Or Avner Jewish Day School was buzzing with excitement the entire week of Chanukah. Grades 1-6 participated in a competitive candle making contest and were able to win fun Chanukah prizes for their creations. After learning about all the mitzvot that we do with candles, each class had a different type of candle that they had to create. The children used various materials to make beautiful wedding candles, shabbat candles, menorahs and havdallah candles.

A special program was held on Wednesday in which the students rotated from classroom to classroom, particpating in many exciting, interactive activities that were planned by grades 7-11. The older classes worked diligently on decorating their classrooms according to different Chanukah themes and creating fun games and tasks for the younger grades to do inside. One of the classrooms was turned into a model of the Holy Temple after it was destroyed, and the younger students had to clean it up and search for a pure jug of oil. Another classroom was made into a battle zone and the children had to fight the Greeks with ballooons. When the students had completed the tasks from every room, they gathered in the auditorium for Menorah lighting and award presentations to all the diligent students.

A few days before Rosh Hashanah the Jewish Day School ran a Rosh Hashanah fair coordinated by Kaila Danzinger. A local beekeeper came to make a presentation and to teach the students how honey is made. Then the kids participated in a shofar demo, made greeting cards for seniors in the community and made candy apples for the first time in their lives. They learned all about the meaning of Rosh Hashanah and the various customs and traditions associated with it.

On Rosh Hashanah day, aside from our main services attended by over 200 people, we also held a separate seniors event and meal for 80 seniors, as well as a kids program and shofar blowing with over 100 kids and parents in attendance.We held two separate Tashlich services at the Don River, a five minute walk from our Synagogue.

Between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur we held a kaparot service. We invited a shochet from Volgograd (a city 500 kilometers away) who is also the local Rabbi there to come prepare the chickens so that we can have kosher chickens for Sukkot.

The school year at our Jewish Day School has gotten off to a great start with a wonderful celebration with all students and their families on September 1st. There were great Jewish-themed song and dance performances by all the classes. The new students entering first grade received a warm welcome and were given gift packages prepared by the oldest class.

Rabbi Danzinger spoke about the importance of Jewish traditions and about the upcoming high holidays. He then blew the shofar for everyone present.

It was a really wonderful event- you could see on the children’s faces how happy they were to be back at school!