Meaningful learning and artistic adventure.

Carefully crafted by our Director of Family Education Shira Kline along with our talented Teaching Artists and Advisory Circle, Lab/Jr. is experiential education at its best.

With Lab/Shul’s unique God-optional approach to tradition, text, and story, all families are welcome! We are a community of those who identify as Jewish, Jew-ish, and everything in between. We design our children’s gatherings to include soulful prayers for the young at heart, interactive theatre and storytelling, and thoughtful age-appropriate learning.

**All participating children must be registered for the High Holy days to attend our High Holy day programming. Registration entitles children and parents entrance to BOTH the main ritual programming as well as the children’s programming in the outdoor tents.**

Let’s begin a better year – for all.
All ages. All faiths. All welcome.

Reserve your spot

Lab/Jr. Programs

Filled with imaginative play, movement and music, our creative kids’ laboratory is inspired by this year’s theme, L’Negdi Tamid: Face to Face, Forever/Now. According to three anchor principles of the Days of Awe, We will artfully explore these ways to be Face to Face –

Tefilah: Me to Me
Teshuvah: Me to You
Tzedakah: Me to We

  • PlayLab (entering Preschool – 2nd grade)
    Jump along, sing along, and art along in our stupendous PlayLab led by children’s theatre artist Meghan Grover, along with Maria Lemire as featured in NPR’s “Teaching in the Pandemic,” and FamilyLab veteran Stephanie Guedalia. Dive into gatherings of Creation and Storah of the highest heart.

    *Toddlers and infants 0-4 with an accompanying adult are invited to join us at any time for PlayLab activities.
    *5, 6, 7 year olds are welcome to be dropped off and picked up by their grown up at the end of the day

  • KidLab (entering 3rd through 5th grades) invites our older elementary age children into a playful, multi-sensory, and creative morning. KidLab invites expressive imagination and empathy to connect deeply to self, others, and the world at large. Led by writer and choreographer Max Goldner and seasoned Judaics teacher Laura Thein along with multimedia performance artist Keb Barshack.

  • TweenLab (entering 6th, 7th, and 8th grades + Raising the Bar cohorts 12 & 13) Lab/Shul artist and educator Melissa Shaw and Raising the Bar’s Stephanie Kane lead a session designed for inquiry and creativity. TweenLab will visit the main sanctuary to join Storahtelling: Torah Ritual Theater.

Please pack for your children, labeled with your child’s name:

  • 2 Nut-free Snacks
  • Water bottle
  • Blanket or cushion (the floor of our garden is astroturf!)

Lab/Jr. SCHEDULE

ROSH HASHANAH DAY // Thursday, October 3

Time Event Name Location
9:00am – 9:45am

Warm hearted and musical family-friendly ritual with Shira Kline. All ages welcome.

Tuning in from out of town? Begin the new year in your pajamas on zoom with us!

 In Person in the Lab/Jr. Tent
& On Zoom
9:45am – 12:30pm

Lab/Jr. Programming:
-PlayLab
-KidLab
-TweenLab

 In Person in the Lab/Jr. Tent
11:00am(ish)*

Storahtelling: Torah Ritual Theater for Rosh Hashanah

 In Person & Live Streamed
12:00pm(ish)*

Shofar

 In Person & Live Streamed
1:00pm – 1:30pm

Kiddush: Hugs & Honey, Challah & Wine

 In Person
1:30pm-2:30pm

Tashlich Ritual at the River

 In Person

*Estimated times, give or take a tear or two.

YOM KIPPUR DAY // Saturday, October 12

Time Event Name Location
9:00am – 9:45am

Warm hearted and musical family-friendly ritual with Shira Kline. All ages welcome.

Tuning in from out of town? Begin the new year in your pajamas on zoom with us!

 In Person in the Lab/Jr. Tent
& On Zoom
9:45am – 1:00pm

Lab/Jr. Programming:
-PlayLab
-KidLab
-TweenLab

 In Person in the Lab/Jr. Tent
11:00am(ish)*

Storahtelling: Torah Ritual Theater for Yom Kippur

 In Person & Live Streamed

*Estimated times, give or take a tear or two.

