Online barmy teacher gives Zoom to remote simchas

Preparing for Barmitzvahs and Batmitzvahs is hard work, but much harder if you live in outlying towns or even countries where there are no Jewish communities. But commemorating a Jewish coming of age ceremony has been made doable in areas like Nelspruit, Lusaka, Knysna, George, or Polokwane by Joanne Bernstein and Rabbi Moshe Silberhaft.

Bernstein, better known as Morah Joanne, is a Johannesburg Hebrew and Jewish Studies teacher who has taken on the task of teaching and preparing children from anywhere for their Barmitzvahs and Batmitzvahs over Zoom.

“People living in these little dorpies away from the centre of the Jewish community shouldn’t have to suffer not being able to have a basic Jewish education because of where they live,” said Silberhaft, otherwise known as the “travelling rabbi”.

Silberhaft, who has been travelling through South Africa and nearby countries for more than three decades, saw the need for someone to help children with Jewish education where Jewish life is inaccessible.

So, he recruited Bernstein four years ago, and she has now enabled at least eight children to perform their coming of age ceremonies.

Bernstein, a family friend of Silberhaft, has been teaching for more than 30 years, working in various Jewish schools around Johannesburg. She was drawn to this opportunity because, she said, “I’ve always loved the history of South Africa and all the small dorpies. As a child, I would sit with the old Zionist Record newspaper for hours on end to see what was going on around the country.”

Bernstein grew up in Durban, “so I know what it is like to grow up in a smaller Jewish community”.

She often starts at square one when preparing these children for their simchas over Zoom. “Often, these children don’t know which way Hebrew is read or what a Hebrew letter looks like,” she said. “So, we start simply. I introduce them to Hebrew letters for one hour a week over a six-week course. This is done just to get them to read Hebrew.”

After that introductory course, Bernstein works with the children over a few weeks, teaching them their Torah portions and the brachot for the Torah, tefillin, and tallit.

She also discusses what their portions mean, the different chaggim around the date of their simcha, and the laws and customs around the chaggim so they can get a more rounded education.

“Rabbi Silberhaft helps to teach them to sing their Torah portions because it’s not halachically allowed for me to sing. So, I just teach them to read the information they need, and give them reading materials so they are adequately prepared for the day,” said Bernstein.

Bernstein said that in one instance, after the Barmitzvah lessons were over, the father of the child asked if the rest of the family could get lessons on how to read Hebrew as well.

“Joanne has a good understanding, and can judge the child’s enthusiasm and abilities to help them prepare for their simcha,” said Silberhaft. “This gives them a lot of encouragement and builds them up for the actual event.”

Bernstein isn’t able to be at every simcha, but she has attended a few, such as Nelspruit-based students Joseph and Bella Borman, for his Barmitzvah in April 2021 and her Batmitzvah in December 2023. “Although I couldn’t stand next to Joseph on the bima, I was waiting in the wings with such naches,” she said.

Bernstein was introduced to the Borman family in 2020. Said Lisa Borman, Joseph and Bella’s mother, “The rabbi suggested that Joseph needed help with his Hebrew and cheder lessons for his Barmitzvah and put us in touch with Morah Joanne. She was kind and supportive. He studied well under her tutelage. When my daughter did her Batmitzvah it was Morah Joanne who offered to help prepare her for her special day.”

Borman said that having her children learn with Morah Joanne was the perfect choice because they didn’t have access to a cheder in Mpumalanga. “Their experience of having a Barmitzvah and Batmitzvah in unique venues in the bush will forever remain in their memories. Thanks to Morah Joanne for preparing them and affording them the chance to study online, and making this possible without having to travel through to Johannesburg each time, which was a huge cost and time saver.”

“For those simchas that I can’t travel to, I try to attend through Zoom and I get such naches watching the children succeed at something they thought impossible a few months before,” Bernstein said.

“We all suffer through loadshedding and connectivity issues, and the lessons are always difficult to begin with because we don’t have that initial connection we would have if we were there in person, but as we move on, the connection grows. The results are there.”

One of her students, Qori Singer in Rheenendal on the Garden Route, started learning with Bernstein in May 2023, and celebrated his Barmitzvah in October 2023.

“Morah Joanne was a lifeline for Qori’s Barmitzvah,” said his mother, Shireen Singer. “The fact that she could teach on Zoom was essential for us out in Rheenendal. And, she could start from scratch, which was also vital because Qori had started learning Hebrew with us only that year in preparation for his barmy, but we weren’t getting very far on our own.”

Singer said Bernstein not only taught Qori his Barmitzvah portion, “she included a lot of teaching on Yiddishkeit that we would have potentially missed out on”.

After four and a half months of intense preparation with lessons once a week, by the time of Qori’s Barmitzvah, he was more than prepared for this important threshold in a young Jewish person’s life.

“The whole Barmitzvah experience was much more than I expected,” Singer said. “I was hoping we could do something special for Qori, but we were limited out in Rheenendal. Finding the rabbi and Joanne making sure Qori was prepared and having the day at home so beautifully held together and with so many community members stepping in, was incredible. The memory of this transition for my son is something I’ll treasure.”

Said Bernstein, “I’m working with a young girl in Polokwane preparing her for her Batmitzvah in September, and since it’s close by, I’ll travel to that one. I’m excited to see her progress.”

Bernstein keeps in touch with the families she has interacted with through her teaching, and ensures them that “if there’s something Jewish that they need to deal with and don’t want to go to the rabbi, I’ll always be there”.

“It’s good to know that there are people not in the hub of Yiddishkeit that want to get a bit of knowledge and the gift of Hebrew and Torah,” she said.