JLET Takes On Purim During Pandemic

By Izzi Zellan ‘23 and Rebecca Altman ‘24

Taking part in Purim this year was different and more difficult than in years past. With all the COVID-19 restrictions that GOA follows, participating in a big joyous day in a typical manner was not possible. However, thanks to the hard work of the faculty and student body, Purim was still able to be a fun and meaningful celebration this year.
Ms. Mittleman, a teacher at GOA and member of the Jewish Life and Experiential Team, played a large role in planning Purim this year.

“Obviously, the Megillah reading [was a challenge]... you could only put a limited number of people in each space,” Ms. Mittleman said. 
She faced a similar issue with the social action projects that students participated in. Some classrooms couldn’t safely hold more than twelve students, so it was much more difficult to create communal activities that still felt meaningful while only involving small groups of students. 
“One of the major tenets of Purim is joy, and a pandemic is maybe the opposite of that. So we really wanted to figure out how to bring elements of joy into the Purim celebration,” Ms. Mittleman said. “And number two was the whole concept of Matanot Le’evyonim, since it’s a very important part of Purim and it was important to find a way to give back, while we’re experiencing significantly more joy than the rest of the world.” 
To achieve that aspect of giving back, students collectively participated in seventeen different social action projects around the building, ranging in issues from racial justice to recycling. 
Ms. Sonia Alexander, social justice educator and part of JLET, said that she “wanted to give students the chance to engage in hands-on and interactive social action projects, where they could contribute something tangible.”
Many of those action projects were led, researched, and organized by students. Compared to years past, where activities had a lot less student involvement in their planning, this year held the possibility of more meaningful and in-depth experiences. Freshmen Mimi Lebeau and Agam Rejwan led a group in creating care packages for essential workers.
“Agam and I decided to help out with this project because, especially with the pandemic, we know how hard the healthcare professionals are working and the sacrifices they make to help others,” Lebeau said. “We wanted to do something to give back and thank them for their bravery.”
“My favorite part of Purim this year was the social action projects. I thought it was a good way to get everyone together to help each other, and it was fun,” freshman Maya Taylor-Prince said.
Many aspects of Purim had to change this year, but that joy that Ms. Mittleman mentioned was still an essential part of the day. Activities such as the Purim spiel, the costume contest, trivia and Pie-A-Teacher were altered, but present. Eric Fox, another integral member of JLET, facilitated the trivia contest and kept everyone on schedule in between activities.
The spiel, instead of being in its usual live skit form, was a pre-recorded video that was shared with students through Zoom. All the other activities were shown on Zoom as well, with the in-person features of trivia and the costume contest taking place in the Beit Knesset. Pie-A-Teacher remained was also broadcasted over Zoom, with the actual pie-ing remaining nearly unchanged — teachers wore masks, but students made sure they all still got the full experience.
Many of the technological components of this year’s Purim are the hard work of Mr. Mittleman, another member of  JLET. Mr. Mittleman’s role is to bring technology to JLET activities through incorporating “videos, music and immersive elements to bring… programming to life and hopefully facilitate more memorable, fun, and spiritual experiences with the students.” 
For the Purim festivities, Mr. Mittleman wanted to engage the student body and faculty to have a day of fun and safe programming. Along with Ms. Mittleman, Mr. Mittleman put the faculty Purim spiel video together. He also edited the wildly successful Golden Octaves and Six13 Purim music video, called “Kings and Queens Purim.”
To be sure, Purim was not perfect this year. 
“I want to reinvent the Megillah reading in the future because I don’t want everyone to be in these tiny classrooms, but it’s now hard to imagine that the entire school could fit in the BK. It’s like, can we fit one grade in there?” Ms. Mittleman said. “I want to figure out ways to make it super engaging and fun while recognizing that [the Megillah reading] can be a long process.”
The Megillah reading is a notoriously lengthy part of Purim, and many students agreed with Ms. Mittleman’s sentiment. 
Sophomore Sophie Fischer said, “I loved the Pie-A-Teacher and social action activities, but I think that the reading of the Megillah could have been made more enjoyable and entertaining.”
Overall, despite its shortcomings, Purim this year managed to create fun and happiness while building new traditions of student involvement in social action. 
When asked about her favorite part of the day, Ms. Mittleman said, “the seniors giving out hamantaschen outside — it reminded me of the essence of our school. They were going crazy, dancing to music and throwing hamantaschen to people, and they chose to come back to school when they didn’t have to. So many awesome things happened on Purim, but the end of it reminded me of the joy, fun and spirit of our school.”