Kids' impression of non Jews...

amother

Denim

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 4:16 pm

I took my daughter with me to work the other day. I work in a non Jewish school. A few days later, my daughter asked me if the kids are Jewish. When I told her that they are not, she had a surprised look on her face and asked, " so how are they so nice?!?!" I had some explaining to do, but after discussing it with her, I realized why she had this schema. She said all the mitzriyim and yevanim were bad and they are non jews... what's the best way to explain to her that non Jews can be nice too?

mommy3b2c

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 4:31 pm

I find that a lot of kids think non Jews are bad, because they don't realize what a non Jew is. In school they learn about all the go-yim that tried to kill the Jews. They do not make the connection that non Jews are the everyday people we see in the street.

You just explain to her that there are good people and bad people. It has nothing to do with being Jewish. The migzriyim and yevanim, were very bad. But the kids in your school are not mitzriyim or yevanim. It's really very simple to explain.

amother

Red

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 4:35 pm

amother wrote:

We are not in Mitziyim or Yavan now. That was a long time ago and things are different now.

crosspost with mommy3b2c who said it better!

seeker

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 6:42 pm

I don't know if I'd go down the route of "things are different now." I doubt things were all that different in history, and I think we stand to learn a lot more from comparisons to history than contrasts. I believe in the time of Yavan there were plenty of nice non-Jews; otherwise why would so many Jews have been trying to convert? Likely in Mitzrayim too. We overgeneralize because the main players in the stories are good guys and bad guys but if the child is asking then he's not too young to start opening his mind to the idea that things are not always so black and white.

Everyone can choose to be nice. Jewish people can choose to be nice or not nice, and non-Jewish people can choose to be nice or not nice. We are lucky that we have the Torah to guide us and to help us know how to act.

amother

Firebrick

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 8:01 pm

I point out the non Jewish people on their lives, the bus driver, security guard, cleaning lady, orthodontist.... My kids are often surprised that those people are not Jewish because as posted above, young children equate Jewish with "good" and non Jewish with "bad." I tell them that most nonJewish people are good and that there are actually some Jewish people that are unfortunately not good. In terms of abuse c"v, many children are trusting of predators because they are Jewish.

mommy3b2c

Thu, Feb 09 2017, 8:31 pm

seeker wrote:

I agree completely. Things are definitely not different now. There are millions of terrorist who would kill us all in a heartbeat. There have always been good people, and bad people.