ProFiLe

The Music Man

.7 eiitiiiing

Rebbe Alter
wants to por-
tray Judaism
"in the best
possible
sense, the
way it is."

the Afikimloir Swig

Rebbe Alter finds music is the perfect way to teach Judaism.

Diane Schaeffer
AppleTree Staff Writer

I

is Friday morning in Jerusalem. The
children at a neighborhood Bais
Yaakov day-care center enjoy their
final minutes of play before donning
their coats and backpacks and going
home. In the background, to help the
children become excited about the
upcoming Shabbat, a cassette,
"Lecha Dodi with Rebbe Alter," plays.
If one were to travel the length and
breadth of Jerusalem, then to sur-
rounding towns and settlements, and
visit religious pre-schools, kinder-
gartens, chederim and private
homes, the same scene might prevail:
the excitement of Erev Shabbat, with
Rebbe Alter's cassette playing in the
background. Or, before an upcom-
ing holiday, the scene would include
one of Rebbe Alter's tapes on Pesach
or Chanukah.

Diane Schaeffer, is a freelance

writer and mother of three who lives
in Israel.

4/17
1998

In the 13 years since Rebbe Alter
released his first cassette, a series of
Purim songs called "Rebbe Alter and
Pirchei Purim,' his tapes on the Sab-
bath*and Jewish holidays have
become standard tools in classes for
young children in all types of religious
school systems. Moreover, they are a
mainstay of children's tape libraries in
religious Israeli homes — an integral
part of the sights and sounds of
Purim, Pesach, Chanukah and other
holidays.
It's no wonder. Aside from blending
relevant songs, stories from Jewish tra-
dition and Halachah (Jewish law),
Rebbe Alter's tapes are great fun.
Of the eight tapes he has produced
to date, an English version is avail-
able for five, making them especially
popular with Americans. Many also
include a song or two in Yiddish.
Rebbe Alter is the professional
name of Alter Yachnes, an actual
rebbe, or teacher, in a Jerusalem
cheder. He grew up in the Williams-
burg section of Brooklyn, which he

called the "Jerusalem of America" in
terms of religious life. He said he
always was working with children,
first as a camp counselor and then as
a lifeguard while in his teens. He
attended the Rabbinical Seminary of
America (Chofetz Chaim) in Queens,
whose purpose is to train rabbis and
educators.
In 1973, Rebbe Alter came to
Israel as a volunteer prior to the Yom
Kippur War, working in Jewish out-
reach with Russian immigrants. The
following year, newly married, he
came on aliyah with his wife. After a
year of studying in a Jerusalem yeshi-
va, he decided to look into a teach-
ing career. On the advice of a close
friend, he contacted Hamesorah, one
of Jerusalem's oldest and most famous
schools for boys.
He was granted an interview, dur-
ing which he never discussed the
fact that he played the guitar, and
landed a job as kindergarten rebbe.
However, his reputation as a per-
former evidently preceded him:

When the principal hired him, Rebbe
Alter was told to bring his guitar the
first day of class.
"I thought that would be the end of
my career right there, when parents
saw an American teaching their kids
with a guitar," he says. But, he adds,
his guitar was a success, with that
first assembly illustrating "the power
of music."
The other rebbe was to explain
about the aleph-bet and, because it
was the month of Elul, which pro-
ceeds Rosh Hashanah, Rebbe Alter FZ,
played holiday songs for the children
Following the assembly, when the
boys were split up according to their
respective rooms, "something very
funny happened. All the kids followed
me into my classroom," he recalls.
"They said, 'We want to stay with
that rebbe. He plays the guitar. -
As his teaching career took off,
Rebbe Alter discovered the actor in
himself, which came out mainly in his
teaching. "That's essentially what I'm
doing as a teacher — trying to por-