OCA celebrated Israel’s 76th birthday as a school community. Students began the day with a tekes (ceremony), which included the 4th grade daglanut and the Yom Ha’atzmaut choir performance. This year’s Yom Ha’atzmaut theme at school was bravery. Soldiers in the IDF exemplify bravery to protect the land and people of Israel, so the school highlighted IDF military branches in the day’s programming for students in grades K-8. Students learned about the roles, skills, and responsibilities of 6 different IDF branches. For example, the Golani Brigade focused on team building with an obstacle course, the Intelligence unit participated in an escape room, the Yahalom Combat Engineers enjoyed a Mission-Based Bridge Building Challenge, and so on. In the ECC, students hopped on board a flight to Israel holding their Israeli passports and flags. They traveled through Israel exploring sensory activities: visiting the Dead Sea and doing a science experiment about how salt makes items float, building a model Kotel and writing notes they placed inside the Kotel bricks, and making homemade Israeli salad. They also had a juice bar in the ECC, which included מיץ תפוזים (orange juice) squeezed by the children, themselves.
Everyone enjoyed a delicious falafel lunch and blue and white cupcakes!
In the evening OCA, in partnership with Congregation Shomrei Emunah, hosted its annual Yom Ha’atzmaut community celebration with over 700 people in attendance. The event featured an opening tekes and carnival style booths highlighting Israel’s resilience and chesed through various organizations. Event participants visited the Shuk, prepared a Leket salad, visited an ambulance (UNITED Hatzalah), climbed up a rock wall like soldiers in the IDF, designed multi- sensory cards to send to residents in ADI, and so much more. It was a spectacular evening filled with fun for the entire family.
