On STage Shaah Tovah 2010

On Stage

Debbie Shapiro interviews Leora Adam

I met Leora at a women's getaway in a beautiful hotel on the shores of the Kinneret. We hit it off immediately, but then again, Leora's the type of person who hits if off with everyone. Full of energy, humor and a palpable joy in living, she imparts her simchas chaim to the people around her.

The last night of our getaway, Leora taught us a game in which we tapped into our innate creativity to create one minute impromptu skits. I was amazed at her ability to get even the shyest amongst us to overcome their inhibitions and act! This was one person that I wanted to get to know, and being a writer, I had the perfect excuse. But words, as compelling as they may be, cannot convey the sheer energy and commitment of speaking to Leora in person!

Leora: Although I was born and raised in Toronto, Canada, I always felt deeply connected to Eretz Yisrael. My mother's Israeli and my father came to Israel to fight in the War of Independence. After helping to win the war, he returned to Canada until 1956, when he came back to Israel to work for a company that was drilling for oil. Although the company he was working for did not find oil, my father found something much more precious – his life partner, as he was often quoted as saying, "Instead of finding oil, I found gold, my wife Shoshana!" When my parents married, my father was thirty seven, my mother twenty.

Our home was very Jewish, although not religious. I grew up with a tremendous pride in my heritage, which ultimately bore fruit – eventually me and my two siblings became Orthodox.

I was always extremely creative. I loved – and still love! – people, all kinds of people. Socially, I was very popular. I had many different types of friends, including a few very close ones. I'm a real people-person, I see the beauty in diversity and values differences.

I always enjoyed the performing arts and wanted to pursue it further. In my senior year of high school I applied for and was accepted into the York University theater performance program, which was a very difficult program to get into. But since I graduated high school in December and the program didn't start until the following September, I took advantage of the break and traveled to Israel for seven months.

My father suddenly passed away while I was vacationing in the Sinai. In those pre-cell phone days there was no way for anyone  to contact me. So I didn't find out about it until eight days after the funeral when I came back from the Sinai and touched base with my aunt in Tel Aviv. At that point I wanted to return to Canada, but my mother pointed out that I had already missed the funeral and the shiva and that everyone was returning to normal life. So I remained in Israel until I was scheduled to return home.

Upon returning to Toronto, I studied at York University's theater performance program. I really enjoyed the classes. They were challenging and sparked my creativity. But emotionally, I was in a lot of pain from the sudden loss of my father. I was real and searching for emes, yet I did not have the tools to deal with my emotions. My neshama was thirsting for something, but I had not yet learned how to quench that thirst.

It wasn't as though I was a stranger to Yiddishkeit -- my brother had already become frum and I had religious family in Israel – yet it had nothing to do with me. I enjoyed meeting people different than me. Hashem was nudging me, but I didn't catch it. I didn't realize that Torah belonged to me, that it was my eternal inheritance.

My life was busy and fulfilling. After university I traveled to Europe and Israel. Of course I spent time with my religious relatives, but they were who they were, and I was who I was. Back in Canada I found many interesting jobs where I was given the opportunity to do those things I'm best at -- work with people and tap into my creative talents.

People often think that the majority of baalei teshuva were not successful in their secular lives. But I, like so many others, was. I was (and still am) very genuine and sincere, the type of person that people naturally confide in and turn to for advice. I had studied in university and found challenging and exciting work. My life was about living for the moment, and I was enjoying what I was doing, yet my soul craved something much deeper.

At age twenty-six, a car accident brought everything to a sudden standstill. While at home, recovering, friends convinced me to attend a class in Toronto's Aish Hatorah. The classes literally spoke to my neshama; I realized that there was a huge part of me that I had not yet explored and started looking into my Jewish roots. 

My growth was slow and gradual -- no amazing leaps of faith, just real deep-down commitment. Once I was shomer Shabbos, Aish Hatorah Toronto hired me as their administrative assistant. It was a bit ironic – I was not yet completely religious yet I was working hard to help other people become frum!

Two years later, at age twenty eight, I came to Israel to study at a baalas teshuva seminary. I started dating after just half a year. That was a bit mistake. I should have waited until I had some real learning under my belt.  Today, I always tell the girls who come to us for Shabbos that they should never underestimate the importance of their seminary years, the more they take advantage of those years, the more they will have to give to their future families.

But that's hindsight, the voice of experience. I got married much too early in the game and it was a disaster. Our marriage lasted fifteen horrible months. The one beautiful thing that I got out of it is my son. When we got divorced, he was just six months old.

After the divorce many people came over to me and said, "Well, I guess now that the marriage is over, you're returning to Toronto." But I really felt that Israel was my home and I was determined to stay.   And besides, my mother had moved back to Tel Aviv, so my family was here to support me. I also had wonderful friends who reached out to me and helped in me in many, many ways. I don't know where I would be today without them.

