2007-01-26

Students translate charity lessons into action

By Lisa Armony, Contributing Writer

For most kids, time off from school means hitting the beaches or other fun-filled attraction. For 17-year-old Neta Batscha, spring break sent her to the storm-ravaged Gulf Coast to assist with Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

Under the auspices of Milken Community High School's YOZMA social action leadership initiative, the 11th-grader and more than 100 of her classmates spent four days clearing away debris in parts of Natchez, Miss., and in New Orleans, which was still reeling from the hurricane's destruction. She also built homes with Habitat for Humanity, and, with money raised by her Milken peers, replenished provisions at food shelters unable to meet the ongoing need for assistance.

"It made everyone feel good about themselves, that we can make a difference," Batscha said. "In my school, we're taught to give back, even when we're younger. We're taught not to be selfish. In Judaism, it's important for everyone."

More and more, Jewish kids are taking the lessons they've learned about tikkun olam, Judaism's spin on community service, and translating it into action. Through school-based programs like YOZMA, b'nai mitzvah service projects or simply their own initiative, children are finding creative ways to channel their interests and desire to help others into unique, personal contributions to those less fortunate. In so doing, they are building a reservoir of critical skills and laying the groundwork for a lifetime of compassion and civic responsibility in the Jewish tradition.

"Doing mitzvot and tikkun olam are in everything we do in Judaism, in every book we read," said Daniel Gold, director of the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education's (BJE) Sulam Center for Jewish Service Learning. When children perform charitable acts, Gold added, they connect teachings from God with the work they do on earth, and to their own identities.

Josh Lappen's work on behalf of Jews in Ethiopia has played a formulative role in the development of his Jewish awareness. Since the age of 5, Josh, now 12, has been fundraising under the auspices of the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry (NACOEJ), a nonprofit group that helps Jews survive in Ethiopia and reach Israel.

He accompanies his grandparents, active NACOEJ members, to local festivals where they sell Ethiopian handcrafts, and he recently began his own initiative selling cookies at his Hebrew school.

"My work gets me involved in the community. I almost feel like I'm getting to know them," said Josh, who has studied the history of Ethiopian Jews and occasionally speaks with groups to raise awareness of the challenges they face. While he has never seen the fruits of his labor firsthand, Josh feels a deep connection with Ethiopian Jews and is planning to participate in NACOEJ's bar mitzvah twinning program with an Ethiopian boy in Israel next year.

Realizing tikkun olam as a central pillar of Jewish practice, synagogues throughout the country require children to perform service projects before becoming b'nai mitzvah, sensitizing them to their growing responsibilities toward others as they approach adulthood. In many cases, these projects have been the inspiration for ongoing philanthropic endeavors.

Clara Clymer had intended to donate books to a neighborhood school for her bat mitzvah project. Instead, on the advice of Hebrew school staff at Leo Baeck Temple, she decided to become a tutor for KOREH L.A., The Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles' youth literacy program. The 12-year-old from Brentwood now meets once a week with a first-grade student, helping to strengthen her reading and comprehension skills. And while Clara was only required to fulfill five hours of service, her satisfaction knowing that she is making a difference in someone's life has been all the encouragement she needs to continue as a KOREH L.A. volunteer for the foreseeable future.

"If everybody helps somebody who needs help, it makes it a nicer place to live," she said.

In addition to the religious benefits, studies show that children who volunteer have higher self-esteem than those who do not, are happier and feel empowered by the knowledge that they are bringing about positive change, BJE's Gold said. On the academic side, they consistently demonstrate higher test scores and rates of school attendance. Community service also helps children develop good work habits and job skills, such as leadership, planning and organization.

"Kids who participate in community service must determine what they want to achieve and figure out creative ways of meeting their goals," said Sande Hart, who facilitates youth volunteer workshops for the Orange County BJE.

Hart saw proof of this when her son, Matt, organized "Shoot Away Cancer," a basketball tournament to raise funds for pediatric cancer research at Children's Hospital of Orange County, as his bar mitzvah project three years ago. Matt secured support from a local basketball league and brought together 180 elementary- to high school-age students for a day of three-on-three play in Santa Ana. While teams paid a $30 registration fee, most of the $7,200 Matt raised came from raffled gift certificates and donations he solicited from local businesses and attractions.

Now 15, Matt continues to volunteer to help those in need. For the past five years, he has been traveling to Mexico where he spends time with orphaned children and helps build houses for homeless families on behalf of the Irvine-based Corazon de Vida Foundation.

