Black Catholic Students Revel In Judaism

Baltimore Jewish Times
Neil Rubin Editor
DECEMBER 22, 2006

On NBC’s Today Show:  A segment on Rabbi Gila Ruskin’s class at St. Francis Academy will air between 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m. on the NBC Today Show, Monday, Dec. 25, 2006.

Cecil Ammons’ mother just had to laugh. Her 17-year-old son, a student at a historically African-American Catholic school in Baltimore City, had just explained why he was walking around the house happily singing a popular melody to the Hebrew words "Shabbat Shalom."

Cecil and a few dozen of his peers are taking time each day this school year to learn about Judaism. The action takes place at St. Frances Academy on East Chase Street, which was founded in 1828 and now sits two blocks from the city jail.

Behind St. Frances’ red brick walls, however, there is joy and prayer. In part, that is because of Rabbi Gila Ruskin, who holds the school’s Hoffberger Chair of Jewish Studies, an initiative coordinated by the Thomas More Project and funded by the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation.

The effort will be featured on the Dec. 25 edition of NBC’s "Today" show.

Rabbi Ruskin is known for her creative and passionate approaches to Jewish education. She has served here as a counselor for the mentally ill, a congregational rabbi and a Jewish day school teacher. Her current position, in which she surely stands out on a faculty run by the Oblate Sisters, a black Catholic order, is more than challenging, she said.

"I have really learned a lot from listening to the questions of my students," she said.

"Many, many of these kids have parents who are dead and dead because of drugs. Some have parents who are incarcerated. Some have standard, two-parent homes, but that’s not the majority."

Through it all, her students talk about God’s presence. Does Rabbi Ruskin sense it as well?

"I feel it really strongly. Why else would I be here?" she said with a chuckle. "I feel it because they feel it, and that kind of strengthens my own sense. It’s where God wants me to be right now. That doesn’t mean it’s not challenging. It’s very straining."

On a typical day such as this one, Rabbi Ruskin is pushing critical thinking skills. A list of the Ten Commandments is in front of the students. "What is covet?" one asks. The discussion ensues, leading to how coveting can lead to other sins. "It’s a chain reaction," said Lorrain Toogood, 16.

"Excellent," comes her teacher’s response.

As they go on -- talking about the most difficult commandment to observe, temptations in their lives, and more -- there is a relaxed but engaged atmosphere. The students, in school uniforms of white, gray, black or blue, are neither reserved nor uncomfortable.

Rabbi Ruskin has taken their experiences outside of the classroom, too. Glenn Bullock, for example, is interested in engineering. So for Sukkot, under Rabbi Ruskin’s guidance, the 16-year-old built a sukkah

on the school’s grounds.

"Once I finished it I felt real good," he said with pride.

His class helped build the structure; Rabbi Ruskin’s other Judaics class decorated it with songs for peace, which they wrote, as well as plastic plants with peaches. Rabbi Ruskin’s creative writing class went into the structure for spiritual meditations.

Most of the students have had little or no experience with Jews before this.

"I thought it would be just like another religion class. It’s not," said Lauren Toogood. "This is a lot more hands-on. We don’t have an assigned textbook. The only thing we use is the Tanach. We have a lot of field trips, and the Shabbat celebration is fun."

Friday morning, in fact, is a weekly highlight, said many students. It often includes guests, such as a local Torah scribe detailing his work or a journalist explaining the history of Ethiopian Jewry. Then comes candlelighting, prayers for the grape juice and bread, and, of course, the snacks. All along, Rabbi Ruskin is playing her guitar and singing Shabbat songs as students sing along.

After this day’s class, Rabbi Ruskin reflected on what this phase of her career has taught her.

"The most powerful thing is the sense of joy and spirit, despite the terrible things people have to live with," she said. "Jews could learn a lot from the African-Americans from that. When we have a prayer in class, there’s a sense of awareness that God is right here in the room."

St. Frances Students Speak Out

Glenn Bullock walked into Rabbi Gila Ruskin’s classroom – brightly decorated with vibrant scenes from Jewish history – and said to himself, "OK, this is going to be different."

And it has been. "Every day now we learn something here about the Jewish culture," he said. "One thing that I didn’t know was about the Torah. Rabbi Ruskin brought in a scribe who talked about how he wrote Torahs and put them back together. It takes so much dedication and precision."

Tanaia Johns, 16, was in Rabbi Ruskin’s SAT prep class last year. When she first met her new teacher, she had this thought: "At first I was like, `Who is this lady? What is on top of her head?’ Then after talking to her I said, `She’s OK.’"

She added that she’s looking forward to the spring semester, which will include a long unit on the Holocaust. "I really want to learn about that," she said.

"I love Shabbat on Fridays," Tanaia added. "I love signing the songs, lighting the candles and learning about the holidays. She gets out her guitar and makes us learn the words and feel included in the celebration."

Cecil Ammons added that just as he’s learned a great deal about Jews, he’d like them to know about his cultural experience.

"Basically, I want Jews to know about the struggle that we’ve been through and a lot of people don’t show us respect," he said. "I think people forget about our culture.

"Another thing I learned is that Jews stick together… That’s good. That’s what we need to do," he said.

Meanwhile, Raizel Benn, 16, has learned that her first name means "littlest rose" in Yiddish.

She has this message for friends considering taking the class next year: "I would say you can expect a lot of good from [Jews] in terms of interest and learning about them. I have never interacted with Jews my age before… For me, now when I see a Jew walking down the street and it’s Friday, I know he or she is going to a celebration and I know they’re going to have a god time."

Shandriel Scille, 16, has loved learning about a new culture.

"I learned about the way they view life in general," she said of Jews. "They have strong faith. For them it’s enjoying life, but still dealing with what you need to do. It’s how to get your relationship right with God. That’s what it’s about."

Jasmine Berry, 15, was impressed with Rabbi Menachem Youlis’s description of how to restore Torah scrolls.

"We learned about the different procedures and how sacred it is," she said of Torah making. "Rabbi Youlis talked about how he had to do it and if you mess up you have to start over."

Most of all, she’s been surprised to learn what she has in common with Jews.