Most of those in Costume gathered 'round after the Megillah and Breakfast for this group photo.
Others in costume not pictured here are named or can be seen below. A better photo may be posted sometime next week.

Winners of this years' Costume Contest were (1) Yossi Joe Roza aka goofy construction worker/crossing guard  (2) Sarah Faillah: Yiddish Teacher  (3 & 4) The Two Arabs - Jon Faro and Ben Lieb (5) Laurie Dickstein as the Purim Princess.

Other costumes included Max Wein as Bush with a Kippah, Sam Gillman with IDF headgear, Dave Shahverdi as IDF Special OPs, Adam Strosberg as MD in scrubs, Jason Kersch in a pseudo-Tux - Aviva Zucker (Hillel Student Life Director) and Danny Newman (Hillel-JCSC) came as construction workers in jeans and hats... Rabbi Mendel and Raizy were farmers in overalls, Mushkie and Chanie had the cutest scarecrow costumes (their idea!) and Moshe (surprise!) and little Sarah had cow outfits. Mushkie and Chanie had enough courage to sing aloud their own adaption of "Old McDonald had a Farm..."

Thanks to all who made this a memorable Purim! Quite a number of students turned out for Megillah Reading in CC 375 - over 100 - and those who dressed up added a great deal to the festive atmosphere. Friday Night Pre-Purim was something special (see below) and lots of students enjoyed the special T-shirts.

Farmers Mendel and Raizy with scarecrows Mushkie and Chanie, and Cows Moshe and Sara. The kids came up with this uniform idea, kudos to Raizy for putting it together for very little dough.

Thanks to Jason Kersch, L'chaim co-President, for reading the first chapter of the Megillah beautifully, followed by Rabbi/Farmer Mendel (who barely got through Haman's ten sons in one breath). To the left is Max Wein preparing to don a George W. Bush mask, which he adorned with his kippah. President Bush addressed the nation at just about the same time as our group Purim photo.

Happy to be celebrating Purim!
(L-R) Sarah Failla aka Yiddish Teacher, Ashley Gross in her EMT outfit, Abby Crapo, Revital Hay and Stacey Brecher in as Minnie Mouse.

Purim UAlbany T-Shirt
These special edition T-shirts were printed by Shabbos House / L'chaim in honor of Purim. L/S and S/S still available in S, M, L & XL - L/S are $9 S/S are $6. Back of shirt is shown above, with the front on right.

Yishai Cohen, Tagar Prez draped in Israeli Flags, seen speaking with Sheikh Faro at the entrance to CC 375.

Continuing to Build Jewish Life at UAlbany!
(L-R) Melissa Morse (Ruach) Aviva Zucker (Hillel's Student Life Coordinator) Corrie Borgner (Ruach) Danny Newman (Hillel's JCSC). Local 613!

Good sport Yossi-Joe Roza dressed in construction /crossing-guard outfit, with smiling Jonah Stein to the right.

Farmer Mendel with Shiekh Ben, who held up page numbers and did the bongo thing when Haman was mentioned.

"DR." Adam Strosberg - still a student at UAlbany but dressed for Purim in his internship/volunteer work at Albany Medical Center.

ABOVE: "The Couch" overloaded with 2000 Purim Packets stored in bags awaiting distribution to the Quad Dining Halls.

LEFT: A filled basket in one of the Quad Dining Halls just before Meals. Each basket was refilled 3x - and emptied each time (aside for the one on Dutch). Almost all the packets were taken and enjoyed!

Thank you to the L'chaim Student Group and UAlbany Hillel for co-sponsoring the cost of the packets. A special Thank You to UAS - for their allocation of a Purim Grant to L'chaim - this marks the first such grant for holiday packets. We thank Lchaim co-President Harriet Roffe for her efforts in securing this grant.

These packets were packed at Shabbos House by UAlbany students for UAlbany students. Thank you to all those who took the time to come and pack all those hamataschen and graggers, and stuff the little blue cards in etc.. 2000 pieces is a lot to pack and it took two nights to get it done.

The first packing night was together with a Learning Night - Dairy Dinner with Rabbi Zeff of Jerusalem, who spoke about Purim Drinking in Torah Sources.

Purim Feast at Shabbos House