Education

Trauma-rama, Hebrew School Style

I Was Candle No. 4 in a Hanukkah Play — Top That!

By Lenore Skenazy

(Page 3 of 3)

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My most embarrassing Hebrew school moment is also coincidentally the most embarrassing moment of my life. Seriously. To be succinct: Synagogue talent show. Top falls off in front of 200 people, most of whom I know and all of whom knew me — and did I mention that my grandparents were two of the founding members of the synagogue? Returned to Hebrew school the following week and was met by merciless teasing by one boy. (I wish SO much I could call him out, but decorum forbids it.) Socked him squarely on the jaw. We wound up in the principal’s office. He was suspended.

— Carole Brody Fleet, Author of “Widows Wear Stilettos” (Cleis Press, 2009), Lake Forest, Calif.

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I think I was maybe 10 when we had a LONG unit about the Holocaust (who didn’t?), and every kid had to say whether we would renounce our faith to avoid having ourselves and everyone in our family being killed by Nazis. No pressure.

— Lara Narcisi, English Professor, Denver, Colo.

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I got my first period at Hebrew school. When I told my teacher, so I could ask for a pad, she said quite loudly, “You got your period?! MAZEL TOV!” in front of my class.

— Anonymous

Lenore Skenazy, a public speaker, is the author of the book “Free-Range Kids” (Wiley, 2010) and the founder of a blog of the same name.