Jessie Claudio

VTT Class Act honors

The Shia Ismaili community, St. Augustine’s Catholic School and Vancouver Talmud Torah students assembled gifts of hope and compassion, and distributed them – along with 2,000 servings of food items courtesy of Tim Horton’s – to residents on the Downtown Eastside. (photo from Vancouver Talmud Torah)

Random Acts’ Class Act is an annual award program for schools worldwide, intended to inspire acts of kindness around the world. The winner is the group that is the most creative and inventive in performing an act of kindness in their community and receives $3,000 US for their school.

Last year, Shoshana Burton and Jessie Claudio, then of Richmond Jewish Day School and Az-Zahraa Academy, respectively, won the Class Act award for Abraham’s Tent: Using Diversity as a Base for Unity, a joint Jewish and Muslim service learning project. Together, they planned a week of giving: teachers and students alike spent the week handing out scarves, shoes and bag lunches in one of Vancouver’s poorest neighborhoods and performing other acts of generosity in their community.

This year, with both Burton and Claudio at Vancouver Talmud Torah, they and their students were runners-up to the award for their Kindness Project.

With the organizational efforts of the sixth and seventh grade students of VTT, local community members were gifted with myriad kind gestures over a span of several months. Among the projects were a Random Acts of Chesed Race, in which students and their families gathered together to spread kindness across the city through a series of small acts; a holiday gift exchange with a neighboring Catholic school, during which students shared in one another’s traditions; and a donation drive for a nonprofit working to provide shoes to children in Haiti and the Dominican Republic (Ruben’s Shoes), for which the group collected more than 710 pairs. In addition, the group also paired up this spring with the local Catholic school and the Muslim Shia Ismaili community to distribute care packages to the homeless community in Vancouver – a project that not only helped the homeless, but the students as well.

“The focus was not only on handing out necessities and food to needy people but also to interact with them with compassion and restore their hope to make sure they understand that they are not forgotten,” wrote Burton to Random Acts, adding that the projects were meant to “build bridges of understanding that we are more of the same than different.”

“Jewish education includes many lessons about doing chesed, being generous, being compassionate, being nonjudgmental and inclusive from a very young age,” Burton said. “Our goal at VTT is not only to teach about it but also to provide students with enduring real-life opportunities to apply those so they can see and feel the great impact of their kind actions…. When we allow them to have a voice in how we will do things, they become empowered and literally unstoppable. They want to do more and we continue to be amazed and touched, seeing them inspired and inspiring all who are around them, including parents and teachers. The younger students watch the enthusiasm of the older ones and want to do it, too – it becomes contagious and takes a life of its own.

“Kids are not only compassionate but also curious to know more about the world, other cultures and faiths,” she added. “Our Grade 7 students had three projects with Muslim and Catholic students. They did not only learn to see similarities and common practices between faiths but also found themselves teaching about Judaism, feeling proud to tell the world who they are. Another example of building bridges with other cultures was when we invited a First Nations cultural group from Alert Bay to come learn about and participate in a Havdalah ceremony. When we were done with the Havdalah, we participated in one of their traditional drum circles, it was fascinating and moving.”

Collaborative kindness

In Elie Wiesel’s The Power of Forgiveness, the Nobel Prize winner describes the Jewish view of forgiveness. Specifically, that in order to be forgiven, one must first admit to wrongful action and apologize. With that teaching in mind, Grade 6 and 7 students from Vancouver Talmud Torah were asked the following question, “Does one wrong act of an individual reflect on an entire person or organization?” “No!” proclaimed the students. The question was posed in reference to the recent dousing in cold water of a homeless man outside a Tim Horton’s on Robson Street.

Non-judgment, compassion and good deeds are not just lessons to be learned, but a Jewish blueprint for a life to be lived. Over the past few months, VTT’s students have been working on a service learning project that includes providing food for the homeless. When the time came to seek sponsors for this initiative, students suggested approaching Tim Horton’s.

