When she was a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Hayley Wright remembers listening to Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch’s High Holy Day sermons through her headphones at the library. Not only did she find his words inspiring — they made her feel like she was home. Hayley’s bat mitzvah was among the first b’nai mitzvah ceremonies that Rabbi Hirsch led at Stephen Wise, and she felt very connected to him and the synagogue.

Back when she was in the second grade, it was the synagogue’s musical tradition that inspired Hayley and her mom, Kim Mogul Wright, to become members. That first year, Kim played Esther in the annual Purim spiel and Hayley sang in the children’s chorus, the Junior Purimspielers. For Hayley, it was the beginning of a Purim spiel tradition that would span eighteen years and encompass stints as stage manager, choreographer, and director, coming full circle in 2017 with her dual role as director and Queen Esther.

Along the way, Hayley collaborated with Stephen Wise legend Norman Roth, who wrote the spiels she helped bring to life. “It was incredible learning from Norman, who is a lyrics genius,” Hayley says. She also believes that the spiels helped her find her voice: “I learned how to be a strong Jew in a room full of Jews,” she says with a smile.

During her junior year of college, Hayley joined Rabbi Hirsch for the synagogue’s congregational mission to Eastern Europe, which inspired her to write a research paper on Holocaust memorials. After she graduated, she returned to the synagogue once again, this time as a teacher at the Religious School and then at the Early Childhood Center. Guiding Religious School students in reenactments of Torah stories helped her realize how she could combine her love for theater with Jewish education; in 2015, she began a master’s degree program in educational theater from the City College of New York. 

This June, for the second summer in a row, Hayley was selected for the TALMA Fellowship Program, which places teachers from English-speaking countries in classrooms in low-income areas of Israel to co-teach English to students at elementary and middle schools. The program is run in collaboration with Israel’s Ministry of Education, the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, and the Steinhardt Family Foundation. Hayley will teach English and do research for her graduate degree in Mitzpe Ramon, and plans to continue her work there for a year.

“Hayley brings so much talent and dedication to everything that she does,” Rabbi Hirsch says. “There is no doubt in my mind that her generous and creative spirit will inspire future generations to take part in the Jewish community.”

Looking back, Hayley realizes it would have been easy for her to stop participating in synagogue life after her bat mitzvah. “But I felt that Stephen Wise was a key part of my identity,” she says. “The synagogue really guided me towards becoming a Jewish educator and wanting to give back.”

From May 23 to June 1, a cohort from Stephen Wise led by Michael Patterson, synagogue president, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, and Rabbi Diana Fersko is traveling to Greece and Germany as part of the synagogue’s Refugee Relief Mission. In partnership with two NGOs, IsraAID and NOSTOS, they are learning about the refugee crisis from political figures and experts in the region and offering support to those in need. For more photos and updates from our group, visit our Facebook page and look for the hashtag #SWFSForRefugees on Instagram and Twitter. 

Here, Lori Schneider, director of our Early Childhood Center, reflects on the mission’s first two days in Greece. 

Our mission to Greece is proving to be a head-spinning experience filled with many contradictory feelings.

Yesterday afternoon and this morning were spent learning about the policies regarding the refugee crisis. We participated in insightful discussions with the Israeli and American ambassadors to Greece as well as having many interactions with the Jewish community in Athens.

This afternoon the theoretical information became real as we visited two shelters, Xenia Teens and the Mellon Project, a shelter for mothers and children. As I held baby Anna in my arms, delighting in her smiles and funny faces, I realized the commonalities we share with the refugees searching for a new start for their lives. As we listened to Syeed and his friend play guitar and share their hopes for freedom, I felt the connection on a human level.

But then when I think about what these young people have endured, I can hardly process the information. Thinking about a 16-year-old walking across his country to find freedom and hearing a mother’s experience fleeing her country when she is 9 months pregnant makes me understand the vast differences in our lives.

It was amazingly inspiring to feel their hopefulness, despite such difficult experiences. I feel tremendous gratitude for my life in New York City and at the same time a deep responsibility to help keep the hope alive for those we met today.

On Wednesday, May 24, Michael Patterson, synagogue president, Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch, Rabbi Diana Fersko, Lori Schneider, director of our Early Childhood Center, and more than 25 other members of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue community will gather together in Athens, Greece, to kick off the synagogue’s inaugural Refugee Relief Mission.

Members of the Stephen Wise community of all ages, from Early Childhood Center and Religious School students to seniors, supported the mission through an extraordinary outpouring of supplies and donations: travelers will donate thousands of books and children’s art supplies and hundreds of hygiene kits directly to refugee shelters in Greece and Germany. They will also donate $15,000 to our NGO partners, IsraAID and NOSTOS, for critical refugee relief efforts. 

“We are overcome with gratitude and pride for the overwhelming support for this critically important work,” Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch said. “We will carry the hearts of every member of the Stephen Wise community as we embark on this journey.” 

