Our very own Marlene Myerson is on the road, visiting Jewish communities in Singapore and Hong Kong.
One of her stops was a visit to meet with Rabbi Nathan Alfred, along with lay leaders, volunteer principals, teachers and parents of UHC Singapore, a twenty year-old congregation with 150 members that just this year opened a religious school.
The school is adopting both the CHAI Curriculum and Mitkadem for their 75 students, and Marlene was invited to present the new curricula and help them build their school. Here are some of her notes from abroad:
The level of excitement among the members of the congregation is very gratifying. Everyone feels a sense of ownership and pride in this incredible accomplishment.
One of the first tasks was to review the goals of the school and identify core values in the CHAI Curriculum as well as Mitkadem that support and re-enforce those goals. I also shared many new Behrman House resources with the rabbi that I had brought with me from Toronto and was delighted that he loved them and asked if I would leave them with him. That means that my luggage will be much lighter when I return home!
I spent one morning observing classes and an afternoon training teachers. The school has only been in session since September but it is well organized and the teachers, many of whom are members, are enthusiastic and seem to love what they do. I also enjoyed an excellent discussion with parents about resources and how they would enable the school to meet its goals for their students.
Since the congregation only holds services once a month, they designated one service for the celebration of Simchat Torah, with about one hundred people in attendance and it was truly a joyous occasion! I was given the honor of chanting the Torah blessings before and after the rabbi read from the Torah. The congregation gathered in a large circle and a Torah was unrolled.
This year's B'nai Mitzvah students each walked around the circle, found their own portion and gave a brief explanation of its meaning. Then everyone danced and sang with the Torahs until they were exhausted. Finally we moved into another room where we continued the celebration with a delicious Shabbat dinner.
This has been a wonderful opportunity to provide support and encouragement to a group of dedicated teachers and volunteers in the Singapore Jewish community. I have also been seeing the sights, including the Garden by the Bay - a magnificent botanical exhibition that was simply breathtaking, and learning about the culture of Singapore, including some very strict laws regarding acceptable behavior-which so far I haven't crossed!
Next stop: Hong Kong!
