Jan Berenstain, 88, Co-Creator of Berenstain Bears, Passes Away

The wife of the husband-wife duo that created the beloved childrens book series The Berenstain Bears, which teach about ethics and morals, has passed away at the age of 88.

Further to my discussion of the Berenstains a few weeks ago, research revealed that the Berenstains were secular and the books they wrote for most of their career were based on their secular ethical values.  Jan was a Christian and Stan was a secular Jew.  Their son Mike became closer to his Christianity and, in 2008, signed a deal with a publisher of Christian books for spiritual and faith-based books.  So, that explains what I saw in the supermarket that day.  I was pleased to know there was no hidden message (since, well, I am Jewish) in the books my sister had as a little girl.

Why was I even registering the Berenstains a few weeks ago, and why did I blog about them?

May Jan and Stan Berenstain now enjoy life together in Gan Eden (garden of eden).  Baruch dayan emet (blessed is the truthful ruler).

From the LA Times obituary:  Jan Berenstain displays a copy of the first book, left, that she and her husband, Stan Berenstain, created and their second book, which was the first to actually call the characters Berenstain Bears. (Mel Evans/Associated Press/January 25, 2011)

Knowing Where Your Children's Stories Come From

Despite growing up strongly identified as Jewish (kosher house, Hebrew day school, liberal Orthodox synagogue), my parents were totally fine with me watching the Sunday morning Davey and Goliath series.  Who cared about the cross in the beginning of the show:  they offered a good message, and they were cute. I knew that it was from a church, but I knew that wasn't my church.


 

Jump from 1977 to 2012, and to my surprise, just today at my grocery store I noticed on the rounder of spiritual/inspirational books (which just so happens to be located right next to the Kosher section, go figure!) the following:

Who knew that Jan & Stan Berenstain were coming from a Christian perspective!

Invoking Jerry Seinfeld's famous phrase, "not that there's anything wrong with that," I am beginning to realize that it actually is a good idea to know where my children's values are coming from.  As strongly-identified Jews, I want them to have Jewish values.  We have plenty of Jewish children's books, but publishing is a tough industry, and sadly there aren't many high-quality Jewish children's picture books.

Interestingly, there was a Strawberry Shortcake book on this rounder as well.  Was That Character From Cleveland also a Christian?  This character is owned by American Greetings, a company owned and operated by the Rose-Stone family in Cleveland.  That family has done tremendous acts of kindness in philanthropy for the Jewish community.   When Strawberry debuted in the early 80s, my mom collaborated with her friends to collect a few copies of the NY Times Sunday Magazine so I could have a full display of the multi-page advertisement showing various parts of Strawberry Shortcake's body.

Do these things matter, really?

At the end of the day, the message is the same:  be a good person, do acts of kindness, give charity, help the elderly.  And if my children learn that from Mama Bear, I think that is ok.

But, if know where you come from, who you are, and where you are going...

that is ideal.