During the
February vacation, I had the privilege of being the “Rosh” (the
head) of the annual Confirmation Class trip to New
York City. All 12 of our confirmands
joined students from Derry, New
Hampshire, and Haverhill
and Franklin, Massachusetts
for three jam-packed days in the Big Apple. We arrived in NY
in a comfortable coach bus and immediately took the ferry from
Battery Park to the Museum
of Immigration at Ellis
Island. There, students had the opportunity to see
what it was like for many of our grandparents and great grandparents
to immigrate to this country. After a cold ferry ride back, we
got ourselves settled in the hotel and then headed uptown where
we had dinner at Ben’s Kosher Deli. There truly is nothing like
a deli in New York. After dinner,
we walked to the Nederlander Theater where we had orchestra seats to the show
“Rent”. The show, which is about bohemian life in the Village
at the end of the 90’s, touches on many Jewish values, which we
had the opportunity to discuss. After this very moving show,
we walked over to the Brooklyn Diner where we all enjoyed dessert.
And that was only day one!
Monday morning,
we were up bright and early having breakfast at a restaurant near
the hotel. Following breakfast, we had a quick shacharit service and then we boarded our bus
again and headed to the Chasam Sopher
synagogue south of Houston
Street. Our guide, Jeff, took us to
all kinds of interesting historic places as we walked around the
Lower East Side. We saw the
Forward Building, the Educational Alliance, some
original tenement buildings, and of course, we stopped for pickles
and bialys! We then headed over to the Museum of Jewish Heritage where family members of
Holocaust survivors took us around and shared some of their own
personal stories as they showed us the exhibits. We were physically
and emotionally drained after all that, so we went back to the
hotel and had some time to debrief and socialize a little before
our evening activities. Once we freshened up, we headed to the
Upper West Side where we went
to the JCC Manhattan. They served us plenty of veggie lasagna,
pasta primavera and salads, and we worked it all off on the basketball
courts! After shooting hoops for a couple of hours, we went to
a nearby restaurant for s’mores! By midnight, we were all really tired and went right
to sleep.
Tuesday, our
final day in NY, was jam-packed with things to do, so we were
up and out by 7:30am. We visited HUC-JIR (Hebrew Union College-Jewish
Institute of Religion), the seminary in Greenwich
Village for Reform rabbis and cantors. We had a short
service in their beautiful chapel, and then a rabbinic and a cantorial
student came to speak with us while we ate breakfast. After breakfast,
we took the bus to Yeshiva University
Museum where
we had the opportunity to not only see the exhibits, but do a
hands-on art project that was linked to what we saw in the museum.
Our kids were fabulous! We had a pizza lunch at the museum and
then went up to Top of the Rock (at the top of Rockefeller Center). The kids got a fantastic view
of New York, New
Jersey and the surrounding boroughs, and a birds-eye
look at the Empire
State Building
up close and personal! We then walked up Fifth
Avenue and visited Temple
Emanuel,
the largest Reform synagogue in the country. Our kids were amazed
by the Tiffany windows, the marble stairs and the vastness of
the sanctuary, but we all decided that Temple Beth Am was a much
warmer place to spend Shabbat.
After all
of that, 27 very tired people boarded the bus and headed back
home to Framingham. I hope that every student in our
school has the opportunity to take this trip when they are in
10th grade. It is a very special time, and no matter
how many times I go, it is always like a new trip because I see
it through the eyes of a new group of students!
