School’s ‘Jewish Hour’ Switched Days to Celebrate Purim

In honor of Purim, a group of dedicated Released Time Bochurim got P.S. 178 in Queens to change the exempted religious hour to Thursday so the Jewish children could celebrate Purim.

For the past 81 years “Jewish Hour” has been on Wednesdays. But when a group of Bochurim realized that this year Purim falls on Thursday, they came up with a wild idea – “Let’s change Released Time from Wednesday to Thursday and get all our kids to do the Mitzvahs of Purim,” they said.

The Bochurim got straight to work and proposed the idea to the P.S.178 schools principal – “If you get every single parent to agree, then we’ll agree to switch the Religious hour to Thursday,” said the Principal.

Off to the races, and a handful of dedicated Bochurim called up every single parent getting not only their permission but also their strong interest in making Released Time on Thursday, so a Purim party could be made for the children.

On average, the Released Time chapter in P.S. 178 has 32 Students every Wednesday. But when parents heard about the exciting Purim party that was being organized, an additional 8 children joined, and there were 40 Jewish children who celebrated Purim during school hours with a fun Hamantaschen bake!

Released Time would like to give a big thank you to the P.S. 178 Bochurim for putting in all the efforts in making the Purim party the success that it was.