While reading this week’s Jewish Journal, I learned of an innovative program from Sha’arei Am in Santa Monica to teach children about death.
They kill Barney.
To quote from the article:
Their bagels sliced, toasted and slathered with cream cheese, the parents and students of the fourth- and fifth-grade classes at Santa Monica’s Sha’arei Am turn toward Rabbi Jeff Marx as he welcomes them to Family Education Day.
His introduction is interrupted by Lori Daitch, the director of education. The suddenly somber rabbi informs the group that he has just learned that Barney, a congregant, whose real name is Bernard Dinotzuris, has just collapsed in the sanctuary.
With much giggling, and a touch of consternation, the group enters the sanctuary where the purple plush 3-foot-tall Dinotzuris is sprawled near the pulpit.
“What should I do?” the rabbi asks, appropriately concerned.
From this point on, the rabbi uses Barney, in a casket, to teach about the Jewish rituals surrounding death, mourning, and burial. Why Barney? According to the Rabbi, “We hit on Barney as the perfect solution — he was no longer an object of attachment for fourth and fifth graders, but they were completely familiar with him.”
Gee. I’ve been wanting Barney dead for a long time. Alas, I can’t easily include the picture of Barney in the pine-wood casket with a Jewish star, wearing a kippah, and tallit.
