SHJ Selects Maurice Sendak as Humanistic Jewish Role Model

The Society for Humanistic Judaism is pleased to announce Maurice Sendak as its Humanistic Jewish Role Model for 2013-2014. Sendak, a well-known writer and illustrator of children's books, was born June 10, 1928 in Brooklyn, NY. He died in May, 2012, just short of his 84th birthday.

 

The beauty of Sendak's work is that his stories are ostensibly for children, but also touch on issues and feelings faced by adults, making him an attractive multi-generational choice for a role model. His Jewish identity forms the context of his story telling.

Cary Shaw from the Congregation for Humanistic Judaism in Fairfield County, Connecticut, and a member of the SHJ Membership Committee that recommends the annual Humanistic Jewish role model, became more intrigued and consistently more engaged by Sendak and his body of work as he researched him and developed material to be shared with SHJ affiliates for future programming.

Denise Handlarski, Assistant Rabbi at Oraynu Congregation in Toronto, Ontario sees Maurice Sendak as embracing the idea of transformation in his own life as well as in his stories. She said that Sendak had the "ability to enter the mind of children and take their worlds seriously. His themes are sometimes dark and shocking, but equally challenging and liberating."

Rabbi Jodi Kornfeld, of Beth Chaverim Humanistic Jewish Community, Illinois, sees Purim as a good time to acknowledge Sendak. Kornfeld says, "Sendak creates worlds in which the joyful is juxtaposed with the terrible, the celebratory with the tragic, and the delightful with the frightful... Moreover, the Purim story itself includes the directive to celebrate and be joyful. Sendak's artful work does that."

The child of Jewish immigrants who left Europe during World War I, Sendak grew up in Brooklyn in the shadow of the Holocaust. Although much of his family died in Poland, his parents tried to hide information about how most were killed. Unable to fully grasp the circumstances, he felt the fear and the grief that pervaded the household, knowing it had to do with death and murder. Sendak developed an enduring conviction that to lie to children is to harm them. His books reflect his struggles with his early years and also reflect his commitment to treat children with respect and to always tell the truth. Sendak was quoted as saying, "My books are written ... for children who are never satisfied with condescending material, who understand real emotion and real feeling ... and are not afraid of knowing emotional truth." 

Sendak's most well-known children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, brought him the Caldecott Medal in 1964. For Sendak, the wild things represented the many strange relatives from foreign lands who stayed with his family when he was a child.

He preserved the memory of his deceased relatives, using their pictures as the models for his illustrations for Isaac Bashevis Singer's book, Zlateh the Goat and Other Stories. He also collaborated with playwright, Tony Kushner, illustrating Hans Krasa's Brundibar, a children's opera about a brother and sister who fight a bully named Brundibar. Brundibar was performed by the children of the Concentration Camp Terezin more than 55 times. The book, published in 2003, was named one of the New York Times Book Review's 10 best illustrated books of the year. 

Sendak mentioned in a September 2008 article in The New York Times that he was gay and had lived with his partner, psychoanalyst Dr. Eugene Glynn, for 50 years before Glynn's death in May 2007. After his partner's death, Sendak donated $1 million to the Jewish Board of Family and Children's Services in memory of Glynn who had treated young people there.

Sendak, an atheist, stated in a September 2011 interview with Terry Gross on NPR's Fresh Air that he didn't believe in God. He commented that life is harder for non-believers than for those who were religious. 

"Maurice Sendak is a compelling choice as the Society for Humanistic Judaism 2013-2014 Humanistic Jewish Role Model" remarked Rabbi Miriam Jerris. "The programming opportunities are extensive. Maurice Sendak is attractive to multiple age groups, making him one of the most appealing role models we have ever selected."