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Students, Heritage residents celebrate Purim
YOUNGSTOWN
Akiva Academy students celebrated Purim with Heritage Manor residents Thursday morning.
The festival of Purim is celebrated every year on the 14th of the Hebrew month of Adar (late winter/early spring). Purim 2019 began Wednesday night and continued through Thursday.
It commemorates the salvation of the Jewish people in ancient Persia from Haman’s plot “to destroy, kill and annihilate all the Jews, young and old, infants and women, in a single day,” as recorded in the Megillah (book of Esther). It is customary for children to dress up in costumes.
Students happily paraded into the room with noisemakers to blot out Haman’s name when spoken.
“Purim is one of the happiest, joyous times,” said Charlene Apel, Heritage admissions and marketing nurse. “It’s how they [residents] celebrated.”
Nasim Holliday, 12, agreed.
“It’s a very happy day, and we should all be thankful and joyful,” he said.
Sha’lamar Vaughn, 13, said she was happy.
“I’m happy to see all of my elders happy – that makes me happy,” she said.
Apel said she appreciates the intergenerational interaction the event promotes.
“Children learn, importantly, how to communicate and act around an older population,” she said. “On the flip side, it’s an important interaction with residents seeing the young children and their vibrance. They get to communicate with them and teach their history and their lives.”
Both residents and students learn that one another matters, which is an interesting concept, said Gabrielle Johnson, 13.
Overall, students enjoyed their time with residents.
“It’s nice here spending time with people,” said Nyimah Brown, 12.
Residents enjoyed themselves as well.
Mary Guerrieri, a Heritage Manor resident, said the event was nice. “They always have a nice performance with everything with the kids,” she said.