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February 1, 2002/19 Shevat 5762, Vol. 54, No. 20
Torah Fair builds community among day schools
JESSICA BARBER
Editorial Assistant
Third-, fourth- and fifth-grade students from the four Valley Jewish day schools celebrated the principles of mitzvot and tikkun olam (repairing the world) at the Torah Fair, held Jan. 23 at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts.
Students from The King David School, Pardes Jewish Day School, the Tri-City Jewish Community Center Day School and Phoenix Hebrew Academy presented displays that reflected research on various mitzvot, including visiting the sick, kindness to animals, honoring parents and caring for the environment.
Myra Schindler, coordinator of the fair and program director of the Bureau of Jewish Education, felt the research projects were vital to the students' Jewish education.
"They do a lot of these types of things in the secular field, but they don't really have the opportunity to do it in Judaica. It was a nice opportunity to put Judaica in the public spotlight."
Students also had the opportunity to participate in arts and crafts projects and meet children from other schools.
"We wanted to bring kids together from all the Jewish day schools to help them feel part of a larger community," said Schindler. "I think it really helps, the psychological feeling of being part of a larger community."
Schindler hopes to make the fair an annual event, perhaps involving students of different grade levels or changing the theme and projects to reinforce what students are learning in the classroom.
"I heard a lot of good feedback from the teachers. ... The kids were working in small groups and there was a lot of cooperative learning going on," she said. "(There were) a lot of good feelings across the board."
The Torah Fair was a project of the Bureau of Jewish Education made possible in part by a grant from the Jewish Community Foundation of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
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