Elisheva (Nicolet ‘22) comes from a family with long ties to Chabad of Wisconsin from the Shul in Bayside, the Friendship Cafe, and connections to the Shmotkin and the Schapiro families. Her older brother Jason paved the way for her to become involved in CTeen, but she describes herself as “someone who loves to join things.”
In her words, CTeen is "like a 'welcome home.' It gave me a space to be myself with my Jewish identity around other young kids [...] with a feeling of letting down my guard, of mutual understanding, which changes the way you can interact with people when you're in a space where you don't have to explain yourself at all. The language I'm hearing from other people, the food I'm eating, the skirt I'm wearing, nobody made me feel self-conscious of it. [There was] a shared level of connection."
Because of the way she describes CTeen as “homey”, some of the most special experiences included the holidays, especially the Purim party and all the prepping that went into it, regular house lunches, and Shabbos dinners at Rabbi Avremi and Shaindy’s house.
Elisheva is an accomplished performer and working actor. She recently graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of Minnesota with a BFA in acting and a minor in business. While at UMN, she held a nonprofit internship through the Bronfman Center at NYU and produced a solo show called Forever Young. She was just awarded a Rimon Art Project Support Grant to devise a new show from the Minnesota Jewish Arts Council.
