"Parenting is a wholly human practice, and a holy one." This description of parenting comes from the Preface of How to Be a Jewish Parent by Anita Diamant, with Karen Kushner. At a time when statistics predict continued dilution of Jewish identity, when many "discussions of Jewish parenting seem like a last-ditch effort to preserve an endangered way of life," Diamant and Kushner instead consider parenting to be the project of "raising healthy, joyful human beings within our rich, diverse, life-giving tradition." The first part of the book, "Parents as Teachers," describes how to create Jewish spaces within the home, how to involve children in a Jewish community, and how to teach them about the Jewish calendar. The second part of the book, "Ages and Stages," addresses the particular challenges of raising children in various age groups. And the third section, "Modern Life," speaks to some particularly challenging situations, such as physical, mental, and learning disabilities. Throughout, Diamant and Kushner combine insights from scripture, psychology, education, and everyday experience. Like Diamant's previous books, How to Be a Jewish Parent arrives as the definitive reference in its field. --Michael Joseph Gross


From Publishers Weekly
How do you advise anyone how to be a parent? With so many parenting styles and types of families today, the answer is almost necessarily to offer choices. In fact, Diamant, author of several Jewish handbooks and the best-selling novel The Red Tent, and Kushner, a clinical social worker, call their easy-to-read guide "a book of choices" whose agenda is "to raise happy, healthy children by providing a window into Judaism's rich, varied and life-affirming traditions and values." Sections on making a Jewish home, finding community, celebrating holidays and observing life-cycle rituals from birth to death are chock-full of innovative strategies, practical explanations, age-appropriate suggestions and bibliographies to foster Jewish literacy. The book explores every avenue for enriching Jewish life, from affixing a play mezuzah on a doll's house and having a family joke fest on the joyous Purim holiday to shopping for a synagogue, school or camp. A chapter on conflict acknowledges the tensions that arise between spouses, or between parents and children, based on differing perceptions of "how to be Jewish and how Jewish to be." Diamant and Kushner gear their recommendations to the liberal Jewish community. Parents who are just beginning their Jewish journeys as well as those who are already knowledgeable and experienced will benefit from their wise, creative ideas. (Sept.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
"Diamant and Kushner help parents raise healthy, happy children with an eye on Judaism’s rich, varied and life-affirming traditions and values. The authors emphasize not only teaching children to understand their religion, but to embrace it and become charitable adults as a result."—St. Petersburg Times, Sunday September 17, 2000 (reviewed by Samantha Puckett)


Review
"Diamant and Kushner help parents raise healthy, happy children with an eye on Judaism?s rich, varied and life-affirming traditions and values. The authors emphasize not only teaching children to understand their religion, but to embrace it and become charitable adults as a result."?St. Petersburg Times, Sunday September 17, 2000 (reviewed by Samantha Puckett)

FROM THE PUBLISHER

If you are, or hope to be, a Jewish parent in more than name, you have a lot of decisions to make. So many choices! But you can have no better guide to this wealth of opportunity than Anita Diamant.

The author of popular books on Jewish weddings and baby rituals, Diamant now Joins with family therapist Karen Kushner to help you through the next steps. They give creative, practical answers to these and many other questions, provide guidance on how to foster Jewish decision making for children of all ages, describe how to make your home a "Jewish space," and explain the importance of synagogue membership, holiday celebrations, community service, and other family activities.

Diamant and Kushner draw from many sources to describe the practices, customs, and values that go into creating a Jewish home. They combine insights from Jewish tradition with contemporary developmental thinking about how children learn and grow. They provide addresses (including Web sites) where you can find specific information and other resources. And since experience may be the best of all teachers, they share their own and other parents' stories and observations. For Diamant and Kushner, the number-one goal of How to Be a Jewish Parent is to give parents (and grandparents) guideposts to raising joyful children within the rich tradition of the Jewish faith and culture. No Jewish family should be without it.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Jonathan S. Woocher

Diamant and Kushner have woven together an enormous amount of basic Judiac information–about values, holidays, and lifecycle events–with developmentally grounded, astute advice. This is a practical book that parents can use from before birth through the challenging years of their children's adolescence. It articulates a philosophy and a strategy for Jewish living–respectful of tradition, open to innovation, keyed to continuous learning–that will work for many Jews in every dimension of their lives. — President, Jewish Education Service of North America

Carol K. Ingall

How to Be a Jewish Parent will be just as dog-eared and thumb-worn as The New Jewish Wedding. It addresses real issues of raising children in an open society while trumpeting the power of Jewish tradition and texts to imbue contemporary family life with transcendental meaning. A wonderful addition to any Jewish library. — Associate Professor of Jewish Education, Jewish Theological Seminary

Joan Kaye

Not only explains difficult concepts such as God and Torah to parents, but gives them the specific language with which to explain these concepts to their children. — Executive Director, Bureau of Jewish Education of Orange County

Joshua Elkin