Why We Chose Lamplighters

On Sunday evening, June 23rd, over 175 parents, teachers, friends and supporters gathered at Lamplighters Yeshivah’s end-of-year celebration, Impressions, at Brooklyn’s beautiful Roulette theater.

The Chabad school located in Crown Heights utilizes the Montessori methodology to reach each child. It was founded in 2009 and has since grown to offer a new educational experience for children.

The evening was hosted by Rabbi Simcha Weinstein, Director of Chabad of Clinton Hill and Pratt Institute and an accomplished comic and author.

Participants were treated to a lavish buffet and music from Chassidic folk singer and Lamplighters parent Moshe Hecht and upcoming star Levi Robin. Over 15 paintings, inspired by Lamplighters, were debuted by artist Noah Lubin.

At the event, Yocheved Sidof, the school’s Executive Director, launched the Torchbearers initiative (individuals who commit to donate to the school on a consistent, monthly basis) and the FlameFund, a scholarship fund where all donations are matched by a generous donor.

Here is an excerpt of a speech delivered by Chana Minkowitz (nee Shaffer), a current parent at the school:

I was always an early riser and for as long as I can remember, when I woke up in the morning, often when it was still dark out, no lights on in the house, I would find my father (R’ Gedalia Shaffer OBM) in the dining room studying his daf yomi – his page of gemara for the day, fingers poised characteristically on the page.

I would sit down on the floor next to him and put my head in his lap and he would caress me with his long fingers while he quietly learned. Months before the summertime, my father went on double-daf duty so that he wouldn’t fall behind when he went on his summer adventure – traveling to a different part of the world, visiting every museum, monument, natural wonder and undiscovered attraction.

Each summer my father would take one of us, his 10 children, on these trips in which food, sleep and relaxation were lowest priority. My trip with my father was to Iceland in the month of Elul when it is customary to blow the shofar daily. Each morning after waking extra early to don his tefillin and pray, we would drive to an isolated glacier and my father would blow the shofar into the vast wilderness, quite possibly the first time the stillness was touched by that plaintive sound.

I grew up in a home where thousands of seforim, Jewish books, lined the walls of the dining room and half the living room while opposite walls were filled with thousands of books on theology, history, geology, literature. So, it was not unusual to find – squeezed between two seforim on Chassidic philosophy – a misplaced volume on the anatomy of ants; or on a shelf of the books-of-the-week, a book on Egyptian cryptography resting with a volume on the Jewish views of the afterlife.

My mother (Mrs. Bronya Shaffer) would have us greet my father home each day by running down to help him with his bag and preparing a glass of cold seltzer to set at his place. She spends her life thinking of others and is busy all the time with helping people. She instilled in us the concept of derech eretz and thoughtfulnesss by having us practice small acts of caring so that they would become part of our nature.

Before going to sleep over at a friend I was required to get “permission” from my younger sister – then 7 – with whom I shared a room; when charged with the task of shoveling the snow from our front steps we knew it included our neighbor’s walk, as well; how many hundreds of gestures – big and small – I observe my mother doing day-to-day – from sending a basket of fresh-baked muffins and iced coffee to a family on the morning of a simcha, to bringing two gifts to an upshernish – one for the birthday boy and one for his big brother, to having time scheduled in every week to take a blind woman grocery shopping… My mother serves as an incredible example of the way a human being can achieve selflessness in all its beautiful forms: generosity, sympathy and maturity.

I grew up in this home – a home where thoughtfulness, consideration and mentchlichkeit were practiced minute-to-minute, a home whose literal walls are supported by Torah and chassidus, a home where yiddishkeit, chassidishkeit, found solid foundation on mentchlichkeit, respect and kindness.

I was raised with the perspective that being “chassidish” could never exist without being a “mentch”; where being Jewish necessarily meant being kind and compassionate; and where exotic travel and discovery of ancient art, where studying Egyptian cryptography or classical music was a form to bolster the constant striving to connect with Hashem.

It reminds me of what the Rebbe once said at a public gathering that the world is not a jungle, as it may sometimes seem, rather, it is a beautiful garden, G-d’s garden, deliberately structured and permeated with purpose. The Rebbe taught us to look at all the components of this beautiful garden as brimming with spirituality and purpose – a G-dly symphony if you will – and it is our job to reveal that inherent G-dliness and purpose within this garden. It was with this perspective that I was raised, and it is with this perspective that I have always dreamed of raising my children. A daunting undertaking.

Last year my husband and I had the task of trying to implement this dream and find a school for our son who was turning four. We had done a lot of research but we were not fully satisfied. We wanted our son educated in a school where the various other disciplines, such as math and art, were not just tolerated alongside the Torah as parallel lines that neither meet nor diverge, but were used as an expression of Torah, as vehicles to serve Hashem.

We wanted a school where children were taught to treat every one of Hashem’s creations with dignity and respect, as fellow residents of Hashem’s world, where compassion, kindness and warmth were foremost goals. We wanted a school that created leaders, children who would stand proudly as Chassidim and do their duty bringing light and strength to every corner of G-d’s beautiful garden. If it sounds like I am describing Lamplighters, that is not a coincidence.

I would often see Yocheved Sidof, a founder and the executive director of Lamplighters, and with her always-warm, generous smile, she would invite me to attend an open-house. I had known Yocheved over the years and she had never ceased to inspire me as someone who was both incredibly idealistic – seemingly impossible dreams! – but someone very practical and down to earth – a “doer.” We decided to investigate, and barely a year later, here I am, grateful for the privilege to express before all of you my immeasurable appreciation that this school exists in our community.

Lamplighters reminds me of home. The staff, the parents, the space are welcoming, warm and peaceful. My family and I feel accepted, wanted and are encouraged to be involved. At Lamplighters, every child is seen as a fountain of creativity and motivation where he need only be given the tools and space to discover for himself the world and his place in it as a Chossid.

At Lamplighters, the expectation of every child is that he be responsible, independent and respectful – of himself, of his “friends,” of the things in the classroom. Children are taught dignity because the environment is dignified and the children are spoken to, encouraged and disciplined in a dignified manner. At Lamplighters, the educators are always reassessing, never complacent with the status quo, always checking that their methods yield good results. If a tried-and-true technique seems to fall flat with one child, there’s no “well, this is the way we do things,” there’s more research, more effort, more creativity to help reach and teach that child.

Lamplighters has become more than a school for myself and the other parents. It has become a mini-community, where it is a common sight to see parents helping one another – looking out for each other, and looking out for school. One parent will help drop off another’s children, another parent will pick up supplies for the school next time they’re in Costco, and yet another parent will come during school hours and treat the children to a music lesson. It has become a “co-op” of sorts, where the customer is not an impassive observer who shops and then leaves. The customer, or parent, is an invested participant, and the successes of the school are a source of pride for all of us, and any struggle within the school is a personal call to action.

May Hashem give Yocheved Sidof, Rivkah and Moshe Schack, the teachers and my fellow parents the strength and courage to continue growing with Lamplighters as a community of Chassidim, and to continue planting seeds, uncovering magnificent flowers and hidden beauties, and spreading light throughout Hashem’s beautiful garden.