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Review by Joanna Brichetto
To understand and feel themselves a part of the Jewish year, kids need hands-on experience. This is just what "The Jewish Holiday Craft Book" is designed to inspire. Author Kathy Ross has collected 46 fun, creative and easy holiday-based craft projects suitable for children of any age -- even the youngest can do many with help from an adult. Adult participation is key with all ages, of course, in a supportive, lightly directorial capacity, and, especially, in actually using the completed craft.
The book encompasses the yearly cycle of holidays, starting with Shabbat, the most important one (after all, it's the one holiday mentioned in the Ten Commandments). The Shabbat crafts can be used weekly by the whole family: foil candleholders, napkin-covered vase, kiddush cup, seasonal tzedakah box (a money box for charity) and spice box (used in a ceremony marking the end of Shabbat). Some of these Shabbat crafts can be used to celebrate the other holidays, as well. Each project is preceded by a concise, one- or two-sentence explanation of the use or meaning of the end result.
Concise is also the key word for the explanations of the holidays, as well: simple, compact and effective. The definition that announces each holiday is but a few lines long: clear enough to teach a toddler or adult; Jew or non-Jew. The author includes Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Hanukkah, Tu B'Shevat, Purim, Passover and Shavuot. It is commendable that Hanukkah (December 24 this year), while represented by four fun projects of its own, is not presented as the sole highlight of the Jewish year. It takes its place as a joyous, but minor festival, behind that of Shabbat, Yom Kippur, Passover and others.
"The Jewish Holiday Craft Book" is useful not only for Jewish children and their parents and teachers, but for anyone interested in giving kids (and themselves!) some hands-on experience in a positive, multicultural context. The beautiful and instructive projects make great gifts -- the best ones being the gifts of knowledge, wonder and belonging.
Joanna Brichetto is a reviewer and mother of a preschooler in Nashville, Tennessee.
©1997, ProMotion, inc.
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