Cheder at the Ohel’s Chanukah Carnival and Play

The annual Cheder Ohel Carnival was run this year by Rabbi Zalman Schurder’s Kita Dalet. The students had a great time planning and preparing this low tech, highly enjoyable Chanukah Carnival. Kita Dalet ran the booths, until the last while when they switched with the oldest class so they too could enjoy all the activities.

All the students enjoyed the booths, raffles, prizes.

At the end of the day, everyone had their fair share of donuts, water was everywhere and smiles were on everyones faces.

A few more days into Chanukah, Rabbi Sholom Kramer’s Kita Vov/Zayin prepared the Chanukah play “The Power of Light.”

It is a story about how yidden made a kiddish Hashem on Chanukah to the Japanese vice consul to Lithuania during WWII, Chiune Sugihara. Later, when Mr. Sugihara heard what the fate of Jews who would be left in Lithuania would be, he tirelessly wrote thousands of visas for yidden to go to Japan.

At the end of the play, all the boys sang a song of the above story. Mendel Geisinsky was the narrator and Baruch Schnear Kalmenson preformed the musical accompaniment and sound effects. Meir Deren, Memke Goldshmid, Scheur Deren and Baruch Kalmenson also painted some of the backdrops used in the play.

Some of the students at Cheder at the Ohel are direct descendants of those saved by Sugihara, thus making the play even more touching.