Welcome Current and Prospective ASU Parents!
Parents Letter, Fall 09
Dear Parents:
My colleague from Binghamton University Hillel, Rabbi Shalom Kantor, has noted that parents who send their kids off to college are a bit like Moses, as he learns that he cannot cross the Jordan River and enter the Promised Land, Israel, with his people. Rather, he must now turn the reigns of authority over to Joshua.
Like Moses, you have spent much of your life preparing your student for the great milestone of going off to, or even back to, college. Yet the joy at “mission accomplished” is mixed. You, too, cannot cross over the Jordan. You child has entered a new chapter of his/her life, and you cannot go along. At college, students are very much on their own, to eat right, get where they need to go, handle their funds and do their laundry, do Jewish as much or as little and they want to, and develop new ideas and relationships. We want them to succeed, and we know we cannot be part of the action. They have entered the Promised Land of independence for which you have taught and prepared them.
You continue to have a role, to counsel but not direct, to raise more questions instead of giving answers, to draw certain lines around finances and phoning home, but to do so gently, rationally, and respectfully. We still must model for them the ethical, Jewish, honorable behavior we hope for in them.
We parents, like our kids, still have a lot to learn. I recommend a great book, “Letting Go,” by Coburn and Treeter, which will help you chart the course of the new relationship you will be building with your college son or daughter. It has really helped me in dealing with my own kids and with the Jewish students I meet as Hillel Rabbi at ASU.
Hillel is here for them and wants to be in touch with you. We appreciate your sending you student to ASU and hope that we can be supportive of one another in helping your child grow personally and develop Jewishly and find pleasure and success here at ASU.
Hillel at ASU creates a warm, welcoming environment to Jewish students from all backgrounds and communities. Hillel is committed to the development of each individual student. Rabbi Lee and staff work with students to create inclusive Shabbat services, meaningful Holiday celebrations, and to build connections between Hillel and ASU campus educational, social and political life. Today’s Jewish students are unlike any generation before them. Hillel is in a unique position to enrich their lives in a way meaningful to them and their aspirations. Hillel’s mission is to offer weekly and monthly programs which emphasize the relevance of Jewish traditions to current student life and to future professional development. Please join us in this mission. If you would like to receive Hillel’s parent newsletter, The Hillel Parent Connection, please send your name, address, e-mail address and the name and class year of your child, to Erin
YOUR PASSPORT TO HILLEL
For the academic year, 2009-10, Hillel at ASU is offering the Passport to Hillel for $225. The Passport includes admission to all Holiday celebrations and dinners, social events, kosher Tuesday Lunch, one of our two styles of t-shirts and other terrific Hillel events (Las Vegas Night and overnight trips are excluded). Purchasing the card for your student will save at least 25% of the cost of purchasing each event separately. Treat your ASU student to a year full of friendship, fun and community. Please call 480-967-7563, use the form given in the Parent News Letter, or sign up online by clicking here!