Shaare Shamayim
aspires to new heights

By Lauren Fritsky
Times Staff Writer

Lisa Appel is pretty twisted.
As a contortionist, the Bustleton resident performs acrobatic and aerial routines while displaying unusual flexibility. Appel, 32, formerly taught elementary school in the School District of Philadelphia and the suburbs.
Despite forming her own company, Miss Lisa Inc., Appel’s love of teaching brought her back to the Congregations of Shaare Shamayim, where she’d attended nursery school. She asked to teach on a per-diem basis.
The synagogue accepted, but went one step further — Shaare Shamayim asked Appel to "hang" out at its annual Hanukkah celebration this year.
On Sunday, Dec. 17, Appel will act as a human top to help the synagogue break the Guinness World Record for spinning the largest number of dreidels simultaneously.
She will suspend herself from a 20-foot-high ceiling and twirl with the more than 500 dreidels needed to establish a new record.
Jacques Lurie, educational director at the synagogue, thought up the event.
"It was all his idea," said Appel, who must be a good sport, considering that she’s afraid of heights. Her highest performance took place 40 feet in the air at the Philadelphia Folk Festival.
Like Appel, Shaare Shamayim members regularly try to display their religion in fun ways. In recent years, the synagogue has had this thing about breaking Guinness World Records.
The members broke their first in 2002, when they baked the largest hamantasch, a triangular Jewish pastry. The perimeter measured 60 feet.
Last year, they established the new record for the most shofars, or Jewish horns, blown in unison. But the Shaare Shamayim record of 400 blows was challenged by the previous titleholder, a synagogue in Massachusetts, which summoned enough air this year to deliver 804 toots of the horns and blow away the Bustleton congregation for yet another record.
No problem. Lurie decided to move on to the dreidel, the top used in the children’s game traditionally played on Hanukkah.
"There are lots of different ways to express one’s Judaism," Lurie said.
Appel traded in blackboards for backbends last summer, after her performance in an Atlantic City variety show got her thinking of a full-time career in contortionism.
"I thought, ‘I can do this for a living,’" she recalled, envisioning the shape of things to come.
The petite blonde also manages to blend her contortionism with her religion and her education background.
A multi-talented entrepreneur — she can dance, tumble and juggle — Appel instructs at the Northeast Racquet Club & Fitness Center and also gives private lessons. She teaches kids and adults alike how to bend and flex.
"With contortion, there’s no pain. You can start at any age. It’s more like yoga . . . your body tells you when to stop," she said.
Appel also teaches about the Holocaust, using an aerial routine during which she twists around fabric. At Shaare Shamayim, she juggled in front of pre-bar/bat mitzvah students to demonstrate life management skills. And she regularly performs with a troupe called The Give and Take Jugglers, based in Mt. Airy.
As a contortionist, of course, Appel must be flexible. To play the role of the four-sided top, she will wear a padded apparatus around her waist with one of four Hebrew letters — called shin, hey, gimel and nun — on each side. After wrapping her legs around two pieces of cloth hung from the ceiling and forming a point with her arms and hands, she will attempt to spin with the other dreidels.
The firm cotton outfit adds some weight and strain, Appel said.
"It’s really hard to climb with that on," she noted.
She’ll have plenty of chances to get it right. Appel plans to practice four times per week in the time leading up to dreidel day. It’s no big deal for someone who winds down at night by doing handstands.
Children studying at Shaare Shamayim last week perked up when Appel visited their classroom and talked about her high goals.
"These are the best kids. They’re amazing," Appel said. "I like being back in the community teaching at a synagogue."
Since he’s unsure if Appel will officially count as one of the dreidels, Lurie hopes everyone will take a turn at the event. His dreidel scheme may seem, well, a bit over the top, but Lurie thinks there could be another record in Shaare Shamayim’s future.
"We’re sure as heck going to try," he said.
Then again, he doesn’t have to be the dreidel. ••
The public is invited to take a spin during the Hanukkah festivities on Sunday, Dec. 17, at Shaare Shamayim, 9768 Verree Road. For more information, call the synagogue at 215-677-1600.
Reporter Lauren Fritsky can be reached at 215-354-3038 or lfritsky@phillynews.com