No Crime To Rhyme

Mark Samowitz, a.k.a. Shooby Doob Shloimy, who calls himself "the fun and funky mitzvah kid," took the stage at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community Day School recently, casting 45 students from the lower school in his holiday musical production.

Dancing in rhythm, singing in tune, this group of students — which Mr. Samowitz said was the largest group of kids ever in one show — enthusiastically performed in his original musical show, which espoused Jewish mitzvot in a participatory manner.

As part of the show, during a final rehearsal, Shooby Doob asked the students on stage to tell him about a mitzvot. When called upon, first-grader Jasmine Hariri walked up to Shooby and immediately said, "Honoring your mother and father."

The program, which featured a combination of values and original Chanukah tunes, written by Mr. Samowitz, with lyrics by his partner, Helen Heldenmuth, a South African educator and producer of Jewish stage and television, is designed to inspire children by Judaism.
"The focus of the show is to treat other people as they wish to be treated," said Mr. Samowitz, adding that students should appreciate their gifts and talents all within a Jewish framework.

There are four Shooby Doob original productions. In addition to the Chanukah program, these include a Passover program, Shabbat program and values-based program. Mr. Samowitz, who was a cantor in South Africa, has brought his show throughout that country, as well as to Australia, and most recently, nine cities in the United States. At each site, interested students join the cast, and Mr. Samowitz spends one week rehearsing with them and teaching them the Torah concepts through his music.

As the Beth Tfiloh students continued to belt out the tuneful lyrics, fourth-grader Dana Goldenberg summed up the performance best. "It helped us think about the mitzvot. I already knew them, but it gave us more focus," she said.





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