Ezra Academy Pairs Extracurriculars With Hands-On Sukkah Chesed for Local Families

Jewish day schools sell parents on academics; Ezra Academy’s September launch also sold them on responsibility to neighbors.

According to the Queens Jewish Link (Sept. 23), 30 students volunteered for the school’s first major chesed initiative of the year: helping six local families prepare for Sukkot by building and setting up their sukkos. The project began with a shiur on the halachos of sukkah building from Rabbi Nash, turning classroom learning into service for households that needed an extra set of hands before the festival.

The same opening weeks featured an annual Club Fair with more than 20 options—Mock Trial, Debate, Kollel, Music, Newspaper, Stock Market Club—and strong turnout for boys’ basketball and girls’ volleyball tryouts. Carnival-style snacks and music helped drive participation beyond the classroom.

Ezra Academy sits in Forest Hills, long a center of Bukharian and broader Orthodox family life, and previously hosted Queens Jewish Community Council offices before QJCC’s move toward Kew Gardens Hills. For parents balancing dual curricula and communal expectations, the school’s mix of clubs, athletics, and holiday chesed offers a snapshot of how Queens Jewish education tries to raise children who can both compete and contribute.

Parents evaluating Forest Hills schools often weigh exactly this mix: competitive extracurriculars, serious limudei kodesh, and visible chesed that ties students to elderly neighbors and young families who need a sukkah built before yom tov.

Sources: Queens Jewish Link. Image: RonAlmog / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.