As I turned the corner from the owl exhibit to the snake
display at Busch Wildlife I caught a glimpse of my hiking boots reflected on
the glass of the boa’s habitat. This made me smirk a bit, but only for a second
because my attention was quickly redirected to the four-year-old blond-haired
girl tugging on my PJ Library® t-shirt. She was pointing to a dead mouse in the
snake habitat. “Shhh,” I said, “it’s sleeping”. I thought it was a pretty good
instant response; the little girl just smiled at me and moved on to the next exhibit.
I don’t wear
hiking boots every day, but how cool is it that there are days in my work that
I do? On that particular day, I was on a “Teva Trek” (Jewish nature walk) with
preschool families. We wandered through a local wildlife preserve, looking at
animals, appreciating nature and talking about the PJ Library® book, Fox Walked Alone. To see and hear
these four-year-olds holding hands, walking together in pairs (just like the
animals in the book), recalling the Hebrew word for “fox” (it’s shu-al, btw)
and talking about showing kindness to animals the Jewish value of Tza’ar Ba’alei
Hayim, (“the suffering of living things”) was pure excitement for me,
their teachers, their parents and for the children. I could see their big smiles
as they held up their homemade binoculars to look closely at the animals and when they got
a high-five from our Shlichim (Israel ambassadors) for saying a Hebrew word
correctly. It was a great morning.
That one great
morning took weeks to plan with our partners: The One School at Temple Beth Am in Jupiter and
with our Israeli Shlichim from our Jewish Federation, and boy did it pay off.
The children had a blast, the parents had fun too. But
for me, it was what they left with that made the difference. Some left with a
better understanding about nature, animals and the Jewish value. Others left
with an understanding of what our Shlichim do while they are here from Israel in
our community. Most left with my favorite takeaway— the knowledge that a PJ Library
book can come to life in a new way and in a different place.
I love these kinds of mornings. I don’t always get to
see them first-hand:Most of our collaborative programs (over 30 each year) take
place without my physical presence at the actual program/event. But on this
day, with my hiking boots on, I could see for myself some of what happens all
over our community almost weekly—a real Jewish connection is made.
After I said my “L’hitraot” (Hebrew for “see you later”),
I went directly to the nearest Starbucks bathroom for a quick change from my
hiking boots and cowboy hat to high heels and a business suit. Then I drove
back to the Friedman CJE offices to make a presentation to our Board
of Directors—another exciting opportunity, getting to tell others about the
work we do every day!
After my transformation, I entered the boardroom, USB thumb
drive in hand, to give a Powerpoint presentation about the Jewish Family Life
department and how we cover the 900-square- mile area that we call our Jewish community. I gave our board a thorough presentation about how we reach and engage young families raising Jewish children, acting as the
concierge for parents to the Jewish community. I talked about collaborative
programs like the Teva Treks, Story Times and Tot Shabbats, along with the
consultation work we do throughout the community creating experiential Jewish
learning opportunities in our preschools, religious schools and day school. My feet
ached a bit by the time I finished (they probably would have rather I stayed in
the boots), but in the end, the board members were engaged in our story, asking
questions, wanting to learn more—which was even more exciting for me.
By the end of the day when I finally took off my heels,
it had been more than 12 hours since I had put on my boots. My feet felt sore
but my heart felt GOOD. As I returned both pairs of shoes back to my closet,
alongside the others, it dawned on me how engaging families really does take a
lot of shoes!
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