For those of you are the parents and teachers of Jewish children after the Pittsburgh shooting

jewish-education:

I know many of us are driving to teach Sunday school this morning or day school tomorrow or have already been getting questions from our own children or children in our community as soon as we got the news. Here are some resources I found for folks who need to address the Pittsburgh shooting with Jewish children and teens:

• Here’s PJ Library’s guide for talking to Jewish children about antisemitism
• NextPittsburgh has a guide for parents/teachers of children in general. Much of its advice doesn’t really apply to us, as it will be harder to limit what our kids see and hear. But I think it’s worth reading about how to approach the conversation.
• Dr. 

  Michael S. Scheeringa wrote a guide on Psychology Today on talking to teens (and children) about school shootings that has some helpful advice, especially for parents.

• Here’s the experience of a Seattle community having this conversation right now.

My main take-aways were:

1. figure out what they already have heard and start there
2. they don’t need to know all the details, see pictures, etc. but it may be hard to shield older children that much
3. be open about your own emotions
4. if your synagogue has safety measures or evacuation plans, you might choose to talk about these
5. ask them about their own experiences with antisemitism and about how they’ve handled it, do they need strategies? support? etc.
6. be ready for them to ask questions about G-d
7. ask questions throughout to gauge how they feel and what they need, and to help them come to answers themselves

I’m sorry this is so late and might not get to everyone who needs it, but I needed some time to process for myself. I encourage anyone with suggestions for approaching these conversations to speak up.

Thank you to everyone who is supporting our Jewish future in this time of tragedy.