School friends from online Jewish School meet for the first time

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Chabad of Tasmania Rabbi Gordon's family attend Jewish School virtually, with classmates scattered across the globe in Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Taiwan, Italy, United Kingdom, France, Romania, Singapore, Germany, South Korea and Hungary.

In addition to covering the curriculum of a secular education, Jewish School offers Hebrew reading and writing which then integrates into the study of the Chumash (Bible), Navi (Prophets) and Ketuvim (writings).

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"Jewish boys traditionally will begin studying the Mishna and then subsequently the Talmud," mother Rochel Gordon said.

"More topics throughout school include Jewish history, Jewish holidays, Jewish law and customs, contemporary issues and philosophy."

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With the Gordon family travelling overseas to visit family this year, the children were able to meet their school friends for the first time.

Ms Gordon said it was special to see her children meet some of their friends in person.

"In fact, my son celebrated two classmates birthdays with his friends," she said.

"My daughter didn't miss out either. Myself and the other mums of her classmates organised a get-together at a pizza store in London.

"The smile on their faces made all the jetlag worth it!"

Ms Gordon said many aspects of the virtual Jewish School were similar to a typical school experience, with students chatting and socialising online as well as playing pranks on one another.

With COVID-19 seeing many schools and universities make the shift online, Ms Gordon said the online Jewish School had been technologically ahead of its time.

"The Nigri Shluchim Online School has been in existence for 15 years so it has been using high-tech video conferences well before it was the 'in thing'", she said.

"Now that many students around the world have had a taste of online schooling, it isn't such a foreign concept anymore."

Ms Gordon said that as Jewish life is all encompassing, for her family it was important for the children to be full immersed in a Jewish environment and the online school had allowed her children to access this from Tasmania.

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