Children Enjoy Chabad’s “Tu B’Shvat Adventure” Youth Zone
Click image to view photos
Goshen, January 2008 - Chabad’s popular “Youth Zone” recently held a “Tu B’Shvat Adventure Day,” celebrating the Jewish festival of Tu B'Shvat. Translated as the 15th day in the month of Shvat, this holiday celebrates the Jewish birthday for the trees. Customs observed worldwide include planting trees and eating new fruits, with a special focus on fruits which are grown in Israel.
Over forty Children ages 5-13 experienced an exciting array of fun and educational activities at the “Tu B’Shvat Adventure.” The program began with a sensory tasting table, in which participants touched, smelled and tasted a variety of exotic fruits while blindfolded.
“With it’s emphasis on nature, this holiday provides an excellent opportunity to teach children about environmental awareness and the contribution each child can make to the world,” says Chana Burston, who co-directs Chabad of Orange County with her husband, Rabbi Pesach Burston. To highlight this theme, every child helped build a gigantic “wish tree”. After designing their own tree branches and accompanying leaf, participants wrote their names and wishes of how they hoped to help beautify the world. “I want to bring more peace to the world,” wrote Agatha Benichou, age 11, or Cornwall. Yitzy Zelenko, age 5, of Monroe, resolved that he would “pick up garbage outside,” and Jessica Avla, also age 5 of Monroe, wants to plant more trees to make the world beautiful.
The children then embarked on an adventure of exploring the seven species of food grown in Land of Israel, which includes olives, grapes, pomegranates, wheat, barley, dates and figs. Split into seven stations, the Tu B’Shvat youth enabled participants to engage in stimulating activities while simultaneously learning important lessons from the instructors at each booth. Appreciating the food we have and where it comes from as well as environmental awareness were some of the themes explored during the “adventure.”
While some children mashed their own olives to create and taste olive dip, others washed and prepared grapes to make their own grape-juice. At the wheat station children were busy competing as they sifted for treasures in couscous. Everyone loved creating fruit-shaped magnets out of barley, and designing and tasting delicious date kabobs. At the pomegranate station, participants counted the seeds in the fruit and learned that “just as a pomegranate is full of seeds, we should be full of good deeds.” One of the most popular activities was creating fig and fruit loop necklaces and key rings, electing family members to receive them as gifts or enthusiastically wearing them for the remainder of the day.
Chabad Youth directors, Chaya Jacobs and Brocha Shollar, arranged programming for the Youth Zone. Chabad thanks the many volunteers who helped run the various booths.
To find out more information about the Chabad Youth Zone and other programs, please call 782-2770, email [email protected] or log onto ChabadOrange.com.