[COMMUNICATED CONTENT] 

This past summer, eight mechanchos from across the spectrum of girls’ high schools in Los Angeles sat around Mrs. Debbie Fox’s dining room table. They wanted to answer one question: How could we help ensure that girls experienced a safe, healthy, and satisfying year in seminary?

As the evening unfolded, humorous, touching, and meaningful stories of each woman’s seminary years rose to the surface. By the end of the night, however, every woman present had also disclosed a disturbing or uncomfortable incident that occurred during her time in seminary. The next morning, Debbie Fox—a renowned safety pioneer and children’s advocate—e-mailed a dear friend, a rebbetzin, about the initiative. The rebbetzin replied, “The memories of my experience on a Jerusalem bus still haunt me today.” Thus the idea for Seminary Savvy was born.

Seminary Savvy: Every Girl’s Guide to a Successful, Safe, and Satisfying Experience in Seminary—and Beyond is a groundbreaking guidebook for seminary girls and their parents. Written by veteran social worker Debbie Fox, LCSW, with popular journalist Michal Eisikowitz, the long-awaited book candidly covers critical topics like staying safe on the go, relating to men appropriately, maintaining proper nutrition and self-care, establishing healthy boundaries with friends, teachers, newlywed siblings, and chesed families, and dealing with inappropriate touch. For maximum efficacy, the guide features a slew of humorous cartoons, dozens of real-life stories, and fresh, crisp text—skillfully crafted to engage teen readers.

“I believe girls learn from stories rather than text,” says Debbie Fox. “We chose to use as many real vignettes—and as specific as possible—to really clarify the challenges, while not compromising on a respectful, appropriate tone.”

Principal of Prospect Park Bnos Leah High School Mrs. Zlata Press felt the book indeed achieved an elusive balance: “While the book is written in an easy, appealing style, it never compromises the kedushah and kavod habrios with which sensitive subjects must be presented,” she wrote. “I recommend this book without reservation for our seniors…a real contribution to chinuch habanos.”

Seminary Savvy features dozens of approbations from rabbanim, educators, and mental health professionals—all of whom carefully reviewed and critiqued the manuscript. In bookstores for only two weeks to date, it has been embraced by principals and parents representing numerous, diverse hues of Orthodox Jewry.

“Seminary Savvy should be mandatory reading for every young woman attending seminary—and her parents,” Rabbi Abraham J. Twerski, M.D., wrote in his approbation. “There are so many things that both parents and young women do not consider, and unfortunately, the awareness may come only as a result of an adverse occurrence. Sometimes the effects of the latter cannot be undone. In this case, an ounce of prevention is worth more than tons of cure.”

Rav Sholom Kamenetsky noted that the book will empower girls to have an aliyah in Eretz Yisrael in every sense of the word. “This guide will be extremely beneficial, helping girls gain the most from their time in Eretz Yisrael,” he wrote in his haskamah.

In response to requests from parents, Mrs. Debbie Fox has begun training a team of Seminary Savvy educators to present targeted, interactive seminary workshops for girls and parents as a complement to the book. To date, the workshop has already been presented to the community at large in Toronto, Detroit, and in the near future, Baltimore (June 11).

Significantly, Mrs. Fox points out that the principles stressed in Seminary Savvy are applicable far beyond seminary.

“Before finalizing the book, one of the rabbanim who reviewed it in great detail told me he’d be willing to write an approbation—on condition that we change the title,” she relates. “For a few seconds, I was afraid he didn’t like the word ‘savvy,’ which I thought really spoke to the girls. But that wasn’t his intent at all. His condition: we needed to add the word ‘beyond.’”

“Girls shouldn’t feel the ideas here only apply to seminary,” he said. “They apply to life.”

For her part, Mrs. Fox is gratified by the communal response to the book and its accompanying workshop. “I applaud our community for recognizing the need and promoting efforts to empower our girls. The seminary year is a great one—and by giving our girls tools, we can keep a great year great.”

Click here to buy the book

Click here to download a free sample

Click here to view approbations

For group discounts, call Menucha Publishers: 718-232-0856

For more information on workshops, visit www.seminarysavvy.org, email [email protected], or call (866) 762-0101.