Recent Events

December 19, 2019: We have been busy preparing for Chanukah the past couple of weeks. The children learned all of the blessings for lighting the Menorah and the many songs associated with the holiday. They also made their very own driedels and Menorahs, with the assistance of Morah Riki and Morah Marina, which they brought home and will be able to enjoy over the holiday of Chanukah. The children also received Chanukah candles so they will be all set and ready to light the first candle this Sunday night. Please note that we suggest you monitor the usage of the Menorah as it could be potentially flammable.

In another station, Morah Judy had the children playing a fun trivia game and learning about Chanukah is an exciting, engaging way. Also as part of the Chanukah celebration, the children had a blast making all sorts of delicious goodies with the assistance of Morah Shari, her brother Paul and Morah Zehava. They made yummy chocolates and cooked crispy, sizzling latkas. At the end of the day the children and their parents enjoyed all of their cooking with a Chanukah feast! We sang Chanukah songs and even learned what everyone likes to put on their latkas. The most popular answers were apple sauce and sour cream! At the end of the day, everyone had a fun time at Hebrew school as each child left with a huge smile on their face and with their beautifully decorated Menorahs. We thank all of the teachers and volunteers for making this day such a success!

We had another successful Chai Lifeline Toy Drive. We thank all of the children who brought a present or toy for our annual toy drive.

As a reminder, in observance of the upcoming Winter Break, there will be no Hebrew school until Sunday, January 5th. Hebrew school will remain the same hours from 9:00-12:30 but please note that we will be moving to Hollis Hills Bayside Jewish Center located at 210-10 Union Turnpike for the duration of the school year.

Wishing you and your family a Happy Chanukah and a restful winter vacation!

Sunday Dec 15, 2019: The children made Chanukah lamps and then fried potato pancakes! And doughnuts (munchkins!) for dessert! 

November 24, 2019: The students at Ohr Chadash have been busy learning about the many beautiful and meaningful messages found in the book of Bereshit. In Parshat Vayeira, we learned about how Avraham and Sarah continuously invited guests into their homes. In addition to their great hospitality, the children learned that this act of kindness took place only days after Avraham had performed the ritual ceremony of circumcision and that he was in the midst of healing from this procedure. This is one one sources for the Mitzvah of Bikur Cholim-visiting the sick. At Ohr Chadash, the children made beautiful get well cards for children who are currently ill in a local hospital. We thank Morah Shari who volunteered to bring these get well cards to brighten up the day of the many children that so desperately are in need of a Refuah Shlaymah-a speedy recovery.

Along the theme of showing our appreciation and gratitude for all that we have, the children enjoyed having Rabbi Saks come last week as our guest rabbi. He enthusiastically shared the book, Not This Turkey! We always enjoy hearing from the various community rabbis as this is one of the highlights to our day!

We are going to begin our annual Chai Lifeline Toy Drive. Please bring in a new toy or present to school on either December 8th or 15th. 

We are also preparing  for a special open house on December 15th at Hillcrest Jewish Center. The day will be based on a Chanukah theme where the children will each make their own Menorahs, dreidels and bake and taste yummy latkes and chocolates. More details to follow.

We are pleased to announce that Ohr Chadash will be going on a field trip to the Museum of Jewish Heritage on Sunday, March 1, 2020 for their special exhibit about Auschwitz. This trip is for children grades 5 and up. Parents are invited to attend. We would like to get some feedback as to whether you are interested and available in attending this field trip. Please reach out to either myself or to Morah Shari at stuymom@nyc.rr.com to make reservations.

As a reminder in celebration of Thanksgiving, there will be no Hebrew school next Sunday, December 1st.

October 27, 2019: This session was both unique and special for our Ohr Chadash students. The children began the day with the Havdalah service followed by Rabbi Wise who shared with the students the story of Noah’s ark and the flood. Morah Marina and Nadav, our Shinshin, each taught the children numerous Hebrew words and phrases to enhance their conversational Hebrew. 

In Morah Riki’s class, the children learned about the six days of creation as we read this past week in Parshat Bereshit. The children proudly posed with their art designs and enjoyed sharing with everyone their knowledge about the Torah portion.

October 20, 2019:  The children began the day by joining the Hillcrest Jewish Center Minyan for the Hoshanah Rabbah services. They each had the opportunity to shake the lulav and etrog with the hep and assistance of numerous members of the congregation. In addition, during the section of the services known as Hoshanos, the children marched around the synagogue led by the chazzan, with a lulav and etrog. At the end of the service the children were paired up members of the congregation and were each given a bundle of Aravot-willow branches. Upon the end of the service each member hit the aravot numerous times on the chairs and floor. This fascinating service was filled with much excitement and joy from each of the children which they will not soon forget.

