@the source homepage Issue #38
Bar and Bat Mitzvah in Israel: The Ultimate Family Sourcebook,
by Deborah Rosenbloom and Judith Isaacson
Updated contact information will be sent
upon request by e-mail.

Double-Pronged Mitzvah

7: Gifts and More Gifts

6: Ben's Teffilin Tiyul

5: Bar Mitzvah Gibush

Bar Mitzvah in the Wake of Terrorism

4: The Magic Age of 13

3: Ben's Bar Mitzvah

2: Ben's Bar Mitzvah

Lila's Bat Mitzvah. 1

New Online Diary: Ben's Bar Mitzvah

Online Diary of a Bat Mitzvah Planning Parent

Post Bat Mitzvah Reflections

 
Woman to Woman
Woman-To-Woman
How do women in Israel deal with "the situation"? For the last two years, a group of women in Efrat and elsewhere in Gush Etzion have taken it upon themselves "to inspire and uplift the spirits of the women throughout Israel." They have created a fantasy world for players and audience.
The Purim story of Esther, on which Esther and the Secrets in the King's Court is based, can be viewed as a women's story. The plight of a nation is taken into the hands of a Jewish woman - she and she alone can save her people from destruction.
Esther and the Secrets in the King's Court, intended for women-only audiences, and written and produced by three women follows the success of last year's production, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
The creative team of Sharon Katz, Toby Klein Greenwald and Arlene Chertoff, wrote and produced Esther and the Secrets in the King's Court with a cast of 127 women, as in the 127 provinces ruled by Queen Esther and King Ahashverosh, as related in the Megillat Esther. Music was written by Rivka Epstein; the production's musical director is Sara Halevi.

Photo Credit: Rebecca Kowalsky
The cross-generational bonding between the women, teenagers and girls is a wonderful aspect of the total production experience. "You become a surrogate family," says Klein Greenwald, the director. "For the teenagers, the experience of working with adult women who are not either their teachers or mothers enables them to build unique collegial relationships." To enable as many teens as possible to benefit from the experience, the writers created additional parts. Of the 400 women who auditioned, approximately 100 were cast. In addition, 150 young girls perform in pre-curtain time choir.
"It gives me a tremendous amount of personal satisfaction knowing that we [the production team] are making so many girls and women happy, both as viewers and participants."
"The concept began last year as a "feel-good experience". We thought that if we made any money we would pass it on to terror victims wtih specific needs. Much to everyone's surprise, we made $30,000. The money was donated on a confidential basis and funnelled to those in need via social workers. Ruthie Gillis, whose husband, a physician at Hadassah Hospital, was murdered by terrorists, thanked the cast publically, as she received help to purchase a bullet-proof car for her family," says Klein Greenwald. "She was only one of the many who were helped by the funds that came in."
For Klein Greenwald, an educator and writer by profession, working on this play, where a significant percentage of the cast have been directly affected by terror incidents, through personal close calls or the loss or injury of friends or family, not much has changed. She recalls that 26 years ago she worked with children from Safed in the Galilee. The school where they were sleeping in Maalot, on a school trip, was infiltrated by terrorists and they were taken hostage. Those who survived managed to jump out of the windows of the school while they looked on in horror as their friends and siblings were murdered.
Profits from Esther and the Secrets in the King's Court will go to The Gush Etzion Foundation to help families whose lives have been devastated by terrorism, and to create related projects in communities that have been hurt by terror.

Text by M. Kaplan-Green and J. Isaacson.
info
Ticket information can be found at the show's website.