To introduce myself, I am Dalia Shoham Berender. I live in Herzlyah with my husband Loren and my son Nuri. In my profession as a jurist I deal with research and education in initiatives promoting cooperation and equality between Jews and Arabs in Israel and in the Middle East.
Music and poetry touch me very deeply. Although from early childhood I sang and played, studied music and performed, I considered music only as a hobby. Recently, I discovered within me a deep connection to poetry, Hebrew and the roots of the language, and to the Reform Movement. I conduct singing groups for women, accompanying prayers and other texts with song and music.
I was searching to make this connection more significant and a mutual friend introduced me to Judith, Susie and Gila’s project,which I feel blessed to be a part of.
Rinah Sheleff is a retired lecturer in Bible Studies at the Kibbutzim College of Education, Tel Aviv. She specialized in teaching methodologies that incorporate the creative arts as a way of emotionally connecting students with the human dilemmas inherent in Bible stories.
Rinah is also a professional storyteller and a movement instructor. Currently she is working with a team of storytellers on a project designed to make Talmudic and Hassidic stories accessible to the public at large.
She is a founding member of a women’s Rosh Hodesh group that has been meeting for over 20 years, and was also active in creating the Tali School in Hod HaSharon.
And she loves Susie Dvoskin.
I was born in Washington D.C. in 2000. I grew up in Congregation Adat Israel, an egalitarian Conservative synagogue where I learned to read Torah and Haftarah. My love of Judaism was nurtured in the Jewish community school I attended. I celebrated my bat mitzvah at age 12 in my congregation, after studying with a private teacher, our rabbi, and my father. I served as the shlichat tzibur (cantor), read the entire portion of the week (Korach), and delivered a sermon. Today I live in Israel and am continuing my Jewish education in a pluralistic school and at Camp Ramah. Susie Dvoskin taught me how to prepare youngsters for their bar/bat mitzvahs. I am active in my congregation (Hod v’Hadar), and read Torah on a regular basis.
Anita Tamari is a member of Hod ve-Hadar in Kfar Saba, Israel. She learned to read Torah and haftarah in the summer of 1996, in preparation for her 50th birthday. The lessons with Susie were a joyous combination of trope, talk, tea, and toast. However, Susie never showed up for the final rehearsal – this was the Saturday that Tamar was injured in a hit-and-run accident, and our small Havdalah ceremony in the hospital marked the end of her life and the beginning of a new and darker one for Susie and family.
Anita is an editor and translator, lives in Kfar Saba, and does not like to have her picture taken – much less published.
My name is Ilana Shochat, and I am married to Tal and mother to Rona. I am an occupational therapist and a group facilitator.
I learned how to read Torah and Haftarah for my bat mitzvah. I enjoyed the skills I acquired, and after a year, as is the custom at our synagogue (Hod V’Hadar in Kfar Saba) I became a teacher myself. Over a period of ten years I helped 20 boys and girls prepare for their bar/bat mitzvahs.
While I was a studying occupational therapy, I worked as a teacher in the “Bar/Bat Mitzvah Program for the Special Child” of the Conservative Movement. In this framework I worked with groups of youngsters with various disabilities (autism, cerebral palsy and intellectual disabilities,etc.) I worked with each group for about six months at the end of which, we celebrated with a moving ceremony in one of the synagogues of the Masorti Movement.
I am happy to be part of this website and to contribute my voice to the project.
Alexandra Berger-Polsky, originally from Upstate New York, is currently pursuing an MPH at Ben Gurion University while working at Sidreh, a Bedouin women’s empowerment non-profit and weaving collective in the Negev. She has nurtured her love of reading Torah, Haftarah and leading davenning since her bat mitzvah. She currently lives in Jerusalem with her husband Nadav.
