The Brooklyn Workers Circle School

We enjoyed some lovely student presentations in Prospect Park at our end of year celebration on Sunday. Registration for next year is now up! Visit https://www.circle.org/brooklyn

The Brooklyn Workers Circle School registration for the 2023-2024 school year is now open. Register by July 15 to receive the early bird rate! www.circle.org/brooklyn

We recently enjoyed a visit from a very special guest speaker -- Leo Ferguson from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice. Leo came to present a session on community organizing with our teacher Irene, to prime students to take action in support of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers and their pressure-campaign targeting Wendy's. After we reviewed the campaign with the students, Leo led the students through the nuts and bolts of how a boycott-campaign comes into being, through the example of the Montgomery Bus Boycott. Using the metaphor of building a campaign like we'd build a car, we looked at the different parts that lead to a successful outcome. The students acted out the parts of the car -- from the driver to passengers, brakes, steering wheel, corresponding to leadership, people-power and enlisting participation and resources from community members. Then after the break we brainstormed on what to write or draw on postcards that we'd send to the Wendy's CEO to pressure him into signing onto the Fair Food Program to protect Immokalee farmworkers' rights.

Our intergenerational klezmer band made its debut at last Sunday's Matzapalooza! festivities. It was a blast! A zissen Pesach, all

Last Friday marked the 112th anniversary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. As part of the annual commemoration ceremony, four The Workers Circle youth delivered a compelling dramatic retelling of the fire’s tragic events. This group included a Brooklyn Workers Circle School student and teen teacher’s assistant. The fire marked a critical turning point for the rights of workers in America.

With Passover on the way, our students have been exploring the story through music, writing, art and puppetry.

Hope everyone had a fun Purim! We sure did! Our children celebrated by dressing up and making giant puppets of King Ahashverosh, Uncle Mordecai, Queens Esther and the wicked Haman for a great musical Purim shpiel, reflecting on the different ways leaders of the world use power today. They also made delicious homentashn with some rather unique fillings...

This Sunday, our 3rd through 6th grade students enjoyed a virtual visit from a Florida-based farmworker with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers. They learned about what about what a day of tomato picking entails and about the injustices farmworkers have faced in their jobs, which led to the formation of the coalition and the development of the Fair Food Program to ensure retail companies are buying their produce from farms that treat workers fairly. Students also learned how Wendy's has refused to sign onto the program and plan to spend the rest of the year thinking about what they can do to help in the effort to bring them to the table!

This past Khanike, our students brought smiles to the residents of the Ateret Avot senior home in Midwood, Brooklyn. Their presentation featured Yiddish songs and dancing with giant card candles, a box "dreydl," and scarves. Some played percussion alongside live accordion and violin. It was a truly special visit.

The Brooklyn School enjoyed a great session this past Sunday singing Yiddish songs and learning about the creation story.