This Shavuos, more than 1,400 public school students and families across New York were given the opportunity to hear the Aseres Hadibros through a massive coordinated effort led by the Released Time Program.

From Crown Heights to neighborhoods throughout Queens and beyond, in true Achdus fashion, Released Time—NCFJE’s flagship program, worked together with local shluchim and community shuls ensuring that Jewish children in public schools could participate in the Yom Tov experience and hear the Aseres Hadibros.

The initiative was part of the growing effort by Released Time to inspire unaffiliated Jewish homes to feel more connected to Jewish traditions and holidays. 

Under the leadership of Rabbi Sholem Ber Hecht, who was entrusted by the Lubavitcher Rebbe to lead NCFJE and the Released Time movement following the passing of his father, Rabbi J.J. Hecht, and through the devotion of the teachers who walked miles on foot, Released Time successfully gathered more than 1,400 children and families across seventeen different locations throughout New York.

Special Shavuos celebrations and ice cream parties accompanied the Aseres Hadibros, creating a joyful and memorable Yom Tov atmosphere for the children. Parents took great satisfaction in seeing their children so excited to celebrate, with many children being the motivation for their families to come to shul.  

Rabbi Hecht, who Boruch Hashem continues to recover from a recent fall, expressed tremendous satisfaction with the remarkable growth of this year’s programming and the expanding reach of the Shavuos efforts. “None of this happens without the devotion and care of the teachers,” he remarked. “Walking more than 10 miles so children in public school can hear the Aseres Hadibros certainly makes a tremendous noise in Heaven.”

The entire Released Time team extends its heartfelt recognition to Mr. and Mrs. Yossi and Batsheva Popack, who generously sponsored the Shavuos celebrations and ice cream parties in memory of his father, Harav Shmuel Aizik ben Harav Avraham HaLevi Popack.