"She is able to connect with children in an absolutely respectful, magical way," says parent Susan Ellenberg. "She listens with her eyes and whole body."

Brafman has served as the director of Willow Glen's Sinai Nursery School for seven years and was recently awarded one of the four 2004 Helen Diller Family Awards for Excellence in Jewish Education. The award recognizes Bay Area educators who build Jewish community and foster a children's identity in the Jewish faith.

Congregation Sinai Rabbi Eitan Julius says Brafman's teaching approach stems from her deeply spiritual foundation.

"She does everything infused with a lot of love and respect," Julius says. "She listens to the kids and encourages them to follow a creative and spiritual call. I would have loved to have her as a preschool teacher."

Julius says it's exciting for Brafman to be recognized, and adds that the credit goes to the nursery school parents who started a grass-roots movement to nominate her several years ago.

For Brafman, becoming a teacher 20 years ago was a return to a childhood dream that she had never pursued. As a young person, she decided not to teach after meeting some disappointing high school teachers. Switching instead to the legal profession, she practiced as an attorney in Israel for 13 years until her family moved to El Paso, Texas, in 1984. When she enrolled her two children in a Jewish day school, she was asked to teach Hebrew language and Judaica—study of the Jewish scriptures—and found her vocation.

"When I started to teach, the love just came out and I knew it was my calling," she says.

With a new career in a new country, teaching provided her the opportunity to become invested in a different culture, she adds.

"I felt so welcomed and part of the community," says Brafman.

"Because of the pain and suffering in Israel, I was taught toughness growing up," the 58-year-old says. "Here I saw how children solve problems with love and tolerance."

And she adds that children still inspire and surprise her.

"There are so many cultures here," Brafman says. "Kids get a head start, and they're so open."

Brafman says that although the school is part of the synagogue, it is open to the community and has had Christian and Buddhist students.

"I don't bring my own beliefs," she says. "I let them explore."

Part of her teaching gift is letting children and parents discover more about themselves.

"If I bring a parenting concern, she'll always be very thoughtful and observe my child," Ellenberg says. "She's incredibly wise and insightful, and when she has a solution, it seems so obvious."

Fran Smith adds, "Tsilla taught me how to understand my daughter's behavior and how to support her through her struggles."

Brafman hopes to take her teaching a step further and be available to support teenagers psychologically and spiritually by creating a place where they are able to "wrestle with the text and examine their connection to their core," she says.

Once the new synagogue is built, she plans to use some of the $10,000 prize money from the Diller Award to start this type of teenager forum.

The award also gave $2,500 directly to the nursery school.

Congregation Sinai is scheduled to begin demolition of its current building and preschool in July to construct a more modern facility, Julius says.