Daniel Samowitz – Informal Jewish Life Educator

Shavuot is coming up and I’ve been thinking about Emanuel School and our community. Our theme for Shavu’ot is Derech (Pathway) and so it made me think about our path in this world, our Derech. It made me think about who we are and where we are going.

And then I got to a question that stumped me… If you had to explain Emanuel School to someone who doesn’t understand our culture and who we are, how would you do it?

I’m going to need some creative lee way here so please be patient.

Life is a road/a pathway/A Derech, it has a beginning and an end. The road is long and full of challenges – some bumps, some potholes or perhaps a beautiful tree or butterfly along the way.

On this road there are many different cars, different shapes, different sizes, different engines, different radios, most of all the cars have different interpretations of the Derech and different perceptions on how to tackle the Derech ahead.

Emanuel School is one of these cars!

There are cars which seem more like trains than cars, there are cars with all kinds of gadgets, there are cars who are not able to alter course, there are cars in ‘cruise control’, there are cars on the road…. just because, there are cars on the road that drive without ever stopping,

There are many different types of cars and we as individuals have the ability to choose which car, which vessel best encompasses who we are and what we want out of our journey on the road ahead.

Our Emanuel car has its own code, its own car culture, its own interpretations and our car is a structure that encompasses the values of our School. A school for change, a school striving for a better tomorrow.  The values behind the structures of Emanuel School lead us down the road of life, finding meaning and purpose in our actions towards each other, our actions toward the world and our actions towards GOD.

Emanuel’s values and motto are like a google map…. a map that actually works … it’s Emanuel values that give us a moral compass that guides us on our derech.

Emanuel teaches us to question everything, including reality. It gives us a place of feeling welcome and it gives everyone with their unique quirks a home and the empowerment to take charge and to be responsible for our own cars actions.

Emanuel School is a structure that gives us all, and the students opportunities to and tools for living a good life, a life of meaning and responsibility, a life consciousness of what is going on around us, standing up for what is right and putting human beings in the centre of meaning and community.

The students interpret the values and signs, and direct the car, in essence creating their own road, their own path, their own derech and not just driving down the one that was laid down in front of them.

We find ourselves currently in a society and world affected by apathy, materialism and discrimination – a society that on occasion turns a blind eye in the face of evil, in the face of injustice. A Jewish nation becoming more disengaged with Judaism and a people feeling ashamed or indifferent when they hear the word Zionism or Israel. Choosing responsibility over our Emanuel community is choosing to take a stance on society.

It’s as if, on our collective road, there is an oil spill of drastic proportions and it’s Emanuel’s move next. Your move next!

So in the end when all is said and done and my friend is sitting there with a blank look on his face, not having the faintest idea of what Emanuel is, I would say Emanuel is a place where, most of all, you are accepted for being allowed to be yourself. And it’s the students that put the U in Emanuel. It’s the students that drive our car and choose to create our Derech in front of us.