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PHOTOS BY JERRY ZOLYNSKY

Full Circle

Former JCC arts/culture/education director
returns to her roots at Detroit’s Waldorf School.

BARBARA LEWIS CONTRIBUTING WRITER

8-year-old Callie Watts of Wyandotte meets Noemi in her office.

F

8-year-old Milly Bender of Detroit
talks with Noemi in the hall.

TOP: Norah Nordin,7, of Detroit,
Ameris Ali, 7, of Madison Heights,
Noemi Herzig and Noah Marrocco, 7,
of Clinton Township.

22

November 30 • 2017

jn

or Noemi Herzig, a clos-
ing window coincided
with an opening door.
Just as she was laid off
as director of arts, culture
and education at the Jewish
Community Center, Detroit’s
Waldorf School was looking
for a new administrator.
It was beshert, meant to be.
Herzig, 59, of Royal Oak,
grew up in Waldorf schools in
her native Sao Paolo, Brazil.
“Coming to Detroit Waldorf
School is like coming home
again,” said Herzig, who
started her new job in August.
“This feels like closing the
circle. I started at Waldorf as
a child, I worked at a Waldorf
school when my children
were students, and now I can
spend this part of my life in a
vibrant community, guiding
its impact on children, fami-
lies and our beautiful city.”
Waldorf, created in
Germany by Rudolf Steiner
in 1919, takes a whole-child
approach to cultivate chil-

dren’s social/emotional,
spiritual and physical well-
being as well as academic
achievement. The curriculum
stimulates children’s inherent
curiosity and love of learning
by integrating art, music and
movement with traditional
academic disciplines like
math and history. All students
learn to play violin starting
in third grade. “Handwork”
— knitting and crocheting —
and culinary skills are also
part of the program.
There are no textbooks;
children develop their own
learning materials. Students
generally stay with the same
classroom teacher throughout
the primary grades.
Detroit Waldorf School, one
of a thousand Waldorf schools
worldwide, opened in 1966
and a year later moved to a
1913 Albert Kahn-designed
building in Detroit’s Indian
Village. Its 247 students, in
pre-K through eighth grade,
come from all over the metro
area. School officials like to
say they draw from 62 ZIP
codes.

‘CLOSING THE CIRCLE’
Herzig took a circuitous route
to Indian Village from Sao
Paolo.
After 14 years of Waldorf
education, she earned a degree
in psychology at the Pontifical
Catholic University of Sao
Paulo and played cello with the
Sao Paolo State Symphony.
While visiting family friends
in Philadelphia, she met Ronald
Schaffa, a graduate student
from Brazil. After they married,
she earned a master’s degree
in psychology at Hahnemann
University in Philadelphia.
The couple planned to return
to Brazil but after finishing his

studies, Schaffa wanted to gain
experience as a mechanical
engineer. When he took a job
with GM in 1985, he and Herzig
moved to Detroit; they never
left.
Their three children, Daniel,
32, Rafi, 30 and Deborah, 28,
all attended Oakland Steiner
School in Rochester Hills, a
small Waldorf school that
closed in 2016.
Herzig stayed home with the
children until Deborah was 3.
After working in the kindergar-
ten at Oakland Steiner School,
she became the school’s admin-
istrator, a post she held for nine
years.
After several years with
Jewish Senior Life, Herzig
moved to the Jewish
Community Center where she
spent nearly 10 years as direc-
tor of arts, culture and educa-
tion.
Last year’s shift of the FedEd
program from the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan
Detroit to the JCC resulted in
numerous layoffs, including
Herzig — but she wasn’t idle
for long.
Waldorf School’s administra-
tor of 12 years was retiring. “We
were afraid we wouldn’t find
someone who could replace
her,” said Charis Calender-
Suemnick, director of enroll-
ment and outreach. “The tim-
ing was perfect.”
Detroit Waldorf School’s
student body includes at least
three Jewish children.
Lynne Golodner of
Huntington Woods sent
her youngest child, Shaya
Schreiber, to Waldorf four
years ago. That year the cur-
riculum included study of the
Hebrew Bible; Shaya’s parents
were impressed that students
learned how to speak and write

some words in Hebrew. The
school has been very support-
ive when Shaya, 11, takes days
off for Jewish holidays, said
Golodner.
Micah Wilson-Welsh, 11, of
Huntington Woods, a member
of Congregation Shir Tikvah
in Troy, says he likes moving
around instead of sitting at
a desk all day. “We get two
recesses!” he said. He’s looking
forward to the school’s annual
pentathlon, part of the fifth-
grade’s study of ancient Greece,
where he’ll be able to throw a
javelin and discus.
Third-grader Nia Tobocman,
8, of Detroit, a member of
the Birmingham Temple in
Farmington Hills, is proud of
the scarf she is crocheting. She’s
just finished the third color of
the seven to 10 she hopes to
include.
Jewish young adults moving
into Detroit should know that
this type of education is avail-
able in the city, said Golodner.
Herzig said she and her team
are working on their vision for
the future and a new phase of
strategic planning. “For this
school year, I am celebrating
the robust enrollment and
focusing on getting to know the
teachers, students and parents,”
she said.
Calender-Suemnick said
the Waldorf community was
“elated” to welcome Herzig.
“Her personal and professional
experience in the world of
Waldorf education is expansive
and impressive, and we know
she will bring ingenuity, passion
and talent to the leadership of
Detroit Waldorf School. •

Learn more about Detroit Waldorf
School at www.DetroitWaldorf.org.
To schedule a tour, contact Charis
Calender-Suemnick at (313) 822-0300.