December 23, 2024

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Heichal HaTorah Tikvah Class Visits YU Museum

Just before Pesach, Heichal HaTorah’s ninth grade English Tikvah class visited the Yeshiva University Museum in downtown Manhattan with an exclusive hands-on guided tour exploring artifacts from the museum’s collections, given by the director of the museum and its senior archivist. Heichal’s freshman Tikvah program includes a neo-classical curriculum that fuses the study of history and literature, while examining Western culture from a Jewish perspective. Students from this course were amazed by the opportunity to view firsthand the original 1478 manuscript that tells the story of the Trent blood libel, when 15 Jews were executed after being falsely accused of using a child’s blood for ritual purposes. Other items of fascination included the private Torah of the Baal Shem Tov, a gold Torah choshen, ancient tombstones, several illuminated Haggadahs and 17th century Pesach Seder artifacts—many touching upon the time period covered by the ninth grade Tikvah curriculum. The day continued with some downtime in Union Square Park, including football and ice cream, and a return to yeshiva for night seder. The Tikvah students enjoyed supplementing the course content with a museum tour that really illuminated their classroom studies.

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