diversity – Page 4

New principal at RJDS

Richmond Jewish Day School principal Ronit Amihude with the award-winning children’s book What Do You Do With An Idea? by writer Kobi Yamada and illustrator Mae Besom. (photo by Coleen Lou)

Ronit Amihude is a leader with a vision. The new principal at Richmond Jewish Day School (RJDS) has been working in Jewish education since high school and in day school settings for more than two decades. She brings with her a passion for relevant, pluralistic Jewish education, and training in forward-looking pedagogical theory and practice.

Amihude was born in Winnipeg and moved to Toronto in the early 1990s to work at the Heschel School, at the time a small progressive Jewish school with a dream of crafting creative education that involved children in a way that was individualized and relational. Amihude did a little bit of everything in her 18 years there and was able, she told the Jewish Independent, “to see how you can take a small beautiful seed and turn it into a gorgeous garden.”

Amihude got a master’s in education while at Heschel and went through the Jewish Theological Seminary’s Day School Leadership Training Institute, a 15-month program which, according to their website, “prepares new and aspiring heads of school for their work in Jewish day schools by providing engaging experiential learning opportunities, cutting-edge leadership development, ongoing mentoring, and the chance to collaboratively problem-solve with cohort peers.”

While at Heschel, Amihude took on multiple leadership roles. After her tenure there, she was recruited to Atlanta, where she became the principal of learning, teaching and innovation at the Epstein School.

Richmond Jewish Day School began looking for a new principal after Abba Brodt, a beloved educator and administrator who had been with the school since 2010, left in 2017. Amihude had heard about RJDS over the years and felt it had “the same heimish [homey] feeling as Heschel” and was “a beautiful little school community” that believes all Jewish kids deserve a Jewish education and could be helped to get one.

“The feeling I got was that RJDS is a wonderful place where kids are supported and appreciated, where it is not just STEM that is taught, but kindness, perseverance and acceptance,” she said.

Amihude applied for the job last December and, after multiple Skype calls and phone chats, she flew out in February of this year and contracts were signed around Pesach.

When Amihude spoke with the Independent, it was her fifth day on the job and she generously made time in her hectic schedule to talk. Her first impressions of life at RJDS were resoundingly positive.

“It is a really diverse population where that is celebrated,” she said. “It’s a place where children of all levels of observance and non-observance from all over the world – Israel, Russia, Colombia and elsewhere – learn together. Kids who think everybody eats matzah balls on Yom Tov learn there are lots of ways to be Jewish.”

Amihude said a balance between tradition and pluralism is important for her, and the school community is open to different styles of being Jewish. This approach is showcased, in part, by their pluralistic approach to tefillah (prayer), which embraces Orthodox and progressive rituals. “If kids are given a hard line, telling them that only one way is authentic,” said Amihude, “then what message does that give them if that’s not the way of themselves or their family – that they’re not Jewish?”

This fall at RJDS, students took part in the international Kindness Rocks movement, where kids decorate rocks with messages of encouragement and kindness and place them out in the community. The school put a unique spin on this practice by integrating it into the days of teshuvah (repentance/return) between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Amihude said an essential part of her mission at RJDS is giving kids the tools to find their own Jewish selves outside of school and to help their families figure out who they are and what they want to be doing. She wants to see a collaborative space where kids can work together to create, to learn perseverance and problem solve.

“Can the kids build a model sukkah? Can they create a double-decker chanukiyah for parents and kids to light together? There is so much we can be doing with 21st-century skills, while celebrating the Jews that we are and the people that we want to be.”

Matthew Gindin is a freelance journalist, writer and lecturer. He is Pacific correspondent for the CJN, writes regularly for the Forward, Tricycle and the Wisdom Daily, and has been published in Sojourners, Religion Dispatches and elsewhere. He can be found on Medium and Twitter.

Trying to increase inclusion

Alisa Polsky, left, and Leamore Cohen attended the Jewish Federations of Canada-United Israel Appeal’s Pushing the Boundaries: Disability, Inclusion and Jewish Community conference in Toronto April 15-17. (photo by Liora Kogan)

Jewish Federations of Canada-United Israel Appeal’s Pushing the Boundaries: Disability, Inclusion and Jewish Community conference took place in Toronto April 15-17. It was the first national Jewish conference on these topics, and two representatives of the Jewish Commmunity Centre of Greater Vancouver attended.

Leamore Cohen, inclusion services coordinator at the JCCGV, was a panelist in a discussion on vibrant, inclusive communities and recreation. She was joined at the conference by Alisa Polsky, a member of the Bagel Club, a social group for adults with diverse needs.

“The Bagel Club community is very important for social interaction with other people, and to know there are other opportunities for learning and discovery,” Polsky told the Independent. “I got to discover the Vancouver I didn’t know before.

“The club inspires me to try new things that I’d never tried before. I’ve learned a lot about myself over the years and it has pushed me out of my shell. I’m grateful for this. I’m grateful for all the opportunities the club has provided, like going to Israel with my friends and this conference.”

Polsky has been an active member of the Vancouver Jewish community for years, with volunteering being a value her parents instilled in her as a child. At the time, the educational system had dubbed her “disabled.”

“When I was going to school, I was just pushed through,” said Polsky. “This was elementary school. I didn’t get the education I deserved. I was put into a special needs class. The education system segregated me away from the regular class. The teachers only wanted to work with the ‘normal’ kids.

