Pressman Academy middle school students (From left) Maayan Mazar, Keren Tizabi, Alex Wannon and Ayla Richland lead services with Rabbi Chaim Tureff in a minyan meant to cultivate prayer leadership. (Lorenzo Hodges)On the top floor of SAR Academy in Riverdale, New York, a group of students at the Jewish day school gather for morning prayers. After the recitation of the first blessings, they sit quietly for five minutes in perfect stillness, backs erect and feet planted firmly on the floor, drawing attention to their breath and observing their thoughts arise.Later, during the formal Jewish call to prayer known as the Barekhu, they are told to assume a mountain pose — a standing yoga posture with the spine upright and hands fully extended downward — before performing the traditional bow. When the service arrives at the Shema prayer, the central declaration of Jewish faith in one God, they are offered a series of intentions on which to meditate. Sometimes the group chants the Shema repeatedly in a call-and-response style.This is the meditation minyan, an alternative prayer service at the Modern Orthodox school run for five years by Rabbi Hillel Broder, now the principal of the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach in New York.Launched as part of a broader effort by SAR to inspire a deeper connection to prayer, the meditation minyan is one of several alternatives to the traditional daily prayer service offered by the school.“I always felt there was a tremendous amount lacking in prayer education,” Broder said. “Students had opportunities for self-expression or for song or for movement earlier in the Jewish day school system. But by the time they get to high school, a lot of prayer education has to do with learning the language and choreography, but not the spirit of the prayers. That for me felt developmentally stunting.”Broder is not alone. Most Jewish day schools include mandatory prayer as part of the daily schedule and, in principle, are committed to inspiring regular prayer as a lifelong religious practice.But many educators acknowledge that they struggle to make that a reality. So they are experimenting with all kinds of alternative approaches — including yoga, music and writing assignments — in an effort to do better.“Most educators would say it’s one of the most challenging dimensions of the day school experience,” said Alex Pomson, a consultant who has studied Jewish day schools. “If you spend enough time in day schools, invariably prayer surfaces as some piece of the overall cultural experience and as a challenging thing to do well.”At Pressman Academy, a Conservative Jewish day school in Los Angeles, students approach prayer differently each day. One day there’s a traditional service. On another, students focus on learning the Shabbat prayers. One day features a Bar or Bat Mitzvah celebration.On one day, the school offers prayer electives that have included yoga, music and even a doubter’s minyan, in which students can pause the service to discuss whether they believe the particular claims made in the liturgy.“Ultimately, we want kids in relationship with God,” said Erica Rothblum, Pressman’s head of school. “Relationships are not always easy. And if we don’t give a space for kids to be able to grapple with their relationship with God, we are in danger of them leaving that relationship.”At The Leffell School, formerly known as Schechter Westchester and located in the suburbs of New York, alternative prayer options include a yoga minyan, an a cappella minyan where students practice choral arrangements to be sung around the school, a meditation minyan and an artists’ minyan, where students work on visual projects highlighting themes from the siddur, or prayer book.Teaching the basic mechanics of Jewish prayer generally is considered much easier than fostering a meaningful connection with it — an objective that eludes even many committed adults. But the fundamentals of prayer also must be taught, and schools are earmarking time for that, too.At Hillel Torah, a Modern Orthodox day school near Chicago, principal Menachem Linzer leads a multiweek workshop every year in which he teaches prayer nusach, the Hebrew term denoting the particular melodies traditionally employed for different parts of the service. Then the students are placed on a rotation to ensure that each one has a chance to lead the service.In the past, the school did this informally, but the result was that kids who didn’t enjoy it were able to avoid leading services. Now everyone gets a turn, and though some students struggle with the tunes or the unfamiliar Hebrew, Linzer says the challenge is worth it to develop lifelong prayer skills.“Prayer is fairly abstract,” Linzer said. “It’s a challenge for adults. It’s not an easy thing. So the more kids are involved in a hands-on way, the more engaged they are.”At SAR, Broder’s minyan was among a number of alternatives offered to the traditional service. Others included a women-only service, an explanatory service (where students took time to study the prayers in depth) and a student-run service.“There’s a general sense of the humdrum of daily prayer, a feeling like kids were going about it with a certain obligatory sense but not in a kind of ideal, inspired sense,” said Rabbi Jonathan Kroll, SAR’s principal, who ran an alternative prayer service that focused on current events. “We were trying to figure out ways in which we could spark a little more enthusiasm and inspiration.”In Broder’s case, students weren’t just learning skills for prayer but for life. After leading the meditation minyan for a time, students began to request periods of mindfulness in their classes as well.“That was really heartening,” Broder said. “I think it became part of the fabric of the way they approached mundane stressful moments as much as it became part of their prayer practice.”This article was sponsored by and produced in partnership with the Avi Chai Foundation, which is committed to the perpetuation of the Jewish people, Judaism and the centrality of the State of Israel to the Jewish people. In North America, the foundation works to advance the Jewish day school and overnight summer camp fields. This article was produced by JTA’s native content team.
