We had a meeting at our shul last night put together by our "Destination Israel" committee. Their job is to promote the upcoming synagogue trip to Israel and to also increase Israel awareness. One of the speakers was the Rabbi from our local JCC who is preparing to make aliyah. He started his speech by asking, "What makes a Jewish home Jewish?" A dead silence occurred at that moment in the room of approximately 60 people. So he asked the question again. Then he said, "Um, I see a hand way in the back but can't see who's hand it is." I turned around to see who it was. Who's hand do you think was raised? Yep, I turned around and saw LO's hand raised high in the air but since she was sitting on the floor all you could see was her little hand. Then we heard her say, "A mezuzzah!" The Rabbi replied, "Great answer. " Then he looked around and said, "Anyone else? Come on - if that little girl can come up with an answer so can all of you." Slowly people started to raise their hands and answer. And I was kvelling that my little one managed to motivate the group.The Rabbi went on to give a very good talk about Israel and gave many reasons why we need to go to Israel. One point he made was similar to what Psychotoddler mentioned in this post. He talked about how American Jews are losing the war of attrition. He explained that in the US where Jews are a minority and we are so often surrounded by things like Christmas and the Easter Bunny, it's too easy for our kids to stray from their roots. He talked about how important it was for us to teach our children to love being Jewish. And I looked at LO and thought in my head, "Baruch HaShem, we are on the right path."
