Touring
Shalom Street

SHARON LUCKERMAN

Staff Writer

p

lan to spend an hour tour-
ing Shalom Street.
Docents will guide you,
while the Shalom Street theater
troupe will bring the exhibits alive.
After entering Shalom Street,
children are drawn to the 10-foot
Amazing Tzedakah Machine. Put
any coin into the box and the
giant pinball-like machine is acti-
vated with bells and whistles
galore. A series of colorful gears
turn as a ball travels down chutes
and ladders lighting up the possi-
bilities of where this money could
go as the child is introduced to
causes they can help.
Beyond the machine is the
Town Center with a stage for live
performance and special events.
Turn around in the center and
there are five portals, or main
exhibit areas, plus an additional
portal that goes into the David B.
Hermelin ORT Resource Center.
The five main areas include My
Travel Agency, the Repair Shop,
Nature's Way, Our Sharing Home
and the News Stand.
My Travel Agency has a large
globe in its center and connects
children to people, places and
experiences around the world. The
actor playing travel agent might
show the visitors how Chanukah
is celebrated around the world or
help you select videos representing
different places around the world,
under the sea or in outer space.
Visitors can also dress up and be
a part of the video. There's a .
printing mechanism that will take
a picture of you, in costume, that
you can take home.
Just across the road from the
Travel Agency is the special Repair Shop — with projects
children can do to repair the world, reflecting the Jewish
concept of tikkun olam.
When you enter Our Sharing Home, you are greeted
in many languages. The mezuzah says the Shen2a when
pressed, ancLa motion-activated phone rings and you're
asked to, "Get the phone." You're then asked a question
of the day, a real dilemma that kids face, like what do
you do if you see your friend is cheating on a test? There
are prompts so you can hear different people's responses
to the question, like what the rabbi would say, or your
mother, or your friend.
For the climber in the family, the Climbing Tree is the

12/12
2003

fib

Esther Netter; director of the Zimmer
Children's Museum in Los Angeles.

ORT
Resource
Center

Western Wall

Floor Plan

perfect getaway, with interactive activities inside. Nature's
Way also includes a hydroponics display showing how
Israelis grow plants withOut soil.
Thanks to a $188,000 grant received in September
from the Community Foundation for Southeastern
Michigan, a nature hike program on- and off-site will be
created as part of the Shalom Street environmental pro-
gram. A trail system in the woods with interpretive sig-
nage will be available next spring or summer.
At the News Stand, sponsored by the Jewish. News, visi-
tors are asked a question and an LED screen shows how
other visitors answered your same questions. Type your
responses into a computer and all will be tabulated and
eventually reported by the Jewish News.

❑

•

"We're asking and encouraging and
expecting kids to ponder their own
thoughts and ideas about Jewish life,"
says Weitzer, who joined the museum
project in 1998, when the JCC began
to address a gap in family services to
the community. "Many exhibits ask
questions and don't give answers, but
ask you to think about the question
— which is why they targeted a par-
ticular age range."
When children first go to school,
developmentally they begin to think
and want to create their ethical foun-
dation, Rabbi Isaacs explains.
And it's at this age children can
learn to be proud of being Jewish,
Blumenstein says. 'And a time to
show others the strengths and loving
warm culture we have."
They all say the museum's No. 1
goal is to excite Jewish youth and their
families about being Jewish.
"It's not a history lesson," says
Weitzer.
Instead of static lessons, there's dra-
matic play and hands-on tzedakah
projects, questions for children and
family members to ponder together,
cooking demonstrations and lots of
opportunities with computers, from
printing brochures of their "travels"
and writing about their Shalom Street
experience, to making video - scrap-
books.
And where will the technological
expertise come from?

Technology For Kids

A state-of-the-art technological dream
space, the David B. Hermelin ORT
Resource Center, adjacent to the
museum, houses a cyber cafe, class-
rooms for instruction and a multime-
dia studio — accessible for projects
children start on Shalom Street and