G I R L S E N J O Y M I S H M A R A T A F T R H I G H S C H O O L

As the final bell of the day rang at HAFTR High School and students boarded their buses home, a group of girls gathered together for a meaningful night of learning and bonding. On Wednesday, October 26, girls in all grades participated in an uplifting Mishmar. It was a night of learning, food, and fun. The evening began with each grade learning meaningful lessons about Parshat Noach from their Morot. After learning together, the girls enjoyed a delicious dinner of chicken fingers, poppers, and potato kugel. Mishmar concluded with a beautiful Kumzitz where all the girls sang together and were inspired by the music. There was tremendous ruach and achdut as the students had an opportunity to bond and connect with their Morot and classmates while forming new friendships with students in other grades. This was the second girls’ Mishmar of the year, and everyone had a blast! We can’t wait for the next chance to join together in learning on Wednesday, November 16, when we join for our third Mishmar. Thank you to Mrs. Schechter, Ms. Diamond, the Morot, and all the girls who participated in making it a fun and meaningful event!

Students at HAFTR High School recently participated Jewish Unity Mentoring Program, also known as JU program was held on Sunday, October 23, and October 24 in Somerset, NJ. As a freshman, I was what to expect, but we were greeted by familiar Rabbis, and NCSY staff who made us all feel welco that moment on, it was clear that this was going enjoyable and productive day; we were going to be on how to solve problems using innovative thinking, t and informed decision-making

The first mission was to work as a team and write down seven advantages and disadvantages of being Jewish, and then choose one idea on which to focus My group was led by Mrs Sela Wagner, Madricha at HAFTR High School, and included Kayla Jakubowitz, Mia Robinson and me. After much discussion, we decided as a group to focus on an important issue that we have observed: that it often takes moments of sadness and hardship to unite Jews together, rather than experiencing that achdus in times of joy. This has been at the forefront of our minds, especially after the HAFTR family experienced such a heartwrenching tragedy this past year with the loss of one of our own students. Whether students were in middle or high school, everyone joined to mourn together. It is our hope that this achdus could be experienced on a normal basis, and not as a result of a challenge. After many hours of discussing amongst ourselves, talking to professionals, and rethinking our ideas, we began to develop a solution to this issue.

Our solution revolved around utilizing social media platforms, such as Instagram and Whatsapp, and other technology to build a sense of community and togetherness among the Jewish people Recognizing that all sorts of individuals, young and old, gather and share news and events through apps and social media, we knew this was a powerful way to reach our targeted audience Our initiative began with the focus of notifying Jewish teens in New York and New Jersey about various opportunities to contribute toward and participate in chessed together

After organizing and redefining our ideas, it was time to present them to the audience and judges on a podcast called “1840.” While it was nerve-wracking, we were prepared and eager to share our ideas. We presented our plan, as well as the story behind our mission, and answered questions for close to 10 minutes. I looked around the room and there was not a dry eye to be seen. It was obvious that we connected with the crowd in a deeply emotional way. Each group presented thoughtful and intuitive ideas, but our efforts paid off as we were announced as first-place winners. As the winning group, our efforts will be featured on the “1840” podcast, as well as in Jewish Action, a magazine published by the Orthodox Union. It was an exhilarating and emotional moment for us, and we look forward to using the skills we learned through the JUMP program.