My name is Shayna Tischler and I am 23 years old. Susie Dvoskin taught me to read Torah for my bat mitzvah in 2003. I was active in Noam, the youth movement of the Conservative Movement, as a participant and as a counselor for ten years. I read Torah many times – in various branches of the movement and in national activities. I completed four years of army service as an officer in the intelligence unit of Tzahal. I hope to begin studying medicine,
I was born a year after WW2, a year after my parents arrived in Eretz Yisrael, which was still under the British mandate…And yes, I’m a ‘baby boomer’, the eldest of three children, and the only girl. We grew up in a very secular and Zionistic home, filled with books, music, science and art. I loved reading, often going to the library and reading a third of the book on the way home. I loved drawing, and playing the recorder and I taught myself how to read music with some help from my father. But, I was also extremely active in a variety of sports such as track and field (high and broad jump), and I climbed trees for fun.
When I was 17 I started feeling the need for spiritual experiences, which after exploring many cultures, led me back to Judaism, but not to the models I disliked so much in Israel.
I traveled to the US to study industrial design and slowly found my way (back) to Judaism. I started with lighting Shabbat candles and reading the Siddur. A few years later, in Las Vegas, I began attending services at “Beit Shalom”, a Conservative Synagogue. The children went to Hebrew school and the congregation’s Torah reader gave me a Jewish liturgical book which I photocopied and used to learn the Trope for Torah, Haftarah, Megilot, and Yamim Nora’im. It took me about a year before I had the opportunity and nerve to read in the synagogue. By then we were already living in Herndon, Virginia where I joined the “Beth Emeth” congregation. I read Torah at my daughter Helen’s Bat-Mitzvah, taught her to read Haftarah, and became the main Torah reader for a few years. I continue to read Torah and Haftarah at Hod ve-Hadar in Kfar Sabah, Israel, have taught for the Masorti Movement’s Bar/ Bat Mitzvah program for children with special needs and enjoy sharing both of these with Susie.
I have 7 children (no twins) 1 boy and 6 girls, and am a grandmother of 9. I’m the traveling savta, always going to visit and help one of the ‘kids’. Of course I still love reading, listening to music, sports, bird watching and gardening.
My name is Nurit Novis-Deutsch. I am a 42 year old mother of three living with my family in Hanaton, a small village in the Galilee. I am a researcher in the field of psychology of religion, and I teach at Haifa university and at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Thirty years ago, when I was preparing for my Bat Mitzvah at congregation Hod v’Hadar in Kfar Saba, Susie Dvoskin was my wonderful and energetic teacher for reading Torah. I still read Torah on a regular basis, and I still love it. For my Haftorah I learnt the South African ‘trop’ (that being where my family and I made Aliya from) by listening to a tape recorded by a Chazzan my father knew. Later, I learnt the more common ‘trop’ by listening to Susie and others chant Haftoras at shul. Over the years I also learnt how to read the different Megillot, and taught Bar and Bat Mitzvah students myself.
Reading Torah and Haftorah is a meaningful part of my life. Thanks to this skill I became deeply familiar with portions of Torah and the Prophets, which resonate and inspire me along my life’s journey. I also find Torah-reading to be a good way to make contact with local communities. For example, when we spent two years in Berkeley, I offered to read Torah at the Conservative synagogue in town and with time developed a very meaningful relationship with that congregation. Finally, I enjoy expressing my Jewish identity musically. Thanks to Susie Dvoskin and Emanuel Alon who taught me the foundations of precise and musical chanting, I acquired an additional Jewish “language” which has enriched my life, and for that I am truly grateful.
I grew up in a Conservadox home and synogogue in the United States, going to shul every Shabbat and sitting next to my dad. The last time I read Haftorah was almost 50 years ago at my bat mitzvah which was on a Friday night. I remember memorizing the Haftorah and not really learning the טעמים.
I learned to read a פרק of Megillat Ester in the same way, and manage to read it each year for many years now. Because I am not musical, I never considered learning how to READ Haftorah or learn the trope. I am happy to be part of this project which will honor the “Susie Dvoskin trope” and which will be a personal challenge for me ( and for Susie – as she has taken me on as her student!). I worked in Psychiatric rehabilitation for more than 30 years and I was director of Occupational therapy Services at a Psychiatric Medical Center for many of them. I made my staff incorporate tradition as part of the therapeutic activities used with the patients because my motto was: “belonging to a culture promotes health”.
