יום שלישי, ט״ו תמוז תשפ״וTuesday, June 30, 2026
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Dr. Pesha Kletenik is the head of school of Manhattan Day School after two decades of experience in Jewish education. She holds a Doctorate in Education from Hofstra University, a Master’s in School Psychology from Touro Graduate School and is a student in the Fish Center for Holocaust Studies at Yeshiva University. She writes about parenting and Jewish education and lives in West Hempstead with her husband and three children.
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Dying with a weapon in defense of Jewish life in Israel is not the same as dying helplessly in exile. Perhaps both belong to the same Jewish story, but they tell different chapters.
Candles shouldn’t matter anymore. They belong to another age – like quills and clay stoves, things replaced by convenience. And yet, candles endure. They wait on shelves and windowsills, marking moments no lightbulb can reach. We light them to remember, celebrate, begin, end, and to sanctify.
The Israeli flag flew in many places on our recent MDS 8th grade graduation trip to Israel. It flew over the graves of fallen soldiers in the freshest plots on Har Herzl, blew in the wind over the word Yizkor over a pile of cars, burned and shot at the site of the Nova pogrom.
One of the most curious mitzvot we have is to remember to blot out Amalek. The worst way to rid them from our psyche is to annually read about them. We must forever remember the importance of stamping out evil in the world.
This sacrifice reminds me of our brave IDF members, who have had to give up so much time with their families in order to carry out the holy work of defending the State of Israel.
When I close my eyes, thirty years ago at Camp Stone feels like yesterday, the lessons from holding candles by the lake on Tisha B’Av and hiding from the Greeks at late night capture the flag, will be part of me forever. Playing is learning, posting is not.
It was on the last moed that our world fell apart, terrorists tortured and kidnapped our brothers and sisters. Did we imagine that we would approach this moed of Pesach with them still in captivity?
Passionate feelings are a mirror into our values. They drive our actions. Our anger has mobilized our people during this time – to care for others, to lobby, to invent, to give, to write, to hold one another.
My favorite part of school restarting is the sound of children davening filling the hallways. Each one different, their voices come together in unison.
My first instinct was to tell her to move away from the 150-year-old, fading velvet cover, but instead, I enjoyed the sight of a giggling, Jewish child playing behind an artifact that miraculously was drawn from the fires of Kristallnacht.
June 26, 2026 
