labjr havaya

Meaningful learning and artistic adventure.

Carefully crafted by our Director of Family Education Shira Kline along with our talented Teaching Artists and Advisory Circle, Lab/Jr. is experiential education at its best. Inspired by this year’s theme, “HAVAYA: Everpresence,” our children’s programming explores what it is to be in this world, with timeless wonder and curiosity. Playing in the Mystery of it all, we become the visionaries for a more just and kind world together.

With Lab/Shul’s unique God-optional approach to tradition, text, and story, all families are welcome! We are a community of those who identify as Jewish, Jew-ish, and everything in between. We design our children’s gatherings to include soulful prayers for the young at heart, interactive theatre and storytelling, and thoughtful age-appropriate learning.

**All participating children must be registered for the High Holy days to attend our High Holy day programming. Registration entitles children and parents entrance to BOTH the main ritual programming as well as the children’s programming in the outdoor tents.**

Let’s begin a better year – for all.
All ages. All faiths. All welcome.

REGISTER HERE

LAB/JR. PROGRAMS

Filled with imaginative play, movement and music, all programs are inspired by this year’s theme, HAVAYA/Everpresence.

  • PlayLab (entering Preschool – 2nd grade) Jump along, sing along, and art along in our stupendous PlayLab led by Maria Lemire as featured in NPR’s “Teaching in the Pandemic” and children’s theatre artist Meghan Grover, along with Drag Story Hour’s Jonathan Hamilt. Dive into gatherings of Creation and Storah of the highest heart. Children and infants 0-4 with an accompanying adult are invited to join us at any time for PlayLab activities.

  • KidLab (entering 3rd through 5th grades) invites our older elementary age children into a playful, multi-sensory, and creative practice of HAVAYA, using expressive imagination and empathy to connect deeply to self, others, and the world at large. Led by writer and choreographer Max Goldner and playwright and ritualist Martine Duffy, along with multi-media teaching artists Kohenet Stephanie Guedalia and JessAnn Smith.

  • TweenLab (entering 6th, 7th, and 8th grades + Raising the Bar cohorts 12 & 13) Blending age-old wisdom in conversation with individual expression, Lab/Shul B Mitzvah Program’s Melissa Shaw of Justice Club and Raising the Bar’s Stephanie Kane lead a session designed for inquiry and creativity around today’s topics. TweenLab will visit the main sanctuary to join Storahtelling: Torah Ritual Theater.

Please pack for your children, labeled with your child’s name:

  • 2 Nut-free Snacks
  • Water bottle
  • Blanket or cushion (the floor of our garden is astroturf!)

Lab/Jr. SCHEDULE

ROSH HASHANAH DAY // Saturday, September 16

Time Event Name Location
9:00am – 9:45am

Family-Friendly Ritual for Families with Children Ages 0-7 with Shira Kline

 In Person & On Zoom in the Lab/Jr. Tent
9:00am – 9:45am

Family-Friendly Ritual for Families with Children Ages 8-12 with Naomi Less

 In Person & On Zoom in the Lab/Jr.
9:45am – 12:30pm

Lab/Jr. Programming:
-PlayLab
-KidLab
-TweenLab

 In Person in the Lab/Jr. Tent
11:00am(ish)*

Storahtelling: Torah Ritual Theater for Rosh Hashanah

 In Person & Live Streamed
12:00pm(ish)*

Shofar

 In Person & Live Streamed
1:00pm – 1:30pm

Kiddush: Hugs & Honey, Challah & Wine

 In Person
1:30pm-2:30pm

Tashlich Ritual at the River

 In Person

*Estimated times, give or take a tear or two.

YOM KIPPUR DAY // Monday, September 25

Time Event Name Location
9:00am – 9:45am

Family-Friendly Ritual for families with children ages 0-7 with Shira Kline

 In Person & On Zoom in the Lab/Jr. Tent
9:00am – 9:45am

Family-Friendly Ritual for families with children ages 8-12 with Naomi Less

 In Person & On Zoom in the Lab/Jr. Tent
9:45am-1:00pm

Lab/Jr. Programming:
-PlayLab
-KidLab
-TweenLab

 In Person in the Lab/Jr. Tent
11:00am(ish)*

Storahtelling: Torah Ritual Theatre for Yom Kippur

 

In Person & Live Streamed
2pm – 3pm

Raising the Bar/B Mitzvah Families
Cohort 12 Giving Circle

 In Person
2pm – 3pm

Raising the Bar/B Mitzvah Families
Cohort 13 Family Study

 In Person

*Estimated times, give or take a tear or two.

LAB/Jr. EDUCATORS

Martine Handelman Duffy

Martine Duffy

Martine Handelman Duffy (they/them) is an artist and Jewish leader. They hold a BFA in playwriting from NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, and an MA in Jewish Storytelling from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study. Martine’s work lives at the intersection of Jewish-ness and the arts. Their work draws from Jewish culture, history, and religion, to inform practices in theatre, music, ritual, and community-building. Martine is thrilled to be returning to Lab/Shul for another season as a High Holy Day educator.

Max Goldner

Max Goldner

Max Goldner is a writer, curator, educator, choreographer, and designer based in Brooklyn. His practice examines ways of decolonizing and expanding Jewish memory through the built environment, archives, curatorial practices, and performance. He recently completed a Master of Architecture and M.S. in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices from Columbia GSAPP, where he was a Dean’s Scholar recipient and awarded honors for his outstanding thesis “Shooting and Crying: Constructions and Translations of (Para-)Jewish Subjecthood.”