Toward the end of the day, all of the children entered into the Succah for a fun Succot celebration. Morah Judy taught the children about the significance of the Succah and read a story to the students regarding the holiday. Morah Chava led with her guitar numerous joyous songs the children learned regarding the Jewish holidays that took place in the month of Tishrei.

We thank Morah Shari for all of the delicious snacks and drinks she prepared for our Succah party. 

October 13, 2019: We began the morning with our traditional Havdalah service followed by hearing inspirational words of Torah from Rabbi Moshe Saks.  We continued to learn more and more Hebrew words and phrases from Morah Marina and our Shinshin, Nadav. As it was Erev Succot, the children enjoyed decorating beautiful Succah decorations to adorn the Hillcrest Jewish Center Succah. We thank Morah Riki for her creative art projects which enhance the Jewish holidays.

This Sunday we are invited to join the Hillcrest Jewish Center Minyan for Hoshanah Rabbah led by Rabbi Kogan. This exciting service will include the children having the opportunity to shake the lulav and etrog, circle the synagogue during Hoshanot, and banging the Aravot-willow branches upon the conclusion of the service. We will also gather into the synagogue Succah and enjoy some yummy treats. We will also sing festive songs led by Morah Chava in honor of the upcoming holiday of Simchat Torah. Morah Judy is going to share a fascinating story with the children as well. 

October 6, 2019: We began with our traditional Havdalah service followed by Morah Marina who taught the children some basic Hebrew phrases including the days of week. It is amazing to see how much the children remember from last time. Our Shinshin, Nadav also spoke to the children about his family customs in Israel on Yom Kippur.

As it was a few days before Yom Kippur, all of the children learned about the famous book of Yonah which is read on as part of the holiday service. The children learned the story about the story of Yonah and the whale (some say it was actually a big fish). The children proudly made a fun art project depicting this episode in the story. The children also performed Kaparot with coins and learned of the significance of giving charity to the poor especially during this time of the year. 

Our guest rabbi was Rabbi Kogan. He shared with the children a book entitled, The Hardest Word: A Yom Kippur Story by Jacqueline Jules. According to the book, the hardest word in the English language to say is “Sorry”. Rabbi Kogan explained to the children that it is appropriate to say you are sorry and to make amends with each other before the onset of the Yom Kippur holiday. 

 

September 29, 2019: We had a special visit from Rabbi Moshe Saks, Rabbi of Israel Center of Conservative Judaism (ICCJ). He joyfully taught the children about the book of Breishit and the six days of creation. He did so in a fun, engaging way through song and choreography. The children thoroughly enjoyed the rabbis visit. We are truly blessed having Rabbi Saks as part of our Ohr Chadash community and we look forward to his next visit to our school!

As a new feature to Ohr Chadash, we have incorporated Hebrew language as part of our curriculum. Morah Marina came up and taught the children some basic Hebrew phrases upon greeting someone and introducing yourself for the first time. She will reinforce all of her previous lessons and build on their previous knowledge with new topics to improve their conversational Hebrew.

All of the children were treated to a delicious snack in honor of the occasion. Morah Judy began by explaining to the children about the significance of having round challot during this time for year. Each child was then given a delicious piece of challah dipped in honey. Afterwards, each child enjoyed dipping their apples in honey for a sweet new year!

We wish you and your family a happy and healthy year ahead.

 

On September 22, after the Havdalah service and Shofer blowing, we had our Shinshin speak to the children, followed by inspirational words from Rabbi Wise. Rabbi Wise also went to the different classes to speak to the children and share with them words of Torah. The students also learned a lot of new Rosh Hashanah songs from Morah Chava during her sessions which included the various sounds of the Shofer.


We had an amazing session on September 15th! After our Havdalah service we heard from our guest speaker, Nancy Churnin, who passionately shared her book, Irving Berlin with the students. The children were engaged and immensely enjoyed her power point presentation of the fascinating story of Irving Berlin and his many great accomplishments he made during his lifetime. Afterwards, she showed the children a book written in braille and each of the students had the opportunity to feel the braille letters for themselves. We gratefully thank Nancy Churnin for coming to Ohr Chadash and sharing her wonderful presentation of her books with our students. 

As we are in Hillcrest Jewish Center, the children all had the opportunity to visit the synagogue’s library. There the children learned about the various sections of the library from Carol Kantro. She proceeded to explain to the children that they can choose from a wide array of Judaic library books. Many of the children indeed took out a Jewish themed book. Our goal is for the children to carry over the lessons from Ohr Chadash and their Jewish culture by reading these books throughout the week in the convenience of their own homes. When they finish reading these books, they can simply return them to the library so that they may choose a new book for the following week. 

