This week, Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy of Connecticut art teacher Mrs. Yael Smilovitch created a mitzvah project to honor the memory of the Bibas family. The goal was to line the school hallways with orange balloons. Attached to each balloon was a note specifying a mitzvah that a student has taken on in memory of the Bibas family.

“We may feel powerless during times like these,” she said. “But taking on a mitzvah is a tangible way that we can work to bring goodness to the world, and help make the world a better place.”

Students decorated the school hallways with orange balloons, each one a promise to honor Jewish life and the Jewish tradition of good deeds. Some of them had messages like “Be nice to your teachers, friends and family,” and “Be kind to one another.” In memory of the young siblings who were killed in captivity, perhaps one of the most moving was the note that read, “Give your brothers and sisters a hug.”

Fifth grade teacher Mrs. Adrianne Robinson also wrote about this project for BCHA’s social media pages. “While there was much discussion about colors this week [in reference to last week’s Annual BCHA Color War],” she wrote, “one color carries the weight of our hearts—orange. A color of innocence, a color of remembrance, a color that now speaks louder than words.”