Holding the school’s banner as they get ready to kick off Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva’s Yom Ha’atzmaut parade are, from left, Naomi Ben Haim, Eliana Moskowitz, Britt Berlin, and Penina Brandeis.
Photo by Debra Rubin
Solomon Schechter students who presented a program of Israeli poetry at the East Brunswick Public Library are, from left, Avital Breverman, Liz Binstein, Lindsay Merkel, Shelby Lipson, Jessica Reich, Sara Rosen, and Daphne Szeles.
Photo courtesy Solomon Schechter Day School of Raritan Valley
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May 12, 2009
Whether it was going through “basic training” with the Israeli Defense Forces or honoring three beloved Israeli songwriters and poets, students at two local day schools celebrated Israel’s Independence Day with joy and enthusiasm.
About 700 students and staff at Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva in Edison took to the streets April 29, Yom Ha’atzmaut, to mark the 61st anniversary of Israel’s founding. Led by a police car, students marched through neighborhood streets wearing shirts and hats adorned with maps of Israel as they waved flags and sang.
They were “soldiers for a day” in the school’s gym, which was turned into an army base outfitted with tents, a yahrtzeit area to mourn fallen IDF soldiers, and a training area. The program was overseen by two former IDF soldiers, Rafael Kauvers and Gavriel Fialkoff, who are Steinsaltz Fellows at RPRY for the year.
In the adjacent beit midrash, the new soldiers — wearing khaki shirts and the colorful berets of their units — were sworn in at the “Kotel” and wrote letters to be sent to soldiers in Israel.
At the Solomon Schechter Day School of Raritan Valley in East Brunswick, students celebrated the 100th anniversary of Tel Aviv by crafting projects on the city’s universities, theaters, seashore, markets, hotels, and panoramic walkways.
On May 3 at the East Brunswick Public Library, SSDS students presented an afternoon of poems and tunes from three popular Israeli poets and songwriters — Rachel, Natan Yonatan, and Ehud Manor.
As he stood outside the school, RPRY principal Shraga Gross reminded the students they were joining with other Jews “in celebration of am Yisrael for the world to see we are one.”
“We are here because Israel is the Jewish state and a place for all Jews to go,” said Rachel Dube, an RPRY fifth-grader from Edison.
At Schechter, Yom Ha’atzmaut began with a special service led by students “so they understand this is not only a civic but a religious occasion for us,” said head of school Dr. Howard Rosenblatt.
SSDS eighth-grader Shelby Lipson said she and classmate Avital Breverman, both of East Brunswick, were so inspired by their studies of the Israeli poets they wrote the original sketch performed at the library.
“We learned about the poets, their connection to Israel and nature,” said Shelby. “It really gave me a stronger connection to Israel.”
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