800 Community members gather for a Purim dinner in the Spanish & Portuguese Synagogue, arranged and hosted by the Mada Community Center. The guests range from people that receive services from MADA to volunteers and donors.
Everyone was wined & dinned with a full course meal. There were two reception halls lively with music! One hall had a family, child friendly program, with a special thanks to the ‘Mad Science’ show that educated & entertained the children. The other hall seating 500 people was welcomed by two of our favourite guest speakers Rabbi Whitman of the Adath Israel and Rabbi Sirota who addressed the the crowd in Russian. Rabbi Sirota is the rabbi of the Russian community.
The evening was complete with the customs of Purim including the Megillah reading, mashloach manot (MADA provided gifts bags with food treats which were distributed for the guest to exchange among each other), everyone having the opportunity to give charity and even the yummy custom to eat the famous hamentash cookies.
A heartfelt thank you to the volunteer that joined MADA leading up the the event by preparing the 800 Mishloach manot gift bags as well as the scores of volunteers that spent the day Sunday March 16th on different shifts setting up, plating food, greeting guests, serving, singing and making people happy… and cleaning up.
Please call Mada if you would like to host or volunteer for these events. Passover is your next opportunity!