<p>momjr - interesting comment on the role of Jewish youth groups and camps. S1 went away to Jewish sleepaway camp every summer in his early teens. But, he went with his existing group of school friends - it really did not broaden his perspective. Then, he chose a college that has a very small Jewish population and has not gone to any Hillel activities. S2 never went to Jewish sleepaway camp - but has been incredibly involved in BBYO since the beginning of 9th grade. He seems more interested in participating in Hillel at college. So - I’m not sure why they seem to have turned out differently (so far) in their interest in Jewish life. One comment S1 has made is that he has so many Jewish friends from hs - he never felt the need to seek out additional Jewish friends. So for him, growing up in a very Jewish area (relatively speaking) negated the need to become involved in BBYO or something similar. I think because BBYO is ongoing - rather than just 2 weeks of camp - it has had a greater impact on S2. Now he is registering to attend the regional convention in Baltimore in late December - $325 well spent.</p>
<p>Thanks for the excellent advice. I called Towson housing. The rep said first day to accept housing applications is Feb. 1. It is on my calendar for my son to get his housing application in 2/1.</p>
<p>mdcissp - I hope he gets the single - things seem to have worked out so far - hope they will continue to do so. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!</p>
<p>Chocciechip - when I don’t have the holiday here I always make a second dinner on Friday so we have our own leftovers. </p>
<p>DH isn’t Jewish but we also agreed to raise our kids as Jews. Got a bit tricky though when we ended up adopting our son from Korea. But we had him circumcised at 7 months old by a Jewish urologist so as far as we are concerned that took care of everything even though we never did the formal mikvah and conversion. I’m sure more religious Jews will say he’s not Jewish but as far as we and he is concerned he is. </p>
<p>We also did the camp thing from the time he was 7 except it wasn’t Jewish camp - just a camp where 99.9% of the kids are Jewish.</p>
<p>Yabe, have fun in the parade. I’d say it’s a shame they aren’t shown on TV but clowns freak me out, so.</p>
<p>serves me right for going somewhere that had AWFUL internet access; 6 pages of updates just on this thread…</p>
<p>levirm: Congrats on Penn State!!</p>
<p>md: Congrats on Salisbury ! (although I think Towson is “the one”)</p>
<p>yabeyabe: really? really? too bad you can’t have a “CC” on your costume so we can see you on TV…</p>
<p>momjr: PM me if one of your sisters lives in NJ; the profile you describe of your family is scarily similar to a very close friend (who is one of four daughters whose sister lives in your neck of the woods!!)…how weird would that be…</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!</p>
<p>Rodney, if I had “CC” on my pilgrim costume, too many parents would ask me to chance their 5 year olds for the Ivies…</p>
<p>Mdcissp: It sounds like you have the housing question answered but since I had to give a lot of consideration to the double dipping question I thought I’d share how I resolved it. UT made it clear that there wasn’t enough campus housing for all students and the quality was very variable. The sooner the deposit went in the more likely you were to get your choice. The catch was that you couldn’t put in a housing deposit unless you put in the tuition deposit. So it seemed we didn’t have a choice. But as far as taking someone’s spot. The admission offer was open until May 1. Thus doing anything other than declining admission is already taking someone else’s spot. The only way you really open the spot for another student is by declining the admission offer. Once another decison was made S immediately withdrew his admission and all of this happened before May 1. But not by much, since the decison took us to the wire. If you can do a housing deposit without a tuition deposit by all means do and as you planned, bright and early 2/1.</p>
<p>CCC: Its great to hear a story of someone who grew up in an area lacking a Jewish community and still retained their identity and faith. I do feel good about where my kids are but you never know what is down the road. Thanks for the encouragement your story brings.</p>
<p>yabeyabe: How great that you get to be in the parade! I have never been but I think about it every year…it’s just a train ride away (but a very early train ride…)</p>
<p>I never thought about the clowns in the parade, but then you posted and then this article appeared in Newsday today:</p>
<p>[Wantagh</a> man marks 16 years as Macy’s parade clown](<a href=“http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/wantagh-man-marks-16-years-as-macy-s-parade-clown-1.2490661]Wantagh”>http://www.newsday.com/news/new-york/wantagh-man-marks-16-years-as-macy-s-parade-clown-1.2490661)</p>
<p>Ironically, the “clown” they feature is the father of my S’ good friend from his URJ camp! My worlds collide again.</p>
<p>My D got home last night from college for the break - so happy to see her, but I am exhausted today because, of course, she was out till 12:45 am (with permission, but still…). I am anxious to see her friends and learn more about their schools (although none of her friends from here are Jewish so I won’t get that perspective). </p>
<p>I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Aw, Spectrum…thank you!
