[RBS] I DO NOT believe the Kupah Shel Tzedaka endorses endangering children

[Leeba Rosenthal]

Last Friday afternoon I was suddenly caught in a parade of Kuppah Shel
Tzedaka Drivers. On  Purim day I often enjoy watching the parade, but on
what is a normal work day for me , plus being erev shabbos and erev Purim, I
was not enjoying it quite so much , especially as I looked more closely at
the cars.   As I was  slowly inching down Yarkon to Ayalon and then up
Ayalon, I was shocked to see kids hanging out of car windows, one teen
swinging out of an open roof top .  At one point I ended up behind a mini
van with its rear door open upwards, with 4 kids sitting on the edge of the
trunks ledge, swinging their feet, while one kid bopped around  inside the
back section. One fall of that jumpy kid, or even one large speed bump,  and
one of the other kids could have fallen off that ledge  to the ground right
in front of my car.  Granted I was moving very slowly, but even a slow
moving car can do damage if it drives over a 3 year old Gd forbid!  Then ,
as I was sitting there being frustrated, I guess the chiloni man in the
sporty car behind me was even more frustrated, b/c he suddenly sped up,
raced alongside all of us, up on a curb, passing the parade.  Just before
he started to do that , a child darted out from the curb to try to grab a
balloon off one of the passing cars in front of me.  My heart skipped a beat
as the  speeding car raced past  the child who one second earlier in the
street would have been hit.   

For an organization that touts helping our community I am shocked and
saddened to see this behavior representing the Kuppah Shel Tzedakah.  Is it
perhaps a new method of lowering family costs? killing off a couple "extra
kids" chas veshalom ?  Or is it sheer ... stupidity... sakanas nefashos-a
mitzvah habah beaveirah?  Even as I politely advised the driver of the
minivan with the open trunk door to take his kids into the car, I was
basically ignored. He called to the kids , but when they did not budge, he
did not push them to move to safety.   

I hope next year proper safety rules will be enforced and the Kuppah will
insist that anyone in the parade follow all traffic safety rules, including
wearing seat belts, or tell people they will not be allowed to participate. 

Why am I posting this to the enter list and not to the Kuppah? Because as my
subject line reads, I cannot believe the Kuppah endorses this.  I hope that
any of the drivers who were behaving in such a dangerous manner may read
this and be more careful in the future.   I was a preschool teacher most of
my life, worked in youth groups with kids of all ages... I love kids.  But
they do not always do what is best for themselves and they need to be guided
by us , the adults.  The drivers I saw in these cars were all adults who
should have known better.  I hope in the future they WILL know better.

Besmachot,
Leeba Rosenthal



 



Leeba Rosenthal
BESIMCHA~ Catering, Party Planning and Décor
~077 78 555 11~ www.besimcha-israel.com