By
– February 24, 2012
This book is a step by step comprehensive guide for the modern mom on how to raise young Jewish children as Jewish mentsches. It has suggestions on topics ranging from play dates and extracurricular activities to birthday parties and bar/bat mitzvahs. It includes information about observing and celebrating Shabbat and Jewish holidays and generating interest by the children. There are reading, website, and tzedaka opportunity lists. Estroff deals with the internet and says that parents must stay current. She recommends not trying to keep up with the Jonesteins and not making yourself and your kids crazy by overbooking their schedules. She advises maintaining reasonable limits in everything from allowance to party plans to computer usage. Much of the advice is common sense, but for the first-time parent of elementary to middle school kids, this is a warmly written, easy to read sourcebook with an extensive index and bibliography.
Miriam Bradman Abrahams, mom, grandmom, avid reader, sometime writer, born in Havana, raised in Brooklyn, residing in Long Beach on Long Island. Longtime former One Region One Book chair and JBC liaison for Nassau Hadassah, currently presenting Incident at San Miguel with author AJ Sidransky who wrote the historical fiction based on her Cuban Jewish refugee family’s experiences during the revolution. Fluent in Spanish and Hebrew, certified hatha yoga instructor.