Courier-Journal
Ex-‘Blossom’ star explains Jewish parenting, the Bialik way
May 29, 2011
Mayim Bialik, the actress who found stardom at 12 playing a pitch-perfect mini-Bette Midler in 1988’s “Beaches,” has blossomed into quite the impressive woman.
The current roles of Bialik, 35, include being a mother of two who travels all over the country speaking before Jewish organizations, neuroscientist, author and girlfriend of adorable uber-nerd Sheldon on CBS’ smash hit “The Big Bang Theory.”
This Wednesday she’ll make a stop at the Water Tower to talk to local women about Jewish parenting in the modern world. And according to Bialik, whose 2½-year-old-son, Fred, was begging her to read a book to him as she spoke via phone from her Los Angeles home, you don’t have to be Jewish to apply her parenting advice.
“I want to focus on what its like to educate your kids Jewishly not from a religious perspective necessarily,” she said, “”¦ but from a social one, from a cultural one, even from an environmental one.”
Eco-consciousness
Bialik didn’t want to give away too many of the specifics of her talk, but she elaborated on how Judaism correlates with eco-consciousness.
“The concept of going green is pretty old to Judaism. We’ve been repairing the world for thousands of years,” she said. “We have a whole holiday dedicated to celebrating the beauty (of nature).”
That holiday is Tu B’Shevat, or “The New Year of the Trees,” which is observed by planting trees. It’s also a tradition for Jews to have a tree planted in Israel in honor of birthdays and other special occasions.
Bialik, who has been married for eight years to Michael Stone, a stay-at-home father, also contributes to Jewish parenting site kveller.com and has a nondenominational book called “Intuitive Parenting” coming out next summer from Simon and Schuster.
Bialik’s development into Jewish supermom is both sweet and somewhat surreal to Gen-Xers who watched her from 1990 to 1995 on NBC’s “Blossom.” In the smart and important issue-addressing sitcom, she starred as floppy-hat-wearing-yet-level-headed Blossom Russo and became a relatable ’90s teen icon.
