It would be great if we had more pictures like this in our collection, but we don’t. It is the writer’s hope that as we make our way through the 100th anniversary year, more pictures will turn up as those who were born and raised here search their files for old pictures. But in the mean time, this is just one example of some of the things that our Hebrew School curriculum ensured.
From the beginning, Hebrew School was all about inculcating in the minds of the young a sense of Jewish identity and broadening the understanding of what Jewish identity was all about. Research has shown time and time again, that no matter how assimilated most young Jewish people are, they have had opportunities to participate in family seders. If you start a conversation about seders in traditional Jewish families, the memories just start to pour out.
The picture above is the only one we have so far in our collection indicating what was a guaranteed part of every Hebrew School calendar. Our library has indications of collections of Haggadah collected to be used in the Hebrew School from one year to the next. For too many years to mention, the seder meal prepared for the Hebrew School children reflected exactly what would be had at home during Pesach. The full menu was included and often times, the meal was prepared by Ida Caplan Orvitz who for many years was the go-to caterer in the synagogue. The picture above shows a Model Seder in what used to be called the Vestry Room, now renamed the Tomarin Room thanks to the generosity of that family that underwrote the renovations of the room and the kitchen. But when the baby boomers came along, the seders moved up to the auditorium and included long tables of kids with the old Manischevitz Hagaddahs and all the trimmings of a traditional seder meal.