About Us
My name is Sara Stave Beckerman. I am the creator and owner of Sababa Books. Since 2008, I have grown Sababa Books to be a source of creative curriculum for thoughtful educators looking to inspire their students with new and awesome experiences during prayer. Here is the story of Siddur Sababa...
SIDDUR SABABA was first created in 2005 in black and white bound photocopies to be used in a small classroom minyan in a Conservative day school.
In 2006, 50 copies were printed in a hard cover format with clip art illustrations.
After a year of development, creation of new art with illustrator Sheryl Jaffe, photographs and a Teachers' Guide, it was originally released in its current format in the Winter of 2008.
Since then, Siddur Sababa has been used in over 15 schools, camps and synagogues to teach weekday Shaharit.
I formed Sababa Books, my own small business, selling these books and offering services as a curriculum consultant.
In 2012, we partnered with an Orthodox Community day school in Florida to change some wording and about 6 pages to create the Orthodox version.
In 2014, Siddur Sababa Sheli, a version of Siddur Sababa for grades 1-3 in partnership with Jodi Hirsch Rein, was released. The Teachers' Guide for this version is still in development.
In 2020, Siddur Sababa entered the digital world on slideshows for Zoom tfillah during the Covid-19 Spring Semester.
Siddur Sababa has three main goals:
1- Students will learn the meaning of the prayers and the structure of Shacharit
2- Students will be given an outlet for attaching personal meaning to the prayers and expressing amazement at God's hand in the Creation of the world around us.
3- Students will see the connection between Jewish prayer and peoples' role in partnering with God in fixing the world (tikkun olam)
SARA STAVE BECKERMAN is the writer and editor of Siddur Sababa and Siddur Sababa Sheli. She is a teacher of Humash, Mishnah, Gemara, Jewish History and Tefillah at the Schechter School of Long Island. Sara enjoys teaching Tefillah in both large and small minyanim and adding iyun tefillah into daily Shaharit services. She has also served as RoshTefillah and Rosh Hinukh at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires. Sara graduated from the Davidson School of Jewish Education at the Jewish Theological Seminary with an MA in Jewish Studies. Her Masters Thesis was the creation of a Middle School Tefillah curriculum for use in a camp setting. Sara seeks to provide a framework for students to make personal connections to the traditional prayers each day that they open the Siddur.
JODI HIRSCH REIN is the co-author and editor of Siddur Sababa Sheli. She has been working in a day school setting for many years and truly enjoys teaching Tefillah and talking about God with children. Jodi was a DeLeT Fellow (Day School Leadership through Teaching) earning her MAT in Jewish Education at Brandeis University. Jodi received her BA from Columbia University and The Jewish Theological Seminary. Jodi hopes that this siddur will inspire young minds to deepen their understanding of daily Tefillot in order to connect the prayers to their daily lives.
About the Illustrator:
SHERYL JAFFE is the illustrator for Siddur Sababa and Siddur Sababa Sheli. As an artist and clinical social worker, Sheryl's interests include social justice, health equity, and creative arts. Sheryl earned graduate degrees in social work from Smith College and art therapy from George Washington University. As an advocate of torah l’shma, Sheryl studied at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies and enjoys studying at a community beit midrash. A veteran Ramahnik, Sheryl’s goal is to sustain learners' curiosity through engagement.