Read Tikvah Director, Howard Blas’, blogpost on Davar Acher, the blog of the Jim Joseph Foundation Fellows. He writes about the many ABILITIES of people with special needs. Featured are former Tikvah campers Aaron Rudolph and Eytan Nizinzweig. Others noted who are making a difference in the Jewish Disability world include: Richard Bernstein, Jodi Samuels, Jay Ruderman and the Ruderman Family Foundation, and the Reliability Film Festival.
As the “State of The Union” Address draws to a close, I feel compelled to answer this burning question: Did Eric Levine meet Barack Obama? Odds makers in DC and on the entire east coast were betting that, if anyone from the Tikvah delegation would meet the President, it would be Eric! In fact, even Eric’s dad took him aside in the Penn Station Amtrak waiting area to say, “Eric, if you meet Obama, PLEASE remember to call him President Obama!”
As Josh noted in his blog post, a very large delegation of voc ed and post voc ed program members arrived in Washington, DC for a special Shabbaton/Reunion at Congregation Ohr Kodesh in Chevy Chase, MD. Our Kayitz, 2009 voc ed advisors, Chana Fuld, Marcia Glickman and Anna Elfenbaum, and DC residents and friends of Tikvah, Marc Israel, Rachel Braun, Leslie Gilman and Elizabeth Chipkin (as well as Gilman and Braun husbands and a Braun daughter!) worked tirelessly to plan the first Shabbaton of its kind. Hats off to members of Ohr Kodesh, Rabbi Lyle Fishman and our Tikvah Parents (and many friends of Tikvah) for making the weekend a huge success.
Imagine the scene on Friday morning, January 15th: Judith Simons meets four members of the Tikvah delegation?Max, Melissa, Jacob and Adam–at Bradley Airport and flies in to BWI airport. Isaac also flies in to DC—from Louisville, KY. Anna Elfenbaum drives Sophie and Jeremy from Hartford to New Haven, where Benji meets them at Union Station and hops on the Amtrak train, bound for New York City?where Howard, Elisheva, Eric, Jason, Avi, Jakie, and Ortal join them?in the 2nd car from the end. We call Marcia, Noah and Sam, the Philadelphia crew, and tell them in which car to meet us! We all talk up a storm, all the way to Union Station in Washington, DC, where we are met by Chana who had Metro Cards for all. After a brief ride on the Metro, we are greeted by our drivers, Rachel and Marc, who drive us to Ohr Kodesh for the official kick off of the Shabbaton. Sound tiring? The Shabbaton has just begun!
Our host families meet us at the shul, we quickly shower and enjoy an amazing Kabbalat Shabbat, dinner and oneg at Ohr Kodesh. The rest off Shabbat was amazing–Tikvah davening, joining the shul at the end of services (Avi lead Kiddush and I was invited to say a few words from the bimah about Tikvah!), a walk to a nearby park to see horses and play on the playground, a visit to the Israel Family home, and… the visit to the White House!
Four very special White House staffers were kind enough to donate their time for a very special, one of a kind, tour of the West Wing. We rushed out of the shul the minute havdalah ended. Don’t want to be late for the White House! Passports in hand, we clear our final security check. Since President Obama decided to take Michele out to a very special DC area organic veggie restaurant just as we were arriving, we were treated to an up close look at the presidential motorcade.
But, sadly, the President chose Michele over Eric! We did not get to actually chill with the President! We did, however, get to see the Oval Office, the Roosevelt Room, the Cabinet meeting room and pretend we were giving a press conference (see the photos in Josh’s blog). And, we did get to have an ice cream party back at Ohr Kodesh. Sorry Mr. President?maybe you’ll get to meet Eric and join us for ice cream next year!
I just arrived in Jerusalem where I will spend Shabbat with the 13 other Fellows and three teachers of the Jim Joseph Foundation Fellowship Program of the Lookstein Center. We have been learning together and traveling together since our arrival in Israel this past Monday. The truth is, more than half of us made it to Kfar Maccabia in Ramat Gan on time; the rest were very delayed due to snow in the US. I was lucky enough to arrive on time and have been enjoying every minute of our ten day program entitled “Community and Leadership: Exploring the Past, Understanding the Present, Imagineering the Future.” Beyond the learning about web platforms and communities of practice, lectures by such luminaries as Israeli conductor, Itay Talgam, Steve Israel of JAFI and Professor Jeffrey Woolf of Bar Ilan, and tiyulim (field trips) to such places as Churbat Etri, the Bar Kochba Caves, and Caesaria, I have been able to connect with various members of the Ramah New England community. And I have had a chance to reflect on the centrality of Israel to Ramah and Tikvah.
No more than two hours after landing, I was sitting in our first fellowship session, held in a private room of the Kfar Maccabia dining room. I looked up and saw Mark Ross, a former Amitzim counselor, here from England for a wedding. Later that night, I connected by phone and email with various friends from the Ramah community – Rotem and Uri, Leah Collier, Max Davidson, the Bensteins, Yediah and Uri Tzivoni, and Tikvah founders and long time directors, Herb and Barbara Greenberg.
