All TA schools honour 20th yahrtzeit of Rebbe

SUZANNE BELLING

In honour of Gimmel Tammuz, Torah Academy Girls’ High grade 8 students embarked on a campaign of lighting Shabbos candles. They visited the Torah Academy Nursery school to teach them about this mitzvah.

Last week, 3 Tammuz (Tuesday), was the 20^th yarhrzeit of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson, of blessed memory. All four Torah Academy schools – Girls’ High, Boys’ High, Primary and Nursery – took part in comprehensive programmes and projects in honour of the day.

PICTURED RIGHT, (from left) are: Liat Leece, Chani Shishler, Sara Bronstein and Mariasha Liberow – Photo: Nechama Kazilsky

The Girls’ High programme ran for 20 days, one day for each year since the Rebbe’s passing. Each class was allocated one of the Rebbe’s 10 mivtzoim (campaigns), broken up into school and personal aspects. Prizes were awarded for the best class efforts.

Individual classes selected a particular campaign for the 20 days, for example candle lighting, which involved giving out Shabbos candles, and AhavasYisroel (love of fellow Jews) included packing boxes at Yad Aharon. Special events were also held each day at the school.

On a personal level, each girl was asked to make a personal commitment on each of the 20 days.

The Boys’ High (there was also a preparation in the weeks before) marked the day with a breakfast and davening at Chabad of Norwood. The students heard guest speakers, Rabbi Boruch Kaplan, of Jerusalem, and businessman Steven Solarsh, who was a guest speaker at an international conference of Chabad shluchim in New York in recent years. Rabbi Kaplan also addressed the other schools.

The Rebbe selected 12 Torah pesukim (verses) as foundational concepts for young Jewish children. The Primary School displayed these pesukim at the school. The exhibit remained open all week. Parents were invited to walk around the display with their children. There was also a lunch on the day.

Each child in the Nursery School learnt the 12 pesukim by heart. The children created a presentation based on projects instituted by the Rebbe.

Many thousands gathered in New York this week to mark the occasion.

The Rebbe was the seventh Chabad leader and is considered a phenomenal Jewish personality of modern times, responsible for stirring the conscience of world Jewry and its spiritual awakening.