Towards the end of last week, the staff at the Chabad Buckhurst Hill Cheder visited every child who attends their Hebrew classes for a “Graduation at Your Door Ceremony.”
A red carpet was rolled out in front of each home and the children were invited to step out and receive a special graduation box, a personalised certificate and choose some prizes from Cheder Points they had collected throughout the year.
Rabbi Odom and Henny Brandman, together with their assistant Sheina Edelman and Esther Joseph as photographer, made the visits which were prearranged with all the parents to make sure everybody would be home and logistics would work for everybody.
Huge smiles were seen on all the children’s faces as they opened their front doors, heard the music and saw the laid out carpet and all the goodies. The box included some nice treats for each child, and even homemade cookies covered in thick coloured icing that related to each child’s Hebrew reading level which Henny Brandman had made.
Feedback from parents was phenomenal and humbling, it was clear that huge thought and effort had gone into arranging everything and this was very much appreciated.
One parent wrote: We just wanted to thank you for the graduation ceremony, our son was so happy and as always, your commitment to making Judaism fun is amazing. Another parent wrote: That was incredible, thank you! You brightened by my and Sammy’s day, we look forward to September when hopefully he can return in person to Cheder.
Rabbi Brandman explained, “the week lockdown began we got ourselves into gear, and Sheina, who works with us, managed to get Cheder up and running online with live zoom lessons which continued every single week during lockdown.
“We are so happy that we have been able to continue serving the community and adapting to the times and this end of year ceremony outside each family’s home really just brought a fun and heartwarming close to the academic year,” Rabbi Brandman said.
