Meet the BBC's Strictest Mom - an Israeli

By Sharon Kanon
July 02, 2009
www.israel21c.org

(An interesting story that reminds us that done properly, the world is thirsting for direction)

Don't mess around with Tzippi Shaked. She may not be strict, but she sure knows how to hold her ground. Shaked, her husband David, and family, former residents of Los Angeles, were the host family for two rebellious British teenagers in Israel to film a program for the high-rated, hit BBC docu-reality show, The World's Strictest Parents.

The purpose of the BBC show is to give wayward teens a new perspective, and incentive to restart their lives.

Could the rebellious, non-Jewish teens adapt to the norms of an observant Jewish family in Nof Ayalon, a community attached to the religious kibbutz Shalavim, that closes it gates on the Sabbath?

Gemma Lyons, 16, pretty, sassy, defiant, arrived in 'religiously' scant attire. Jack Travers, 17, a self-proclaimed Goth - arrived in black garb, long black-died hair, black eyeliner, multi piercings and black nail polish. Both teenagers, kicked out of schools in Hampshire, England, had issues - tension at home and problems controlling anger.

Shaked admits that she had feelings of trepidation about taking on the project. "If there is anyone who can do it, it is you," said her parent's rabbi in California. The daughter of a famous nuclear scientist, Nathan Joseph Hoffman, and a mother who nurtured her children to be compassionate and sensitive (she often brought in homeless people as well as stray animals) -Tzippi and David Shaked kept their cool, never shouting, during big and little eruptions that threatened to scuttle the show.

No stranger to turbulence

Shaked, who has a BA in journalism and Middle East studies, and an MA in Leadership and Administration, is not a novice to difficult situations. During the 1980s, she spent three turbulent years in South Africa working for an organization called Jews for Justice.

"We took over from the Red Cross when the government waged war against the militant townships," Shaked tells ISRAEL21c, adding that her organization helped 200 men, women and children leave their burning village and find shelter in a synagogue in Cape Town.

Dodging about undercover without revealing her Jewish origins, she interviewed Nelson Mandela's daughter, other famous black political activists, as well as Islamic militants. Her time in South Africa culminated in a book: The Jews of South Africa: What future?

Back in California, where she married David Shaked, a lawyer, and began raising her five children (now ages 5-18), Tzippi Shaked, also took in troubled children.

"The producer of the BBC show contacted me after reading a short essay I wrote about raising teens using a strong value system," says Shaked. Shaked said she saw it as an opportunity to showcase Jewish values, and reach out to non-Jews.

The one condition Shaked had made of the producer, was the teenagers be "a pair we could work with. Not appalled by."

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