An exciting, new and creative program is coming to Bergen County. The program, to be known as “Meorot” (luminaries), will bring together girls in grades five to eight from all of the surrounding yeshiva day schools to collaborate in a song and dance program that will culminate in a gala production this coming March. Girls who have been in formal dance programs and choirs, as well as girls with little formal experience but with a passion for the arts, are invited to audition for the program on Sunday, October 7. Rehearsals will begin on Sunday, October 14. The expectation is that more than 100 tweens will be participating in this inaugural Meorot program.
Meorot is the brainchild of NCSY Summer Program’s co-chairwoman, Miriam Pfeiffer, who has lived in Teaneck with her husband Allen and children for the past 26 years. Pfeiffer grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, where she was an avid dancer until the age of bat mitzvah. Currently, her daughter Tali is a seventh grader at RYNJ who shares her mother’s passion for gymnastics and dance.
Sari Kahn of West Hempstead is the director of NCSY Camp Maor, a girls’ sleepaway camp in Pennsylvania that focuses on teaching acting, vocal and dance skills. It was created five years ago by Kahn and has since become one of NCSY’s summer programs over the past three years. By joining up with NCSY, Camp Maor is able to attract girls from around the world for this special camping experience.
Kahn herself grew up in South Florida where she attended the Scheck Hillel Community School from first through 12th grade. Throughout her schooling, she estimated that she participated in no fewer than 16 productions. She maintained this love of creativity by directing plays at the HANC Elementary School and the Shulamith School for Girls’ middle division. A mother of twin girls aged 12 and a daughter aged 10, who are also involved in the arts, Kahn is excited to be producing the new Meorot program in Bergen County. She knows firsthand that “in addition to honing artistic skills and providing a creative outlet for them, Meorot will build up the participants’ self-confidence and encourage them to pursue their artistic skills as they grow to adulthood.”
She added, “The current generation of Orthodox girls in their 20s are trailblazing ‘frum’ paths and opportunities in film, music and dance, which is truly amazing.”
Modeled after programs in the US and Israel, Meorot hopes to bring together participants from schools ranging from Modern Orthodox to those of the Bais Yaakov model, promoting unity and facilitating new friendships. Kahn will be joined by her summer team, professional musical director Enny Wax and choreographer Nadine Dina Waintraub, to work with the girls at rehearsals. In addition, these professionals will train a cadre of teenage girls and young women who will assist in preparing the participants for the production. Through word of mouth in the community, the organizers are seeking 20 young women to volunteer their time in the coming months as dance captains, choir captains, tech crew and production crew members.
Auditions for Meorot will take place on Sunday, October 7, from 1 to 5 p.m. at Congregation Keter Torah. Fifth and sixth graders and seventh and eighth graders will audition separately. The purpose of the audition is to welcome the girls and assign them to appropriate choral and dance groups. Nobody will be turned away. Beginning on Sunday, October 14, rehearsals will take place at Congregation Keter Torah in two sessions: 1-2 p.m. for the fifth and sixth graders, and 3-4 p.m. for the seventh and eighth graders. A fee of $200 will help defray the costs of rental, professional training and costumes.
The culmination of this program will take place as a grand performance on the evening of Sunday, March 3, at the Dwight-Morrow High School auditorium. Community women are invited to attend and show their solidarity with the program and its beneficiaries. The proceeds of the evening will support the ongoing summer programs of NCSY, as well as the local Tomchei Shabbos organization.
Pfeiffer shared, “We are calling the new program ‘Meorot,’ or ‘luminaries,’ as our goal is to enable each of our girls to shine much like the sun, moon and stars, as well as to rely upon one another as an additional source of light so they may shine even brighter together.”
For more information, contact Miriam Pfeiffer at [email protected] or Sari Kahn at [email protected].
By Pearl Markovitz
