California CKids program joins together students from eight area Hebrew schools
For children in neighborhoods with small Jewish populations, it can be hard to imagine that there are other kids like them. They are often the only Jewish person in their grade and can feel as if they are the exception, rather than the norm.
In combating this preconception, CKids has developed a new way of exposing Jewish children to a wider circle of friends through regional gatherings. Hebrew schools and CKids chapters within driving range come together for an event called “Unity Day,” where youngsters have the opportunity to meet new people and make new friends.
Chabad of the Valley in Tarzana, Calif., recently hosted such a gathering, bringing together more than 300 children from eight area Hebrew schools.
“It’s a real eye-opener for many of these children,” said Rabbi Mendy Mentz, coordinator of CKids regional events. “It suddenly hits them that there are other—in fact, so many other—children exactly like them. It can be normal to be Jewish; it’s normal to go to Hebrew school.”
The event began with a game of “CKids Mitzvah Town,” a quest to find a list of mitzvahs hidden on a map—a spinoff from the classic “Where’s Waldo?” search. Children were then led into an adjoining room, where a rally was held with representatives from different Hebrew schools, who recited the 12 pesukim, or Torah passages, that the Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—encouraged Jewish youth to know and say.
The event began with a game of “CKids Mitzvah Town,” a quest to find a list of mitzvahs hidden on a map. (Photo: CKids)
The day is particularly meaningful in this 40th-year anniversary of the Rebbe’s mitzvah campaign of Chinuch (Jewish education).
The feedback from the participants, like Adam Lambart of Tarzana, validated the organizers’ motives. “I never knew there were so many kids in Hebrew school,” he said.
Rabbi Yanky Kahn, youth director at the Tarzana Chabad, confirmed that “the children learned a lot and came away with a tremendous amount of energy. We’re looking forward to future programs like this.”
“Events like these,” added Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, vice chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch—the educational arm of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement—“remain imprinted on children’s minds forever. They’ll always remember how they participated in a gathering of such mass proportion and how proud it made them feel to be a Jew.”
(Photo: CKids)
(Photo: CKids)
(Photo: CKids)
(Photo: CKids)
(Photo: CKids)
(Photo: CKids)
(Photo: CKids)
(Photo: CKids)