Our special guest rabbi was Rabbi Kogan. He came to the different classes with his Shofer, and taught the children about the upcoming holiday of Rosh Hashanah. Some of the students tried their best to blow the Shofer and we were amazed to hear how some of them did! Speaking of Rosh Hashanah, the children were involved in making some beautiful arts and crafts projects connected to the holiday. We look forward to having weekly art and music classes for the children throughout the year. 


We are excited to have as part of our school, Nadav Klein who is part of the Shinshinim program. He will bring his experiences of living in Israel to your children and share his love of Israel and its rich culture to our students. We welcome all of our knowledgeable teachers who look forward to teaching your children throughout the school year.

The students have been introduced to Jennifer Gold, youth director for H2I, which represents the three synagogues of Hillcrest Jewish Center, Hollis Hills Bayside Jewish Center and ICCJ. She spoke to each of the classes about many of the exciting programs and activities that will occur throughout the year. We will periodically include any such activities led by Jennifer Gold throughout the year in future emails.

March 31, 2019:  Below are a couple of pictures of a beautiful lesson done by our Shinshin, Morah Rotem. As the elections in Israel will be taking place shortly, Morah Rotem taught the students about how the Knesset operates and the process for how to vote for a Prime Minister in Israel. We thank Morah Rotem for bringing these hands-on and creative activities to our students at Ohr Chadash.


February 3, 2019:  The past couple of weeks were filled with fun activities and learning at Ohr Chadash. The older students are in the middle of an important unit about the Holocaust. Morah Judy and Morah Shari taught from the book, The Promise of a New Spring and showed excepts from a documentary about the Holocaust. We thank our teachers for teaching these valuable lessons about our history to our students. Attached are pictures of the artistic work of our students. They each made a creative model of a building. Morah Rotem, who continuously teaches the students the beauty of Israel, shared with the children the plans of what will be the largest building in all of Israel and its unusual design. 

In order to further strengthen your child’s Hebrew reading skills, we will be a distributing a reading logs to your child this Sunday. We ask the children do at least 5 minutes of Hebrew reading each day and for the paper to be signed. After your child completes the page and submits it to me, they will receive a special prize! 

This Sunday, we look forward to Rabbi Wise who will be our guest rabbi this week. Additionally, we will be having Jennifer Gold, H2I Youth Director who will come and address the students toward the end of Hebrew school. 


January 20, 2019:  The children continued in theme of Tu Bishvat, 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 jiuce with different colors to represent the change of the seasons. Additionally, the students ate an 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 would like to thank Morah Shari and her brother Paul for all of their preparations and involvement in making the Seder such a success. We also thank Morah Chava who assisted in leading the Seder together with the other teachers. Lastly, the Seder would not have been possible without the generosity of our parent body. We greatly appreciate the thoughtful donations from the parents and making this such a memorable Seder. 

Please remember to have your children bring Tzadakah each Sunday. The students will decide which organization we will give the Tzadakah to towards the end of the year.

Students are encouraged to bring their own kosher, healthy snack each Sunday which takes place at 11:00 am. 

We appreciate your continued support and look forward to seeing you all next Sunday.


January 13, 2019:  The children had a special arts and crafts project in honor of the upcoming holidays of Tu Bishvat and MLK day. Morah Judy discussed with the students the significance of each of these days and the importance of thinking about improving the world and creating our own legacy. As part of the arts and crafts project, the children cut out pictures and words which best represent their own legacies. We also had Rabbi Kogan come to speak with the students about the connection between trees and people. He even demonstrated to the children the visual of being a “human tree”. We thank all of the teachers and especially Morah Judy for making this program such a success.

Continuing in the theme of Tu Bishvat, we are looking forward to our annual Tu Bishvat Seder this Sunday. As a reminder, we are asking for a suggested donation of $5 to help cover the cost needed to purchase the necessary items. For those who are able to give this suggested donation, please bring it to Hebrew school this Sunday. The Tu Bishvat Seder, which will take place from 11:00-12:30, will consist of grape juice and a variety of fruits.

In the event of a cancellation due to the potential upcoming snow storm, you will be notified by Saturday night. If school is canceled due to inclement weather, we will postpone the Tu Bishvat Seder to the following Sunday.


January 11, 2019: We are excited to be back into the full swing of things as we continue Hebrew school at Israel Center for Conservative Judaism (ICCJ) for the duration of the school year. We were given a warm welcome as we began our new Hebrew school sessions at ICCJ. We began in the small sanctuary on the main floor. We had a Havdalah service, learned some Hebrew words from Morah Rotem and some tradition Tu Bishvat songs from Morah Chava Blander. We are so excited to have Morah Chava return to Ohr Chadash and inspire our students with her uplifting songs and words of Torah.

