Celebrating Hanukkah at the Inya Linya Center
Community
City: Beit Shemesh
The celebration of Hanukkah this year provides a beautiful example of the magic that happens when the children at Inya Linya and the teens at Yalma come together. The affection and respect that the children and teens demonstrated at the recent Hanukkah party represent the internalization of the highest ideals that the Youth Outreach Center seeks to instill in all participants.
The Director of the Inya Linya Center shares the following about the holiday celebration:
“I arranged for a special Karaoke Hanukkah party at the Inya Linya Center, conducted by an experienced master of ceremonies. The Center purchased sufganiyot (the Israeli doughnuts-without-the-hole that are the staple for the whole country during Hanukkah) for each child, and the children helped set up a beautiful communal table. We invited the ‘big kids’ from the nearby Yalma Youth Outreach Center. The Yalma youths arrived, singing Hanukkah songs with the Yalma Center director. It was wonderful to see the younger children relating to their older peers, and vice versa. There was so much infectious goodwill that the parents of the younger children soon insisted in joining too!
The teens modelled cooperation and the care to the young children--this is exactly the values that we stress in our activities in both centers.”