Due to the difficult matzav in Eretz Yisrael, the girls in the Bais Yaakov of Queens have been involved in various initiatives. Through these means, they have been demonstrating their ahavas Yisrael, their desire to be nosei b’ol chaveiro, and their g’milas chasadim. One important initiative is Match-A-Mitzvah, where each girl chooses a mitzvah to focus on more carefully as a z’chus for y’shuos in Eretz Yisrael. Another one, called Shabbos of Chesed, has the girls filling in a bookmark listing the chasadim they will perform on Shabbos, for example: set the table and babysit for younger siblings, as a z’chus for klal Yisrael.
The girls have been writing letters to chayalim to give them encouragement, as well as to President Biden and Congress to thank them for their support of Israel. The girls have also been involved in a School Supply Drive. They are collecting school supplies, such as glue, crayons etc., which are being sent to communities in Eretz Yisrael for children who have been displaced from their homes in the North and the South and are in need of these supplies. Each grade has been assigned to collect one school supply.
One of our most popular and heartwarming initiatives is the BYQ Team-Up For T’hilim program. On each floor, a bulletin board has been set up displaying laminated cards with each perek of T’hilim. The girls have been urged to take a card and say a perek whenever they have an available moment. To make the T’hilim more personal, a group of eighth graders have posted envelopes on each bulletin board filled with cut up papers displaying the names of chayalim. The girls are asked to take a name and focus on it when they say a perek of T’hilim. It is heartwarming to watch the girls congregating around these bulletin boards throughout the day as they say p’rakim of T’hilim with sincere kavanah. Each time the Sefer T’hilim is completed, it is posted on top of the board. In addition, the entire Sefer T’hilim is completed by each of the seventh and eighth grades each day after Minchah.
It is our fervent plea that our efforts, combined with all of those of klal Yisrael, bring about y’shuos and nisim and hasten the g’ulah sh’leimah!
