Caring Candles | Liat HaLevy, Shlicha Bnei Akiva of Detroit

Such a special way  to start the Chag! 

Bnei Akiva Detroit went on the first day of Chanukah to “Coville Assisted Living Center”. The Chanichim and families brought Simcha to the seniors who live there, sang songs and danced. The Chanichim handed out letters, cookies and chocolates that they made to the elderly themselves. At the end everybody lit the candles together!

Special Chanukah Snif and Seudat Shlishit

By: Gabi Gindoff | Co-Rosh Snif of Philadelphia

With the swiftness of the Hashmonaim and the wonder of last-minute miracles, Bnei Akiva of Philadelphia Chanichim and Madrichim experienced victory and defeat at Snif this past Shabbat during our Minute-to-Win-It Competition. Parents gazed in awe as two competing teams lifted mini-marshmallows with chopsticks. Shoes went flying aimed at tile markers on the floor! Ping-pong balls niftily bounced into bowls across the room! Colorful Mike & Ikes sailed along tables! The room filled with cheers and laughter as everyone felt the thrill of challenges conquered. 

After Snif and Mincha we started our Chanukah celebrations a few hours early with a special Seudat Shlishit. Yummy latkes with applesauce, jelly donuts, chocolate donuts and sprinkle donuts were the stars of the meal amid the usual tuna, rolls and snacks. Chocolate gelt decorated the tables and everyone helped themselves to lots of shiny, delicious coins before leaving with broad smiles on their faces!

May the celebrations continue! Chag Sameach from all of us here in Philly! 

Pre-Channuka Party

By: Eliav Saban | Mazkir Galil, Bnei Akiva of Toronto

In honour of Chanukah, Bnei Akiva of Toronto’s own Kehila Snif hosted a Pre-Chanukah Party! The activities were all Chanukah themed including personalized Sufganiot making, Just Dance Chanukah version, and many more fun activities. We gave lots of amazing swag for the Chanichim to promote our very own Moshava Ba’ir. We want to thank the Kehila Centre for letting us use the downstairs restaurant for this amazing event. We would also like to thank all the amazing Madrichim and Madrichot of Kehila Snif who have worked countless hours on this amazing event! B”H everything worked out and we will be able to continue on with our exciting programming for the Chanichim of Toronto. Chag Sameach!

BAA Chanukah Carnival

By: Sarah Solon | Mazkira Galil Atlanta

This past Sunday, Bnei Akiva Atlanta held our annual Chanukah Carnival! Over 150 kids joined us for a morning full of fun, games, music, sufganiyot, and prizes. Kids ran around all morning zipping from Facepainting, Arts and Crafts, and the Photo Booth to Beat the Greek, Dreidel Casiano, and Un-light the Menorah. Upon winning a game, kids entered the raffle of their choice for the chance to win awesome prizes such as a skateboard, art set, drum set, AirPods, and a football. We had a blast celebrating Chanukah with our community!

Chanukah Toy Drive

By: Sarah Solon | Mazkira Galil, Atlanta

The miracle of Chanukah took place in a time of darkness–the Greeks had conquered the Land of Israel and tried to assimilate all of the Jews into their culture. After the Maccabees’ victory and the oil was found, the oil miraculously stayed lit for 8 days, a complete transformation from darkness to light! In addition, we add an additional Chanukah candle to be lit every night. One explanation for this is that with each added candle, we increase the light being spread. 

In the spirit of Chanukah, Bnei Akiva Atlanta ran a toy drive to collect toys for the children at the Ronald McDonald house. Everyone who donated received an extra 5 tickets at the Chanukah Carnival! Thanks to everyone who helped us spread light to others on this Festival of Lights!

Last Shabbos, Bnei Akiva Atlanta also had a special Pre-Chanukah Snif!! Instead of Jews living in 21st century America, our chanichim were Jews living in Yerushalyim during the times of Yehudah HaMaccabi! Our amazing Madrichim ran a fun and engaging scavenger hunt competition where all the groups raced to solve clues and complete tasks to find an actual jug of oil to light the Menorah!!! We ended off the peula with a candy prize and amazing raffle!

