Jewish education

After we dropped Rachel off at choir practice and raced to and from the farmer's market, Drew and I attended a class/group discussion on our goals for Rachel's Hebrew school education. It was pretty illuminating, probably because I didn't realize that there are Jews in the military who work very hard to be Jewish even when they're stationed in out-of-the-way places where there aren't many Jews.

In class, Rachel decorated a glass dish for Rosh Hashana apple-and-honey dipping (they had apples and honey for snack) and learned about the letter "shin." She seems to be enjoying it a lot, and I hope this sticks. One of the things I mentioned in our discussion was that I'm secretly hoping to learn a lot more about Judaism through the things Rachel tells me about class, and apparently they are starting a program for parents to learn at the same pace their kids are, so they can have family discussions about that week's lesson.

I think that's a brilliant idea.

Rachel also has come up with a nickname for me: Bubba. When she's cuddly or has missed me or is about to say goodbye to me before I go to work, she'll say, "I love BUBBA," like she did this afternoon when she and Drew dropped me off at The Post for my afternoon/night shift. "Call me Ima!" I pleaded. "Ima means 'mother' in Hebrew!" But she didn't listen. So, I guess I'm resigned to being called "Bubba" for the foreseeable future. (My friend Dan's granddaughters call him "Oz" for no apparent reason, and he has told me that grandparents get called what their grandchildren decide to call them, so...I guess it could be worse.)