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At Passover, Family Atmosphere in the Air
Across Hamaspik Residences
Bonding, Community Pervasive at Seders, on Outings during Holiday
If anything can be said about
Pesach (Passover), it’s that it’s a
family-oriented holiday.
“Where will you be for Pesach?”
is likely the most common question
heard in Jewish communities in the
weeks before the holiday, given that
joining family around the Seder
table—an ironclad tradition dating
back to Biblical times—is a highlyanticipated
experience.
And if that’s the community’s
standard, then including that standard
in its residential programming
is Hamaspik’s standard.
That value is all the more driven
home what with thousands of community
members, both with and
without disabilities, convening and
mingling at local and regional venues
for family-oriented amusements
such as children’s museums, theme
parks and zoos.
Small wonder residents of
Hamaspik’s Individualized
Residential Alternative (IRA) group
homes felt like family come
Passover—because that’s exactly the
idea.
With the traditional-laden Seder
table being the centerpiece and climax
of Passover, said holiday feast
was indistinguishable from any other
at Hamaspik of Rockland County’s
Forshay Briderheim IRA—running
until 3:00 a.m. with the customary
discussion of the Passover saga.
The Chol Hamoed “Intermediate
Days”—which this year ran from
Thursday, March 28 through
Sunday, March 31—were likewise
marked by the Forshay family the
same as any other family: by hitting
the road and getting “the boys” out
for some good clean family fun.
That fun this year consisted of
joining an exclusive performance for
New York’s Orthodox Jewish community
by the Ringling Brothers
Circus at Brooklyn’s Barclay’s
Center on Thursday—a special show
attended not only by thousands of
community members, but also the
residents of Hamaspik of Kings
County’s 38th St. Shvesterheim and
61st St. Briderheim IRAs.
Conversely, 38th’s Seder table
was just as ornately set as Forshay’s,
with residence cook Mrs. Fisher and
husband serving as DSP staff and
presiding over a sumptuous meal
complete with elegant Hagados
(Seder guidebooks) and silver-colored
goblets.
A key Seder custom observed in
most households is the “stealing”
and later “ransoming” of the
Afikoman, a designated piece of
matzah put aside for consumption at
meal’s end—if those rascally kids
haven’t gotten their hands on it
while you weren’t looking, that is.
The tradition of “stealing” the
Afikoman, and the faux drama created
by dads “desperate” to find and
eat it before the midnight deadline,
is designed to keep kids excited, on
the edge of their seats and otherwise
involved for the Seder’s entire duration.
Household children typically
snatch the Afikoman mid-meal when
adults aren’t looking, either genuinely
or by delightful design, then
squirreling it away and producing it
upon demand later. And that’s
when the “negotiations” for
“release” of the “hostage” begins.
Promises of toys, books, clothes
or other desired items are usually
forthcoming from fathers and made
by mothers to secure the Afikoman’s
safe return; post-Passover shopping
trips ensue.
But with the custom entrenched
for centuries if not millennia, some
families—including several
Hamaspik IRA staff families—will
actually purchase their charges’
Afikoman prizes before the holiday,
with the “negotiations” an amusing
formality.
That was the case at Hamaspik
of Rockland County’s Wannamaker
Briderheim IRA in South Monsey,
where Home Manage Joel Horowitz
went shopping over the month
before Pesach to get his “boys” their
toys; said items were forked over
with much fanfare at their Seder’s
conclusion.
As for the Seder itself, resident
Dovid L. joined Direct Support
Professionals (DSP) Mr. and Mrs.
Chaim Fisher in conveying the
Exodus story to the other residents,
regaling them with traditional interpretations
and otherwise explaining
it to them at their level.
Chol Hamoed was spent at
Wannamaker with an outing to
Hamaspik’s grand annual family
event, held this year at upstate
Middletown’s Party Zone USA family
fun center. Hundreds of children
and young adults with disabilities
under the Hamaspik umbrella were
seen bouncing from ride to ride and
also enjoying two multifaceted performances
of Michael DuBois, he of
Solo Circus fame.
(All other Hamaspik group
homes attended that outing as well.)
The Wannamaker residents also
attended a spectacular Passover play
put on by popular community educator
and entertainer Zishe Shmeltzer,
and even visited their beloved
parents for one meal during Chol
Hamoed.
How was the Seder? Quips
Grandview Briderheim DSP Joel
Stauber: “L’ayla min kol birchasa!”
