Unable to hold its Yom HaAtzmaut carnival on the rooftop this year, instead Shalhevet High School took to the local streets of Beverlywood on April 29 to celebrate Israel’s 72nd anniversary.
A parade of cars decorated with Israeli flags and blue-and-white balloons drove through the residential streets and Head of School Ari Segal stood in the flatbed of a pickup truck as it inched down Beverly Drive. Shalhevet students, together with residents, stood on street corners cheering.
“Even though we’re not physically there, we’re there in spirit,” 17-year-old Shalhevet senior Nick Fields told the Journal.
As the cars drove by, Einat Ronen stood on the corner with her daughter Mia, a first-grader at Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy. Ronen, who is the director of human resources at pro-Israel education organization StandWithUs, said her daughter’s school usually has a big party in honor of Yom HaAtzmaut. With that not possible this year, she said she was happy to at least get outside for the occasion. “It’s nice to see other people every once in a while,” she said.
The mother and daughter came equipped with some Israel swag – a balloon hand with one finger up to indicate Israel was number one.
