The Parrot Rebbe Finds New Chassidim at Mercaz Academy’s ECC

The Parrot Rebbe visited the Early Childhood Center at Mercaz Academy in Plainview, educating and delighting the students with more than a dozen trained parrots. The Parrot Rebbe (shlita!) opened with Chuckles, a cockatoo that said hello to the children and danced to music (along with the Parrot Rebbe and Rabbi Fogel). Pairs of colorful parrots raced up ladders to the cheers of the children, flew to perches, and rested on the heads and shoulders of staff members. “The best way to show the children that the parrots are nothing to be scared of is to demonstrate with the teachers. A teacher walking around with a parrot, showing the students up close, opens them up to interacting with the birds.”

The Parrot Rebbe, who is more formally known as Rabbi Nochem Guber, is a chassid living in Monsey who started collecting and caring for birds as a child. Now, he has amassed approximately one hundred exotic birds, and he takes his trained parrot show on the road to share with children all over the tristate area.

During performances, the Parrot Rebbe wears his customary chassidic clothing, but his bekeshe sports a wild parrot print rather than the traditional black. “It does add to the simcha of the show, but it also makes it much easier for the parrots to spot me when they’re flying around, and many of my shows take place in crowds where everyone is wearing black.”

The show closed with most of the children posing for a photo with a parrot on their heads. Several of the more timid students were happy to pose with the birds perched on the heads and shoulders of their teachers. The birds and the Parrot Rebbe basked in the wild applause and shrieks of joy from the excited three-, four-, and five-year-olds throughout the exciting performance, because “for me, it’s all about the kinderlach, the children.”