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[CCBC-Net] Wednesday Wars
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From: Carla K <carlak_56>
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:09:15 -0800 (PST)
I appreciate all of the comments about Schmidt's WEDNESDAY WARS. I too found much to love about the book, and I too am approximately the same age as the author so I was in middle school during that very pivotal year. A lot of things came flooding back to me.
I was intrigued with the Wednesday afternoon dilemma. I went to Hebrew school two afternoons a week AFTER school let out, and also to "Saturday School" (reading and discussion, and then youth services.) My Catholic friends did not get released early for Catechism classes; those were held after school as well. I would have loved to have been able to leave school early for Hebrew school!
A few little, niggling things that have been bothering me about WW have to do with Danny's bar mitzvah (at Temple Beth El, which was the name of the temple my family belonged to also, but in Milwaukee, not Long Island). I truly love Holling's take on the bar mitzvah. It's beautiful. However...I am assuming this was a Saturday morning bar mitzvah. It doesn't say, but that is the usual day and time for them, and if it took place a week after the kids returned from the camping trip, and (as stated) 11 days before the Wednesday when Lt. Baker returned, that's the day it would be. At the bar mitzvah, Danny wound tefillin around his arm and forehead. This is done for Torah readings during the week, but not on Saturdays. Later, when Holling returns to the reception, it is stated that "the music started again." Beth El usually are Conservative synagogues (tefillin probably wouldn't be used at all at a Reform congregation); they probably wouldn't have had any music playing
on Shabbat (not until after sundown, which is late in June!) Also, Danny reads from Genesis. A portion of the Torah is read each week, starting right after Simchat Torah at the end of the autumn High Holy Days, and finishing up the next Simchat Torah, so the reading of Genesis would have been long over in June. The various things just don't add up to me--they wouldn't have happened as stated. And that's too bad, because the rest of what was written about the bar mitzvah is so moving.
Carla Kozak, San Francisco Public Library
Carla Kozak"Librarian by Day, Catwoman by Night (Gone to the Dogs)"
--------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
Received on Sat 29 Dec 2007 04:09:15 PM CST
Date: Sat, 29 Dec 2007 14:09:15 -0800 (PST)
I appreciate all of the comments about Schmidt's WEDNESDAY WARS. I too found much to love about the book, and I too am approximately the same age as the author so I was in middle school during that very pivotal year. A lot of things came flooding back to me.
I was intrigued with the Wednesday afternoon dilemma. I went to Hebrew school two afternoons a week AFTER school let out, and also to "Saturday School" (reading and discussion, and then youth services.) My Catholic friends did not get released early for Catechism classes; those were held after school as well. I would have loved to have been able to leave school early for Hebrew school!
A few little, niggling things that have been bothering me about WW have to do with Danny's bar mitzvah (at Temple Beth El, which was the name of the temple my family belonged to also, but in Milwaukee, not Long Island). I truly love Holling's take on the bar mitzvah. It's beautiful. However...I am assuming this was a Saturday morning bar mitzvah. It doesn't say, but that is the usual day and time for them, and if it took place a week after the kids returned from the camping trip, and (as stated) 11 days before the Wednesday when Lt. Baker returned, that's the day it would be. At the bar mitzvah, Danny wound tefillin around his arm and forehead. This is done for Torah readings during the week, but not on Saturdays. Later, when Holling returns to the reception, it is stated that "the music started again." Beth El usually are Conservative synagogues (tefillin probably wouldn't be used at all at a Reform congregation); they probably wouldn't have had any music playing
on Shabbat (not until after sundown, which is late in June!) Also, Danny reads from Genesis. A portion of the Torah is read each week, starting right after Simchat Torah at the end of the autumn High Holy Days, and finishing up the next Simchat Torah, so the reading of Genesis would have been long over in June. The various things just don't add up to me--they wouldn't have happened as stated. And that's too bad, because the rest of what was written about the bar mitzvah is so moving.
Carla Kozak, San Francisco Public Library
Carla Kozak"Librarian by Day, Catwoman by Night (Gone to the Dogs)"
--------------------------------- Be a better friend, newshound, and know-it-all with Yahoo! Mobile. Try it now.
Received on Sat 29 Dec 2007 04:09:15 PM CST
