How do you explain the current financial situation, the devastating impact it is having on local Jewish families, and the solutions we are trying to put into place to a group of Sunday school kindergarteners?
I had exactly that experience recently, and what follows is a summary of one of those talks:
You are all members of a very special family. I know most of you think about your parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, and cousins as your family.
Today, I want to talk about your other family, all of the other people that are Jewish like you. If you are Jewish, you are very lucky. You have Jewish family members that you’ve never met all over the world — about 13 million family members.
You also have Jewish family members sitting all around you right now. All of these Jewish people make up your Big Jewish Family. They are close by and far away.
When you are sick or sad, that is when you need your family the most. Right now, it is your mom or dad or maybe your grandparent that makes you feel better. They love you, and that’s what they do.
As you grow older, you will start to see that members of your Big Jewish Family from all over the world love you, too. They will be there to help you feel better because that is what Jewish people have done for one another for hundreds of years. Isn’t that neat?
I bet you didn’t know that your Big Jewish Family works really hard at sharing. Sharing isn’t always easy. Sharing is giving something you really like or need to someone else.
Sometimes sharing is letting someone play with your toy. Sometimes sharing is letting someone that is hungry eat some of your food.
Being Jewish means that there will always be someone else in your Big Jewish Family that is there to share the most important things with you. They will do their best to take care of you. They do this because Jewish people count on one another.
If you can always count on other Jewish people in your Big Family, who do you think they get to count on?
This means that as you grow up, you also have a responsibility to your Big Jewish Family. Sometimes other Jewish people are going to need to count on you. You will need to share with them.
That is what it means to be a real member of a Big Jewish Family. Sometimes people share with you, and, sometimes, you share with them.
I bet you didn’t know that right now, here in Milwaukee there are lots of Jewish boys and girls that need someone to share with them. Actually, they need you to share with them.
Sharing will make your parents proud of you. Sharing will make you proud of yourself.
The easiest way to share with these boys and girls is through tzedakah. When you bring a dollar or two to Sunday school this month, those dollars are going to a fund called J-Help. Every single dollar that you share goes directly to boys and girls and families in Milwaukee.
You are never too young to be a friend, or to love someone in your Big Jewish Family. When you love someone, it is not just how you feel about them that matters, it is also how you treat them.
In life, you have to actually show people that you love them. The best way to show your Big Jewish Family that you love them, especially now when they need you, is through tzedakah.
I am happy to note that the lessons in Jewish values are truly being handed down, dor l’dor (generation to generation).
Milwaukee’s congregational schools donated the yield of their November tzedakah collections to J-Help, and the students of the Milwaukee Jewish Day School have announced that they will likewise contribute the results of their March tzedakah project to J-Help as well.
Rick Ruvin is chair of J-Help.
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