During the 10-day mission, travelers will learn about the refugee crisis from experts in the region and offer support to those in need. Sites in Greece will include a refugee shelter in Athens for unaccompanied minors ages 7-17, a shelter for single mothers and their children, and Yazidi settlements. In Berlin, travelers will meet with high-level policymakers to learn firsthand about the resettlement of refugees. Finally, they will visit Holocaust sites — including Berlin’s Jewish Museum, accompanied by Yazidi refugees — to connect the Jewish story with the plight of today’s refugees.

For updates about the mission, visit our Facebook page and look for the hashtag #SWFSForRefugees on Instagram and Twitter. Tune in this Friday, May 26, at 9:30 a.m. (EST) for a short Facebook Live broadcast from Greece. (Check Facebook for scheduling updates; the video will remain online after the live streaming.) 

To support the synagogue’s refugee relief work, fill out this secure form. 

Photo: Religious School students sorted hundreds of supplies to help prepare for the mission, which will take place from May 23 to June 1.

New York City Jewish teens are invited to join Stephen Wise Free Synagogue’s Teen Design Lab, a private Facebook group where teens can participate in the next phase of work on our teen initiative: design sessions and prototype development. 

Stephen Wise Free Synagogue’s new brand to capture the attention of the next generation of Jewish New Yorkers will launch this fall, with offerings made accessible to teens all over the city. Teens are also invited to apply for the Design Lab’s Leadership Council, a group of 15-20 students who will serve as experts-in-residence between June and September. All teens who join the Design Lab via Facebook will also be notified of pop-up program pilots to occur in August and September.

“The Design Lab is a great opportunity for teens to learn about design thinking in a very hands-on way, while connecting with other NYC Jewish teens,” says Rebecca Schumer, director of teen initiatives. The Facebook group will be managed by Sarah Koppelman, who is assisting Rebecca as a summer intern before heading to Brown University in the fall.

Since her arrival at Stephen Wise in January, Rebecca has been executing a design-thinking process — a creative problem solving technique pioneered by the innovation firm IDEO — to ensure that diverse teen, parent, and professional voices are at the core of program development and brand. Rebecca and her design team (Community x Design) are collecting insights from teens across the city via a teen survey, and from Jewish adults in NYC through a newly launched adult survey.

Rebecca and her team have also hosted focus groups and design-thinking professional development workshops, both for Stephen Wise teens and at New York City public and private high schools. In partnership with Stuyvesant’s Jewish Student Union, the team offered a professional development workshop on April 20 titled, “Intro to Design Thinking: Upgrading the Experience of Jewish Teens in NYC.” Students not only learned about how companies today leverage human-centered design as a methodology through which to innovate, but were also asked to apply this new way of thinking to pitch ideas for new products or programs that will engage in an ongoing manner thousands of Jewish teens.

“We heard very inspiring ideas,” Rebecca says. Ideas pitched by the students included a meditation session in a planetarium paired with reflective conversation about what rest means in the Jewish Shabbat ritual, and a “host a teen” program which would pair up Jewish teens with different family backgrounds to experience a Shabbat in each other’s home.

Rebecca and her team are also collecting ideas and insights from professionals across industries within and outside the Jewish world, including Aliza Klein of OneTable, Josh Heyman of 92Y, Abby Levine of the Jewish Social Justice Roundtable, and actor and playwright Jon Adam Ross, founder of the Inheritance Project.

The formal discovery and research phase for the teen initiative will conclude in June, when Rebecca and her team will synthesize their findings and identify the key opportunity areas that will drive the design phase this summer. To learn more, contact Rebecca directly at rschumer@swfs.org or 212-877-4050, ext. 225.

From March 22 to April 2, one-hundred members of the Stephen Wise community explored Israel as part of our congregational mission. Led by Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch and joined by Rabbi Rena Rifkin, director of our Religious School, participants experienced Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Eilat and Petra, Jordan, b’nai mitzvah on the ancient site of Gamla, Kibbutz Lotan, the Golan Heights, Masada and the Dead Sea, dialogue with journalists and political figures, and more. 

Here, travelers Faye Silbermann and Paula Zirinsky reflect on their last day in Israel, and on the spiritual and emotional connections that the mission has inspired. 

On our last day in Israel, our group, varied in ages and interests, embarked on a range of activities to learn, be spiritually moved, internally inspired, or to just have some fun. The streets of Jerusalem are quiet and the pace of this city distinctly different, occasionally dotted by small groups of families walking to synagogue, men in tallit. 

Torah Study with Rabbi Rena Rifkin was totally out of the box.  This group walked to the Machaneh Yehuda open-air market (also known as ‘the shuk’), which on a typical day is a crowded labyrinth of vegetable stands, spice vendors, specialty shops, and restaurants.  But during Shabbat, with the businesses closed and their metal shutters down, the shuk quietly transforms into a gigantic graffiti art gallery.  Local artist Solomon Souza, with permission from the owners, has been spray painting vibrant murals of everything from rabbis and biblical scenes to Israeli prime ministers and movie stars like Roseanne Barr and Paul Newman on their shutters.  His goal: to create a canvas that will let us taste all the flavors of the Jewish culture, with each community and tradition represented as authentically as possible. The murals were enjoyed by all, young and old, with as many photographs taken as there were murals. 