Lab/Jr. Educators

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

Stephanie Kane

Stephanie Kane (she/her) is a professional theatre artist and educator, and is so excited to be joining the Lab/Shul team full time as the Raising the Bar Coordinator. As a Jewish educator and eternal camp counselor, she has worked with kids of all ages and abilities at Camp Ramah in California, JCC Pittsburgh, and most recently as a trainer here at Lab/Shul. Her theatrical homes past and present include Center Theatre Group, the Williamstown Theatre Festival, Santa Cruz Shakespeare, The Public Theater, and The Workshop Theater. Stephanie holds a BFA in Drama from Carnegie Mellon University and currently lives in Brooklyn on sovereign Lenape land, although she was born and raised in Los Angeles, a fact that shocks people because she’s pale, walks fast, and hates the beach.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

Keb Barshack

Keb Barshack (he/him) is a queer, multiracial, New York-based, multimedia performance artist and spiritual leader. Born and raised in California, Keb grew up at URJ Camp Newman where he has served as Head Songleader for the last two years. As a camper, staff member, and part of the leadership team, his spiritual identity and leadership flourished. His years at camp inspired a love of Jewish learning and teaching, alternative prayer experiences, and mentoring future partners in song. He is currently earning a BA in Contemporary Dance with a secondary focus in Religious Studies at The New School in New York City. He is beyond excited to expand his Jewish communities and learning at Lab/Shul

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

Meghan Grover

Meghan (she/they) is thrilled to join Lab/Shul again where we get to co-create immersive, multisensory experience for young people to express themselves, learn from each other, and connect to the power of the high holidays. Meghan loves theater– whether it’s devising theater with young people, making process dramas, creating immersive theater, or clowning around! Their work as a theater-maker includes Hook & Eye Theater Company, Brooklyn Free School, Flying Leap Productions, Bluelaces, to name a few. Meghan graduated from the Guthrie Theater BFA Actor Training Program and the MA Applied Theatre Program at CUNY.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

Max Goldner

Max Goldner is a writer, curator, educator, choreographer, and designer based in Brooklyn. His practice examines ways of decolonizing and expanding Jewish memory through the built environment, archives, curatorial practices, and performance. He recently completed a Master of Architecture and M.S. in Critical, Curatorial, and Conceptual Practices from Columbia GSAPP, where he was a Dean’s Scholar recipient and awarded honors for his outstanding thesis “Shooting and Crying: Constructions and Translations of (Para-)Jewish Subjecthood.”

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

Kohenet Serakh

Kohenet Serakh aka Stephanie “Steve” Guedalia (she/they) is a Hebrew Priestess, ordained through the Kohenet Hebrew Priestess Institute. Kohenet Serakh is a Queer, Sephardic Educator. She is an activist, an interdisciplinary Artist, a Feminist, and Sin Positive Liberation Theologist. She is also a storyteller of our shared dream that is sacred mythology. Kohenet Serakh is a wisdom seeker who guides others in their seeking of wisdom.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

Maria Serach Lemire

Maria Serach Lemire is a teacher and artist with a wealth of experience in early childhood, special education, Judaic programming, and labor relations. Over the last six years, they have proudly served the families and children of the 14th Street Y and Lab/Shul as well as the private, public, and religious schools of New York City. With degrees from NYU and Hunter College, Maria integrates inclusion, the arts, and literacy into their child-centered pedagogy.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

Melissa Shaw

Melissa Shaw is a facilitator and educator who offers a unique consultancy based in social justice, equity, diversity and inclusion, social emotional learning and the arts.  She has facilitated for school districts, school boards, universities, theaters, congregations, summer camps, detention centers, yeshivas, corporate offices, and long-term temporary housing centers. She has led workshops for Israelis and Palestinians, tech professionals, Rabbis, Imams, security guards, chaplains, non-profit managers, video game designers, Buddhist monks, school principals, NGO leaders, and the NYPD. Melissa facilitates a variety of anti-bias, anti-oppression, and anti-racist programs for the New Jersey State Bar Foundation, Building Cultures Group, the Anti-Defamation League, Powerful Communications, and Avodah. She has been a Teaching Artist and Creative Coach for various community-based organizations, including Community Word Project, Brooklyn Arts Council, Energize Your Voice, and the Lulu and Leo Fund. She is the Arts and Communication Advisor for the Muslim-Jewish Solidarity Committee and was part of the 2019 Nahum Goldmann Fellowship cohort and a member of the 2022 Leadership Seminar cohort. Melissa is an experiential Jewish educator and peacebuilder who has brought dialogue and listening practices through a ‘Jewish lens’ to Jewish organizations such as Hebrew Union College,  Lab/Shul, the Foundation for Jewish Camp, UJA, Temple Ner Tamid, and more. She is a certified Ethno-Religious mediator, Restorative Justice practitioner and Interfaith Minister. She was recently EDI coordinator for the Tony Award-winning Broadway production of The Sign in Sidney Brustein’s Window. Melissa holds an M.F.A. from Sarah Lawrence College.

Rabbi Amichai Lau-Lavie

Laura Marder Thien

I am a Renewal Rabbinic student with the Aleph Ordination program. Recently, I started a business, Living Torah LLC, where I officiate and prepare people for all types of lifecycles and rituals. I am also the spiritual director of Beloved Brooklyn. I worked for 8 years as a middle school Judaics teacher at Hannah Senesh Community Day school in Brooklyn. My passion is Jewish mindfulness for all ages and helping create spaces where our tradition gives us language, connection and support to deepen our lives.

High Holy Days 5785/2024