“The people at Tim Horton’s were so moved that they jumped at the opportunity without even considering what might be in it for them. They were intrigued by the fact that Jewish students were inviting Muslim and Catholic students to collaborate to help the needy – a value shared by all the three religions and complementary to the many good programs that Tim Horton’s already does in the community,” said Shoshana Burton, VTT’s director of Jewish life and programming.

With Tim Horton’s support, on March 11, VTT students, along with seventh grade students from the Shia Ismaili Muslim community and St. Augustine School, will be serving 2,000 people food donated by Tim Horton’s. They will also distribute 2,000 toques with the message: “I am here. See me. Believe in me,” donated by Tim Horton’s for those in need in the Downtown Eastside.

The students also will deliver gifts of hope and compassion. These are packages collaboratively created by all three communities that include necessities like toiletries and warm clothing, as well as a heartfelt note written by students and their families. “It’s the message that is accompanying the gifts of hope and compassion that we hope will inspire and lift individuals to see the greater good in humanity; a small message that will hopefully go a long way,” said Jessie Claudio, a VTT teacher involved in the project.

“It’s not enough to simply fill students’ brains with facts. A successful Jewish education demands that their character be developed as well,” added VTT head of school Cathy Lowenstein. “This hands-on chesed initiative is exactly the kind of learning our students will remember as they progress from elementary school to high school.

“It is hoped that by building bridges with other faith-based schools,” she continued, “VTT’s students will have the skills and experience to continue the work of cross-community dialogue and understanding as they become the next generation of Jewish leaders. By joining with others to address a very urgent need, our students and their teacher-mentors are fulfilling so many of the Jewish commandments to expand their universe of obligation. This is something we can all be proud of!”

Taking the classroom to the world

Left to right are Shoshana Burton, Fred Miller and Jessie Claudio. (photo by Shula Klinger)

School curriculum can seem abstract, separate from the “real” world for which it is intended to prepare our children. What can a teacher do to bring the world into her classroom? She can take the classroom into the world.

This is what teacher Shoshana Burton, now of Richmond Jewish Day School, has been doing for many years. Random Acts of Kindness, or RAC (Random Acts of Chesed), week began at King David High School after the sudden death in 2010 of alumna Gabrielle Isserow z’l. Known for her tremendous kindness, it was an apt way to ease the students’ grief. Explained Burton, “RAC week transformed the students’ overwhelming sense of loss into a creative expression of chesed. It revealed a yearning for a network of support and action.”

The project gained momentum and the weeklong celebration of kindness has become “a yearlong process that grows every year, involving students, families and the wider Jewish community.”

photo - Random Acts of Chesed T-shirt — Random Acts of Chesed was inspired by the life of Gabrielle Isserow z’l. *(photo by Shula Klinger)*

Working at RJDS for the 2013-14 academic year, Burton wanted to add a new dimension to the project. She approached Richmond’s nearby Az-Zahraa Islamic Academy. It was a perfect match, as their principal explains on the school’s website, “Education goes well beyond the classroom door.”

Az-Zahraa teacher Jessie Claudio came on board with no hesitation and, over the last few months, the students have formed some powerful new connections. According to Burton, “We had to pull RJDS and AZIA students away from each other when it was time to go back to school!”

The new program was named Abraham’s Tent because the prophet Abraham – revered in both Islam and Judaism – was known for his generous hospitality.

In February of this year, Burton and Claudio took their students on an unusual field trip: to the centre of the Downtown Eastside, to Main and Hastings. There, they spent five days delivering sandwiches they had made, with food donated by Save-On-Foods at Ironwood, Richmond. They also handed out warm clothes.

According to RJDS parent Kathy Rabinovitch-Marliss, this trip challenged the students to leave their comfort zone and set aside any apprehensions or thoughts of judgment. She counseled her daughter, Hannah, to remember that every homeless man is “someone’s father, or someone’s son.”

