The annual tradition of the Senior Class Shabbaton in the school building was broken for the first time when the seniors spent their shabbaton together in Surfside this past weekend. After the original senior shabbaton was canceled due to the lack of signed permission slips, the students took it upon themselves to plan a shabbaton outside of school.
Student Council President Tehila Moore said that although she was initially disappointed that the senior class couldn’t pull it together and get their permission slips in on time, she felt proud that they were still able to come together as a class and plan on their own.
“I think it does show something about us that we were able to pull off a shabbaton by ourselves,” Moore said. “It was actually super meaningful that we were able to do it by ourselves and be mature and responsible.”
The weekend was independently planned by Student Council President, Tehila Moore, David Gilinski, and the rest of the senior class. The Friday night meal, completely run by the seniors down to kiddush and bentching, was hosted by the Gilinski family. The night ended off by the class playing card games and board games until they went back to their hosts.
“The fact that we planned it together all as a class without any adults was really good, and also we had the best time bonding,” said Ariella Wolfson (12th). “We played a lot of games on Shabbos and we all just bonded and became closer.” The seniors were hosted by the Moore’s for Shabbos lunch. They bonded and got to know each other better as they hung out the rest of the day. All of the girls went to Mrs. Citron for seudat shlishit where they were joined by Mrs. Handwerger and learned about the parsha and talked about seminary.
Shabbos ended by the Gilinski’s with an attempted NCSY Havdallah and the class then regrouped at the Moore’s house for swimming and pizza. The seniors said they enjoyed being able to grow as a class and get to know one another better on their own terms.
“I really enjoyed the shabbaton. I feel like it made the class feel united and accomplished because we were able to do something without the school and we were independent,” said Abraham Corcia (12th). “We also got very close to each other and all that sweet stuff, which is good.”
Seniors felt that their sense of responsibility and independence was able to shine through this past shabbos.
By: Ava Horowitz (12th grade)
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