12/26/2024
As a Hebrew teacher and a mom, I believe the most important aspect of teaching Zionism to our kids is to instill a love for Israel from an early age. I took my 5-year-old to Israel, and I remember when we got on the bus, he noticed the bus driver wearing a kippah. He pulled me aside and said, "Mom, the bus driver is Jewish!" I smiled and told him, "Everyone is Jewish like us." It gave him a sense of belonging, we are not the exception, we are not different from the rest.
When we went again, and he was 10 years old, he saw a homeless man wearing a kippah. He pulled me again and said, "We need to help him; he's Jewish." I gave him some money and said, "Go help our Jewish brother." When my son handed the man the money, we heard the man recite a blessing in Hebrew.
I then told my son, "This is the Jewish people. We have professors, doctors, and also homeless individuals. This is Israel; this is our people. This is the land of the Jewish people."
Happy Chanukah, the most Zionist Jewish holiday. The miracle of Chanukah happened in Jerusalem. Not in Egypt like Passover, in Persia like Purim or in the desert of Sinai like Shavuot.
