Yael Buechler and Sari Kopitnikoff, both Jewish educators, recently collaborated to create the High Holiday Hive, a reusable sticker board containing a family of busy bees preparing their home for Rosh Hashanah, Sukkot and Simchat Torah. The sticker board, which was released on July 25 and created in preparation of the upcoming high holidays, contains 31 reusable stickers that are special items from both Ashkenazic and Sephardic traditions, including many simanim (symbols for the new year) such as gourds, leeks, dates, pomegranates, apples and honey.
Buechler, who has served as the director of outreach at The Leffell School in White Plains, New York, for 10 years, came up with the idea for her first holiday-themed sticker board two years ago, when her 2-year-old son was playing with different sets of stickers during the beginning of the pandemic. “I thought to myself, ‘Why can’t there be a way for him to better engage with the chagim through stickers?’” Buechler recalled, which led to a collaboration between Buechler and Kopitnikoff on a matzah playhouse sticker board during Pesach of 2021, featuring a family of mice celebrating Pesach.
Due to the Pesach sticker board’s success and positive responses, Buechler and Kopitnikoff set to work on a second installment of their sticker-board series, with Buechler saying that their holiday-themed sticker boards “add a new layer of meaning” to fun parent-child activities. “My hope is that the High Holiday Hive will be a wonderful and interactive way for families to explore the themes of the chagim with their kids,” Buechler expressed. “I like that it’s got a modern flavor and it feels up to date and relevant in their lives. I think that they can relate to the excited family of bees that are getting ready for the holidays.”
Buechler, who gained popularity through an initiative to paint Jewish nail art addressing biblical and holiday themes, which has gained recognition from well-known celebrities and even The New York Times, is known for her creative and successful strategies to reach children. “I’m always looking for more ways to engage my own kids with the chagim, sometimes in ways that are not super messy, so this is a great, fun and easy activity that the kids can do on their own or they can do with me,” Buechler elucidated. “A number of families have other traditions and other simanim they incorporate, and I wanted to find a way to also teach my kids about Sephardic simanim as well.”
Buechler designed the High Holiday Hive in collaboration with fellow educator Sari Kopitnikoff, who illustrated the stickers. Kopitnikoff, who teaches part time at the Na’aleh High School for Girls in Fair Lawn, is an illustrator and graphic artist who created That Jewish Moment (@thatjewishmoment), a brand that spans multiple social media sites and releases creative educational content and products targeted toward children and teenagers. Kopitnikoff called Buechler a “visionary,” explaining, “She’s a like-minded creative, and she’s also a whiz with logistics.”
“As a digital artist, most of my work exists just in the cyberspheres and on the printed page, but it’s so thrilling as an artist to hold something 3D in my hands that used to just be a sketch on my iPad,” Kopitnikoff continued. “I also love the educational component, because a reusable sticker set about the yomim tovim is, I would say, hands-on learning at its best. Kids can really play with the content and create scenarios.”
Buechler explained that she hopes she will work on more projects like this in the future, saying, “There were definitely a lot of families that were seeking additional sticker boards because their kids love them, and also because they were a meaningful and modern way to celebrate Pesach, and now Rosh Hashanah and Sukkot and Simchat Torah. I hope to be able to continue the series.”
The High Holiday Hive is available on MidrashManicures.com.
