Working with a Funny, Smart, Kind…Special Child
By Danielle Berman, TAP teen from Congregation Ohev Shalom, Wallingford From the moment I was assigned to work with my special friend I knew that my job wasn’t going to be easy. In early September I started to work at the Mispallelim Hebrew School located at Congregation Ohev Shalom. I work with a girl who is funny, smart, kind, and also happens to be a selective mute. This child doesn’t talk to anyone at Hebrew School but she finds clever other ways to express her emotions and thoughts. For instance this student has a love for puppets and has an [...]
Engage, Engagement, Engaging
By Rabbi Phil Warmflash, Executive Director / Engage, Engagement, Engaging – this is the word that is ubiquitous today in Jewish education and communal parlance. It has supplanted “outreach” which was employed for several decades. Outreach implied going out to “them” and bringing them to “us” and was always seen side by side with “inreach” to those who were already “with us.” Jewish engagement speaks of a different approach.