"Volunteering gives you a warm feeling that you're dong something right," the Rancho Santa Margarita High School sophomore said. "It has changed me as a person. If more kids would go out and do this, I think the world would be a lot better."

2006-12-08

Mayor implores people of faith to fight homelessness

By Naomi Glauberman, Contributing Writer

"Local communities have to provide services and supportive housing. We can't be a city that grows in one part and leaves people destitute in another," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told a crowd of more than 300 at Leo Baeck Temple on Sunday.

Teachings from the Torah, as well as triumphs on the football field, set the tone for a conference on homelessness, which also included County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky; Ed Edelman, retired county supervisor and special representative for homeless initiatives for the City of Santa Monica; L.A. City Council Member Bill Rosendahl; and a panel of agency leaders, ready to enlist the conference participants in a wide range of activities.

"Homelessness is curable and we must cure it," Leo Baeck Senior Rabbi Kenneth Chasen said in his welcoming remarks. "Jews know too well the experience of being strangers and outsiders. We have lived in countless places where there were no homes for us."

More than 90,000 homeless people live in Los Angeles County, about 15,000 of them in downtown's skid row.

"Los Angeles has the dubious distinction of being America's homeless capital," the mayor said, adding that the city is also home to 262,500 millionaires.

The mayor emphasized that homelessness is pervasive throughout the county.

"We have 15 council districts and 87 neighborhood councils, and at the end of the day we have to articulate a common vision.... Every neighborhood has the responsibility to bear the challenge of homelessness," Villaraigosa said, citing studies showing that contrary to residents' fears, property values do not fall, nor does crime increase when supportive housing is provided for the previously homeless.

Rosendahl cited a recent survey that had found scores of homeless people in West Los Angeles as well as Venice. Yaroslavky, emphasized that religious communities, which share a vision and passion for social justice can play a key role.

"The county has allocated $100 million for homelessness," he said. "At one point that was as unlikely as UCLA beating USC in football. For the first time in my career, the political landscape is right for tackling this issue."

A panel of directors of programs that provide services for the homeless provided the audience with specific programs that could use their services.

Adlai Wertman, the CEO of Chrysalis, which finds jobs for as many as 2,000 homeless people each year, left a career on Wall Street to work with the homeless.

"Why?" he asks. "First and foremost because I'm a Jew. I'm a wannabe rabbi. I spend four or five hours a week studying Torah; it was hard for me to read about the duty of taking care of the poor and the hungry without taking action."

The New Direction Choir, composed of previously homeless veterans who've worked with the New Directions orgainzaton, had earlier provided concrete evidence through song and testimonies to the successes of their programs.

"I am a member of this congregation," said Toni Reinis, executive director of the New Directions. "So I have to cite something. Our tradition teaches us that the recognition of injustice is not sufficient. Awareness must be followed by action. Real tzedakah is only committed through our acts of righteousness."

Reinis urged members of the audience to stop by the Veteran's Village Diner on the grounds of the Veteran's Administration in West Los Angeles, which serves breakfast and lunch Monday through Friday.

Joel Roberts, the CEO of PATH, People Assisting the Homeless, introduced Mary Erickson of Imagine LA, a group whose goal is to help every faith-based community in Los Angeles to "adopt" one of the city's 8,000 homeless families for a two year period.

The conference was spearheaded by Ralph Fertig, a professor at the USC School of Social Work. Fertig, who has long been active in the struggle for human and civil rights, joined Leo Baeck two years ago because of its tradition of social justice programming. The ex-Freedom Rider and civil rights lawyer approached the temple's rabbis in the hope of engaging the congregation in issues of homelessness.

"We decided a conference would be the perfect opportunity to get our members' sleeves rolled up," said Rabbi Leah Lewis, who was also a key organizer.

"We though this could be a launching pad for more involvement."

After the presentations, Edelman and Fertig urged everyone to sign up as volunteers. Their exhortations were echoed by Lewis in her concluding remarks.

"The Chanukah season is our time to re-dedicate ourselves to stand up for what is right," she said. "The Macabees were not deterred by the enormity of their task. Like the Macabees, we move forward one step at a time. For us at Leo Baeck, partnering with all these agencies is our congregational first step."

"There is no community or city or region in the country that has dealt successfully with homelessness without the full participation from religious communities of all faiths standing up for community responsibility," said Torie Osborn, Villaraigosa's senior adviser on homelessness.

"I'm especially delighted about the religious community coming together with the city and county," Chasen said as the congregants moved to an adjoining room where tables were covered with snacks, literature and sign-up sheets.

