Gantze Megillah

Observing the mitzvah of reading Megillat Esther is usually fulfilled by following along in a text while one specific reader sings aloud. For 22 boys, of the North Shore Hebrew Academy of Great Neck, the obligation of reading the Purim scroll is pursued with great preparation and personal participation.
The 7th and 8th grade classes of the NSHA Middle School will be chanting the Megillah this Purim for their fellow students, parents and faculty thanks to Dr. Paul Brody, a dermatologist. During the past 10 years, Dr. Brody has taught the melody and cantillation of Megillat Esther to approximately 130 students, a plan initiated by the past principal Rabbi Dr. Michael Reichel and continued with the assistance of the current principal Rabbi Jeffrey Kobrin. The dean, Rabbi Yeshayahu Greenfeld approves and is delighted with this special program.
Both Ashkenazic and Sephardic students read using the melody of their own tradition. Ben Nitzani, an 8th grader, who is reading for the second year with the Sephardic nusach, said, “The privilege of being able to learn how to read the Megillah has changed my Purim experience forever!” Marc Aryeh, an 8th grader of Persian background, chooses to read in an Ashkenazi style. “I am following in the tradition of my brothers and my cousins who all learned how to read the Megillah from Dr. Brody,” Aryeh said. Aryeh’s portion includes changing his voice to sound like Queen Esther and later like King Achashverosh. “It is really cool to read the Megillah,” Aryeh said. “It gives us great pride to see our students each chanting according to his family’s traditions, all together in one forum,” Rabbi Kobrin said.
The students meet with Dr. Brody on a rotating basis to practice their newly learned skills while balancing their other academic and extra-curricular responsibilities. Although it is Dr. Brody’s 39th year of reciting the Megillah, he vividly recalls the first time he read the Megillah at the Young Israel of Kew Gardens Hills where he grew up. “I remember being most grateful that I didn’t have to fast that day since this initial reading fell on a Saturday evening, just as Purim will be this year,” Dr. Brody said. “I’ll be, G-d willing, reading this year at my shul, the Great Neck Synagogue; it will be Chai, the 18th consecutive year there.”
In 1985, Dr. Brody, despite great peril, read the Megillah illegally at the Great Synagogue in Leningrad during a mission where he smuggled in Judaica and met with many Jewish refuseniks. “I was warned that some of the gabboim were actually members of the KGB,” Dr. Brody said. “And as far as I was concerned, it was better ‘read’ than dead!”
Dr. Brody is exuberant that so many young people are interested in mastering the art of Megillah reading especially since he explained that there has been a dearth of qualified readers until recently. “This ensures the continuation of our unbreakable chain, M’Dor L’Dor,” Dr. Brody said. Several alumni of his program have started to read independently at various locations, including Craig
Resmovits, now a student at Queens College, is slated to read at one of the morning minyanim at the Great Neck Synagogue and has read at nursing homes and hospitals. Seniors Elie Flatow of NSHA High School and Russel Mendelson of Ramaz, along with Ramaz sophomore Eli Mendelson, are sharing the reading responsibilities at one of the evening minyanim there as well. Josh Mogilner, a senior at NSHA, has split the Megillah reading with his father, Dr. Alon Mogilner.
In coordination with Rabbi Daniel Coleman, the Chaplain of the North Shore University Hospital in Manhasset, Dr. Brody often helps to arrange the readings for patients and their visitors. Dr. Brody said, “I truly shep nachas along with the boys’ parents, the faculty and the community when I realize that so many young men are now capable of reading the gantze Megillah!”