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June 26, 2009
Graduation at Melton
Passion for learning fuels Melton adult school.
DEENA LEVENSTEIN
Violeta Moutal, one of the 23 students who graduated on June 16 from the Florence Melton Adult Mini School in Vancouver, compared the last two years at Melton to a festive meal.
The student – Moutal told her classmates – arrives hungry but is only allowed to consume small bites of different kinds of "food." Each dish is different. They range from soft to hard to swallow, from sweet to sour to bitter. "All ingredients used are wholesome and obtained from the source," she said. "No additives or preservatives are added. All foods are shared and are to be eaten mindfully and together. As we eat and share the feast, I feel connected, curious, safe, grateful and free."
The June graduation celebrated the third class to finish the two-year program since it began in Vancouver. The program, an international school centred around Jerusalem, was founded by Florence Zacks Melton, a Jewish woman from Philadelphia. Born in 1911, she grew up very poor but, despite her lack of formal education, became a businesswoman in her own right. Dina Wachtel, executive director of Canadian Friends of Hebrew University (CFHU), told Melton's story at the grad ceremony. She said Melton has 20 patents under her name, including the product from which she made her fortune: foam, washable slippers, of which more than a billion have been sold. Despite, or maybe as a result of, her lack of education, Melton was always passionate about education, especially Jewish education.
With some effort, she and her second husband, Samuel M. Melton, succeeded in convincing the Hebrew University in Jerusalem to develop the program she dreamed of, with the use of her funds. Her plan was for the curriculum to be developed by academics in the school of education on Mount Scopus and for the material to then be distributed to locations around the world. Melton expected participants to commit to two years and she wanted the material to be as pluralistic as possible. The first Melton classes started in three U.S. locations in 1985 and today there are 70 centres internationally, plus branches geared towards youth and Israelis abroad.
Local Melton director Betty Nitkin has been the key person in the founding and development of the school at the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver (JCCGV). She has been the director of the Adult Jewish Institute since 2002. It was through her initiative that CFHU was asked to partner and allocate funds to establish the program here. Nitkin is retiring the end of this month but said she'll continue to be seen around the school, since she plans to attend the continuing studies courses there.
Nitkin handed out the certificates to the graduates. She started with a student who, she said, is "super special." Geraldine Biely started in Melton's first year at the JCCGV but then, for medical reasons, had to stop. She came back the following year, finished the first year but then, because of more medical problems, again had to stop attending classes. "She came back this year and thank God she's here to graduate," said Nitkin. "Jerusalem sent a very special certificate to recognize Gerry's persistence." Born around 1921, this makes Biely the oldest graduate at the local Melton school.
Through the four courses taught during the two years, which include studying the rhythms, purposes, ethics and dramas of Jewish living, the students' lives are greatly enriched. "I reclaimed the suffering of my people, the suffering of all people, the vision of a world of peace," said Moutal to the approximately 50 people present. "I reclaimed my human capacity for compassion and kindness, my courage for justice, my strength of faith. I reclaimed the divine spark in me, the divine spark in you; our mutual need for love and acceptance."
Every year the school accepts a limited number of new students. Contact Nitkin for more information, 604-257-5116 or [email protected], or visit www.jccgv.com.
Deena Levenstein is a freelance writer from Toronto, Jerusalem and now Vancouver. You can visit her blog at deenascreations.com.
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