Should My Child Wear a Star of David?

This is an age-old question, "should my child wear a Jewish star necklace?"

True story, no really-- it happened this morning.

Daughter (age 12): "Mom, do you have any Jewish stars?"

Me: Rolled my eyes, I mean come on, what do I do for a living. Then I said calmly, "sure I do."

Daughter: "I want one"

Me: "I have this little one here on beads you can wear."

Daughter: "That's way too small mom! I need a bigger one!"

Me: "Well, ok, I thought you wanted something small. Here is the other one I have, you can wear it."

And she did.

She had her ripped jeans on, her arm full of bracelets and her little tank top with her Jewish star right smack in the center of her chest, and off to the mall she went to meet friends.

You see, for her it was no big deal.

So, I ask, should it be a big deal?

I mean, when you look around the world, it is genuinely full of wonderful people who love their families as much as we love ours-- moms and dads who send their kids to school, to play sports and just want to raise good kids and eventually adults.

Then, of course, we turn on the news and sit down to drink a cup of coffee and look at Facebook and the world goes to shit.  Pardon my French.

Is it really that bad?

The answer NO.

The truth of the matter is one person can ruin the batch.

The whole entire batch.

I mean, why shouldn't I let my tween be proud of who she is?

It's part of growing up, right?

Part of being responsible and learning the ways and paths of life.

And yes, we might run into one (and hopefully not two) thugs in life, that might have an unkind word to spew to us, or actually anyone they don't agree with, but maybe it is what makes us have a tougher backbone?

Maybe it's just what we need to hear once in awhile to make us stronger and prouder?

I mean, (of course I am on a rant here) if all I hear is some derogatory slur, aren't a lot better off than our ancestors were in Europe?

Didn't they fight for us to have the freedom to be who we are?

Did they die in vain? 

NO!

They didn't!

So, I let her go to the mall with her Jewish star necklace on.

And you know what, come to think about it, all the other people seeing my daughter walk around the mall being who she is might just say to themselves: "self, I should be proud of my culture, my religious beliefs just as that little girl is."

Maybe.

Just maybe.

And before I close out the blog, I have a confession to make.

I too did a test on myself about wearing a Jewish star.

Call is a pre-mid life crisis if you shall, because I really am not daring at all (heck I won't even climb up a little hill for fear of falling-- it makes my husband crazy), but I decided I would wear not one but two Jewish star necklaces while in Italy.

I figured I would get some slack, because you know, all of Europe is racist and hates the Jews and Israel.

So, I put them on.

This one: 

 It's on an invisible cord, so it floats on your neck-- it's pretty cool actually.

And I wore this one as well:

So, it's actually 6 stars-- but you get the idea.

And you know what happened?

Drum roll please...... nothing.

Nothing at all. 

What was I expecting to happen? Get screamed at?  Hurled cuss words? Get attacked?  I have no clue what I was expecting.

And I am thrilled nothing happened, of course.

But it goes back to my point above, be proud of who you are.

My kid wanted to wear a Jewish star necklace, I let her.

She is proud of her religion. 

And thus, I am proud of her.

I'd be proud of her no matter what she decides to do or wear actually (aside from killing someone and doing drugs of course), and I assume you'd probably feel the same way.

What do you think?

Let us know!

And hey, by the way, if you'd like to get notified about more blogs in the future let us know.

XO,

Alissa