Elana Soroka
Elana Soroka M.S.Ed is an elementary school Methods and Resource teacher and coordinator. Elana has been involved with Jewish Education, formal and informal for over two decades teaching students from nursery age through college and adults. She currently teaches at Netivot Hatorah Day School. She also gives mikvah tours and classes to interested Jewish women. In her spare time, Elana enjoys reading and doing sudoku puzzles. She has recently taken up more extreme sports including giving her 16 year old driving lessons.
Our backyard has gotten lots of use for my family of nine during the pandemic. Last summer I would look over to the neighboring apartment building, and it crushed me to think that they didn't have the same access to outdoor space to play outside. We started posting on neighborhood e-mail groups and whatsapp chats that our yard was available for other families to use safely at their leisure. In the wintertime, when there was really nothing to do, families from the neighborhood would reserve a time on our "ice" (our heimish backyard skating rink) to play hockey and skate. This inspired my kids to start delivering cinnamon buns on Erev shabbos to those in our community -- our honourary "shabbos guests" -- who, under normal circumstances, we would have over for a meal, so they knew they weren't forgotten and were in our hearts. Seeing families from the community playing in our backyard at all hours instilled in my own an invaluable sense of unity during these critical times.