Hafatza – Through Basketball
Every Sunday morning, the students of Bnos Rabbeinu open up their doors to public school teenage girls, educating and inspiring them through their classes on Judaism. Baruch Hashem there has been tremendous success. As one of the girls said, “Before I didn’t believe in G-d. Now I do” • Full Story
Every Sunday morning, the students of Bnos Rabbeinu open up their doors to public school teenage girls, educating and inspiring them through their classes on Judaism.
Baruch Hashem there has been tremendous success. As one of the girls said, “Before I didn’t believe in G-d. Now I do.”
In one of the classes the discussion became how do you identify yourself, as American, as white, as Jewish American or perhaps as an American Jew? By the next week, when the topic was revisited, they all proudly said, “I’m Jewish!”
But, there still remained a par between the two groups as there was not a viable opportunity for socialization outside the classroom. That is until the girls offered to stay after school and play basketball with the Bnos Rabbeinu students.
It was such a success that it become a weekly event. Most importantly, the public school girls became givers in the relationship. When we become recipients to those we mikarev, it brings the relationship to a different level.
Very pertinent topics are always discussed in class, such as intermarriage and Jewish marriage, what constitutes a real conversion, the Jewish soul and Moshiach. Now that the girls relax together, there is an even warmer environment where everyone comfortably studies, questions and truly accepts the answers presented.
Mrs. Turen, the principal of Bnos Rabbeinu, commented, “Every girl attests that the more she learns, the more Hashem is real to her and impacts her life and life choices.”
A father of one of the girls recently noted, “We tried many things to connect our daughter to Judaism. Nothing worked, nothing felt real to her. Smooth people with polished smiles – she rejected Judaism as fake. She doesn’t eat fast foods, she doesn’t do Judaism. But with these Sunday classes, it is genuine. Now concepts from the classes come out of her mouth as her own!”
The feeling in Bnos Rabbeinu is gratitude for this powerful venue for haftaza.
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