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Participating in Beth Israel's mentorship project, are, from left: Jessica Shill, Rachel Fanta, mentor Rabbi Robert
Dobrusin and Jonathon Weiss.
Mentorship Project Makes
Participants Into `Mentshen'
HEIDI PRESS
B
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48
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1988
8th Israel Congrega-
tion's religious school
has one main objec-
tive for the students in its
mentorship program — that
they should be mentshen.
The Ann Arbor synagogue's
program is geared for
teenagers who wish to con-
tinue their Jewish education
outside of a traditional
classroom setting. But it also
teaches them how to be de-
cent human beings, to look
out not only for their own
needs but for others' needs as
well.
"We want them to become
mentshes, " said Sandi
Donow, a psychotherapist and
coordinator of the mentorship
project. "We want them to
make value choices, to take
care of their Own needs and be
aware of others out there."
Created four years ago, the
mentorship program links up
an 11th or 12th grade student
with a mentor, someone who
is a specialist in the student's
area of interest. Jonathon
Weiss, 17, a senior at Pioneer
High School in Ann Arbor,
was interested in learning to
read the Torah. His mentor,
Yossi Chajes, a graduate stu-
dent at the University of
Michigan, is teaching him
how to chant. Sixteen-year-
old Jessica Shill, a Huron
High School student, is study-
ing how to conduct services
with the synagogue's rabbi,
Robert Dobrusin. Pioneer
High School senior Rachel
Fanta is learning conversa-
tional Hebrew with Idit
Bechor, an Israeli who is
employed at the Jewish Com-
munity Center in Ann Arbor.
Education Director Aviva
Panush and Donow sit down
and match the mentors and
the students. From there it is
up to the student and mentor
to make a contract of sorts
detailing how often and when
and where they'll meet. Once
a month, all of the mentor-
ship students come together
to socialize and see how each
is doing. In addition to study-
ing with the mentor, the stu-
dent is required to do some
type of community service,
but he may choose his own
project. Donow supervises the
students and mentors,
receives updates and acts as
a problem solver.
To date, there are only three
students in the program, and
10 have benefited from it
since its inception.
Mindy Adelman, an assis-
tant teacher at the Ann Ar-
bor Jewish Center preschool
and kindergarten teacher at
Beth Israel, participated in
last year's program. Studying
Jewish rituals under the
tutelage of Rabbi Moshe
Cohen, Adelman said she
would recommend that other
students take part. To learn
about different ritual prac-
tices, Rabbi Cohen took
Adelman to a wedding and a
conversion.
Calling it a "wonderful" ex-
perience, Adelman said par-
ticipating in the mentorship
program gave her an oppor-
tunity to explore an area in
which she was interested.
"What I liked about the pro-
gram is that I could choose a
part of Judaism that really
interested me," she explained.
"If you're given something
you want to learn you do a lot
better at it. It's great to find
something that struck my
heart."
That, says Panush, is the
basis of the whole program —
allowing the teenagers to con-
tinue their Jewish education
through their own areas of in-
terest, rather than by a
prescribed plan. "The pro-
gram was created to meet the
educational needs of the ad-
vanced students and give
them more leeway in for-
mulating a curriculum,"
Panush said.
It also was created to "pro-
vide an appropriate connec-
tion that kids could have with
the religious school on a level
appropriate to their age
range," Donow added.
The students are not tied to
the same mentor and subject
for the whole year. If they
wish, they can choose a new
mentor and different area of
study.
Shill said her parents had
some input in her decision to
participate in the program,
but it was her interest in lear-
ning Hebrew and how to con-
duct services that really at-
tracted her. When the pro-
gram finishes, she hopes to be