger in the world.
It’s just to put that danger baek in
perspeetive so we ean give our
ehildren exaetly what Irving has
CAUTION
Lenore Skenazy says you ean proteet your kids
without bubblewrapping them.
treasured for eight deeades: The
ehanee to say, “I did it myself!”
A ehanee we’re denying our
kids.
As parents, we want to raise
ehildren who are self-eonfident
and independent. And we want
them to be safe.
When my story first eame out,
people kept pulling me aside to
say that they had been allowed to
get around by themselves as kids,
and boy were they glad.
They relished those memories
— and thanked their parents —
and then in the next breath they
admitted: They would never let
their kids do the same.
Why not? Has the world really
beeome so mueh more dangerous
in just one generation?
What’s happened in the past
generation is our fear for their
safety has overwhelmed any old-
fashioned notion of the benefits of
letting them knoek around and
make their own fun. Even make
their own mistakes.
No, not in the way that most
parents fear. Loeally, our murder
rate is baek where it was in 1963,
when a kid eould take a ride on
the subway and it wouldn’t make
the “Today Show.” Nationally,
Justiee Department statisties show
that the number of kids getting ab-
dueted by strangers aetually holds
pretty steady over the years. In
2006, that number was 115.
Everything has its 15 min
utes of fear. We get so rattled
by it all, we ean’t think
straight.
So our brains are filled to
overflowing with terrible
stories and heartbreaking pie-
tures, and seary adviee and
hysterieal produets, all very
mueh out of whaek with the
faet that it’s a great time to be
a kid.
(Continued on page 5)
Jewish Family
SERVICE.'!
ih( hrari nj'uur rmimminiy
Community Yom
HaShoah program,
April 7 ...see page 14.