Services > Community Education
Community Education
Lectures, workshops, Dor L’Dor Theater
As an extension of our mission statement,
Kav L’Noar has provided our families, professional staff, interested educators
and mental health professionals and the general public, a variety of lectures
and workshops. Our speakers have included respected rabbis, psychologists
and family therapists who, among others, have addressed our audiences on the
following topics:
- Raising Healthy Children in an
Unhealthy World
- The Psychology of Happiness
- Helping Adolescents Cope with
Stress
- The Power to Change
- The Journey of Parenting from Striving
to Thriving
We also co-sponsored the development and
implementation of a unique psychological interactive theater program as a medium
for parents and teenagers to focus on family issues of common concern.
Secrets: Diary of an Anglo Teen in Israel was performed twice in
the greater Jerusalem area, and once in Gush Etzion.
We will be expanding our lecture series,
and sponsoring parenting workshops in the coming year. Sign up for our
newsletter for information on upcoming events or email Kav L’Noar at kavlnoarcenter@gmail.com
From a review of the “Secret”
production:
Printed originally in Torah Tidbits,
produced by the OU Israel Center
www.ou.org
“Secrets”: A Creative Educational and
Social Initiative
Dor L’Dor Theatre troupe has achieved a
thought provoking catalyst by performing Secrets: Diary of an Anglo Teen in
Israel in memory of Joy Rochwanger Balsam z”l , whose life was curtailed at
age 38.
The performance was presented on December
20th under the joint sponsorship of “Malach” (Michelle Berkowitz), “Kav L’Noar”
( Dr. Ronald Wachtel), and the “Dor L’Dor” project of the Israel Center and
partially sponsored by the Jewish Agency for Israel.
Better understanding of American teen
olim is the thrust of this performance and of the accompanying workshops, which
were run by professional psychologists and social workers. The uniqueness
of the program is enhanced by the involvement of teen olim in every aspect of
the planning and presentation. No one expresses more accurately and
poignantly the stress, confusion, anger and mixture of fluctuating emotions than
the teens themselves. Integrating them into the program is an integral
part of this daring debut, provided by the combined professionalism of Dr.
Michael Tobin, head of the Counseling Service of the Israel Center and artistic
talent of Toby Greenwald, producer and director of contemporary Judaic
theatre.
The performance cuts sharply and speedily
into the psyche of teens struggling with adolescence, wounded by the crisis of
upheaval and overwhelming change.
Sara Beth Solomont, who served as
Co-Director, lead an interactive dialogue with the audience after each vignette
with a focus on family discord. This discord appears as a result of
tension and confusion, very much a part of the complexity found in the need to
reassess priorities of values and hierarchy of ideals after making aliya. The performance challenges our basic assumptions regarding perspectives on
continued parental influence on teens who already are making attempts at
utilizing their own intuitive and internal strengths to resolve the array of
emotional and social cacophony facing them, often pressing them to search for
the quickest route of escape.
“Secrets”, “Voices in our Heads”, “Family
Meeting” and “Discipline” all provide us with realistic scenes that include
paradox and piquant. Issues of frustration, sadness, low self esteem,
loneliness, anger and despair are peppered into the vignettes by the teens,
contrasted with attempts at empathy, concern, care and assumption of
responsibility by the “parents” (also played by teens). Coping mechanisms such
as denial, defensiveness, persuasion and pretentious behaviors were weaved
artistically into the tapestry gestalt. This powerful format was
successful in evoking an emotional response from the audience. The
scenarios struck a chord in the souls of almost each and every adult or
adolescent viewing the dynamic interchanges.
Workshops, which zeroed in on concepts,
concerns and conflicts, were a fine rounding out of the day. The performances,
followed by a series of improvisations and discussions, served as a meaningful
medium to encourage families to seek the assistance of social service
professionals to resolve dissonance. The thought that so much hardship
could come from good intentions highlighted the need for planning, sharing and
psychological preparation prior to making decisions that have such a big impact
on the harmony in systems such as families and in the orchestration of the
internal symphony of emotions.
A hearty Kol Hakdavod is in order
for this very moving, timely and reflective experience.
Psychologist, Rabbi Michel K. Strick is
Director of Council of Young Israel Rabbis in Israel and consulting psychologist
to teens and families in distress.