4Real Forums: teaching about other religions

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insegnante
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Posted: April 27 2006 at 3:43pm \| IP Logged

We're going to an extended family birthday party in New Jersey. The town where we've booked our hotel room is described as a "hub" of Orthodox Judaism. I figured we would probably see people walking together in distinctive dress to or from Saturday worship and would have the opportunity to talk to our 4-year-old about who they are and what they are doing. Excitedly told DH that I see it as a "homeschooling" opportunity. My own grandfather was a convert from Judaism, so this could lead into a family history discussion, etc., etc....

Then I started to worry about how I should introduce the subject of another religion to someone as young as 4 without either sending subtly indifferentist messages or making people of other religions sound "bad." Any ideas? Would you simply identify the people as "Jewish" without specifying what that means? What if your young child did ask? It seems wrong to reduce the Jewish religion to "they don't believe in Jesus" -- which was my whole concept of Judaism when I was a child in NYC, to the point of imagining the worship of Orthodox Jewish neighbors as consisting of people simply celebrating the fact that after 2000 years they still didn't believe in Jesus -- I was not taught any anti-Semitic ideas at all, but I guess Judaism was not much described beyond what we did not have in common. But I also don't want to give a false isn't-it-a-wonderful-world-of-diversity impression of the complicated subject of religious differences.

So on second thought, I may not be "homeschooling" our 4-year-old this weekend on the subject of modern Judaism or any other non-Catholic religion. But it could come up without my forcing it, and it may come up soon enough in another situation. We do sometimes correct his observation that we are passing a "Catholic" church and explain it's a "different" kind of church, and I wonder where that topic may lead. Interested in your experiences in this area.

Theresa
with two boys, 4 years and 20 months

Christine
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Posted: April 27 2006 at 4:05pm \| IP Logged

I believe it's a wonderful opportunity! You could teach it from the perspective of Jesus, Mary and Joseph were faithful Jews.

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Katie
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Posted: April 27 2006 at 11:29pm \| IP Logged

We talked a bit about Judaism after "rowing" the book "Mrs. Katz and Tush" by Patricia Polacco. This or other picture books might introduce a 4yo in a nice, gentle way.

And as Christine said, Jesus was a Jew!

I find young children are extremely receptive and accepting of people who we perceive as different. Often they see only another human being and don't equate one person's funny hat as being any more odd than Aunt Florrie's funny Easter hat.

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marihalojen
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Posted: April 28 2006 at 7:17am \| IP Logged

We love the fact that when we go to Miami Beach we're bound to see Hasidic (sp.?) Jews on the streets. Perhaps you could just concentrate on the clothing and hair/wigs and a bit of what that represents and why. Maybe look for shops with writing outside, "Look! That's not our alphabet!" esp. wig shops (I had never seen so many wig shops in my life and just wrote it off as Snowbird Country, you know? But when I mentioned it to a Jewish friend she told me that Hasidic women are not allowed to show their hair and so wear wigs.) I don't know how or if wigs align with the Orthodox... Patricia Polacco has several great books, we like TIKVAH MEANS HOPE where a Sukkah is built to celebrate Sukkoth.

Eat in a deli. For any study, on any subject, food is always good!

Those are several non-religious things I can think of, to address the differences between our religions, perhaps you could talk about how ancient the Jewish religion is, aligning it more with Moses and other Old Testament stories your son is familiar with.

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insegnante
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Posted: May 01 2006 at 11:05am \| IP Logged

We didn't get there until after dark Saturday, unfortunately. Sunday we just checked out of the hotel and drove off to the party half an hour away; we did go back to the heavily Jewish town for 5 p.m. Mass. My 4-year-old did in fact notice the distinctively dressed men he saw about; he thought they were "mayors," presumably because Richard Scarry's Mayor Fox wears a top hat.

Lotsa mayors in Lakewood, New Jersey (which does in fact have an Orthodox Jewish mayor.) I didn't actually address Judaism at all until we were parked at an Exxon which featured a glatt Kosher sub station. DS was naming the items he perceived on the pictured sandwich; after noticing the sub looked a little unusual and remembering why, I corrected his observation that there was cheese, and explained a bit about the Jewish people we saw with the black hats and coats eating Kosher food which includes not mixing dairy and meat. To avoid confusion I did not mention the belief motivating Orthodox Jews that God requires them to follow certain dietary laws. Later DS correctly identified a man we saw as "Jewis[h]."

So instead of thinking of Jewish people solely in terms of lack of belief in Jesus, DS may now just think of them as dressing like mayors and not eating cheese together with meat.

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