Purim Celebration at Beth Tikvah and the Boroughs JCC

What a great time this past Sunday morning at our Purim celebration! It was so great to see so many people and so many new faces. We actually ran out of groggers! Our first hamentashen bake-off was a great success. Eleven people entered the competition, almost 400 hamentashen were eaten.  All our entrants were amazing, a great variety of flavors, traditional, and non-traditional. These delicious recipes will be in our Beth Tikvah Jewish Holiday cookbook which will be available next year.  Thank you to all  of our entrants, the second/third graders, fifth graders, Abbe, Miri, Benita, Wendy, Jared, Lisa, Jody, Bob, and I entered too.  Congrats to our winners; second place - Miri, first place - Abbe, and most original - Jared. The contest was really just good fun and more importantly, raised $110 for our Wendy Steinberg Scholarship fund!

Even the adults had fun wearing costumes. Check out our facebook page to see more photos. Everyone had fun with the various activities.  There was Purim bingo, decorating masks, and creative t-shirts.  One of the mitzvot of Purim is to give mishloach manot, the giving of food gifts to friends and families.  The children decorated baskets and put together mishloach manot for Kindred Healthcare.  Rabbi Mike led the megillah reading with assistance from Mike Smith, Barry Robins, the Beth Tikvah Band, and Sarah and Maddie!  
     Now that Purim is over, it is time to start preparing for our next holiday, Passover.  Do you have any favorite recipes for Passover? Please send them to Abbe for our cookbook.  
     I was in Stop and Shop the other day, and after living in very rural Upstate New York, I really appreciate the kosher for Passover section available here.  Yet, even with the better selection of products, there is still the challenge of the school lunch. I think my children lived on salad that week.  Westborough High School actually offered matzoh during Passover.  Do they still do that?  What do you  (or did you) pack for your children's lunches during Passover?  Please feel free to share in the comments!