For the longest time I don't think my parents really paid attention to what I do for a living — making animated cartoons, music and videos for Jewish non-profit organizations.  It wasn't until 2009 when I started writing for Shalom Sesame, a coproduction of Sesame Street for Jewish American children, that my mom expressed much interest in the livelihood of her eldest child.  "You tell GROVER what to say?" she perked up when I described my first writing assignment.  "You grew up listening to Grover!"  It's true, Grover and all of Sesame Street were my babysitters for my entire babyhood.  And now I'M calling the shots.  Literally.

Upon discovering some of my educational Jewish content online — including a few cartoons and videos I produced for the Schusterman-funded Taglit-Birthright Israel program — Sesame Workshop invited me to audition to write for Shalom Sesame, a remake of a popular video series for Jewish American children, based on the cast of Rechov Sumsum, the Israeli version of Sesame Street.  Soon after, I was hired as one of four writers for the new Shalom Sesame production, episodes currently being released one at a time on DVD.

My recent involvement with writing educational content for Jewish children has been one of the most fun and rewarding experiences of my life, ranking up there with ROI!  In January 2011 I had the opportunity to share my experience with Limmud NY conference goers, in a session I led called "Introducing Shalom Sesame!"  The audience, consisting of mostly adults and parents, were treated to a sneak preview of the as-of-yet unreleased Purim episode (one of the studio scripts I wrote), followed by a behind-the-scenes discussion about the production, and reflection on how my involvement with Jewish education has sculpted my own Jewish identity.

Feedback for the show and my presentation was unanimously positive, and the questions for my Q&A were very thoughtful.  While I was able to answer most, I didn't have answers for three very good questions.  I promised my audience I would ask the producers at Sesame Workshop, so I'd like to share the answers to those curveball questions now:

Q: How can Shalom Sesame receive federal funding if it is a show that teaches religion?
A: The show doesn't teach religion or religious practice.  Shalom Sesame is more of a lesson in Jewish and Israeli customs and culture.  In fact, no ritual prayers or blessings are taught — they are presented in the context of learning about a Jewish tradition.

Q: How did Shalom Sesame get big name celebrities involved, especially the non-Jewish ones?
A: We got lucky with some celebrities who just happened to be working on the set at Sesame Street and agreed to shoot quick bits for Shalom Sesame while they were in the studio.  And some celebrity bits were actually shot for Sesame Street and repurposed for use in Shalom Sesame.

Q: How can I volunteer to work for Shalom Sesame?
A: The Shalom Sesame DVD series is complete, so there are currently no production positions available, volunteer, consultant or otherwise.  If you are an educator and would like to use Shalom Sesame as a resource in your school, you can contact Sesame Workshop to obtain supplemental materials to use in your classroom in conjunction with the DVDs and ShalomSesame.org website.

Links to samples of my work for Shalom Sesame can be found here:
http://macboy.com/portfolio/#shalomsesame

William Levin received an ROI Speakers' Bureau Grant to present at Limmud NY 2011.