Emphasis on Education Propels St. Louis Chassidic Woman Into the Public Eye
From Chabad.org by Reuvena Leah Grodnitzky:
As testament to 35 years of service to the Jewish community of St. Louis,Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Shiffy Landa was honored last week with the Jewish Professionals of St. Louis (JProStl) Career Achievement Award. The award is presented to an experienced professional—Landa is co-director of Chabad of Greater St. Louis, and Judaic-studies coordinator and a teacher at the Epstein Hebrew Academy in the city—who has consistently demonstrated exceptional dedication and effectiveness throughout her career.
“It has been an honor and a pleasure to see the growth of Chabad and its far-reaching impact,” said Marci Eisen, director of the Millstone Institute, a division of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis and the organization that commissioned the award. “Individually, the Landas are amazing educators and role models, and collectively, I’ve seen firsthand the impact of Chabad on so many Jewish lives. The relationship between Chabad and Federation in St. Louis is a model for all other cities.”
Rabbi Yosef and Shiffy Landa (and their 3-month-old twins) arrived in St. Louis in October 1981, when the couple opened a Chabad center and established a Jewish summer camp, Gan Israel, that summer. Soon afterwards, local schools and organizations were coming to Shiffy Landa with teaching offers.
From the beginning, the Landas sought to work with other organizations in the local Jewish community to strengthen the foundations of what already existed. One of their very first programs was a “ModelMatzah Bakery” workshop that took place at the St. Louis Jewish Community Center.
Eisen, who moved to St. Louis the same year as the Landas to fill a leadership role at the community center, worked with them on that first matzah bakery event back in 1981.
“We received a warm welcome when we arrived, and it has stayed that way ever since,” attests Shiffy Landa.
The fact that her award was granted by JProStl—an initiative of the Jewish Federation of St. Louis—at its annual luncheon on Jan. 28 represents a tribute to that relationship.
Three other emissary families have since joined the Landas in the Greater St. Louis area, helping to expand Chabad’s reach even more.
New Building, Growing Influence
In addition to teaching in the local school, Landa focuses on teaching women about marriage, mikvah, Tanya and general Torah studies. She also hosts mother-daughter programs, a weekly women’s luncheon called “Torah Sisters,” the monthly “Loaves of Love” challah program (started by Chana’la Rubenfeld, co-director of Chabad of Chesterfield in Missouri) and Rosh Chodesh Society classes, in addition to Shabbat and holiday meals, prayer services and guest speakers.
All of this will soon be able to operate in more ample space.
The community has just finished renovating the Morris & Ann Lazaroff Chabad Center, which is set to open in a few weeks. The new entity includes a synagogue, event hall, conference room, classrooms and offices. An additional asset was acquiring the property next door to accommodate parking for 150 guests.
As for Landa’s sentiments on contemporary education, she says that “as an effective Jewish educator, it’s not sufficient to find interesting ways of imparting information. It’s about establishing a strong personal connection with every student, personalizing the learning through tapping into the individual learning styles of each child. That’s when a teacher has the greatest impact and can influence the lives of their students.
“The classroom has to be about experiential learning,” emphasizes Landa, “a place where the teachings of the Torah come alive, and the students can relate to what they are studying in fun and meaningful ways.”
Landa emphasizes that the award is not her own. Rather, it’s the natural consequence of a meeting she and her husband had with the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—before they were married. At the end of the encounter, the Rebbe blessed the young bride, saying she should “use her talents for education and all good things.”
Landa says “this was an incredibly powerful message. I knew as a result that I wouldn’t need to explore what my mission in life would be. It became clear that education would be the focus, and I have been surrounded by education ever since. Every kind of influence or talent that I have in education all comes from that blessing I received from the Rebbe before we were married.”
