Announced at the SAR Annual Dinner on March 23 and leading up to Pesach, SAR introduced an exclusive private wine label called Kela Ilan. The project honors former SAR student Ilan Tokayer, z”l.
Gan Ilan was first built in 2017. All SAR students have been introduced to this rooftop garden, in partnership with GrowTorah. In their announcement, SAR notes its visionaries’ and founders’ beliefs that every child possesses a divine spark, has unique worth as an individual and should be encouraged to achieve according to his or her ability. These values are “cultivated” at SAR’s own piece of land, created in memory of Ilan.
GrowTorah aims to create “a sustainable future driven by Torah values, combined with educational garden experiences, exploring relevant Jewish values and Torah lessons, as well as fundamentals of gardening and land-stewardship. These Torah lessons navigate complex relationships between humans, their fellow creatures, and the earth, and encourage participants to connect with these values in powerful and personally meaningful ways.”
Ilan’s mother, Reva Tokayer, a former SAR guidance counselor, explained: “I always say that I think kids are a lot like plants. If you plant them in the right place, they will grow and thrive. In the wrong place, they will wither.” She then turned her thoughts to her son. “We knew that he was an exceptional child but wasn’t thriving where he was. We found [that] SAR turned around his whole perception of himself. He valued himself for being out-of-the-box. The Gan, to us, is an alternative way of learning for children to see within themselves things that they can do that are unique to them.”
Sharon Black, SAR’s director of arts and enrichment, supervises several departments, one of which is Gan Ilan. “I am friends with Reva Tokayer. There’s nothing you can do for somebody who loses a child, except stand next to them and be supportive.” Black said that Ilan was studying to be a winemaker when he passed away. “I just kept thinking about out-of-the-box projects. Being that SAR is the progressive place that it is and Rabbi Krauss being so open to ideas and innovations, I knew I could go to him and say something that would seem so wildly crazy. I said, ‘You can’t say no to me.’ He said, ‘I love this!’ From there, the idea was constructed to have a private label for SAR wine called, Kela Ilan.” Black noted: “We designed the label, the words, the card and the bag. Miracle of miracles, and the supply chain, everything arrived in time.”
SAR Principal Rabbi Binyamin Krauss explained: “We’re always thinking about the next steps and take this one step further. Over the last summer, we thought about the values of SAR, one of them being this deep connection to Medinat Israel. We thought about the things that Ilan loved, and we learned that he loved wine.”
Black revealed that SAR has sold hundreds of bottles of wine. With the proceeds of the sales, SAR finances a Gan Ilan in Israel, allowing students in Israel to learn from the Gan Ilan curriculum. SAR is also planning to have a harvest day in Israel next summer, inviting current and former SAR students, faculty and their families. “We plan to organize a school trip for families to go to Israel to harvest grapes, have a gathering with a bonfire dinner and learn about winemaking. Then we hope to do another sale and open a second Gan Ilan in Israel.”
The first run of the wine, made at Tulip Winery, included a cabernet sauvignon 2021, a dry red wine (Galilee, 90% cabernet sauvignon, 5% carignan, 5% viognier) and a white franc 2021, a dry rosé wine (Judean Hills, 60% cabernet franc, 40% sauvignon blanc). The third choice was a White Tulip 2021, a dry white wine (Galilee, 65% gewürztraminer, 35% sauvignon blanc).
Tokayer added: “It was Ilan’s dream to live in Israel, and to bring himself in any way that he could contribute. And his next step was to bring his profession of making wine to the country. Having Gan Ilan in Israel would be, in some way, for us, the development of his personal dream that he had hoped to bring to Israel.”
“There are beautiful things that can come from cultivating grapes and making wine and bringing simcha to homes and, at the same time, remembering Ilan,” said Krauss.
Bottles of these wines may be purchased through SAR’s office (718-548-1717) while supplies last, or visit https://saracademy.org/ac-nvp-pages/wine-orders
By Judy Berger
