What does the Queen of England have to do with a group of students in New York City?
During the course of this past year, the students of Chabad Girls Academy’s 7th and 8th grades have been studying Righteous Women in Jewish History in depth.
Their teacher required them to describe the Jewish women in Chumash and Tanach based on Pesukim that they researched. They learned about their challenges and struggles and how they overcame them. This allowed them to learn about the qualities of each woman that the Torah wants us to emulate. They wrote meaningful stories about Jewish women and the tremendous middos that we learn from them.
Some qualities that stood out are humility, kindness, modesty, sensitivity and strength displayed by the women in Tanach. The girls wanted to find a way to see real-life examples of royalty and how those qualities exist in our world today. As an assignment in the curriculum, the girls had to write a letter to Her Majesty, the Queen of England.
The students researched how one must address the Queen and other guidelines. They then composed a letter describing the possuk from Tehillim, “Kol kvuda bas melech pnima”, “all of the glory of the King’s daughter is within.” (Tehillim 41:14) The girls praised the Queen for upholding standards of modesty in the palace and among all royal activities.
The students learned a lot about the Queen’s responsibilities to her people, from the royal dress codes to how the royal family has to interact with the public, in and out of the palace.
The students eagerly anticipated their reply from the Queen until the day it finally arrived. The students were ecstatic to receive an official piece of mail from the royal palace. A lady in waiting replied on behalf of the Queen and was grateful for the kind words and wishes that the students sent her Majesty and closed off with a polite thanks to the girls for their letter.
Following are the letters written to the Queen and her response.
So glad frum girls from the USA are engaging in royal correspondence with a foreign nation on behalf of our country!
I am British and grew up with the presence of malchus, a palace etc. I find that the notion of Malchus of Hashem and the Beis Hamikdosh, the יראה in service to Hashem as soldiers etc, are ideas and feelings easier to appreciate for us. I have special memories of Margeret Thatcher, then the minister of education, visiting an exhibition at Lubavitch school. She watched a slide show about Jewish women and nervously asked her secretary to bring her jacket in order to cover her bare arms. Didn’t you know its improper to walk around this way?,she asked! Her Majesty… Read more »