"The remarkable thing is that both Mayor Villaraigosa and Supervisor Yaroslavsky came," he said. "The city and the county have not always worked together on homelessness. It's a great sign of successes to come."

2006-08-18

Hebrew School Rocks Thanks to Radio Station

by Naomi Glauberman, Contributing Writer

On Friday nights, when 13-year-old Michael Rothbart approaches Leo Baeck Temple for Shabbat services, he urges his parents to tune to 87.9 on their radio dial. He is hoping that Avram Mandell, Leo Baeck's educational director and the founding force behind the temple's very low-power radio station, has popped in some pre-recorded Jewish music.

The Friday night program would be a bonus for Rothbart, one of the station's first certified disc jockeys. Leo Baeck Radio 87.9, run by the third- though seventh-graders, broadcasts live Sunday mornings during drop-off, recess and pick-up from religious school.

On any given Sunday, the radio studio behind Mandell's office, complete with its "On the Air" red light, is bustling with activity. Students come in 45 minutes early to begin their shifts; four DJs work the live broadcasts, but often during recess the crowd swells, with students wanting to be close to the radio action. "I'm always looking to ways to engage the children and community in Jewish education," Mandell says. "You throw out as many hooks as possible. You never know which one will catch a fish."

Traditional once-a-week Hebrew school did little to inspire a generation of Jews, especially when students attended for fewer than six years, according to the 2000 National Jewish Population study. The same study showed that the longer and more intense involvement students had with religious schooling, the more likely they were to develop a strong Jewish identity as adults.

Leo Baeck's school, which also meets on Wednesday afternoons, is one of a growing number of programs offering creative classes to make religious school a stimulating, hands-on experience. The goal is to help kids incorporate Judaism into their daily lives and to forge a lifelong positive connection to Judaism, Mandell said.

The school has about 210 kids. About 65 percent return for post-bar and bat mitzvah studies, all the way through 12th grade.

In addition to traditional classes in Hebrew and Jewish heritage and texts, students participate in family learning days, analyze current events, engage in social action, and enjoy field trips, holiday celebrations and prayer workshops. Sunday morning electives include drama, journalism, Krav Maga (Israeli self-defense), band and the radio station.

Leo Baeck Temple Radio, which has been up and running for about a year and broadcasts through the school and the parking lot, has been a particularly effective hook for many students. Started last year with the help of a grant from the Martin Sosin Stratto-Petit Foundation, which Mandell used to purchase a good stock of CDs, the weekly broadcasts provide an opportunity for the students to learn about all kinds of Jewish music, as well as honing their broadcasting skills. In addition to researching and introducing the music they play, the 25 students in the class write scripts for newscasts, commercials, public service announcements and movie reviews.

Last year, the fledgling station received a $1,000 prize for creative use of technology from the Union for Reform Judaism Press and the National Association of Temple Educators.

Rothbart believes that he's advanced his Jewish education through the station. "We read news stories. We fill in background and history and we explain the Hebrew titles of songs," he said.

Matthew Schulman, another 13-year-old DJ, liked learning how to modulate his broadcasting voice and developing "a nice attitude on the air and off." For their class project this semester, the class produced a radio broadcast based on the latest Ruach CD, an anthology of Jewish rock music from North America and Israel.

The students researched and recorded intros to each of the artists for a broadcast that has become a staple of the station's programming. "Some people might be surprised to learn there's Jewish rock, much less Jewish hip-hop," Mandell says.

And the definition of "Jewish music" can also expand to "include any band that has a Jewish member" -- Bob Dylan qualifies, as does Maroon Five. The students' favorites include Leo Baeck's Cantor, Wally Schachet-Briskin, known as Cantor Wally; Mah Tovu, the band of Leo Baeck's senior rabbi, Ken Chasen, and Eric Schwartz, a.k.a. Smooth-E, a Jewish rapper and stand-up comedian, who did a live interview with the kids, performed for the religious school and even did a station identification.

The station IDs are a particularly popular format -- with everyone from the temple's custodian to the cantor recording announcements.

"Even if no-one is tuning in, we have a great time. I'll blast it through the halls of the school. And the DJs love it," Mandell says. "We have third-graders working with fifth-graders and seventh-graders. It's very important for me to have different age groups interacting."

Schulman, has no intention of ending his involvement, when he moves on to eighth grade this year.

"I like the music," he says. "I'll definitely do it next year. When I get older I'd like to continue to work with 87.9 and maybe help other temples get radio stations, too."