Shushan Purim Chagiga

On Shushan Purim, March 8th, HANC High School held our annual Purim chagiga; however, this year’s chagiga differed from most in the past. The theme of this year’s chagiga was a Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebration for our Rebbeim and Morot. During First Period, many students volunteered to set up cups of Shirley temples, trays of pizza snaps, and different egg rolls. Additionally, pictures of the Rebbeim and Morot were put up around the gym to really make it look like an authentic Bar and Bat Mitzvah celebration. Once all the prep was in place and polished, students and faculty flooded into the gym to start the party. 

The chagiga started off with copious amounts of food and drink (who doesn’t want to wash down an egg roll with a shirley temple?) while a wonderful band played in the background. Of course, once everyone finished eating, the dancing began. Everyone was so excited for this chagiga and the energy was amazing. 

After all of the dancing, singing, photo-snapping, and fun, Rabbi Hulkower invited everyone to sit down for some genuine Bar and Bat Mitzvah speeches. He offered an amazing introduction, joking with the students that he used the famous ChatGBT to write these speeches. Not only were the Bar and Bat Mitzvah speeches thoughtful and equipped with great messages, they were also, if we’re being honest, extremely funny. 

Following, we watched a montage made by Aviva Afrahim 23’ about “growing up” with the photoshop of the Rebbeim and Morot as a particular highlight. After the montage, Rabbi Slomnicki delivered a short speech outlining all of the fun events and activities that the administrators had planned for us, including a wide range of classic Bar and Bat Mitzvah games. At first Rabbi Slomnicki went easy on us, but towards the end the games became very–shockingly, maddeningly–difficult. 

As students got knocked out of musical chairs, they mozied over for ice cream and a diverse range of toppings to select, followed by more dancing and even a chumzits. 

With great thanks to our administration and everyone involved, I cannot help but think that this chagiga was the best in recent memory, and we can’t wait for the next one!