“I would have liked more schooling. I deserved more schooling. I deserved to be in the classroom with the ‘normal’ kids. This still hurts. I am glad that things have changed, but it’s not enough. Some kids are still segregated today. We have to work together to change that. If not, more kids will feel like I did, which is not fair or right.”

Last year, on the trip to Israel with the Bagel Club, Polsky got to meet Member of Knesset Ilan Gilon, with whom she spoke about the struggles of people with diverse needs in Canada for proper benefit rates.

photo - Alisa Polsky at the Pushing the Boundaries: Disability, Inclusion and Jewish Community conference — Alisa Polsky at the Pushing the Boundaries: Disability, Inclusion and Jewish Community conference. *(photo by Liora Kogan)*

“When the Pushing the Boundaries conference came up, Leamore asked if I wanted to go,” said Polsky. “She told me that she was speaking with the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver about having someone from our community attend. She said the Federation believed this was very important. It’s important to see how other organizations work with people with all kinds of diverse abilities, and that people with diverse abilities get to be part of the national conversation.”

This was the first conference Polsky had ever attended. She was happy to discover that, while other organizations charge for various activities, including the Pushing the Boundaries conference, the JCCGV and Vancouver Federation take into account the financial barriers many people with diverse needs face, and do not charge for such programs.

“I loved learning more about the youth-led mentoring programs in Israel, Krembo Wings,” said Polsky. “We got to spend time with them when we visited Israel. When I was younger, I never went to programs like that. I did volunteer and helped kids with learning disabilities learn how to swim. Given the chance, I was able to show that we all have something to give. Organizations like Krembo Wings ensure that the next generation will help each other to learn and achieve their potential, no matter who they are.”

Polsky said it is very important to hear from other Jewish groups about what they offer in their communities and what their issues are. In this way, she said, she and others can be stronger self-advocates and more involved in the community.

Maybe most encouraging for Polsky was realizing that she has partners in her goal for equal rights for community participation, and also that Jewish organizations are beginning to work together across Canada to remove barriers.

“I am overcoming these barriers through my membership with the Bagel Club community, with my family, who have been there for me, through volunteering and through my spiritual community,” said Polsky. “I feel it is my time to give back to the community that has given me so much over the years.

“The conference was about the lives of Jewish people with diverse abilities – and they should be at the table. I am proud that I was at the table with Leamore.”

Polsky said there is a lot to be gained from attending gatherings like Pushing the Boundaries. In particular, there is the opportunity to “exchange ideas and share resources,” said Polsky. “It’s also important to understand our history as Jewish people, and as people with diverse needs in this country. I’d like readers to recognize that we’re all partners in making the community better.”

Some conference highlights for Polsky included the synagogue panel on creating inclusive communities and the recreation panel, in which Cohen took part. There were other topics covered, as well.

“As a Jewish woman and a woman with diverse needs, it was hard, but important to learn about the eugenics movement in Canada,” said Polsky. “This movement meant that a woman who had a pregnancy where a child who was mentally or physically challenged would be encouraged to abort the pregnancy. Families were also encouraged to institutionalize their disabled children. And they also forced sterilization.

“We learned about the denationalization movement and the development of community living.

We also learned about integration into schools and housing developments that are currently being built, which are inclusive and accessible, in Ontario.”

Polsky said she is fortunate to be living in a cooperative, and living independently. She noted that some people with diverse needs, who may require semi-independent living, are still segregated in Canada today, due to zoning laws that keep them out of certain neighbourhoods, which she describes as “horrible.”

“Having participated in this conference,” she said, “I can tell other people what I have learned and I can encourage people in my community to vote and to get active in their communities. I can remind politicians how powerful we can be when we work together and that disabilities communities are large and strong, and that we can make a difference in all aspects of community life.”

For more information about the conference, visit jewishcanada.org.

Rebeca Kuropatwa is a Winnipeg freelance writer.

Step aside fried latkes

My younger brother has one main rule for my nieces, who are 6 and 4 years old – “No head injuries.” Sounds simple enough, until you see one of them launch themselves off the back of the couch. I could see a bit of them in the character of Sadie in Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas, written by Pamela Ehrenberg and illustrated (beautifully and creatively) by Anjan Sarkar.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t want my little sister, Sadie, to help us make dosas for Hanukkah,” explains her big brother. “The problem was, she climbed too much.” Onto tables, out of cribs, up stacks of cans at the supermarket, Sadie does like to climb. And luckily so, it turns out. But you’ll have to read the book to know why.

book cover - Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas — Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas cover

If the title didn’t give it away, Sadie and her family are a Jewish family with Indian heritage. Instead of latkes, they are celebrating the Holiday of Lights with dosas, and there is a recipe for the Indian pancake in the book, as well as a recipe for sambar, a vegetarian lentil stew made with tamarind paste and many other delicious ingredients.

Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas, published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (2017), is part of PJ Library, which sends free Jewish children’s books to families with kids from 6 months to 8 years old. B.C. community members can sign up through Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver or Jewish Federation of Victoria and Vancouver Island.

PJ Library’s selection committee chose Queen of the Hanukkah Dosas because it “loves how this book celebrates the varied cultural and ethnic backgrounds that make up today’s Jewish community, and encourages each of us to be proud of our individuality.”

The book also offers the opportunity to talk about various holiday customs that cut across Jewish cultures. Sadie wears a dreidel costume for some of the book, the family lights the chanukiyah, there is gelt on the table and, of course, dosas are fried, so there’s that miracle of oil to discuss.