Meghan Grover

Meghan Grover

Meghan (she/they) works as a Lower School Advisor and all-school Drama Teacher at the Brooklyn Free School. They have also created theater with the Creative Arts Team, Park Avenue Youth Theater, NYC Children’s Theater, Bluelaces, and Girls Leadership. Additionally, Meghan co-creates and performs interactive dramas across NYC and northeast Ohio. Meghan graduated from the Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program and the MA Applied Theatre Program at CUNY. Deeply grateful to the Lab/Shul community!

Kohenet Serakh

Kohenet Serakh aka Stephanie “Steve” Guedalia (she/they) is a Hebrew Priestess, ordained through the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute. Kohenet Serakh is a Queer, Sephardic Educator. She is an activist, an interdisciplinary Artist, a Feminist, and Sin Positive Liberation Theologist. She is also a storyteller of our shared dream that is sacred mythology. Kohenet Serakh is a wisdom seeker who guides others in their seeking of wisdom.

Jonathan Hamlit

Jonathan Hamlit

Jonathan Hamilt was named Executive Director of Drag Queen Story Hour in late 2019 after co-founding the New York City Chapter in 2016.

Hamilt is the first Executive Director of the organization, taking it from a loose string of a few state’s events to a national 501 c 3 with an international chapter network.

Being a strong communicator, he has connected the chapter’s organizers and storytellers with each other on a global scale. Under his leadership, the organization will change its official name to Drag Story Hour to better reflect the diverse and vast drag talent across the network this October. The Royal Guard, the glittery boots to the ground event safety marshals, was implemented in 2022 to better de-escalate the ongoing homophobia and transphobia attack on the organization.

Since being named Executive Director, Drag Story Hour has presented at Harvard, Yale, SXSW EDU, ABA, and the Medical Library Association.

Jonathan Hamilt is originally from Suwanee, Georgia and is a survivor of gay conversion therapy. His drag persona Ona Louise, outside of story hour, hosts drag bingos and reads tarot to raise money for local charities in NYC where he lives currently.

Stephanie Kane

Stephanie Kane (she/her) is a professional theatre artist and educator, and is so excited to be joining the Lab/Shul team full time as the Raising the Bar Coordinator. As a Jewish educator and eternal camp counselor, she has worked with kids of all ages and abilities at Camp Ramah in California, JCC Pittsburgh, and most recently as a trainer here at Lab/Shul. Her theatrical homes past and present include Center Theatre Group, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, The Public Theater, and The Workshop Theater. Stephanie holds a BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University and currently lives in Brooklyn on sovereign Lenape land, although she was born and raised in Los Angeles, a fact that shocks people because she’s pale, walks fast, and hates the beach.

Maria Serach Alexandra Lemire

Maria Serach Lemire

Maria Serach Lemire is a teacher and artist with a wealth of experience in early childhood, special education, Judaic programming, and labor relations. Over the last five years, they have proudly served the families and children of the 14th Street Y and Lab/Shul as well as the private, public, and religious schools of New York City. With degrees from NYU and Hunter College, Maria integrates inclusion, the arts, and literacy into their child-centered pedagogy.

Melissa Shaw

Melissa Shaw

Melissa Shaw is a facilitator who offers a unique consultancy based in social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, social emotional learning and the arts. She has facilitated in universities, schools, theaters, summer camps, detention centers, yeshivas, churches, corporate offices, and long-term temporary housing centers. She has led workshops for tech professionals, high school students, Rabbis, security guards, chaplains, non-profit managers, video game designers, Buddhist monks, school principals, older adults, B’MItzvah students, NGO leaders, and the NYPD. She has been a teaching artist and creative coach for various community-based organizations, including Community Word Project, Brooklyn Arts Council, Energize Your Voice, and the Lulu and Leo Fund. Melissa also facilitates a variety of anti-bias, anti-oppression, and anti-racist programs for the Anti-Defamation League and the New Jersey State Bar Foundation. Powerful Communications, and Avodah. She was on faculty for Drew University’s 2018 Institute On Religion and Conflict Transformation where she helped to foster dialogue among religious and lay leaders from around the world. She is the Arts and Communication Advisor for the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee and was part of the 2019 Nahum Goldmann Fellowship cohort and a member of the 2022 Leadership cohort. She is a certified Ethno-Religious mediator, Restorative Justice practitioner and Interfaith Minister. She was most recently an EDI coordinator for the Broadway production of The Sign in Sideny Brustein’s Window. Melissa holds an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

JessAnn Smith

JessAnn Smith

JessAnn Smith (she/her) is an NYC-based performer, producer, and teaching artist. In addition to being a long time Lab/Jr. educator, JessAnn works as a contract trainer for Keshet and a co-producer with Thank You For Coming Out. She is also a trained Intimacy Coordinator with IDC and a NOLS-certified Wilderness First Responder! JessAnn has traveled all across the US and beyond, collaborating with summer camps, theatrical projects, and facilitating education workshops. She’s had some incredible opportunities this year, such as being a faculty educator for Cornerstone ’23 with Foundation for Jewish Camp and joining Mitsui Collective’s Kollel (Cohort 3). Most recently, she began a new adventure as an MSW student at Wurzweiler School of Social Work. JessAnn is a proud member of the Queer Big Apple Corps and the Coney Island Polar Bear Club. In addition to traveling the world and reading queer fantasy novels, JessAnn enjoys being an auntie to her twelve niblings, trying new things, and creative art therapy. In everything she does, JessAnn is deeply committed to creating content that serves (and celebrates!) her Jewish and LGBTQIA+ communities.

AT-HOME ACTIVITIES

With creative coloring pages and sweet new year crafts, we’ve got oodles of at-home activities to celebrate the new year

“Storah of the Week” for Families:

Storah of the Week is Shabbat ShaMorning’s warm hearted interpretation of the Torah portion for the very young and the young at heart.

HIGH HOLY DAYS 5784/2023