For the third consecutive year, The Genia Horn Judaic Studies Program of Yeshivat Noam hosted and led a kinot program on Tisha B’Av. Designed for middle school students, alumni and parents, over 85 people gathered to share an interactive and meaningful experience together. After Shacharit, Rabbi Chaim Hagler, Principal, introduced the kinot with a story emphasizing that although we are fortunate to be living in a free country, we must remember that we are still in Galut, exile, as a result of the destruction of the Beit Hamikdash. Together the room echoed the words of the kinot, which express prayers of a persecuted people who look to God for hope.

Rabbi Yitzchok Motechin, Assistant Principal of the Middle School, Judaic Studies, and Rabbi Hagler explained the kinot and each kinah was introduced by a video that set the tone for that specific kinah. The younger students left in the middle of the kinot with Rabbi Yaakov Nadler, fourth-grade rebbe, and Ms. Aliza Chanales, Assistant Principal of the Middle School, General Studies, to participate in an interactive program, followed by a short video, relating to the Kamtza-Bar Kamtza story. Rabbi Joel Cohn joined the program live from Jerusalem where he relayed to the students what Tisha B’Av was like in Jerusalem and showed them how the Nevuot, prophecies, of redemption have been taking place in our time. The program concluded with the entire group reciting the kinah to remember the Shoah together followed by the singing of “Eli Tzion.”

According to Rabbi Hagler, “Yeshivat Noam is a year-round learning environment. We host programs encouraging parent-and-child learning on a regular basis. We appreciate our administrators and teachers who took the lead in making Tisha B’Av a meaningful and memorable day for our students and their parents.”

At the conclusion of the program, Rabbi Hagler invited everybody to join him and his family next year on Tisha B’Av in his home, IY”H in Jerusalem to celebrate the Yom Tov of Tisha B’Av together.