In preparation for Tu Bishvat, we will be celebrating the upcoming

holiday with a special arts and crafts project for all of our Ohr Chadash students. We will be involved in an engaging, hands-on activity in the Shmorg room. We are honored to have Rabbi Kogan join us during this time to assist in educating the students about the holiday of Tu Bishvat. This special project will take place starting from 11:00 am until the end of Hebrew school this Sunday. We are also looking forward to the following week where we will have a special Tu Bishvat Seder. Details to follow.

Looking forward to what most certainly will be a fun and educational day of learning this Sunday.


Sunday, 12/2/18, was filled with much joy and excitement at Ohr Chadash. Each of the students made beautiful, colorful Menorahs just in time for the for the first night of Chanukah. 

Some of the students had the opportunity to make hand painted dreidels as well. Morah Shari and her brother Paul were busy making delicious Chanukah treats with the students including scrumptious chocolates and potato latkes.

Some of our older students displayed their cooking skills as they fried tons of delicious latkes for all to enjoy. The children were so happy to share their hard work with their parents as they came and celebrated together at the end of Hebrew school.

Shabbat Shalom!

Rabbi Boaz Tomsky

    • Sunday, September 30, 2018:  We enjoyed celebrating Hoshanah Rabbah with Rabbi David Wise and the numerous congregants from Hollis Hills Bayside Jewish Center. The students took an active role, shaking the Lulav and Etrog and marching seven times around the sanctuary while performing Hakafot and singing “Hoshana”. The students were then each given five tied willows branches where they performed an interesting service that is unique for this one day of the year. We thank Rabbi Wise for allowing us to experience this special service and for his explanations and leadership throughout the morning.Morah Judy led all of her classes in the Succah which turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day. The children all enjoyed eating in the Succah and reciting the special “Leshev B’succah” blessing. For the last hour of Hebrew school, we all enjoyed the picture perfect weather in the Succah. We prepared many fun activities for all of the children to enjoy and to better appreciate the meaning of the holiday. The students were captivated by Morah Simcha’s fascinating story about a special Etrog. Morah Lynn Blander taught the children many Succot songs as we all followed along with her and her guitar. Please remember to have your children bring Tzadakah each Sunday. The students will decide which organization we will give the Tzadakah to towards the end of the year.Students are encouraged to bring their own kosher, healthy snack each Sunday which takes place at 11:00 am.


  • June 10, 2018:  We had our closing ceremony for the school year. Awards were handed out to all the children acknowledging their success, and how they contributed to the school this year. Each child achieved success in specific areas. It was a lovely ceremony followed by ice cream sundaes! The school year ended on a high note greatly appreciated by all.
  • April 29, 2018:  We had excellent turnout for our First Annual Mitzvah Day. It was an exellent experience that highlighed important Jewish values.

Our Seder on March 25, 2018

Thank you parents, grandparents and siblings for making our Tu B’Shevat Seder a most memorable success.  Keep watering your plants and enjoy the great pictures.

On Sunday, February 11th, our last session before the Mid-Winter Break, we held a very special and festive Pre-Purim Family Program.

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Ohr Chadash is one of a select group of after school religious schools in the State of New York to receive this status which we have maintained since 2009. This prestigious certification marks the fact that Ohr Chadash Religious School has met rigorous standards in all academic areas including professional development, curriculum, and family education. Further, Ohr Chadash has demonstrated that it has met all of the goals, aims, and benchmarks necessary to be considered a school of exceptional academic quality.
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We are fortunate to have a group of seasoned, capable and dedicated staff of teachers, many who have been with us from the start. Finally, we must mention our very involved and talented clergy; Rabbi Kogan, Rabbi Wise, and Rabbi Fryer Bodzin, who volunteer their time and energy to teach and inspire all of our class grades.

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Ohr Chadash strongly feels that we play a vital role in Jewish youth education, transmitting Jewish traditions, building a Jewish identity and instilling a sense of community in our students.

We hope that when you are considering an after-school Jewish education program, you will consider contacting the Ohr Chadash Religious School.

You may get in touch with us by calling any of the partnering three synagogues, by checking our website (www.ohrchadashqueens.org), or by sending an email to us at info@ohrchadashqueens.org.

Hillcrest Jewish Center: 718-380-4145
Hollis Hills Bayside  Jewish Center: 718-776-3500
Israel Center of Conservative Judaism: 718-591-5353