Long Island's Oldest Reform Congregation
140 Central Avenue - Lawrence, NY 11559
(516) 239-1140

Alan Hartstein

As I reflect on 1999 I can not help but think about all the tragedies involving our youth that I watched on national television. So many thoughts go through my mind. How do the children get these guns? What would cause them to resort to such desperate measures? As a psychology major in college I was taught that violence begins early in a child’s life. Experts point to neglect, the media, and violent programs, as the main causes. Many children have fond thoughts of home and family, unfortunately too many other children have quite different and negative images of what home and family means to them. Research shows the affects of childhood maltreatment extend into adolescence and well beyond. It is for this reason we must examine the problem of youth violence since it has taken on mythic proportions. Every day on the front pages of our newspapers and in the headlines of our nightly newscasts we see evidence of the pain our children endure. We can not survive as a society ruled by violence in any manner. We must all stand together and challenge the things that threaten our traditional values. The culture we live in today teaches our children that violence is an option. Violence has become entertainment, we make it exciting, we celebrate it, romanticize it and mass market it. It is not just physical violence, verbal violence pervades the way we speak to one another, to our children, to our loved ones and co-workers. We cannot turn a blind eye to the images and lyrics that celebrate violence. It is being romanticized to our children, to our culture, to our community and our country.

Temple Israel must respond as a bastion of Reform Judaism in the Five Towns and rededicate its efforts to educate our youth in tradition, moral and ethical Jewish values, and showing them how to incorporate them into their everyday life.

Happy, Healthy, and above all a much safer New Year for our children.