Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 11, 2010 Page: 10 of 28
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10 ! March 11,2010 TEXAS JEWISH POST & SINCE 1947
Understanding poverty, understanding others
By Deb Siiverthorn
"The most fundamental ele-
ments of Jewish life are justice,
fairness and compassion. We are
a people who believe deeply in
tzedakah, alleviating need and
preserving humanity," said Rabbi
William Gershon of Congregation
Shearith Israel. He was impressed
with the Poverty Simulation pro-
gram hosted last month by ATID,
the Academy of Torah in Greater
Dallas, and coordinated by the Jew-
ish Community Relations Council
of the Jewish Federation of Greater
Dallas. "To see kids of all denomi-
nations coming together to learn
Torah, with the enthusiasm for
learning and the seriousness these
kids presented, made me proud."
The Poverty Simulation is an
interactive model experience de-
veloped by the Missouri Associa-
tion for Community Action. Dur-
ing the simulation, students from
ATID and the religious high school
programs of Congregation Anshai
Torah, Congregation Shearith Is-
rael and Temple Shalom pretended
to be members of a low-income
community attempting to survive
four 15-minute weeks of poverty.
The re-creation relies on role-play-
ing techniques and extensive props
to help participants understand
the day-to-day challenges faced by
families living in poverty.
"There are more than 250,000
people in Dallas living in poverty
and it's important for young adults
of our community to be aware of
the situation and learn how they
can take action," said Cathy Gray,
a facilitator and representative of
the Region 10 Education Service
Center, whose State and Federal
Initiatives Team conducts the Pov-
erty Simulations. "Through the
Poverty Simulation program the
students see and become a part
of the reality that some of their
peers are living in a less-than-ideal
world. The ATID students 'got it,'
and I was impressed to see the ma-
turity and understanding of others
that I believe they took away from
the program."
Once the simulation was com-
pleted, Gray led a debriefing ses-
sion during which the participants
shared their experiences.
"The goal of ATID is to provide
learning experiences that meet the
students where they are, providing
independent learning which will
perhaps prompt the initiative to
want to learn more, and interac-
tive programs that keep them 'in
the moment,"' said Gail Herson,
ATID's education director.
ATID is open to 11th- and 12th
grade students from throughout
the Dallas Jewish community,
regardless of affiliation. The cur-
riculum explores faith, values,
ethics and history through discus-
sions and tikkun olam projects in
the community. Understanding
the load that senior high school
students already carry with their
secular and other extracurricular
studies, ATID's programming has
no tests and no homework.
"We opened this program up to
our own ATID students but also to
high school students in the com-
munity, grades nine to 12, wanting
to share with them a taste of what
we offer. Our goal is to expose the
Jewish young adults of Dallas to
each other and to give them an op-
only income is Social Security.
Others "became" workers rep-
resenting agencies including the
Department of Family Services
and employers. In each case, the
students were given a packet that
explained their circumstances.
"With only $10 in 'our' bank ac-
count we had to sell what little we
had to survive,"' said Kayla Bakh-
shian, a member of Congregation
Anshai Torah and a junior at Piano
West. Bakhshian took on the role
of a "15-year-old daughter of a sin-
gle mother" for the day. She added,
"During the program we had to
figure out, without a car and with
barely enough for bus fare, how we
would get to school, how we would
spend our food stamps, how the
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Photo: Deb Siiverthorn
Carly Miller (left) and Kayia Bakhshian were directed by Cathy Gray, who facili-
tated the Poverty Simulation morning hosted by ATID. The girls "became" "Ed
and Ellen Epperman," members of a poverty-stricken family.
Photo: Submitted by Marc Jacobson/JCRC
Students from ATID, the Academy of Torah in Greater Dallas, as well as the religious high schools of Beth Torah, Shearith Israel and Temple Shalom, spent a morning
participating in the Region 10 Education Service Center's Poverty Simulation program, hosted by ATID.
portunity to participate in unique,
valuable and engaging learning."
"We wanted the students to
realize the challenges and choices
that have to be made by those liv-
ing in poverty who have such lim-
ited resources," said Marc Jacob-
son, JCRC public policy associate.
The chief goal of the JCRC's An-
ti-Poverty Campaign's is to raise
awareness throughout the com-
munity. "I overheard kids talking
about how their own lives involve
paying bills online and shopping
online, and how the children they
were representing in the simula-
tion had lives that entailed getting
food stamps in line and waiting in
line."
Each participant was assigned
a role as a family member rang-
ing from a preschool child to an
85-year-old grandparent whose
mother could get a job. 'Living'
the struggles and issues, even in
a pretend situation, became more
obvious to me and has definitely
caused me to think more about the
issue. This was a perfect example
of ATID's programming, where the
learning is interesting and always
relates to current events and our
lives. It's not about bookwork."
"I don't have any idea about
bills or cost-of-living or what it
takes to manage a family, but in
this program I learned that the
lives of those not so far from us are
drastically different," said Aryn
Weinstein, a member of Congrega-
tion Shearith Israel and a junior at
The Greenhill School. Weinstein
spent the morning as "a 7-year-old
boy with ADHD who lived with
his poverty-stricken grandparents
and sister." "As a family, our only
"Our goal is to expose
the Jewish young adults
of Dallas to each other
and to give them an op-
portunity to participate
in unique, valuable and
engaging learning."
Gail Herson,
ATID education director
real belongings were a television, a
small stereo and a ring. From that,
we had to decide what to sell just to
get food and medication. I left with
a new idea of what it means not to
take anything for granted."
"In speaking with the students
after the event I'm thrilled to hear
their responses and know that this
program has propelled them to a
greater need to take action," Her-
son said. "The next step, after the
learning, is putting that learning
into practice. On April 25, ATID
will join youth groups and reli-
gious school programs from across
the Metroplex in a community
Mitzvah Day."
Herson added, "This program
gave the students a chance to ex-
press their leadership abilities
while allowing them to bond and
interact with each other, and we
look forward to the opportunity
to expand that interaction at every
chance."
For more information about
ATID, or to register for the
2010-2011 year, e-mail atid@
levineacademy.org.
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Wisch, Rene. Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 64, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, March 11, 2010, newspaper, March 11, 2010; Fort Worth, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth188283/m1/10/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .