By Beth Seldin Dotan

Today we held our kite festival with the Friedel Jewish Day School in Omaha. Let me tell you about "Kites and Dreams". Last year, I felt as though Janusz Korczak was sitting on my shoulder and enjoying our day - this year it was as though he participated in the event itself.

Yesterday was a dreary, rainy and cloudy day that showed no signs of clearing, but I believe that our favorite "doctor" came and blew the clouds away, and when we awoke this morning, there was not a cloud in the sky, and it was a beautiful, autumn day. Not only was it clear, but the weather man promised light breezes in the afternoon - and so it was.

We had wonderful study sessions about Korczak with the students - first with the younger grades and later with the older students. The school rabbi found a lovely song about kites that spoke of a boy whose kite flew so high no one could see it - and an observer laughed at the boy when he said he had a kite on the other end of the kite - the man said perhaps it was God tugging at the string reminding us that life has its tugs and pulls, but offers us great adventures.

The children wrote "notes" to their kites, or a haiku poem, or drew something about Sukkoth as part of their decoration. It was wonderful, and they loved the "Kites and Dreams" brochure! (Of course the adults loved it the most!).

Cheshvan 5764 - October 2003