Those who use service animals say they don’t just help navigate obstacles but become loving friends. (Courtesy of Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind)Shir Tabac had always yearned for a dog, but it wasn’t until she completed her military service and went to college that she felt ready to make the commitment.“It was the first time I was living independently, and I wondered how I could have a dog and do something good at the same time,” said Tabac, now a third-year chemistry student at the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. “I realized that volunteering to train a guide dog was the perfect plan.”Within a month of arriving at the Technion’s Haifa campus, Tabac contacted the university’s guide dog program — the largest fostering program of its kind in northern Israel and one of numerous ways Technion students are encouraged to contribute to the wider community.Every year the organizations Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind and Seeing Eyes for the Blind in Israel ask students at the Technion and other university campuses to foster the puppies for an 18-month period in order to expose the dogs to the widest possible range of settings and experiences.To accomplish this, the students bring their dogs just about everywhere they go, from lecture halls to sports stadiums, stores, restaurants, and on public transportation. Along the way, the students receive ongoing support and advice from the guide dog organizations’ professional trainers, who also provide the canines’ food and health care.After a year and a half of fostering the energetic pups, the students return them. At this stage, the now-mature Labradors, golden retrievers and German Shepherds are ready to begin several months of intensive professional training to become seeing-eye dogs or other service dogs that children and adults with disabilities can rely upon.To be accepted into the program, student volunteers must meet strict criteria and be willing to part with their beloved charges once they are trained.“They have to love dogs,” but that is just the beginning, said Avital Margolis, marketing director of the Israel Guide Dog Center for the Blind in Beit Oved, a small town about 30 minutes south of Tel Aviv. “They need to follow our instructions. They need to teach dogs many things, including to relieve themselves in a fixed place every day before undertaking their responsibility to lead a blind person. The dogs need to be able to concentrate on that job alone.”The foster trainers teach what Margolis calls “positive discipline.”“The dogs are still puppies. By the time they come back to us for professional training, they need to not eat food wherever they find it, to not stand on the sofa, to not eat shoes,” Margolis said.If the dogs cannot master those basic skills, they will not be suited for the advanced training required to become service animals.The student trainers are a key part of the program. Though by law the service animals must be permitted in all public settings, the students often run into resistance by people who don’t understand the important role they are playing. The students are taught to be assertive about service animals’ rights, helping educate the public and turning the students into allies for the blind people who eventually will use the dogs full-time.There’s no resistance at the Technion. Everyone from professors to cafeteria staffers are accustomed to seeing service dogs all over the campus.“The Technion is very dog-friendly, and the service dogs in training have become part of the campus life and landscape,” said Alon Wolf, the Technion’s vice president for external relations and resource development. “In many ways it’s the university as a whole, and not just the students, who are taking part in this task that does so much for the greater good.”Aside from being an academically rigorous, prestigious science and research university, the Technion encourages its students to get involved in community service, and helps organize projects from aid programs in Africa to a free student-run health clinic in Haifa, the Technion’s home city.Avia Genossar, an undergraduate civil engineering student at the Technion, decided to foster a dog after speaking with students already in the program.“I saw so many dogs being fostered here and realized this is a welcoming campus,” she said.Genossar said fostering a service puppy is a full-time commitment.“I didn’t think it would be this hard,” she acknowledged. “In the beginning I was waking up every two hours to walk her because she wasn’t potty trained. She has a lot of energy. Sometimes she doesn’t want to sit or walk. But she’s taught me a lot about the responsibility of caring for another creature. Fortunately, she is so cute it’s impossible to get mad at her.”Genossar realized she had embarked on an important mission after speaking with a blind neighbor who depends on a guide dog.“During our conversations, he told me how having the dog opens up the world to him,” she said. “Beyond helping him navigate obstacles, the dog has become his loving friend.”Although Genossar is dreading the day she must return her dog, she said, “When I see blind people with their dogs, it really makes me very emotional to see the strong relationship they have with each other.”Adi Nathan, a blind special education teacher, personal coach and specialist in digital accessibility for the blind and visually impaired, said the guide dogs he has had over the years have been indispensable.“I have no problem not seeing. I’ve been blind since birth,” Nathan said. “What’s important for me is my independence, my joy, that I have a reason to wake up in the morning and do everything I dream of doing, that I can contribute to society and to people in my situation.”Switching from a cane to a guide dog has significantly improved his life, Nathan said, not least because he has been welcomed by the community of foster trainers. He and the students get together to allow the dogs to run around unleashed — under the students’ supervision — and to learn from one another.“I tell them what’s important for them to consider while they’re training the dogs, what their dogs are doing well or less well. I’ve formed friendships with Shir Tabac and the family of students,” Nathan said.Tabac said it was amazing to see how Chai, her foster dog, evolved from a 3-month-old “fluff ball” to a dog who now provides support to a boy with autism.She said she misses Chai every day.“What helped after I said goodbye was knowing that Chai is doing something good,” Tabac said. “It’s what I wished for and trained her for. It’s the reason we all do it.”The American Technion Society supports visionary education and world-changing impact through the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology. To learn more, go to ats.org.