Great Neck Channuka Party

By: Oriya Bauer | Shlicha, Great Neck

On Saturday night we had a really amazing Hanukkah party 🤩 we had few stations: in one station the kids decorated the Menorahs,  in one station the kids decorated the Sufganiot and in the third station the kids spin the dreidel and got gifts 😋

Tzevet Channuka Hadracha Training

By: Shai Bachinsky | Shinshin, Bnei Akiva of Florida

This week we had a Tzevet Channuka Hadracha training session in Presidential estates. Before the meeting I was wondering what kind of people will be there, but I didn’t expect what I saw.

When we entered the house we were greeted by a group of kids, more accurately young adults, energetic and smiling kids.

We ran a discussion about the importance of Bnei Akiva in their Community and the integral role of peer leadership. The teens were very motivated to do everything they can to make snif successful in their neighborhood so that kids have the opportunity to experience Bnei Akiva on shabbat and during the week as well.

I was really jealous at this point of the passion they have and want to be part of something big which they will develop, and I am sure they will succeed. Looking forward to helping them develop an amazing snif of Bnei Akiva.

Boynton Beach North, Pre-Channuka Party

By: Roei Groisman | Shinshin, Bnei Akiva of Florida

Last Motzei Shabbat (Vayeshev) we had the first Bnei Akiva event in Boynton Beach. It was a Hanukkah party, where the kids decorated Sufganiyot while telling about their Hanukkah traditions.

It was fun and interesting to hear the differences of people’s traditions, as well as having a Hanukkah funny song off after.

Looking forward for more events at Boynton to come!

Channuka in LA

By: David Raviv | Mazkir Bnei Akiva, Los Angeles

This past Motzei Shabbat Bnei Akiva of Los Angeles had two amazing chanukah events! For chevraya alef we had a special snif where we played See, Run, Build menorah edition and had a very special havdalah featuring 400 glow sticks! After shabbat was over each kid got to decorate their own Sufganiyah and we played a very fun game of glow in the dark dodgeball! 

For V’zach we had a similar event later that night. The chanichim learned about being an Ohr Lagoyim and enjoyed Dodgeball and Sufganiyot! 

We would like to thank our amazing Roshim and Madrichim for all their hard work in planning these amazing events! Chag Sameach!

Channuka Olympiada

By: Shira Weisenfeld | Rosh Chevraya Aleph,  Bnei Akiva of Pittsburgh

Every Chanukah in Israel since 1944, there is a torch relay called Merutz Halapid where a burning torch is passed from the city of Modi’in, where the Chanukah story began, to Yerushalayim for the candle lighting. Along the way, the torch appears at ceremonies and celebrations in the Knesset, IDF bases, schools, old age homes, and more. 

This past Sunday, Galil Pittsburgh held our very own Merutz Halapid — our Chanukah Olympiada! Our chanichim enjoyed many different activities at stations that were “stops” for the torch relay from Modi’in to Yerushalayim! Our chanichim had lots of fun travelling to each station: making mini sufganiyot at Roladin bakery, playing basketball at Maccabi Tel Aviv, creating beautiful dreidel spin art at the yishuv Maccabim, making yellow slime that resembled oil for the Chanukah miracle, and so much more! At the end, we all joined together at Yerushalayim to light the Menorah with candles each Kvutza collected at the stations. 

The fun continues this week with our upcoming Chevraya Bet event, where we will be having a musical candle lighting and making ספינג׳ – Moroccan sufganiyot! 

Channuka in Scarsdale

By: Chen Lipshitz |  Shlicha Bnei Akiva of Scarsdale

Every year we are trying to think of a different and creative way to make the best Chanukkah event ever for the chanichim.

We gathered our our mazkirim, the YIS youth directors and thought of a special way for the chanichim to get the message of Chanukkah. This year we chose to focus on the Maccabees.

We gave our event the name- Maccabia because of the similarity between the two words- Maccabees and Maccabia. We had Chanukkah sports competitions with the spirit of the Maccabees and their fight against the Greeks. The biggest and the most complicated mission was the Chanukkah relay race- the chanichim had to run, jump and crawl through a series of obstacles.

Each chanich carried an oil jug and jumped  in a latke sack, went through Maccabees training- crawl under barbed wire’, jump between ‘tires’, run through the Greek army, dip the pitcher in a bucket of water then again run through ‘maze’ of chairs blocking his way. The final mission was to fill up the menorah with the ‘oil’ he carried.

After the trainings the chanichin played with dreidels just like the Jews played. Got channukah gelt and enjoyed from latkes and sufganiyot.

Happy Chanukkah!