Letters to the editor

A lesson in making Jewish milestones truly meaningful
All of us in the Jewish community should rejoice in the Chronicle engagement announcement of Alexandra Mars to Phill Kaplan (Aug. 8).

Their choice of June 13 — representing the Torah’s 613 commandments — as the date for their engagement connected that commitment to a profound larger one that will root their married life in, as they wrote, their shared love of Jewish tradition and the “values and community they hold dear.”

Their linking of their personal simcha to the heritage that will give it meaning should inspire all of us to think of our own events within that context.

In particular, we should be thinking about what it means when our children choose their bar and bat mitzah projects. Why are they so rarely anything that enhances the Jewish lives they will be embarking on? Working at animal rescue organizations is nice. But how does an activity like that deepen a young person’s understanding of Jewish history or Jewish ethics?

What about Jewish observance? Why isn’t the entry point of Jewish adulthood the time for our young people to think about how to incorporate some essential aspect of Judaism — such as Shabbat — into their lives? And then there’s Israel. If our children know little more about it than what they see in the media, they will be able to be little more than embattled and defensive when they reach their college campuses and encounter the daily hostilities — both overt and subtle — to even the mildest attachment to Zion. College acceptances are no more than a “ mess of pottage” if our children lack the birthright we owe them — the ability to be knowledgeable, strong, proud Jews.

If we endow them with that, the specifics of where they go to school or what jobs they choose will matter less than that, whatever they do, they will be able to live with a heritage that honors their past, enriches their present and assures our future.

Ann Sheckter Powell
Squirrel Hill