The Kansas City Symphony will premier composer Jonathan Leshnoff’s ‘Piano Concerto’ Nov. 22-24 at Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. (Erica Abbey Photography)
Composer Jonathan Leshnoff likes to take concertgoers on a journey and, he said, if he hasn’t done that, he hasn’t done his job.
Hundreds of people will get an opportunity to take a Leshnoff journey this weekend when the Kansas City Symphony premieres his “Piano Concerto” in Helzberg Hall at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.
Joy Koesten (holding microphone) spoke at an event Nov. 12 at Johnson County Democrats headquarters highlighting the campaigns of several local Democrats.
Democrat Joy Koesten announced her plans to run for the Kansas Senate, District 11 on Nov. 12.
“Voters deserve a candidate who will not have to constantly endure extreme political pressure to follow their party’s agenda,” Koesten said in an event at the Johnson County Democrats headquarters last week. “They deserve a leader who will always advocate for sound public policy that aligns with the values and priorities of the district.”
Kansas City-area native Andi LaVine Arnovitz now has three books as part of the U.S. Library of Congress. The library recently purchased ‘Four Poems by Esther Raab,’ which she described on Facebook as a ‘very special hand-made boxed set, with etchings and the poems in both Hebrew and English. Boxes and bindings done by the talented Marcela Szekely and typesetting by Noa Waldman Arnovitz. Silk screening of the poems done by the Jerusalem Print Workshop.’
JVS LOOKING FOR STORIES — Jewish Vocational Service of Kansas City (JVS) is preparing to celebrate 70 years of service. Founded in 1949 to aid Holocaust survivors and servicemen and women returning from World War II, Jewish Vocational Service has a proud history of service in Kansas City.
JVS now helps diverse individuals and communities, including refugees, immigrants and people with disabilities, become thriving members of the community through its Workforce Development, Community Integration and Health & Wellness programs. JVS’ mission is to engage, encourage and empower people to achieve social, cultural and economic integration, believing all people have intrinsic worth and dignity and all people can flourish with support.
JVS will celebrate its 70th anniversary with its eighth annual Global Table Fundraiser event April 19. For this momentous event, JVS is searching for stories of individuals or families it has served in the Kansas City community since it opened its doors in 1949. If JVS has provided support of any kind to you, a friend or a family member, they would love to hear from you. Support could include employment services or refugee resettlement aid as a Holocaust survivor or upon arriving from the former Soviet Union, among many other forms of assistance.
Contact JVS’ marketing department at or 816-629-8943 with your story or any related information so they can share your story.
JVS’ eighth annual Global Table Fundraiser will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday, April 19, at The Abbott Event Space, 1901 Cherry St., Kansas City, Missouri. You can purchase tickets or learn more about sponsorship at bit.ly/2CVQKqL.
HALLMARK CHANNEL SET TO OFFER HANUKKAH MOVIES FOR FIRST TIME — Boy was I wrong last week about Hallmark’s Hanukkah movie. In fact, there are two Hanukkah movies this year! Here’s what I hope is the correct scoop, from one of our syndication partners.
(JNS) — The Hallmark Channel will premiere its first two Hanukkah-themed movies next month in honor of the eight-day Jewish holiday, which this year starts Dec. 22, the New York Post reported Nov. 13.
“Our audience is very vocal, and they tell us when they’d like to see more of something,” said Michelle Vicary, Crown Media’s executive vice president of programming. “We’ve heard over the years that they would like to see [a Hanukkah movie] if a script came in that we liked. And that happened this year — twice.”
The first film, “Holiday Date,” airs Dec. 14 and follows Brooke, a woman who experiences a breakup shortly before a trip to introduce her boyfriend to her family for Christmas. She instead goes home with Joel (played by Jewish actor Matt Cohen) who will pose as her boyfriend. Since he has never celebrated Christmas, drama, of course, ensues.
“Unfortunately, they have not discussed if he knows all the traditions,” Vicary said. “As the family becomes more suspicious whether he knows how to celebrate, our two leads begin to fall for each other.”
The second Hanukkah movie, “Double Holiday,” airs Dec. 22. It’s about a Jewish woman named Rebecca whose Hanukkah plans are disrupted when her boss asks her to team up with her rival to plan their office holiday party together.
