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Empowering Jewish Women

The Neveh Channah High School for Girls celebrated International Women’s Day with a special seminar during which the day of feminist empowerment was imbued with religious significance.

“It was my grandmother who introduced me Judaism,” Rabbi Shlomo Riskin related to the girls. “Every Friday night, she would light the Shabbat candles and then sit and learn Talmud with me. As a result of this childhood experience, it never occurred to me that Judaism didn’t belong to women just as it belongs to men,” he said. Rabbi Riskin shared that it was this early understanding of women’s capabilities and roles that guided the establishment of many revolutionary projects which have developed Torah study for women and advanced their right to participate in every realm of Jewish society.

“Rabbi Riskin reminded us that while women’s rights exist within Judaism, they have not always been acknowledged and so we shouldn’t take them for granted,” reports 16-year-old Keren Amichai. “He spoke with such warmth and passion about women studying whatever they want and serving as leaders in the communal sphere that we came away inspired to increase our Torah learning. And after hearing him talk about the plight of agunot, many of us began seriously considering ways in which we can work toward lasting change,” she says.

Repairing the World

Neveh Shmuel students with their compost heap

Take one step onto the Efrat campus of the Neveh Shmuel Yeshiva High School for Boys and you will be bombarded by an array of posters reminding you to save water and conserve energy. Ecological issues have become an important part of both the students’ curriculum and daily lives.

Much of the credit for this goes to teacher Arik Har-Zahav, who describes himself as a ’repentant ecologist.’ “Our students spend a great deal of time studying Torah and Jewish law. They are taught about Tikkun Olam – repairing the world. Our goal is to illustrate that Judaism is concerned with environmentalism. The Torah dictates protection for trees, the Mishna forbids destroying the public domain, and the rabbis debate damages for noise and smoke in the Talmud,” he declares.

Har-Zahav’s passion has inspired both the pupils and the administration; a special “Environmental Awareness” day was devoted to learning the Torah sources dealing with environmentalism as well as listening to presentations from leading ecologists. Wanting to translate what they had learned into practice, a group of boys built a compost heap outside the dormitory buildings. “We wanted it to be visible to everyone,” explains 11th grader Haggai Immanuel, “so that it would become a symbol of what we’ve learned here about the synthesis between Judaism and the modern world.”

Remembering Rav Aviad, z”l

Rabbi Aviad Ronen was one of the founding teachers of the Derech Avot High School for Boys in Efrat. When he died tragically at the age of 31, he was mourned not only by his family and close friends, but by the entire student body of the school.

“We wanted to do something in Rav Aviad’s memory that would not only be a powerful and cathartic experience for our students,” explains school principal Rabbi Shlomo Wilk, “but that would capture the essence of a truly unique individual who was a talented and popular educator, a licensed tour guide, a man of culture and a lover of the land and people of Israel.” In memory of their beloved teacher, Derech Avot students celebrated the reunification of Jerusalem with a two-day hike which ended in the holy city.  During the course of the walk, the 150 students also met with musicians, army spokesmen and comedians. “It was the perfect combination of fun, education, and values,” comments Wilk. “Just like Rav Aviad was.”

“Kol Yisrael Areivim”

Preparing food parcels at the Jacob Sapirstein High School

When Rabbi Yigal Hamshoush, a teacher in the Jacob Sapirstein High School for Boys in Ramot, learned that some of his students’ parents were struggling to make a Pesach Seder this year, he was determined to do something that would not only help them, but which would also serve as a valuable educational lesson for the pupils.

“The economic situation is affecting everybody,” says Rabbi Amichai Braverman, school principal. “Only about half of our students’ families are capable of paying full tuition, while the rest are supported by scholarships. And it’s getting worse; the poorer families are growing more needy.” Together, they embarked upon a special Kimcha de Pischa appeal [literally, ’flour for Passover’]. The idea was met with enthusiasm by students and faculty, who canvassed their neighborhoods and grocery stores for matzot, wine, oil and other provisions. Students stayed long after the last bell rang to parcel the food into beautiful packages.

Then came the issue of how to deliver them. “As much as the students wanted to deliver the parcels themselves, we were determined that no one should be embarrassed,” explains Braverman. “We sent a delegation of teachers in the middle of the night; they left the baskets outside the front doors of about 40 families, with a little note wishing them a Chag Sameach from Ohr Torah Stone.” Says Braverman: “It was gratifying to be able to provide some relief to needy families, but even more important to impart to our students that at the end of the day, we are all one big family.”

Creativity and Spirituality

Students in the Ann Belsky Moranis School Theater Arts Program at the Shavei Rachel High School for Girls once again impressed Ministry of Education judges, securing the highest marks with their monologue performances for the matriculation exams.

Shavi Rachel students: “Phenomenally creative”

“Our students are phenomenally creative,” declares Nurit Goodman, director of the art and drama tracks at the school. “They take their projects very seriously and, in keeping with the Belsky School’s principles, the top-notch works they produce enable them to explore issues with which they are grappling on a day-to-day basis.” For example, relates Goodman, “one student, Shiran Havousha, was so affected by the suffering of the evacuees from Gush Katif that she decided to examine what it felt like to be one of the Israeli soldiers carrying out the operation. She composed her own piece about an emotive meeting between an Israeli soldier and a young woman from one of the settlements.”

The girls performed to packed auditoriums of over 400 people at each performance. “At first I didn't believe I could create something that would be interesting and exciting for the audience,” admits student Naomi Berman, who learned Yiddish for her monologue from Bernard Malamud’s The Jewbird. “But ultimately, I gained tremendous self-confidence from the experience.”

The Rambam on Facebook

Would the Rambam use Facebook? That was the starting point of a major learning project at the Jenny Sapirstein High School for Girls in Ramot and although it may seem a strange way to start learning the text, principal Chana Assis points out that it highlights the underlying philosophy of Ohr Torah Stone: exposing the relevance of classic Torah sources to our everyday lives.

The discussion about Facebook was an introduction to the Rambam’s idea of pursuing the Golden Mean and avoiding extremes. “Our students were fascinated by the Rambam’s philosophy and it gave them an opportunity to consider their own lifestyles,” says Assis. “Many of them spoke openly about how Facebook and internet chatrooms can easily become obsessive. Using the text of the Rambam, they explored way to wean themselves from potentially extreme behaviors.”

While the teachers act as facilitators for most of the learning and discussion sessions, the school also welcomes outside speakers, such as Orthodox fashion designer Aliza Ginsberg, who taught the girls sources relating to Jewish attitudes toward beauty, discussing with them the practical ramifications. But it isn’t just the students who are engaged in thoughtful and introspective learning. Toni Mittelman, the school’s Director of Jewish Studies, has also opened a Beit Midrash for 25 teachers, who meet once a week. “We study everything from Prayer to Postmodernism to Education,” says Assis. “The students know that for 90 minutes, every Sunday afternoon, their teacher will be learning in the Beit Midrash. That sends to our pupils the powerful message that learning is an ongoing and never-ending process.”

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