There were lots of activities going on at Ben Porat Yosef around Purim this year. Some highlights of the week included the following:

With 7,000 mishloach manot to assemble, Project EZRAH once again partnered with Ben Porat Yosef students to get the job done. Thanks to Ben Porat Yosef’s students it was completed in record time, with the early childhood students working so efficiently, with teamwork and cooperation, that they finished all the packing before the junior high students even had a chance to pitch in!

Second graders added a positive social aspect to their class mishloach manot this year. In addition to some yummy treats in their bags, each child received a list of nice things that their classmates wrote about them. The students brainstormed different ways to say nice things about their friends in Hebrew.

Afterwards, slips of paper with classmates’ names written on them were passed around the room and everyone took turns writing nice phrases on them. The purpose of this exercise was to help the students understand that while it is nice to give food to our friends on Purim, it is most important to give kindness using good words every day.

Third graders wrote and performed a beautiful Purim play all in Hebrew. The room was packed with adoring fans and the actors and actresses dazzled the crowd with their incredible talent.

BPY 7th graders were surprised and excited to receive a shiur from none other than one of their most favorite teachers of all time, Rav Pini, a shaliach who taught at the school for four years and returned to Israel this year. He gave a wonderful and engaging shiur on Megillat Esther.