More than 30 parents gathered in the lunchroom of Kinneret Day School on June 15, to celebrate the final “Shabbat” or sabbath of the academic year while students paid tribute to Jewish leaders from Abraham, the “father of the Jews,” to Golda Meir, Israel’s first prime minister.
The performance began by exploring the lineage of Jews in the Torah. Abraham appeared in a long flowing gray tunic and Sara, his wife, discussed how God helped them produce children despite her being infertile.
“I am Yitzkov’s mother and my name means love,” she said.
Nine girls launched into a dance as the play depicted Sara’s son Yitzkov, or Isaac in English, marrying Rivka and having two children.
They stepped in a circular formation, stopped to do jumping jacks and clapped as their classmates sang a Hebrew song about drawing water from the well of salvation.
The dancers returned when Moses entered onto the stage, wearing a white head covering and carrying a tree branch.
“I am Moses. I freed my people from Pharaoh. I brought them back to Israel,” he said. The kindergartners held hands and weaved themselves in and out of a circle while stomping to the beat of a Hebrew song.
Jonah entered the stage by crawling through a cardboard whale. He told the audience that he tried to run away from God and was swallowed by a big fish.
“This gave me a chance to think about what I did,” he said.
Next King Solomon discussed how he oversaw the construction of the first temple in Israel. When the temple was ransacked, Judah Maccabee entered the stage and led eight fellow Maccabee fighters in a resistance against the Syrian-Greek occupiers.
“We are here. We are here. We are here today — the Maccabees, the Macabees. We’ll march along and sing our song,” the boys sang while stalking across the stage.
More modern heroes began to appear when Theodor Herzl announced he was creating a nation for Jews across the world in Israel. Hannah Szenes, a Hungarian woman, walked on stage in military garb and announced she helped rescue Jews during World War II.
