Jenna Segal of Glastonbury dressed up as her Jewish hero, Queen Esther.

Students at Chabad Jewish Center in Glastonbury spent the year researching Jewish heroes in the Bible and throughout Jewish history. And, recently, to culminate their efforts, each student chose his or her favorite hero to highlight and induct into the Center’s newly formed Jewish Hero Hall of fame. It’s all part of the Chabad Center’s Jewish Enrichment Program (JEP), an interactive, hands-on Hebrew school in which kids explore Jewish practices, history, culture, and are helped to develop Hebrew reading and language skills. Led by the Center’s educational director, Yehudis Wolvovsky, the weekly program’s new Hebrew reading curriculum, Aleph Champ, is modeled after the Karate system in which students advance through a range of color coded levels, motivated to excel and graduate each stage.