New Center for Student and Jewish Life

Sophia Mittman

School News Editor

With the opening of the new Center for Student and Jewish Life in the Dining Commons, there has been tons of planning, excitement, and creativity in the new space. The new center is designed as a safe space for students and clubs to freely share ideas and socialize. Clubs can meet in the room during designated lunches, breaks, or Kehillah periods. The Student Associations and JLI have worked together in the center to plan activities for Lag B’omer for the entire school. JLI meets in the space several times a week to learn more about Judaism and to plan events for the Chagim, Shabbat Shmoozes, and other fun activities.

As a JLI member, I feel welcome to share my ideas and talk about how to make our school more exciting. The room is a comfortable space with a TV and is decorated with blue and white colors, representing the colors of our school and Israel. Soon the room will have comfy chairs to make the room feel even more inclusive. Recently, a few JLI members installed mezuzot in doorways around the school that needed new mezuzot. They put the parchment paper containing the Shema into those new Mezuzah boxes as an activity for the new center. They then hung one in the new space, which was a fun way to make the center an official room in the building. As a JLI team, we created a Passover parody video in the space for the whole school. The room also has two offices for Benaya and Ms. Grossman, who work with JLI as leaders for the school. Along with the other JLI members, we look forward to planning many future events in the center and seeing other students and clubs collaborate in the amazing new space.