It finally happened! After two long years of suffering in the Ashkenaz minyan and two years of trying to convince Rabbi Leubitz, we finally succeeded in getting our own Sephardic minyan.
In freshman year we were told, “You must stay in the freshman minyan and then next year you guys can go to the Sephardic Minyan.” So we didn’t like it but we had to deal with it.
Then in sophomore year they said that there wouldn’t be a Sephardic minyan because it had been terrible the year before. They forced us to stay in the “CAJS” minyan – the honors minyan. What could we do? We were forced to stay in various minyans because of the classes we were in.
But this year we became sick and tired of the boring Ashkenaz minyan!

This year everything started to move.
We said: You ask why we talk so much in davening and why we aren’t respectful. It is because we don’t connect with that style of prayer.
We said: Shalhevet calls its self a “Just Community.” Well, if it is a just community, why can’t we Sephardim have our own minyan?
So after meeting and meeting and meeting, Rabbi Leubitz decided to give us control of the main upperclassmen’s minyan, twice a week.
We weren’t thrilled, but hey it was definitely a start!

But that turned out to be a huge mistake.
The Ashkenazim told us what we were doing was disrespectful. They said we shouldn’t try to take over their minyan.
Also, many of the Ashkenazim had no idea what to pray and how to pray Sephardic.
As Rabbi Segal said, now the Ashkenazim could feel how it had been for the Sephardim everyday.
It was also disorganized, and it was never clear what days were to be our days to pray Sephardic, because some Ashkenazim – including, Rabbi Segal – felt it was unfair for the Sephardim to take the Minyan on both laining days. So we went from two days a week to once a week or two. Then the holidays came and we didn’t have school on some Thursdays.

Then the whole issue of the women holding the Torah came about. Because some of the Sephardim felt that the women shouldn’t carry the Torah, the two ideas were joined. That caused another set of problems.

So the rabbis finally understood that the only solution was to give the Sephardim their own minyan. After meeting and meeting in school with the Sephardim leaders – JoJo, Adam, and myself – then after school to discuss with us and the “women should hold the Torah” leaders — Leah, Aviva and Rachel Leah – Rabbi Segal finally agreed on having a minyan run by the Sephardim and Mr. Feld, which fixed all problems.
• The Sephardim could have their own minyan.
• The Torah would go straight to the table, so there would be no discrimination; girls wouldn’t carry it but neither would the boys.

Now that we have the Sephardic Minyan, it is running beautifully. We sing our Sephardic prayers and say everything out loud. We even do the blessing of the Cohanim on days when we don’t read the Torah.

Last Wednesday we had two visitors from Maimonides – Daniel Saroudi and Kian Maghzar – join us in our Sephardic minyan. It was a special treat because we even got Daniel to lead the Minyan and let him have his first Sephardic davening experience at Shalhevet.

We are currently davening in the lunchroom, but because of the great number of Sephardim in the Minyan, Mr. Feld has been able to get us a larger room that will be used just for our Minyan. According to Mr. Feld, by next week we will have a huge room downstairs near the PE room. The school has been generous enough to knock down some walls and make a big room for us.

So in conclusion, mission accomplished. We have a Sephardic minyan where we can truly connect and enjoy our daily prayers.