Last night, I was honored to attend the bat mitzvah of one of Herb and Barbara’s granddaughters. When our day of learning and tiyulim ended, I cabbed it to Pitaya, a beautiful catering hall in Kfar Saba. I arrived a bit late and was delighted when I saw Uri and Yedida, long time friends of Herb and Barbara’s. The Greenbergs, who came on aliyah approximately ten years ago, speak often of how much the Ramah experience impacted on their love for Israel. They have maintained friendships for years with shlichim and other Israelis who worked at Ramah New England. Imagine my delight when I was greeted by a table of Israelis (including the Reems and the Hanochis) who worked at camp twenty or so years ago. And several of them worked in Tikvah! Israel and the shlichim are so central to camp, and the Tikvah experience has really made an impact on generations of shlichim.
I feel honored to continue the strong relationship between Tikvah, Ramah, Israel and our mishlachat/Israeli delegation. Last year at this time, I was in Israel with fifteen campers and staff members (we had a blast, despite the Gaza War, which caused us to change our itinerary a bit). It was my fourth Tikvah Israel trip; it was a pleasure to restart the Israel trip, started so many years ago by the Greenbergs who brought approximately ten groups Tikvah groups to Israel. Each summer, Tikvah has a particularly strong relationship with the mischlachat, who teach us Hebrew, swimming, sports, omanut, etc. I can’t wait to visit my Ramah Israeli friends in Israel, and to welcome many back to camp this summer.
Shabbat Shalom from Jerusalem. (I received a lot of comments yesterday about my Kayitz 2009 Ramah shirt! Several told me to remember to take off my name tag!)
Like it or not, this is the season of giving and receiving gifts. We are thinking about gifts we will give to our children, their teachers, our co-workers, family members, even our letter carriers. We may even think about gifts for ourselves! There is always the hope that we will receive as well as give.
I have been thinking a lot about gifts lately. This past Thursday, I participated in a Mitzvah Fair at Congregation B’nai Jeshurun (BJ). It was attended by 70 fifth, sixth and seventh grade students, as well as by their parents and teachers (including our own Jason Fruitlandler!). The truth is, I participate in a number of ‘fairs’ during the off season – but they are usually camp fairs, where people learn about camp programs for children with special needs.
This fair was different. Over a 90 minute period, B’nai Jeshurun Hebrew school students would visit 18 different tables in a “round robin format”, where they would hear a three or four minute presentations from various organizations, including Hazon, the Peres Center for Peace, From Table to Table, Soaring Words, and Give a Mitzvah, Do a Mitzvah (a UJA-Federation of New York program), etc. The truth is, I didn’t get to visit all of the tables, as I was speaking about our own Tikvah Program.
Before the round robin began, students sat in small circles with their teachers, learning about Tikun Olam, the Jewish concept of “Repairing the World”. As I spoke about the Tikvah Program, I remembered a conversation I had recently with a Tikvah parents. I had been telling her the idea I had come up with, where BJ students would plan and participate in several social activities throughout the year with New York-based members of our Tikvah Program. My vision was for three or four BJ students, three or four Tikvah campers, and two or three Tikvah counselors (or friends of Tikvah) who attend college in Manhattan to jointly plan and participate in such activities as bowling, arts and crafts, holiday celebration, etc. I wanted to continue into the ‘off season’ the very meaningful social and Jewish experience that our Tikvah campers have in the summer. This mother was enthusiastic and supportive, but she wanted to make sure her daughter was not simply the recipient of the kindness of the BJ students. She was absolutely right!
And here is where gifts come in. As I explained to the BJ students, we all have unique gifts. By working with our Tikvah campers, they would be giving, and also receiving. Our Tikvah campers would be receiving, but also giving.
At Ramah, we see campers in other edot giving to Tikvah – by helping friends in motorized scooters navigate the rocky terrain, by socializing with them at various camp activities, or by asking guests to bring art supplies or musical instruments to their bnei mitzvah. The Tikvah Program has received some wonderful donations to the program, thanks to the kindness of fellow campers who thought of their Tikvah friends as they celebrated bnai mitzvah. Tikvah campers have also received a great deal through our various buddy programs, which include Bogrim Buddies and Machon Helpers.
And, Tikvah campers have given so much – to each other, to campers in other edot, and even to staff members. So many of us can picture Eva and others pushing fellow Tikvah camper, Sarah’s, wheelchair. Tikvah campers have spoken on panels during chinuch about having special needs. And Tikvah campers have participated on competitive sports teams and lead Friday night camp wide Shabbat services; through their involvement on sports teams and through serving as prayer leaders, they have shown their fellow campers that we each have strengths as well as weaknesses. We even had a Tikvah staff member who, as a camper, was tutored for his bar mitzvah by a Tikvah camper with particularly good synagogue skills. What a true gift!
I am touched by BJ’s including me and Tikvah in their mitzvah fair. I will need to remind the BJ organizers and volunteers that a mitzvah/tikkun olam project clearly goes both ways. Givers receive and recipients give!