Vicary said about the characters, “They learn that while the traditions and celebrations are different, the feelings of holiday and celebration and family and togetherness are the same.”
One of the highlights of Jean Zeldin’s career as founding executive director of the Midwest Center for Holocaust Education was meeting survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel (center). Also pictured with Zeldin (left) at the event in Springfield, Missouri, is Maureen Wilt, professor of social work at the University of Central Missouri.
When Midwest Center for Holocaust Education (MCHE) founders Isak Federman, of blessed memory, and Jack Mandelbaum hired educator Jean Zeldin as its first executive director, they placed their vision of a center that would teach the history of the Holocaust in her hands. Twenty-six years later, Zeldin, after guiding MCHE through its infancy and establishing it as one of the most respected Holocaust centers in the country, is ready to pass the torch to another leader, she said.
Evan Albee’s ‘Building a Peaceful World’ menorah was the grand-prize winner in the 2018 Chanukah Art Contest.
It’s time to launch the 23rd annual Chanukah Art Contest, co-hosted by The Jewish Community Center (The J), The Shul-Chabad of Leawood and The Chronicle. The winning entries will be revealed on the fifth night of Chanukah in the Dec. 26 issue of The Chronicle.
If you like trying new liquors, here’s one for you — baijiu (pronounced BAI-jo or BAI-gio). China’s most famous liquor has been around for centuries, but is almost unheard of outside of China.
Who can resist a pic of a Halloween cutie? Here 8-month-old Arya Gilman Sucher is dressed as Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. She is the daughter of Laura Gilman and Dr. Daniel Sucher.
ELECTION RESULTS — Three members of the Jewish community were on ballots in three different cities last year and two of them emerged victorious. Newcomer Jenna Brofsky will join the Fairway City Council representing Ward 4. She garnered 78.21% of the vote, defeating incumbent Adam Dolski, who earned 21.79% of the vote. Dolski has served since May 2017, after having been appointed to fill a vacant seat.
With 41.78% of the vote, Dan Osman was unsuccessful in his bid to unseat incumbent Fred Spears in Overland Park’s Ward 4.
Earlier in the election cycle, we missed that Andrew Osman, Dan Osman’s brother, was running unopposed for re-election in Leawood’s Ward 1. This will be his third term in office.
HALLMARK’S HANUKKAH MOVIES — Jewish fans of Hallmark Christmas movies, as I am, make note that Hallmark’s first holiday movie with a Hanukkah theme premiers at 7 p.m. CST Saturday, Nov. 16, on Hallmark Channel. I don’t know much about it other than if you miss it Saturday night, you can record it or likely catch it a number of other times during this upcoming holiday season.
75 HEADSTONES TOPPLED AT JEWISH CEMETERY IN OMAHA (JTA) — Seventy-five headstones were knocked over and some broken at a Jewish cemetery in Omaha, Nebraska.
The vandals caused more than $50,000 in damage to the gravestones at Temple Israel Cemetery, the Omaha World-Herald reported.
The damage was reported by cemetery officials to police on Nov. 5. The vandals could have caused the damage anytime between Oct. 31 and Nov. 4, according to the report.
There are no suspects, according to Omaha Crime Stoppers, which offered a reward of up to $1,000 for a tip leading to the arrests of the vandals.
The local Anti-Defamation League said in a statement: “As ADL waits to learn more about the nature of this crime, we offer our support to Temple Israel, to law enforcement and to the families who experienced damage to the headstones of their loved ones. This is an inexcusable act in a place where we honor and remember the lives of our community members. Whether or not this was motivated by anti-Semitism, there is no question that it certainly causes deep harm to the Jewish community. We will continue to aid law enforcement in any way we can and support the recovery effort at Temple Israel.”
It’s getting cold out! Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) is accepting new and gently used winter gear donations for its clients, many who will be experiencing their first winter ever this year! Members of the Jewish community can order items from JVS’ Amazon wish list at amzn.to/2NXTclm or drop off winter gear donations at the JVS office at 4600 The Paseo, Kansas City, MO 64110 from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. For more information, contact Joseph Lemna at 816-629-8943 or .
Jason Kander (left) answers questions about the Veterans Community Project as Missouri Sen. Roy Blunt listens.
When former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander stepped out of the public spotlight to seek treatment for PTSD, he found the paperwork process at the Veterans Affairs clinic overwhelming.
He “was looking at the possibility of having to wait weeks to possibly months to start being able to see somebody at the mental health clinic for the VA, the PTSD clinic, and found that even somebody in my position with a phone full of influential contacts and pretty high-level government experience and a law degree that I was a little — I don’t want to say overwhelmed or intimidated — but I was a little blown back by how onerous that process was going to be in aggregate,” Kander said.
