Woodside_park Synagogue

Dvar Torah Club Presentations

On Shabbat Tzav Maxine Zeltser presented the following speech to the community. If there are any girls in years 3 - 6 who would like to join or find out more information then please email Maxine

Shabbat Shalom. Rabbi Hackenbroch, Rev. Robbins, Dvar Torah Club attendees and friends. Firstly, I would like to thank Rabbi Hackenbroch and the Honorary Officers for giving me the opportunity to address you today.

It is a particularly appropriate time to make the presentations to this year's graduates of Dvar Torah Club. At Purim, we dress up and act out different characters. In Dvar Torah Club, after a lively discussion of the weekly sedra, the girls perform stories to illustrate lessons that we can learn from the parsha in front of the children's service. Every girl is adept at acting out any role and is always full of enthusiasm and ideas.

Dvar Torah Club currently has an average of 20 members. Not only do we meet once a month in shul but we also hold an annual mums' and daughters' night out and a Shabbat lunch. Both events are always very well attended. We attract girls from both jewish and non-jewish schools and thus Dvar Torah Club has become a great forum for enabling girls to get to know each other. Dvar Torah Club has now been running for 5 years and it is wonderful to watch the girls transform from being shy and quiet when they start in year 3 to becoming confident and outgoing when they graduate in year 6.

I always emphasise how important it is for the older girls to help and include the new recruits. This is something that our graduates today are particularly good at. Faye, Talia, Sophie, Ellie, Sasha and Noya have been regular and enthusiastic attendees for many years. This presentation shows my appreciation and admiration for all their participation and commitment.

In the Megillah, Mordechai allays Esther's fears about approaching King Achashverosh to try to save the jews by assuring her that it was just for such a time that she attained her royal position. From these words we are reminded that each of us is unique and has a special role. My message to my graduates is that our task in life is to find our own potential and then use it to make our unique contribution to the world.

I would now like to ask Rabbi Hackenbroch to make the presentations.