Sunday, November 23, 2008

Jew Spot Interview and Cleveland Rocks 11.23.08

Friends,
Jew Spot Blogger Monica Rozenfeld published the following interview today. It really captures the essence of why we're on this mission.

I'm just flying so high right now because I'm in Cleveland with some amazing folks - I'm here for Storahtelling's performance of Becoming Israel, but I had the opportunity to work with 50 7th - 12th graders today at Bnai Jeshurun Congregation.
Here's a short video clip:

One Simple Thing 11.23.08

Early one sunday morning in Cleveland, I had the opportunity to play for and talk with some amazing teens at Bnai Jeshurun Congregation!

Naomi Less on iLike - Add iLike to your MySpace



I was so inspired I was by the juniors and seniors. I sat with about 11 of them and played them the track Responsibility (check it out at www.naomiless.com) The song is about injustice and what happens when someone doesn't speak out - person to person injustice. What's your Response-Ability!?!?!

So I ran through the song and some discussion questions with the students, shared two suggestions for facilitating to them:
1. Don't be afraid of the silence - when you put a question out there, sometimes it takes 15-20 seconds for someone to respond.
2. Try to invite as many people to participate as possible and not have the same two people answering all the time.

Well, they teamed up with a partner and facilitated amazing conversations about justice, their schools and lives, when they've found it challenging to stand up for someone, the risks involved, etc. And did an INCREDIBLE job.
WAY TO ROCK IT, CLEVELAND!
My thanks to Rabbi Hal and Erika Rudin-Luria for making this happen!
More tomorrow...
Very inspired,
Naomi

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