Community virtual family religious school Hanukkah celebration

Over 300 individuals were in attendance for the community virtual Hanukkah celebration last month. In place of regular religious school classes at each congregation, families including religious school students, parents and grandparents joined together to enjoy a unique and engaging virtual community Hanukkah educational experience featuring the Bible Players, a Torah comedy team based in New York City. Through comedy and improvisation, the group presented the “Festival of Lights” — the story of Milton the Menorah, an insecure menorah who finds the spirit (ruach) and light to shine.

This program was offered in partnership with congregation religious schools, Rabbinical Association of Greater Kansas City and generously funded by the Jewish Federation of Greater Kansas City.

A sampling of comments received from written evaluations after the program follows.

The HIGHLIGHT of the program for my family was:

The comedy was great for both kids and adults, and kids liked seeing their friends, especially from other synagogues, participating.

The boys were excited to get their names called out at one point.

The jokes.

The whole presentation was fun, well-choreographed and engaging.

Other Thoughts, Comments:

I think this was one of the better virtual events, in terms of being engaging, in 2020 :)

I thought it was great. Kudos to the folks doing the setup and moderation.

Thanks very much for offering these online programs!

Honestly out of the many, many community programs I have attended over the years, this was my favorite. I cannot think of a time that I have been that engaged over Zoom! Absolutely wonderful!

I just wanted to thank you and all who were involved in the Bible Comedy Troupe yesterday! What a great program. My grandkids enjoyed it very much and were engaged until the end. Thanks for making this happen for our community — we need every opportunity we can get to come together.