Jewish public-school children in Queens and Brooklyn, N.Y., are in for a sweet surprise: a mishloach manot goodie bag with a colorful card from a child their age in nearby Jewish day schools.
“It was really special for us to prepare these for kids in public school,” says Ilan, a fifth-grader in the Jewish Institute of Queens, who himself transferred from public school this past year. “We were a team working together to help the kids have a happy Purim.”
The packages will be conveyed to the public-school children by the instructors of the Released Time Program, which works with New York City public schools to offer weekly, hour-long sessions of religious instruction.
Like many of his peers at the Jewish Institute—most of whom are former public
school students—Ilan himself used to rely on Released Time to supplement the Jewish education he received at home. Now, he says it “feels good” to be able to share his Jewish knowledge with his friends still there.
The Released Time program was founded in 1940 by the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe—Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn, of righteous memory—and attracted as many as 10,000 Jewish students weekly through the 1960s. A division of National Committee for Furtherance of Jewish Education (NCFJE), it currently serves nearly 900 students in almost 80 schools throughout all five boroughs of New York, in addition to nearby Yonkers.
Each package contains a hand-decorated card personalized from the sender to the recipient, as well as goodies that include a hamantash—the traditional, three-cornered Purim pastry filled with jam or other flavored centers.
‘It’s Going to Be a Surprise’
When distributing the packages on Wednesday, the Released Time instructors—mostly students at the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim-Lubavitch in Brooklyn—will educate the recipients that the bags are to be passed on to a fellow Jew on the following day, Purim.
Giving mishloach manot food gifts is one of four mitzvahs associated with the joyous holiday; the others are to hear the book of Esther read from an authentic Megillah scroll, both Wednesday evening and again on Thursday; to give charity to at least two poor people; and to partake in a festive meal.
Celebrated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar, Purim commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s plot “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day,” as recorded in the book of Esther.
The elementary division of the Queens school—which has a total enrollment of 600 from preschool through high school—prepared 270 treats, each class making them for another public school in the borough.
Allan, a classmate of Ilan’s, says he was happy to learn that his class would be preparing packages to be given to the school where his cousin and other friends study. In fact, he got to make the package that will be given to his cousin. “It’s going to be a surprise,” he notes with satisfaction.
About 15 miles southwest, a similar scene took place in the Mazal Day School, where the children packed mishloach manot for children in a number of public schools in their area of Brooklyn, which is heavily populated by first- and second-generation Russian-Jewish immigrants.
“In addition to the fact that they are brightening the holiday for a child who may otherwise not celebrate,” says kindergarten through eighth-grade general-studies curriculum coordinator Batya Engel, “we use this as a teaching moment to help the children realize how fortunate they are to be receiving a solid Jewish education.”
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