Purim Celebrations at Girls Town

Purim festivities in Israel started from the first day of the month of Adar and continued until Purim was over two weeks later. At Bayit Lepletot – Girls Town Jerusalem, we joined in to help our girls develop a sense of self in a fun environment.

The celebrations began with our traditional Purim carnival. The girls enjoyed games, contests and face painting. They jumped on a bouncy castle and filled up on popcorn, French fries, cotton candy and pizza. And then they danced to lively music in the dark – while holding sparklers!

We teach our girls about the mitzvah of chessed (kindness) and they practice it all year round. For Purim, they organized a carnival for the neighborhood kids, which included booths such as horse rides, jumping castles, pop the balloons, a music corner, pin the brick and mask making. Hundreds of kids came and the event was a smashing success!

Doing good for others (and not always being on the receiving end) is a tremendous confidence booster and putting together an event of this magnitude teaches important organizational skills.

Purim itself was a rocket-blast from Shushan and back!!

After a very long and lively Megillah reading, a group of friends of Girls Town arrived. This family group brought mishlochai manot that were put together during the Bat Mitzvah celebration of one of their daughters. All the girls at GTJ showered her with mazal tov wishes and blessings for her future.

For a number of years, a group of wonderful women from Beit Shemesh have been collecting extra mishloach manot items from friends and neighbors. Then they quickly repackage them and prepare extra-special gift packages for our children. As usual, the mishlochai manot were hand-delivered on Shushan Purim and were enjoyed immensely.

Now that Purim is over, we are gearing up for our next big celebration – Pesach! Stay tuned for our updates about cleaning, preparing and enjoying the seder.