When 6-year-old David Brink saw a Torah scroll up-close for the first time in his Hebrew school class, he did something few would think to do. As his father Eric Brink tells it, “David actually leaned down and smelled it.”
The woman who had brought in the scroll, clinical psychologist Lynda Kravitz, was amused and touched by the unusual way David took an interest in the Torah. Formerly an elementary school and yeshiva teacher, and now the director of the special needs and psychological services department of the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, Kravitz understands better than most people that different children learn in different ways.
This is especially true of kids like David, who lives in Albany, and the other participants in “Inclusive Jewish Education.” The monthly Jewish education series for children with moderate to severe learning difficulties meets at the Berkeley Richmond Jewish Community Center in Berkeley.
“The children have what are called neurodevelopmental difficulties,” explains Kravitz. These can be cognitive deficits, mental retardation, autism, Tourette syndrome, or other problems that make participation in a mainstream Hebrew school extremely difficult, even with special accommodations. Part of the problem is the mainstream religious schools’ emphasis on Hebrew and reliance on verbal communication in general.
“Many of these children may have language difficulties, and they find that communicating in English is challenging, let alone learning a second language,” says Kravitz.
The monthly program, in contrast, teaches little Hebrew reading and uses a multisensory approach to Jewish education — including music, movement, art, touch and the use of actual Jewish ritual objects.
Jeanne Korn’s 11-year-old daughter, Sara, participates in Hebrew school at Oakland’s Temple Beth Abraham as well as in “Friday school,” as the parents sometimes call the program. Korn says that Sara learns more and comes home happier from Friday school.
“She is happy to be coloring a Tree of Life with sparkles, and while she’s doing it to have the instructor talking about the Tree of Life. Whatever sinks in for her is better than what she’ll get from her Hebrew school, where aides are fighting to help her hang onto any threads of the story of Joseph.” With Sara’s bat mitzvah less than two years away, the family has started working with Beth Abraham’s religious and educational leaders to plan a special one for the cognitively impaired girl.
The grandmother of 8-year-old Jacob of Orinda, whose family asked to remain anonymous, echoes Korn’s sentiments. “We pray that someday he’ll have a bar mitzvah,” but a language deficit called mixed global dysphasia poses significant challenges to that goal. Playing to some of Jacob’s strengths, however, Friday school reinforces the Jewish lessons he absorbs from home. “They will sing a song, do an art project or a Jewish dance, listen to a story. It’s a multisensory dose of Judaism.”
Jacob’s mother says her son now can’t wait to sing “Bim Bam” on Friday nights, especially its refrain of “Shabbat Shalom, Hey!” Part of each 90-minute class is devoted to Shabbat, and when the children sing the song in class, they love to jump on the “hey!” says Jacob’s grandmother, who attends class with the boy.
Too often, though, the children jump when they’re not supposed to. “Sometimes it’s like Looney Tunes,” says Jacob’s grandmother of the mixed-age, mainly male group. But knowing how to manage children who are easily distracted or over-stimulated is one of the skills of a special-education teacher, and parents commend the teacher for the way she responds to inappropriate behavior. For example, she might tell a child, “I know you want to jump. We don’t do that here. You can do four more jumps, and then I need you to stop.”
The combination of patience and flexibility within a structured setting, says Kravitz, is one of the guiding principles of the program, which is designed for ages 3 through 11.
Small class size helps, too. Though about a half-dozen children are signed up for the program, now in its second year, only three or four show up on any given Friday. Kravitz explains that the children have busy schedules — also a reason the class meets only once a month.
Though parents may wish for more classes, they are grateful the program exists at all. “As a Jewish person in the Bay Area, I am hungry for anything that the Jewish community can offer me to help Sara take her place in our community,” says Korn.
Kravitz notes that while learning disabilities are equally prevalent in the Jewish community and the general population, Jews may face unique challenges. “The high-achieving Jewish culture can be pretty alienating for parents of special-needs children,” she says. “This provides a place for parents to feel at home and understood.”