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Lady Gaga’s Got Nothing on Morah Sandi

She is as good as any working performer out there today.
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March 4, 2021

The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away.
— Pablo Picasso

What my mother does is magical.
— Cheryl Ibgui (Morah Sandi’s daughter)

Over 50 years ago, Sandi Reiss discovered that her passion was teaching Jewish children from ages 6 months to 2 years old. I asked her if she ever taught older kids. She joked that she does not like teaching them once they start talking back.

Sandi first worked as an assistant teacher in Brooklyn for three years. Then she moved to St. Louis and taught for two more years before moving to Los Angeles with her husband, Avrum, and their three children, Shlomo, Rena and Cheryl. After arriving in Los Angeles, Sandi worked at Yavneh Hebrew Academy, still as an assistant, for another 10 years.

Then, in the mid-1980s, Hillel Hebrew Academy asked Sandi to start her own “Mommy and Me” class, which would be the first of its kind in an Orthodox school. Sandi has been the face of that program for the last 35 years. And starting almost 30 years ago, my boys Jacob, Eli and Noah went through Sandi’s class. (In those days, I could get up off the floor after sitting cross-legged for 20 minutes.)

Sandi is now in her eighties but easily could be mistaken for a woman in her mid-sixties. She has scaled back her workload from five days a week to two. She laughed when she told me that when she asked a three-year-old boy for a kiss on the cheek, he said no because there were too many cracks in her face. When Sandi talks about kids, she gets very animated.

When I asked her to describe her job, she humbly said, “I’m really just a children’s performer. Performing for children is in my DNA. It’s never been work to me.” She is 100% right about being a performer, and she is as good as any working performer out there today.

She is as good as any working performer out there today.

However, Sandi plays to a tougher audience than almost anyone else. Most teachers only have kids in the class. In Sandi’s classes, she not only has the kids but also has the parents and sometimes even the grandparents watching. It is a tough crowd when you see the kids smiling and you do not know if it is you they are enjoying or if they are loading up a diaper.

Work does not end when the kids leave class. Once Sandi chooses a new book to read to the children, she will then go shopping at the 99 Cents Store and other such places to buy the materials necessary to make her own puppets and other toys. She uses the toys and puppets to bring the book to life by acting out the story. You might see her at the library or in used record stores, where she will sit for hours listening to songs, trying to figure out if they are right for the kids. Even today, she still plays some of the old records in her class.

Teaching the kids about the holidays, Shabbat and some daily prayer is also a big part of the class. The goal is for the kids to grow up with good values and morals, be good people and have fun.

One mother wrote, “I’m not sure who enjoys your class more, Matthew or me.” Another wrote, “I never knew I could have so much fun with my child.” Rabbi Boruch Sufrin, whom Sandi worked with for 18 years, said, “Sandi is a pure spirit, and the kids relate because they are pure spirits. Sandi is in touch with her soul.” Rabbi Steven Weil said, “She cares about the kids, but she also cares that the parents are the best they could be. Sandi helped raise two generations of Jewish children.”

When I asked Sandi, “What is most important in raising children?” she replied, “Boundaries, discipline, very little criticism and love, love, love.” To watch her in action, you never get the feeling she is ever talking down to or is frustrated with the kids. Because of the fun she can exude, you almost feel you are being led by a very competent, bigger version of a little kid.

Like many of her students, Sandi is tucked in bed by 8 PM every night. The only difference is that she rises at 2 AM to do all her housework and have her quiet time before she is off to school.

Cheryl, Sandi’s daughter, has worked alongside her mom for the last 26 years. Cheryl, also a terrific teacher, could not have had a better mentor. I asked Cheryl about working with her mother, and she said, “In all our time working together, we never had one fight. The best is watching the respect that everyone has for my mom. To know so many people look up to my mom makes me so proud.”

Sandi teaching class

To this day, Sandi and Cheryl are the only two teachers that have ever been honored at the school’s banquet. Sandi was also president of the organization that helped build The Los Angeles Mikvat Esther on Pico. She told me it took them years to raise the funds.

Sandi is retiring at the end of the 2021 school year. Because of COVID-19 and the lockdown plus her retirement, it has been an extremely hard year for her; she has not been able to do what she loves and what God put her on this earth to do: sitting, singing and playing with kids.

Sandi lights up when she sees a child doing something new. Watching a child put back a toy where it belongs might not seem like such a big deal to some people. But to Morah Sandi, a big smile comes across her face as she praises the child because she knows that child may have just taken a gigantic life leap forward.

Just like Lady Gaga cannot go anywhere without being recognized, practically the same goes for Morah Sandi. Everywhere she goes, even on vacation, odds are someone will yell, “Morah Sandi, my child was in your class and we will never forget how much we all loved it. Thank you!” It gives her family so much nachas to hear that every time.

Somebody said, “It takes a big heart to shape little minds.” That’s Morah Sandi. She is a big happy heart coupled with an infectious smile.

Teachers like Sandi do not come around that often. If you had her, be grateful for this opportunity.


Mark Schiff is a comedian, actor and writer.

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