Ohr Chadash Religious School, located in Queens, New York, is an example of a new model of supplementary Jewish education. Comprised of a consortium of three Conservative synagogues in eastern Queens, Ohr Chadash combines classroom learning with experiential programming including ongoing opportunities throughout the year for parent, grandparent and guardian education as well as outstanding Shabbat experiences for young people.
Hebrew school is currently taking place at Hollis Hills Bayside Jewish Center, 210-10 Union Turnpike. We will remain at Hollis Hills for the duration of the school year.
February 9, 2020: Morah Chava continued in the theme of Tu Bishvat as the children were involved in a delicious, hands on activity. The students were given various yummy treats they had to make their own edible trees! All of the students enjoyed making these trees and also eating them afterwards!
Our day was concluded with a beautiful Tu Bishvat Seder. The children participated in an interactive Seder which included lots of singing, reading sections from the Torah and of course lots of delicious food! Many of the students participated by reading the various reading sections to their classmates. The Tu Bishvat Seder included four cups of grape juice, each juice with different colors to represent the change of the seasons.
Additionally, the students ate from an array of scrumptious fruits. Each platter represented different kinds of fruits, namely some with a hard outside shell and some with a soft outer peel. Each of these fruits represented different personalities of people as we discussed the similarities between fruit trees and people.
We thank Morah Shari and her brother Paul for all of their hard work to make this event such a success! We also thank the Hebrew teachers for taking such an active role in the singing and dancing at the Seder.
As a reminder, in celebration of Presidents Week, Ohr Chadash will not have Hebrew school on Sunday, February 16th and Sunday, February 23rd. Classes will resume on Sunday, March 1st.
Wishing everyone a restful vacation ahead and a Shabbat Shalom!
February 2, 2020: The students had the privilege of joining Rabbi David Wise and the member of Hollis Hills Bayside Jewish Center for the annual World Wide Wrap. This was an eye opening experience for many of our students and especially our younger children who attend the Hebrew school as many have never actually seen a pair of Tefillin up and personal before. As Rabbi Wise stood at the entrance of the sanctuary welcoming everyone to the program, one of our youngest students gazed up at him and asked, “Rabbi, why are you wearing that funny hat!” Of course they were referring to the Tefillin Shel Rosh-the Tefillin on the rabbi’s head! Rabbi Wise began the program by relaying this cute interaction with this student and then proceeded to explain the significance and symbolism of this important Mitzvah. The children learned that Rabbi Wise has been wearing Tefillin since his Bar Mitzvah. They especially had fun guessing his age based on the years he has worn his Tefillin since that day.
We at Ohr Chadash are blessed and fortunate to have such meaningful interactions with our community rabbis who bring Judaism to life. We thank Hollis Hills Bayside Jewish Center for hosting us at this event and we look forward to seeing our students continue to grow and eventually put those funny hats on for their own heads!
The older grades are continuing to learn about the history of the Jewish people during the time of the Holocaust. As part of this lesson, the students will be going to the Museum of Jewish Heritage to see the Auschwitz Exhibit on Sunday, March 1st. Flyers for this field trip were distributed to the children two weeks ago. We are pleased to announce that the board will be paying for this trip so there is no charge for your children to attend. If you have any questions about this trip, please feel free to reach out to myself or to Morah Shari.
Below are pictures of the children making beautiful arts and crafts projects with items related to the observance of the Shabbat. We thank Morah Riki and Morah Chava in leading in this exciting curriculum of learning about Shabbat in a fun and interactive manner.
We had the opportunity during the first week to learn from our guest rabbi, Rabbi David Wise. He inspired the children by sharing with them about an important march which he was planning on going on that day. The march, which had over 20,000 participants, he explained, was to show our unity as Jews and to actively demonstrate that the most recent acts of antisemitism are not acceptable and will not be tolerated.
The children have begun a unit on Shabbat in Morah Riki’s and Morah Chava’s classes and they will continue to learn more about the beauty of the Shabbat in the upcoming weeks. The older grades are currently learning about the history of the Jewish people during the time of the Holocaust. As part of this lesson, the students will be going to the Museum of Jewish Heritage to see the Auschwitz Exhibit on Sunday, March 1st. Flyers for this field trip have been distributed to the children.