That phrase, lifted from the classic
Kaddish prayer recited daily, is
Aramaic for “above all blessing,”
and an apt superlative for the Seder
scene at that Hamaspik of Rockland
County group home whether Mr. and
Mrs. Stauber are stalwart staff.
Resident Moshe P. asked the
Four Questions and another sang
“Chasal Sidur Pesach,” the Sederclosing
hymn.
Despite their low function level,
the residents of the Arcadian
Briderheim IRA, Hamaspik of
Rockland County’s largest group
home, were treated to a Seder that
they could appreciate and understand.
Among numerous other
touches of sensitivity and accommodation,
the team of on-hand DSP
staff served them the traditional Four
Cups, filled not with wine but grape
juice and equipped with manageable
straws.
But that ethos of love and
respect and for individuals with disabilities—the
same as you’d extend
yourself for your own beloved
child—was the norm not just at
Arcadian but at all Hamaspik group
homes come Pesach.
Small wonder that, at Hamaspik
of Kings County’s South 9th
Shvesterheim IRA, Home Manager
Mrs. Cziment reports: “One of the
girls didn’t want to go home!”
FREEDOM The Seder table before Passover this year at the Concord Briderheim IRA
At Hamaspik of Rockland County
E.I. Program, Staircase Therapy
Taking Stairs Improves Kids’ Posture One Step at a Time
“Come on, Gavriel! You can do
it!”
The precocious tot, deep brown
eyes wide, stared back at his smiling
caregiver, motionless.
Then, taking that tentative first
foray out of hesitation and fear, he
put an uncertain foot forward.
Nothing bad happened. So he took
another step. The caregiver beamed
and cheered.
Buoyed by the encouragement,
the boy smiled back and suddenly
burst ahead, now motivated to tackle
the therapy activity one step at a
time.
Literally.
Gavriel is one of the boys and
girls at Hamaspik of Rockland
County’s flourishing Early
Intervention (EI) program, and on
this Wednesday, March 13, he and
his little classmates are working
their upper and lower-body large
muscle groups, and hence their gross
motor skills, by negotiating a staircase.
With Master Teacher Mrs.
Weichbrod and several classroom
aides standing by, the adorable
parade of kids carefully make their
way down, then up, the looming rubber-floored
staircase that wraps
around all four walls of the airy, tall
and well-lit entranceway at 58 Rt. 59
in Monsey, Hamaspik of Rockland
County’s central hub.
With hands reaching high over
their heads, the children are unwittingly
forced to improve their balance
and posture as backs work a little
harder to stay straight and little
feet tap about to find their footing.
When the expedition makes it to
the ground-floor lobby, all its members
are lined up against one wall,
another therapeutic exercise that
doubles as a class management tool.
Standing in an orderly fashion,
backs to the flat surface, not only
allows the EI staff to keep control of
the children, but also to help
the children improve their spatialrelations
skills, Mrs. Weichbrod
explains.
But now, it’s time to make the
trek all the way back up the stairs to
their bright and cheery classrooms.
Encouraged once again by their
teacher and staff, the boys and girls
step forward yet again, lifting those
little feet high to clear the several
inches needed to plant soles and
heels on the stair surfaces. Their
bodies lurch back and forth as muscles
strain to maintain balance, but
one by one, they make progress.
What’s more, the staff has
placed an amusing array of toys on
the steps, turning the exercise into a
clean-up game. Now the kids don’t
just have to get up the steps with
their hands in the air, but also have
to bend down every few steps to
retrieve a faux fruit or a plastic bread
slice and place it in any of the baskets
proffered by their adjacent
aides—working additional muscles
and coordination skills.
A few minutes later, after a bit of
coaxing, cajoling and more than a
little laughter, all the boys and girls
are lined up against the wall of the
upper landing, ready to get back into
their classrooms.
The staircase outing, which has
been going on at least once a week
since the fall, has produced significant
improvements in her young
charges, Mrs. Weichbrod testifies.
With most of them burdened by
proprioceptive delays, or sub-par
skills in awareness of place, position
and movement, the kids needed the
firm touch and prompts that are part
and parcel of the staircase exercise
to learn how to control their bodies
as they moved through space.
With several months of stepping
their way up and down the stairs
now, however, Mrs. Weichbrod says,
they’ve gone “from Point A to Point
C.”
Hamaspik Gazette | April/May ‘13
E9