Students Celebrate History

ALBANY, NY — Purim is annual celebration that commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia. Well, recently students and teachers from a local school recognized this holiday. And while they understand the historical significance, there was also a more lighthearted approach toward some local history as well.

Mandel Rubin of the Maimonides School said, “Our school built our own Halfmoon boat. It’s not exactly a replica, but it’s a Halfmoon boat them, and our students worked on it and they studied about the Netherlands and they studied about the boat and Henry Hudson’s journey.”

Maybe not exactly a replica, but it shows historical significance, as well some accomplishment.

Rubin said, “We like to be hands-on and creative. We like to integrate learning and life and do things that are fun and entertaining and engaging for the students.”

And while making a visit to Albany City Hall, students and teachers were able to recognize some history behind the Capital City, while having a bit of fun at the same time.

Steve Weis of the Halfmoon Voyager said, “The puppets certainly help connect the whole 400th anniversary and the quadcentennial and the new Netherland museum and the replica ship Halfmoon.”

And this is just one of several events planned.

Rubin said, “We’re honoring at the end of the year a spectrum of Capital Region explorers, people who have explored areas of human endeavor, and they’ll be speaking with our students, our students will be interviewing them, and it’s part of our overall theme here.”

And after all these years, we asked Henry Hudson himself what he thought.

“Albany is a wonderful place and it was 400 years ago, and it’s even more wonderful today.”

So the tradition continues.