Year 6 students and their parents came together Thursday morning for the inaugural Year 6 Yom HaMishpachah (Family Day) event. 

Yom Hamishpachah/Family Day, which falls on the 30th day of the Hebrew month of Sh’vat, marks the anniversary of the death of Henrietta Szold, who died on this day 80 years ago! In the 1990s, Yom HaMishpachah was instituted in Israel – a day to celebrate all families and to do activities to bring them closer together.

Szold was an American Jew whose father was the Rabbi of one of the oldest Reform congregations in the world. She was the founder of Hadassah, a Jewish women’s volunteer organisation, which supported tipat chalav (well-baby clinics), Hadassah hospitals, and the Youth Aliyah program. Even though Szold herself did not have children, because of her amazing contribution to children across Israel, she is known as “the Mother of all Children”. 

We honoured Szold’s legacy by bringing our families closer together through engaging in limmud – learning Jewish texts together. Students and their families learned Pirkei Avot, which deals with how to live ethically and with some big philosophical questions of life, and discussed and debated some key questions together, including ‘are first impressions always right?’ and ‘How can you “step up” to the challenge of being a person who actively does the right thing, when there are no other people around actively doing the right thing?’ Six students were even brave enough to volunteer to share the contents of their discussion with everybody!

At the end of the event, Coordinator of Jewish Experiential Education Josh New, taught about Pirkei Avot 2:16 — “It is not your duty to finish the work, but neither are you free to neglect it”, before playing guitar and singing it in Hebrew, inviting families to join in. The event finished with delicious light snacks. Thank you to our Year 6 families for a wonderful morning of learning and togetherness!

Ilan Bloch
Director of Jewish Life and Learning