Among the recipients of the group’s kindness was Fred Miller, 58, caught by a CBC camera as he observed, “If Muslim and Jewish kids can live together, why can’t the rest of the world live together?”

These words inspired the RAC students to find out more. With the help of CBC, they managed to find Miller downtown. They invited him to speak at RJDS, which ended with a massive group hug. On the RJDS blog, principal Abba Brodt describes Miller’s “unflinching” honesty as he answered the students’ questions with stories from his life. Having struggled with addiction for many years, Miller’s experiences made a change from the usual Grade 7 fare, such as The Outsiders. Brodt said the discussion covered, “spiritual strength, faith, addiction, poverty, broken family bonds and deep loneliness.” The students were “spellbound,” he added.

Abraham’s Tent gained recognition with a $3,000 award in a worldwide competition hosted by Random Acts, a nonprofit whose goal is to inspire acts of kindness. But it’s not just about the prize, of course. Claudio and Burton agree that the learning outcomes here go far beyond the regular curriculum. Said Claudio, it has been an excellent opportunity to “bring the textbook to life.” The best way to learn something, she said, is through the emotions.

And, when the students start to form their own opinions about the Jewish-Muslim conflict, Burton hopes that these friendships will remind them to be “tolerant and open-minded.”

Rather than keeping the $3,000 award for their own schools, the RJDS and Az-Zahraa students chose to give the money to Covenant House in Vancouver, a shelter for at-risk youth.

Mohamed A. Dewji, vice-president of the Az-Zahraa Islamic Centre, challenged British Columbia’s Shia Muslim community to match the $3,000 award – and they came through. Dewji hopes to spur other communities into action. “We’re challenging every church, every mosque, every temple to join us,” he said.

photo - Holding the cheques are Mohamed Dewji, vice-president of the Az-Zahraa Islamic Centre, and Jessica Harman, development officer at Covenant House — Holding the cheques are Mohamed Dewji, vice-president of the Az-Zahraa Islamic Centre, and Jessica Harman, development officer at Covenant House. *(photo by Shula Klinger)*

On Friday, June 7, the student group delivered both $3,000 cheques to Covenant House. They also brought boxes of shoes for the residents. George Clarke, manager of Save-On-Foods at Ironwood, Richmond, brought a gift basket packed with necessities for Miller. The atmosphere was jubilant. Jessica Harman, development officer at Covenant House, described her contact with the RAC students as “marvelous.” She added that their donations “are providing love and support to one youth in the crisis shelter for the entire month of June.”

A soft-spoken and articulate man, Miller told the Independent, “It doesn’t end here. I want to work with youth now.” Having already published a set of his stories, he is honing his craft in a journalism class.

Ruby Ravvin, a Grade 7 RJDS student, described Miller as “awesome!” He then ruffled her hair.

The students have created a binder full of cards to help brighten Miller’s day when he feels lonely. In a letter, Breanne Miller (RJDS, Grade 7, no relation to Fred Miller) speaks of inspiration, wisdom and not taking the good things in life for granted. “You have opened my eyes,” she wrote. “You inspired all of us.”

Prior to her involvement in RAC, student Hannah Marliss had never had a conversation with a homeless person, nor did she have any close Muslim friends. Now, she said, “We’re hoping to invite the Az-Zahraa students to our grad. We’ve started something together!”

She described the change she has experienced in her own life. “Life’s not about technology, iPads and iPhones. They’re just things,” she said. “It’s about family, people you have connections with.”

On a scale of one to 10, the RAC experience was “definitely a 10,” said Hannah. Her mother agreed: “This was the highlight of Hannah’s elementary school life. It has changed all of our lives,” said Rabinovitch-Marliss.

Omid Gha, a counselor at Az-Zahraa, summed up the experience with a quote from Aristotle: “Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all.”

Shula Klinger is a freelance writer living in North Vancouver.