Cross-County Cultural Exchange

Schechter fifth graders meet Yonkers pen pals and help teach them about Judaism.

Yonkers girls wear Babushkas when Yonkers school hosts pen pals from Solomon Schechter.Susan Woog Wagner

by Merri Rosenberg
Special To The Jewish Week

At the Eugenio Maria de Hostos Microsociety elementary school here in Yonkers, one usually hears only Spanish and English in the hallways and classrooms.
For a few hours last week, Yiddish and Hebrew could also be heard as Hostos fifth graders welcomed their pen pals from the Solomon Schechter School in White Plains as part of the Yonkers school’s celebration of Jewish American Heritage Month. The Hostos students — the boys wearing kipot, the girls wearing head coverings that could have been part of a tour for “Fiddler on the Roof” — serenaded the Schechter visitors with enthusiastic renditions of such songs as “Zum Gali Gali,” “Shabbat Shalom” and “Hatikvah.” Some Hostos students, reflecting the research and studies they had done on significant Jewish-Americans, portrayed

such figures as Albert Einstein and Harry Houdini. And the performance space was decorated with shofars, menorahs, the Israeli flag and Jewish stars that the Hostos children had made.
While PTAs at public schools often bring in special guests to share aspects of their culture, the idea that Jewish culture is something to study and celebrate by non-Jewish children is something else.
“We do a lot of multicultural celebrations,” said Hostos principal Ligia Mendoza of her school, whose student body is predominantly Hispanic and African-American. “The beauty is that for the past four years the students have developed a relationship and partnership with the Schechter students.”
For the Schechter students, developing relationships with their Yonkers peers is part of an underlying value of tikkun olam.
“I wanted Jewish kids to have an exposure to people they never meet,” said Schechter fifth grade teacher Connie Cohen, who launched the project five years ago. “It’s so effective. My kids from five years ago still keep in touch with their Hostos friends. Some go to each other’s bar/bat mitzvahs.”
Besides visiting one another’s schools (the Hostos children will attend classes, do an art project and learn Israeli dancing at the Schechter White Plains campus on May 12), the students have been corresponding with one another since September.
“This is the first time they’re meeting each other,” said Schechter fifth grade teacher Randi Winick. “They’re very excited. These kids [at Hostos] have been studying about Judaism. Our kids look forward to it. They think this school is beautiful. One boy said, ‘Why can’t our school look like this?’”
Added Sherri Tamis, the Hostos teacher who is the partner in the project with her Schecter counterparts, “It’s about sharing different cultures and integrating them.”
For the Hostos students, Schechter parents prepared traditional Jewish foods, such as challah, latkes, hummus and pita, jelly doughnuts, gelt and matzah farfel pudding. The latkes and doughnuts were a hit; the matzah farfel was not.
The Schechter students also had an opportunity to meet with their pen pals in the classrooms. The boys gravitated to card games, and conversations about sports; some of the girls found common ground in an affinity for pets and other activities.
As 11-year-old Tovia Rosner, whose pen pal was Alejandra Flores, said, “I talked to her about Purim. She plays soccer, I play soccer.”
The day’s activities also included a question-and-answer session with Rabbi Douglas Krantz of Congregation B’Nai Yisrael in Armonk. The Hostos students were eager to find out why the rabbi wore a yarmulke (“Why do you wear that thing on your head?”) and what special foods were customary to celebrate the Sabbath.
As Rabbi Krantz, who is active in interfaith work, said, “It’s very important to put a human face on religion in an age of stereotypes. When we reduce religion to clichés, it narrows our vocabulary and narrows impressions. We’re dependent on one another. We’re neighbors, we’re friends — all of us are God’s children.”

Westchester Jewish Conference

Westchester’s Jewish Community Relations Organization