Queens Jewish Link
Connecting the Queens Jewish Community 
On Monday, May 16, the Yeshiva of Central Queens PTO, honorees, and guests gathered in the YCQ Dining Hall to honor departing faculty members Mrs. Ellen Orlanski, Mrs. Darlene Picciano, Rabbi Michael Ribalt, and Ms. Jenni Chubak at the annual YCQ PTO Supperette.
Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe celebrated Lag BaOmer with an annual bonfire. The Lag BaOmer simchah started with a bonfire and live music. The celebration for grades 1-4 started with Rabbi Bookson speaking to the boys about what the simchah of Lag BaOmer is and why we are celebrating. Rabbi Pollak was then honored with lighting the fire and continued with singing Bar Yochai along with the boys. Rabbi Bookson then led the boys in enthusiastic singing and dancing around the bonfire with music by Yossi Newman. After the dancing, the boys enjoyed soft-serve ice cream from our very own ice cream machine sponsored by the YTM Parents Association. The boys then enjoyed a special pizza and spicy-fries lunch with over 100 pies ordered from Shimon’s and Benjy’s pizza shops.
A new Sh’mitah initiative is taking place in the Bais Yaakov Academy of Queens. A three-week S’firas HaOmer program entitled “SH’MITAH AND ME – Making Sh’mitah Personal” encourages the girls to internalize the lessons and practice the good midos learned from this mitzvah. After all, Sh’mitah is a mitzvah for farmers in Eretz Yisrael. What does it have to do with me? This is the goal of our program.
May has been designated as Mental Health Awareness month, and several programs outside of school about managing emotions have been made available to teachers and students of the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls, including a session about managing mental health during the gap year in Israel.
As part of the Names, Not Numbers Holocaust Education Program, the boys in the seventh grade interviewed Mrs. Chaya Small of Chicago, great-grandmother of two YTM talmidim, Yechiel and Betzalel Small. Bubby Small visited the boys in Morah Bryna’s kindergarten class and shared with them her amazing story. In a very child-friendly way, she left the boys spellbound as she put on her kimono and told the boys all about her trip from Poland to Shanghai as a young child and her stay there during the war.
It was a morning of inspiration and flower arranging fun!
YSZ HS for Girls hosted a beautiful mother-daughter breakfast for their current and incoming freshmen this Sunday morning in honor of the upcoming holiday of Shavuot. The room was decorated with beautiful springtime flowers and a festive breakfast spread.
