– We had a non-Jewish teacher, Mr Hamann, who taught us the Afrikaans language in South Africa. When ever we misbehaved he treatened to hang us from the lightbulb. As he taught in a Jewish school he knew a bit about the Jews. On ta’anit Ester we told him “Sorry Sir, tomorrow will need to hang you from the lightbulb”. He replied instantaneously “No, you are mistaken, my name is spelt with 2 N’s at the end !”
– A student in our class had a brother in medical school. One day his brother gave him a life size dummy & dressed him up in school clothes & told the teachers that the new student’s name is Mordechai. This created many funny events. The school was constructed with 2 two story buildings facing each other. Our classroom was on the 2nd floor of one building & the tuckshop was on the ground floor of the other building. Young mothers usually served in the tuckshop. During the break, we hung Mordechai over the 2nd floor railing, held his feet & started shaking him upside down. The young mothers who saw this started screaming hystericaly. Eventually the weight of the torso was too much & Mordechai split in half, his head & body falling to the ground & we were left holding his feet.
– Our class did other really funny things but I think it made a chilul Hashem & so I am embaressed to mention them.