HAFTR Highlights

Celebrating Hanukkah with spirited fun

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Happy Holidays! The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway High school had a great month filled with meaningful Hanukkah celebrations, including a spirited holiday concert, color war and special candle lighting ceremony.

HAFTR kicked off the Hanukkah festivities with a concert by DJ Raphi. Students had a great time singing along to Hanukkah songs and learning DJ Raphi’s dance moves.

At the end of the concert, DJ Raphi told an inspirational personal story about growing up, and then surprised all students by announcing that instead of continuing with regular classes for the rest of the holiday, HAFTR would have a color war instead.

The student body was divided into two teams, each a different color, and then began competing in fun challenges.

Throughout the three days of programming, there were unique student leadership opportunities for students and memorable team-building exercises for the entire school. Regardless of a student’s interests or strengths, there was an event that engaged everyone.

Students were appointed as generals, lieutenants, sergeants and majors to lead one of the two color war teams. These students had the critical role of boosting team spirit, directing their teammates in activities and leading their team to victory in all the activities.

Students competed in a variety of games such as bean bag toss, human tic-tac-toe, hungry hungry hippos, basketball, musical chairs, and more. Each team learned two songs, one in Hebrew and one in English, that related to a specific theme. The songs were performed at the closing ceremony of the competition.

ther highlights of the program were presentations from the HAFTR Robotics, STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) and audio visual clubs. The robotics and STEM clubs, with students representing each side of the competition, built interactive posters that reflected the team’s theme.

The posters made use of coding and other technologies, all of which impressed students and judges. Students who are part of the Audio Visual Club used HAFTR’s fully equipped media center to create and edit comedic videos, which were also presented at closing ceremonies. Students had such a fun time competing in all of these games and making new friends of their teammates.

The color war ended on a high note with all the students and faculty joining together to light the menorah on the front lawn.

The menorah, constructed from repurposed rockets that were fired into Israel, represents the resiliency, unity and desire for peace we all have. The rockets, once a sign of hate and violence, were transformed to become a symbol of light and unity for the Jewish people.

The evening culminated in spirited singing, dancing and enjoying delicious donuts – all special Hanukkah traditions.

We hope everyone had a safe and happy holiday!