This article appeared in the Dec. 14, 2012 Jewish Advocate

Helping others get into the swim

Newton boy collects funds and equipment for Karishim Club

by Susie Davidson

Special to the Advocate

“This year I am preparing to become a Bar Mitzvah,” wrote Kuba Wolf in a letter to the Advocate last month. “I would like to give back to the sport that has changed me forever.”

The Newton 12-year-old, a member of the Karishim Swim Club, can be found exercising his passion in the Leventhal-Sidman JCC pool five days a week, for an hour and a quarter each time. “I don’t do any other sports,” he explained later, by phone. Not even Wii? “I used to play soccer, but really, I just swim a lot,” he said. He explained that when he was four, he took lessons for the first time at a pool in Gorlice, Poland, where his relatives live. “It was obvious to us that he enjoyed swimming a lot,” recalled his mother, Krystyna Orlewska. Upon the family’s return, Kuba took lessons at the JCC, and for a couple of summers, swam at the local school day camp. He joined Karishim at age seven. “The progression to the team and competitive swimming was a natural extension,” said Orlewska.

“Kuba is a nickname in Polish for Jacob,” she explained. “We wanted to call our son Kuba, and that is why his official name is Jacob.” She said that he has developed a deep understanding of Judaism at JCDS, Boston's　Jewish Community Day School in Watertown, where he is a 7^th-grader.

Five years ago, Karishim was invited to a swim meet at Madison Park High School in Roxbury run by Nadine Jesionek, who happened to be the mother of Kuba's previous coach at the JCC. “Our swimmers enjoyed the meet, and we made new friendships,” said Orlewska. Jesionek is the Chair of the New England Swimming Inclusion Committee, a subgroup of New England Swimming, Inc., a Needham-based, Eastern Zone swimming committee of USA Swimming (the national governing body for swimming). The Inclusion Committee, which is also a member of the national swimming organization Diversity in Aquatics, seeks to accommodate swimmers with physical/hearing/visual and mental/cognitive impairments.

According to Jesionek, the committee also strives to include underrepresented youth. “The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said that drowning is the second leading cause of death among all children under the age of 14,” she said from her home in Roslindale. “And among minorities, the drowning rate is 70 percent higher than for Caucasion kids,” she added. Indeed, a 2007 study posted in a CDC Feature Report on Drowning Risks corroborates these figures, going on to state that drowning is the fifth leading cause of death for people of all ages. In light of these statistics, the Roxbury Boys and Girls Clubs therefore mandates swimming lessons for its members. She said that the Committees also strives to include disabled swimmers. “One swimmer has to wear a feeding bag and is underdeveloped,” she said, noting that swimming is good for ADHD, which affects Olympian swimmer Michael Phelps.

Jesionek invited Orlewska to join the Inclusion Committee. “I thought it was a very honorable cause, helping to both prevent drowning and create friendships between communities and swimmers from all faiths, ethnicities and socio-economic groups,” said Orlewska. “All of that, involved within the sport and discipline of swimming, appealed to me.”

In his letter to the Advocate, her son detailed the importance of swimming in his life. “It has helped me to be more focused in my schoolwork and schedule my time wisely,” he wrote. “I have [also] learned how to choose the right foods to keep myself healthy and physically fit. Swimming has made me aware of water safety and knowing how to swim allows me to safely participate in water-related activities.”

When Kuba was little, Jesionek’s son Brandon would add music to his coaching at the JCC. “Kuba's parents came to a 2010 March Madness meet at Madison, and Kuba was in his own little world with the music,” she said. “I imagine he was thinking, ‘what is all the hoopla about, and why isn't everybody else offered the same opportunity that I have with swimming?’” Jesionek and her son, who are African Americans, were touched. “Many ethnic boundaries were crossed at the event - the inhibitions were not there,” she said.

It was a natural for the perceptive boy to address this discrepancy for his Bar Mitzvah project. “As part of this effort to help heal the world, I have decided to work with the Inclusion Committee, because it helps underrepresented and disadvantaged children get involved with swimming,” he wrote to the Advocate.

Kuba wrote a similar letter to the Inclusion Committee, and began putting his dreams into action after attending a Water Safety Day last June at Madison. He and his father, David, visited merchants in Newton Centre, Newton and Watertown to ask for donations of for swim caps, goggles, equipment and financial assistance to help give other children the gift of swimming. “We also asked them to donate gift certificates to be used for auctions and raffles,” he said. Kuba has also talked with swim coaches at the JCC, who have arranged for kids with used goggles, caps, slippers and other equipment can put them in a collection box. “I'm also sending letters to organizations, asking them to make financial donations or donate items for auctions and raffles, or if they are swim stores, to donate equipment,” he said. Thus far, he has received verbal commitments from several stores and organizations.

“The Committee reviewed his letter and thought this would be wonderful, because kids need the swimming equipment for Water Safety Days,” said Jesionek. The Committee had approached companies such as Speedo, TYR or Nike to donate caps and goggles, because they each have a line of swimwear. “We didn't have luck, so Kuba's effort will be very valuable,” she said, adding that he will be getting the equipment for this summer's Water Safety Day. “New England is trying to host our Zone Diversity Select Camp, where two athletes from every local swim committee on the Eastern seaboard will participate, and other children will interact,” she said.

“At my synagogue, Temple Shalom of Newton, part of the preparation for a becoming a Bar/Bat Mitzvah includes a community project of personal choice,” said Kuba. “It made perfect sense to help underrepresented and disadvantaged children get involved with swimming.” “The Temple Shalom community is warm and caring,” said Orlewska, who noted that the shul’s Rabbi Eric Gurvis has been very active in the Greater Boston Interfaith Organization. This summer, Gurvis was invited by GBIO leaders to a meeting with Gov. Deval Patrick on healthcare at Roxbury Presbyterian Church, and he has worked with the group to address issues of hunger and homelessness. “Outreach, interfaith work and social action are a huge part of what Temple Shalom represents,” said Orlewska.

Kuba’s Torah portion will be Parshat Vayikra (Leviticus 1:1-5:26), which describes a network of sacrifices by which Israelites displayed their devotion to G-d. Following the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, rabbis decreed that prayer, Torah study and acts of loving kindness would replace sacrifices, and it would seem that this future bar mitzvah is fulfilling this mitzvah.

Does he harbor future swimming goals? “I'd love to be on the Olympic team,” he said, “but there are so many swimmers – I’m in it really for the love of swimming.” He has participated in competitions, including the New England Age Groups Championships held in Vermont, which he has made five times in the 12-and-under category; long course meters held in Hartford; and short course yards, held at the Upper Valley Aquatic Center in Vermont. He also kayaks and canoes frequently with his parents at various lakes.

“I can do anything in the water,” he said. “When I'm swimming, I feel at home. I just feel happy. I want others to be able to swim because swimming has changed my life forever.”

“Please donate swim caps, goggles, other swim equipment, financial donations to help me give other children the gift of swimming,” he wrote the Advocate.

Donation info: Kuba Inclusion Project, c/o New England Swimming, P.O. Box 920133, Needham, MA 02492. Information on the New England Swimming Inclusion Committee Website http://neswim.com.