Rabbi Dr. Jeffrey Kobrin, Rosh HaYeshivah and Head of School of the North Shore Hebrew Academy (NSHA), announced at the beginning of the student-led Megillah reading on Purim Day, that the Great Neck school had purchased a new Megillah to be named the “Dr. Paul Brody Megillah.” The new scroll will be used every Purim when the students chant the Megillah for the entire Middle School, their parents, grandparents, siblings, and faculty members, in a program that Dr. Brody, whose daughters attended the Academy, instituted in 2002.
Dr. Brody created the Megillah Readers Program two decades ago – with only ten students – when he realized that none of the students knew how to chant Megillas Esther. He has instructed 400 Ashkenazic and Sephardic seventh and eighth grade students in the reading, cantillation, and fine nuances of each aspect of reading the Megillah.
After successfully chanting the “gantze Megillah,” the 35 student readers unfurled the beautiful new Megillah named for Dr. Brody, who observed all of the Megillah reading and celebration via FaceTime, since he was at home rehabbing from complex orthopedic surgery.
Dr. Brody shepped nachas and was very proud of his students for whom he made recordings and had begun to teach before his mishap.
One of his students, Aidan Mayer, utilized different voices for Queen Esther and King Achashveirosh, taught to him by Dr. Brody. He is pictured pointing to the “gallows” that the evil Prime Minister Haman had intended for Mordechai – who refused to bow to Haman – and all the Jewish People, that ended up being his own hanging.
By The North Shore Hebrew Academy