On the 19th March, our friend and colleague at Parker Thomas Solicitors, Stephen Melzack, had the opportunity to do some volunteer work for the community, after he was invited to Bridgewater Primary School in Berkhamsted to participate in a WOW Multifaith day. Volunteers from various faiths ran workshops with different year groups to teach the children about their faiths, which would then be shared to the rest of the school.
Stephen worked alongside two Reception classes and two Year 2 classes to talk about Judaism.
He introduced them to Shabbat, commonly known as the Sabbath, explaining each religion had their day of rest. Jewish people had Saturday, where they would go to the synagogue, Christians had Sunday, where they go to church, and Muslims went to their Mosque on Fridays. This highlighted how similar the religious practices actually are, showing unity between the year group.
Stephen then taught the children his Shabbat song, “Two Candles Burn” and showed them Candles, Kiddush Wine and Challah, a sweet bread. Furthermore, he explained to them how this year, three festivals all coincided: Purim, Easter and Ramadan. It showed the children how faiths celebrated their own festivals at the same time in harmony.
During his workshop, the children all made Greggors, a rattle, and he taught them a few more songs titled, “The Wickedest of All” and “We hate Haman Song”. He noted that the children specifically loved the Haman song for its humorous chorus, ‘HAMAN BOO BOO BOO’.
In the afternoon, the school hosted an assembly where each year could present to the rest of the 360 children what they had learnt. For Stephen’s groups, he and his Year 2 Chior taught the whole school about Shabbat and Purim. He stated, ‘It was wonderful to see some 720 candles – two fingers – being held during Two Candles Burn.’ When it came to the Haman song, he exclaims that the sound of ‘Boo Boo Boo’ was deafening, and a wonderful sight.
The next morning, Stephen received an email from the school to inform him that they had a problem: “All the staff and children and running around singing your songs! We can’t get them out of our heads! How fantastic! The children had the most wonderful time, they were so enthusiastic. Stephen has been invited back next year if he wishes to do the assembly again.
According to Stephen, ‘It was a really inspiring visit and made me realise that in these troubled times, there is still indeed hope for the future’.