I really owe all the credit to my mom, who had the foresight to make sure she instilled the love of our Jewish religion and heritage since we were very little. I remember such a positive experience of my mom, making traditional holiday meals and then going one step further…taking out her book of Jewish Holidays that was tattered from so much use at each and every holiday and read to us the chapter from that particular holiday. And the 4 of us girls gathered around the table asking questions and she would refer to the book for answers if she didn’t know off the top of her head!</p>
<p>Because there were maybe 12 of us Jewish kids at the high school at the time, I also remember being the one that churches would call on every Dec. to bring over my Menorah and talk about the story of Chanukah to Catholic kids in their CCD classes.</p>
<p>Liny…hope your D is enjoying her first semester at UDel! Unbelievable how quickly time flies by.</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to everyone, yabe, have fun! :)</p>
<p>Rodney: None of my sisters live in NJ, so I guess we have a twin family out there.</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to all. I’m very thankful that my nest is full for the holiday. I picked up my older daughter at the train station last night. We’re having dinner here tomorrow. I’ve been to 5 grocery stores and the turkey farm, and just started cooking the sweet potatoes. One of the things I love about Thanksgiving is that it’s a holiday that all religions share.</p>
<p>Emilybee, Friends of mine adopted a Chinese girl some years ago who they raised Jewish. One December, a few years later the girl, now in preschool, was lamenting (as even my kids sometimes do) how much more festive and fun Christmas time was with lights, trees, carolling etc. “I wish we had those things too” she lamented. And the Mom started the same conversation that a lot of us have had over the years, telling her of all the things we do have instead. </p>
<p>At the end, she asked her little girl, “Now, you understand why your Christian friends have all those things that we don’t, right?”</p>
<p>“Oh yes, Mommy,” she said, “Because we’re Chinese!”</p>
<hr>
<p>Strange, surprizing article in the HuffPost on how Moses is responsible for the Thanksgiving tradtion in America</p>
<p><a href=“HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost”>HuffPost - Breaking News, U.S. and World News | HuffPost;
<p>Interesting story and article, mhc. I never knew that the Pilgrims felt that way about Moses.</p>
<p>My mom always told me that the way to prevent Jewish kids from becoming jealous of Christmas trees is to build and decorate a sukkah, and of course sukkot doubles as a Thanksgiving sort of holiday. I became the sukkah-builder in my family of origin, and we have built one with our kids every year, even though it is a bare-bones basic design with homemade decorations. </p>
<p>A friend who was an architect designed a beautiful sukkah, admired by all, and then decided to market kits to build it which became popular in our area. Sadly, he died a couple of years ago. This year, his widow, a good friend, was astonished to find a “sukkah city” that had sprung up on Pitt’s campus! She marched right into JUC/Hillel to find out what was going on, and it turned out that it was a contest among the CMU architecture students and students at JUC/Hillel. Then and there, she offered to make a contribution to JUC/Hillel to sponsor future contests in her late husband’s name. So, this will become a longstanding tradition in memory of a really special person, sponsored by a member of the community whose kids don’t even go to college locally.</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I’m going to try and get extended family members NOT to talk about colleges with D2 over Thanksgiving! Of course, I reserve the right to nag her to do applications!</p>
<p>Levirim, I was always taught that Succot more than doubled as a Thanksgiving sort of holiday , but actually was the origin of it. That when the Pilgrims wanted to express their thanks for their survival and for the harvest, being very religious and deeply into the Bible (they viewed themselves as “new” Israelites), they looked to the Bible for inspiriation and found Sukkot. Thanksgiving was, after all a harvest festival like Sukkot and The pilgrims invited local Indians to the first Thanksgiving during the fall of 1621. Historians speculate that this celebration occurred somewhere between Sept. 21 and Nov. 9, but most likely in early October, around the time of Succot.</p>
<p>I agree, mhc!
Chocchipcookie, that is such a great story about your mom answering questions from you and your sisters and referring to the book! I can just picture the scene.</p>
<p>Thanks so much, Levrim…I think my mom is quite a special lady.
Unfortunately she had a massive stroke in Feb. in Florida. She is making huge progress in only 9 months, but it has changed her (and all of us) forever. Watching parents get older stinks.</p>
<p>My husband’s cousin’s D is a freshman at CMU now…her family keeps a kosher home. My S1 also has CMU on his list if his ED school doesn’t come through…I was so impressed by the city and by the Hillel building we toured! But his list has 10 schools, so we’ll have to wait and see where he ends up! Most schools on his list seem to have a sizeable Jewish population.</p>
<p>Great story about the sukkah making! What a wonderful new tradition to honor her husband.</p>
<p>RVM: This thread has taken on a life of it’s own…really a fabulous thread that ties us altogether! :)</p>
<p>chocchip - I know! It really has amazed me. It has become so much more than my original little search for more colleges for S2. It’s fun going through the college process with other like-minded and supportive parents - and it’s fun connecting with other Jewish parents and comparing notes on such a wide variety of topics. </p>
<p>Wishing everyone a safe and happy Thanksgiving.</p>
<p>Rodney - I have two sisters in New Jersey, maybe its my family?</p>
<p>Just got word that a family cousin - 21-year-old male - has used Thanksgiving to announce he has joined the Air Force. A little history - he did graduate from college - a not terribly selective private college in Florida - majored in criminal justice. I have no idea of his college GPA - but he was a C student in hs. He graduated from college last May - has been living at home - cannot find a job - does not want to go to grad school - hence the decision to join the Air Force.</p>
<p>I actually am proud of him and think it is a great choice. My cousin is beside herself - and I can understand why she would worry. My aunt (boy’s grandma) wailed “What Jewish boy joins the Air Force”. Anyone have experience in this area? What do you think? Would you support a young adult’s decision to join the military? So far I am the only one congratulating him on this decision.</p>
<p>We should ALL thank him for serving our country. Imagine if people in Israel had the same anti-military service attitude. I can empathize with the worries of any parent who has a child in harm’s way, but–harsh as this will sound–to paraphrase the last scene from Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny, the grandma has forgotten that it was young men willing to join the military who kept her entire Jewish generation from being turned into soap.</p>
<p>His service will also likely serve him well later in life–lots of employers LOVE it and he will learn valuable life lessons.</p>
<p>Friends of mine died on 9/11. We should all give thanks tomorrow to the young men and women who are keeping Al Qaeda on the defensive.</p>