Debbie: There's a saying in Hebrew that roughly translated goes something like this, "Better a good neighbor than a faraway sister." During the years that I was busy raising my family, my neighbors and friends became my support system, and they were there to help me through some very difficult times. They were the ones I ran to when I had to race to the emergency room with a sick kid and needed someone to watch my other children. They were the ones who brought my family delicious home cooked meals when I was stuck in bed for two months and unable to do any housework. During the years that I was a single mother, they were the ones who brought my sons to shul, who made sure that they received a torch at the neighborhood haknassas Torah, who lifted them on their shoulders during the hakafos on Simchas Torah. Without them, I would have never made it!

Leora: I was single for five years. During that time I worked very, very hard to support myself and my son. Baruch Hashem I was never ashamed of hard work or of accepting help if I wasn't able to manage. I became a cook at a girls' seminary, taught drama classes and worked for a well known herbal expert organizing courses in the use of herbs, as well as taking on many other small jobs to be able to continue living in Israel. Then I started narrating and directing the very popular Hashomrot Shmiras HaLashon story tapes. That was a real fun job – I auditioned the girls and then worked together with them to produce a professional product. Everything in the tapes – the melodies, the lyrics, the storyline – is completely original. Hundreds of thousands of tapes were sold throughout the world, and today we're in the process of producing our eleventh tape.

Ten years ago I was privileged to have my own show on Radio West, which used to be the only all-English radio station in Israel. Called Staying Alive with Leora Adam, in the show I interviewed different natural health practitioners and professionals. I absolutely loved the job. The first time I was on the air people couldn't believe I had never done it before!

When my son was five, I was zocheh to meet my future husband. Although my husband, Eliezer, was born in America, his family made aliya when he was a small child and he grew up in Israel. When we got married, my husband had four children and I had one. Eventually we had another three together. When I was expecting our youngest we realized that we couldn't continue renting and purchased our own apartment in Ramat Beit Shemesh.

Debbie: Until some twenty or so years ago, Beit Shemesh was a hick town with a negligible religious community and almost no English speakers.  When the first frum neighborhood, Nachalah Umenucha, commonly known as the Kiryah, was being built, very few people were willing to consider living so far away from Jerusalem, and they  almost had to beg families to move there.  Today, Beit Shemesh has become an Orthodox center, with several religious neighborhoods catering to different communities. Ramat Beit Shemesh has a large English speaking contingent and English is the language that one most often hears spoken on the street there

Leora: Here in Ramat Beit Shemesh I am privileged to be able to use my G-d given creative skills to enrich the community. In addition to teaching drama classes for children, I've directed several major plays, with between fifty to eighty actors in the casts! The last play was a frum operetta. It was very challenging to portray character through song and dance!

One of the most important parts of directing a play is to fit the actresses to their parts, to make sure that the part fits the person's personality, that there's something within her that will bring out the character. Hashem has given me the skills to be able to put people in the right roles where not only will they enrich themselves, they will enrich the audience through the character they are portraying.

Debbie I attended Leora's most recent play, "Circle of Faith" in which some of the actresses played the part of the Israeli women in the Midbar, while another group played the part of the "eiruv rav," a group of colorful women who had a grand ol' time partying and living it up, while pining for the good ol' days in Egypt. When I asked Leora in which group she'd put me, she responded, "The eiruv rav, of course!" And she was so right! I have a streak of mischief in me, and yearn for kosher opportunities to express it!

Leora: Five years ago a friend and I opened up an English speaking American style Bais Yaakov day camp in Ramat Beit Shemesh. The girls have tons of clean, healthy – and creative – fun, doing such things as swimming, various sports, arts and crafts, baking, volunteering at a food kitchen, and going on camping trips -- all in a warm, tzniusdik environment. At the end of the summer the girls chose between drama, dance or song to work together put on a variety show for the community. During the last few days of camp all the girls -- from the first graders to the teenagers -- join forces to create something much greater than themselves.  It's incredible what a few days of practice can do when working as a team.

Going to camp does something for the girls. The atmosphere at our camp is infused with warmth and love. Each girl knows that she is special and unique. It creates memories for life. Not everyone is successful in school, but at camp they are accepted for who they are and are able to grow in ways that they never dreamed of. Last summer, one of the girls told me, "When I'm at camp, I like myself." Hopefully, she'll be able to tap into that positive feeling during the other eleven months of the year.

It's a real privilege to work with the future generation and celebrate their unique personalities. I strongly believe that we must develop our children's talents and guide them to use them properly, as a Kiddush Hashem to inspire others as well as to have healthy, kosher fun.

I recently turned fifty. At my birthday party, the hostess – who happens to be my closest friend -- gave each of the participants a candle. She told the women that since my name, Leorah – li orah – means "light to me" she would like each of the women to tell me how I had succeeded in lighting up her life. Meanwhile, she lit one candle, and as the women told me how I had made a difference to them, they lit their individual candle until the entire room was like one giant candelabra. 

It was very moving to see how I have impacted other women. That's really what keeps me going. We women are amazing, what we give to each other is so real and strengthening. I feel privileged to help Jewish women find their voice and learn how to express it.

I hope that I will have many more years to connect with all the wonderful women out there, to help them grow and learn from them, until 120 years, b'ezras Hashem.