Sydney Kids Graduate After-School Jewish Studies

JEMs (Jewish Education Matters), an after-school program for Jewish public-school children in Sydney, Australia, held its fourth banquet/graduation this past week, with a crowd of over 900 parents, grandparents, children and teens packing the venue.

The evening began with dinner and socializing, with many men lining up to put on tefillin.

At 6:15 the presentation started with a video of the Rebbe and a dedication to Rabbi Avrohom Levitansky, whose 3 children and sons-in-law try to follow in his footsteps of working with public school children.

Following the video, Rabbi Yossi Shuchat, who spearheads JEMs together with his wife Rivky, gave the opening speech and introduced the Kindergarteners, who got up on stage in full force with over 95 children singing torah tziva and other songs.

This was followed by a thank you and a gift to Keser Torah College for the use of their beautiful school campus, which was presented to Ilana Kaplan, the Vice President.

Next up were the 4-6 graders, who learned all year about our Jewish heroes and made a very entertaining video.

Following which, the teen volunteers were invited onto stage to receive their certificates and gifts from the head Shliach Rabbi Pinchus Feldman and other friends and supporters.

The 1^st grade children sang Shema and “I’m a Jew and I’m proud.”

Next up was Rabbi Dovid Slavin and the team from Our Big Kitchen, who received a thank you for their year-round support and for catering the evening.

Grades 2-3 did two performances, featuring the songs: “Midos are the way we act,” “Give it all you’ve got,” “Hareini Mekabel” and “Adon Olam.”

JEMs would like to thank all of those who help and have helped put this amazing event together, and a thank you to all the teachers: Mushka and Chaim Munitz – who also put together many fantastic video presentations, Chida levitansky – who also runs the teen volunteer program with over 130 teens, Fraida Aber, Rika Feldman, Chavi Lazarus, Perel Kirovskaya, Chana’le Slavin, Erin Freidman, and Benny Baruch.