Parent Spotlight Mrs. Roni Zabiguy

I heard about Chinuch Yehudi from Rabbi Kornfeld, the Director of Chinuch Yehudi Florida. I knew him for years because I was trying to get my children into a Jewish school, but the school was too far from me. In public school, my son came home asking about holidays that weren’t our holidays. It wasn’t alarming at first, but then we started hearing statistics about children losing their identity, their connection. My son came home and talked about Easter, and I said we need to change something. We needed to find a solution, and that solution was Chinuch Yehudi.

The transition wasn’t difficult for my child, because he makes friends easily. He wasn’t used to wearing a yarmulke or tzitzit, but it wasn’t weird for him at all since everyone around him was wearing it and it was almost like part of the uniform. The school didn’t push anything or say, “you’re going to be punished if you don’t do it.” Instead, they teach that the right way is to wear the yarmulke and tzitzit. Everybody at the school was so welcoming and warm; my son had great teachers, and the rabbis are amazing. I like the Jewish school much better than the public school, because I felt like my voice was heard, and my child wasn’t just another kid. For me the new school was great, but for my son it wasn’t such a change. It was such an easy transition; he felt like he found his place. Everyone in the school comes from a similar background, which helps my son’s identity. There are a lot of Israelis, they’re all Jewish, and we feel very welcome. My son and I connect better now, because we talk about Judaism.

Before transferring to the Jewish day school, my son didn’t speak Hebrew, even though my husband and I do. He transferred in second grade, and Chinuch Yehudil brought him a private tutor to help him catch up. The first time I saw him talking in Hebrew on a video, I sobbed. It was so emotional to see him read and understand Hebrew. There’s also Kabbalat Shabbat, and all the parents get together and sing. It’s important for the children to soak that up and feel like a Jew in that warm and happy environment. There wasn’t anything like that in public school – it was always very generic, and nothing touched me as a Jew. I make the effort to come to Kabbalat Shabbat because it’s very important to me to see all the children and staff come together. The values that the school is teaching – you can see it across the board with the children, the teachers. They teach the children chesed (kindness), kavod (respect), and treating others the way you want to be treated. They reinforce it through the line of the week, giving the students prizes for an extraordinary demonstration of values. You definitely don’t see that in a public school.