True kindness from the heart

MICHELLE DODEK

The practice of chesed (loving kindness) is an integral part of Jewish tradition. Last month, King David High School students took up the challenge of putting a variety of categories of chesed into action as part of its inaugural Random Acts of Chesed (RAC) Week, which ran in February.

Inspired by the tragic death last November of KDHS alumna Gabrielle Isserow, the 31 students in the Grade 12 class decided to put together an entire week devoted to the values that they say Gabrielle exemplified every day of her young life. Promotional material for RAC Week said that Gabrielle was known to consistently display random acts of chesed to her peers, friends, teachers, family and others.

As a religion of action, not simply of faith, Judaism has many opportunities for personal growth through specific acts of chesed, according to RAC participants. As a tribute to selfless giving without direct reward, students decided to hold the week-long chesed festival, each day focusing on a different element of life, with surprises for students and teachers throughout the school day.

The students felt that they needed a full week of activities to ensure that all students could participate. “It really gets the message across over a whole week,” said Olivia Fish, a member of RAC Week’s steering committee. “It gets people really excited.”

The week began on Friday, Feb. 18, with an assembly to introduce RAC Week that included a fashion show to model the colored T-shirts created by alumna and graphic design student Michelle Braun. Throughout RAC Week, each grade sported a different colored shirt, on each of the five days of the special event.

Monday, Feb. 21, was white for the Grade 8 class, which was to focus on the idea of doing nice things for oneself. “Just as you have to put on your own oxygen mask before helping others on an airplane, so it is with chesed. If you don’t take care of yourself, you can’t help your community,” said teacher-organizer Shoshana Burton. Students were encouraged to smile, eat and sleep well and think of ways to pamper themselves.

Tuesday’s focus was close family and friends, with Grade 9 students wearing red. Grade 10 students encouraged community involvement and got to wear blue shirts on the Wednesday. Jonathan Schweber, one of the students in charge of that day, said that KDHS would travel to downtown Vancouver to hand out to passers-by cards with feel-good sayings like “Have a nice day” printed on them. They planned to film the public’s reactions to their random act of kindness.

Environmental awareness, treating the planet with kindness, was the theme for Thursday, with green-shirted Grade 11s encouraging the student body to turn off lights, find alternate transportation and recycle. Brittani Jacobson, also on RAC Week’s steering committee, was excited about the new composter in the school’s common area, an initiative that exemplified the Grade 11 theme. “The student council can use this day to raise awareness of the composter,” she said.

The last day of RAC Week celebrate all of the types of chesed. A final assembly had students seated, wearing their shirts in rainbow formation, celebrating their accomplishments and their understanding of the value of giving of themselves without financial or other such motives. “You never know if a little thing will make a big difference. Your words and actions can change a person’s day,” Jacobson afirmed.

By the end of the week, students hoped that a huge paper tree created for RAC Week by Grade 12 student Joseph Braun and displayed in the school’s common area would be covered in heart-shaped sticky notes inscribed with positive comments for the student body to share.

The final event for the week was a Shabbat dinner, cooked by parents for students past and present.

Members of the steering committee were happy to have been involved in something they said they hope will continue at the school. They credited their teacher, Burton, for making RAC Week happen.

“She always tells us that we have to believe in our ideas, that nothing is impossible,” said Gabriella Jones. Projects like this teach values, what being Jewish is about, added Jacobson.

“It shows people how to be mensches,” concurred RAC Week steering committee member and Gabrielle’s younger sister Claudia Isserow.

RAC Week coincided with Canadian universities’ Reading Week, so many KDHS alumni were in town and able to attend the dinner, which was held to remember Gabrielle and to celebrate taking action to change the world through loving kindness. To help spread the message of the week, KDHS encouraged other Jewish schools to have their own RAC Week.

Vancouver Talmud Torah’s Grade 7 class also organized activities each day of RAC Week and had students out in force greeting students at the doors of the school with stickers and smiles each morning. The first school to jump on board with RAC Week, the Grade 7s also attended the celebratory assembly at KDHS on Feb. 25, which tied in perfectly with their already-made plans for Anti-Bullying Day, held that week across British Columbia, when students sported pink-colored T-shirts to advocate for an end to bullying. Children at Richmond Jewish Day School participated in Anti-Bullying Day activities as well and students there sported the ubiquitous pink T-shirts.

“RAC Week is contagious and fun,” said KDHS principal Russ Klein of the inaugural event. “It’s another representation of what happens on an average day here. It’s the Jewish way, and it’s a continual piece [of an education] at KDHS.”

Michelle Dodek is a Vancouver freelance writer.

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