Others traveled to the Israel Museum, Israel’s national museum.  Home to the Dead Sea Scrolls and other artifacts discovered at Masada, it is one of the leading art and archaeological museums in the world.  Those who toured with educator Jeremy Aron came away in awe (with many suggesting that this museum be part of future tracks and not optional) – and with fewer shekels in their pockets after shopping at the museum’s gift shop.

Another option was exploration of Christian East Jerusalem on foot with guide Hana Bendcowsky from the Jerusalem Center for Jewish Christian Relations.  Hana, an Israel born Orthodox Jew, is an expert in the history of Christianity, in particular as it relates to Israel, with a well-deserved reputation as a gifted teacher.  Upon first meeting her at the Jaffa Gate, she explained how the different orthodox Christian groups (e.g., Greek Orthodox, Coptic, etc.) each have a place and what their position is in Jerusalem today. As with everything else learned about on our mission, once one dug a little deeper into the history of the Christians we saw how much more complicated the separate groups are than we had realized. Walking through the streets of the Christian quarter toward the church of the Holy Sepulchre, we learned how to distinguish the different sects by their clothing, flags, carvings in the buildings, etc. We toured the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, where Christians believe Jesus was crucified, where his body was cleaned, and the place from which he rose, along with throngs of excited and fervent tourists and pilgrims of all types.  

Back at the hotel, some of our younger children played at the hotel playground with new friends made during the trip, while others from our group enjoyed the magnificent pool (and intermittent sunshine) at the King David Hotel, lunch on the patio, or free time to pack and prepare for our closing session and check-out.

We ended the day as one group, with a festive Middle Eastern farewell dinner at restaurant Naura, located in the Arab village of Abu Ghosh, just outside of Jerusalem. Versus our first dinner together in Tel Aviv nine days earlier, our group now had a distinctly different vibe.  Whereas our children sat with their parents that first evening, this time they sat together as one group of friends (regardless of age) at their own tables.  There was warmth and laughter in the room among all as wine, bread, and dishes of hummus, eggplant, skewered chicken and beef, lamb chops, and more were passed around the table. We celebrated each other – and three birthdays among us, with sparklers instead of candles.

Buses were boarded and off to the airport we went,  our ten-day mission in Israel complete.  We leave with so much more than we came with:  new friends, a better understanding of Israel, a deeper spiritual and emotional identification with our people, and inspiration to continue our learning and commitment to our faith. 

From March 22 to April 2, one-hundred members of the Stephen Wise community explored Israel as part of our congregational mission. Led by Rabbi Ammiel Hirsch and joined by Rabbi Rena Rifkin, director of our Religious School, participants experienced Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Eilat and Petra, Jordan, b’nai mitzvah on the ancient site of Gamla, Kibbutz Lotan, the Golan Heights, Masada and the Dead Sea, dialogue with journalists and political figures, and more. 

Here, Alan Scheiner reflects on a visit to Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to victims of the Holocaust.

Friday was a day marked by remembrance of the darkest days of the Jewish people and a direct experience of the living and hopeful present of Israel.

We began at Yad Vashem. It’s impossible to describe in a blog post the profound impact of this memorial and exhibit. Our guide Lana explained that the designers of this exhibit — which was entirely remade in 2005 — chose to educate rather than shock or manipulate, and chose to be as specific and personal as possible. Rather than deal in generalities, the exhibit focuses on specific names, events, places, documents, and artifacts. It is full of photos and names from Jewish life both before, during, and after the Shoah.

We saw a lavish collection of the household goods of an esteemed physician in Berlin who lost his position due to the Nazis and escaped. We learned of a survivor of the Shoah who recognized herself in one of the displayed photos found in the pockets of victims and learned for the first time that her boyfriend, who carried the photo to his death, had loved her. We saw a Nazi list of the numbers and locations of Jews alive in Europe, noting that they listed even Albania with only 200 Jews, and by 1941 had already rendered Estonia “Jew free.” We saw the speech given by the leader of the Lodz ghetto where he begged his fellow Jews to surrender their children under the age of 8 and older people above 60 to meet the quota for the Nazi death camps in order to avoid wholesale liquidation — an impossibly tragic choice.

Then we learned of the struggles for entry of the survivors into Palestine under the British and the creation of the State of Israel. Perhaps most powerful of all was the room of photos and names, with binders containing the details on 4 million confirmed victims of the Shoah.

No photos are permitted inside the museum, but I’ve included a photo of the beautiful view of Jerusalem from the outlook at the conclusion of the walk through the Yad Vashem.