The SHAI Sephardic Summer Day Camp has been brimming with activity, including Krav Maga lessons, basketball tournaments, video games, board games, socializing, and a successful daily minyan. There are also visits with the seniors at the Great Neck Social Center, where the kids and the seniors spend quality time bonding and conversing in English and Farsi. The Teen Leadership Program, based in Congregation Beth Hadassah, and run under the leadership of Rabbi Yamin Levy, continues to be one of the most effective platforms for connecting Persian youth to their Jewish heritage as well as to one another. With an array of sports and fitness activities, rewarding weekly trips to popular sites such as Dave & Buster’s, Adventureland, and Splish Splash, and a strong daily minyan – delivered at nominal cost due to SHAI’s generous support – SHAI’s Teen Leadership Program provides an optimal environment for a healthy, beneficial, Jewish summer experience. Teen leaders mentor the campers in SHAI’s Sephardic Day Camp, helping them with valuable skills that will enable the campers to succeed in all walks of life.

This year marked the ninth year that SHAI has been sponsoring this program. “Kids, especially middle schoolers who are too young to be employed but too old for day camp, need a safe and productive outlet,” explains Rabbi Yamin Levy, the founder and creator of this program. “We offer not only a great opportunity for the kids, but an important service for the parents,” continued Rabbi Levy. “The parents cannot thank us enough for helping take their kids out of the home and off the streets during the summer months.”