ChillZone Starts 4 October: The Motzei Shabbos Program for Kids and Teens in Thornhill

Last updated: September 26, 2026

The ChillZone Thornhill Motzei Shabbos kids teens program opens its season on 4 October 2026 at The Israeli Centre, 7700 Bathurst St, Unit 1, with boys from 7:00 to 8:00pm and girls from 8:00 to 9:00pm. It is a weekly group for Jewish kids and teens, about 250 of them, with pizza and prizes, and registration is at chillzone.org. That’s the answer. The rest of this page is the kitchen-table version.

The Short Answer: ChillZone Thornhill on Motzei Shabbos for Kids and Teens

The ChillZone Thornhill Motzei Shabbos kids teens program is a weekly Saturday-night group at The Israeli Centre for Jewish kids and teens. Boys come from 7:00 to 8:00pm, girls from 8:00 to 9:00pm, and there is pizza and there are prizes. The season starts 4 October 2026.

You register at chillzone.org. You drive or walk to Promenade Village at 7700 Bathurst St, Unit 1. Your child walks into a room with a couple of hundred other Jewish kids on the same night of the week. Simple.

If you’re an Israeli family in Thornhill, Vaughan, Richmond Hill or North York who hasn’t walked into the Centre yet, this is honestly the easiest first door. The kids go in first. The parents usually follow.

The Full Answer: How ChillZone Works at The Israeli Centre

ChillZone at The Israeli Centre has a few moving parts that parents ask about once the basic answer lands: who it’s for, how the two hours split, what actually happens, how registration works, and what the Centre around it looks like. Each piece below stands on its own.

Who ChillZone is for

ChillZone is for Jewish kids and teens, full stop. It isn’t a men’s program or a women’s program; it’s for the yeladim (ילדים) and the teenagers who are old enough to roll their eyes at the word “program”.

We don’t publish an age chart on this page, and we won’t guess one for you. If you have a child on the edge (too young, or a teenager who thinks they’ve outgrown everything), check chillzone.org or call Rabbi MG at 647-588-9967 and ask directly.

Why boys and girls come at different hours

ChillZone runs two separate groups back to back on Motzei Shabbos: boys from 7:00 to 8:00pm, then girls from 8:00 to 9:00pm. Each group gets its own full hour with its own chevra.

For a family with a son and a daughter, that means two drop-offs or one long evening. Plan for it. The parent who drops the boys at 7:00 and swaps them for the girls at 8:00 has basically found the rhythm of their winter Saturday nights.

What actually happens inside

ChillZone is described as weekly groups for Jewish kids and teens, with pizza and prizes. We’ll be straight with you: that’s what we can promise on paper, and we’re not going to dress it up with activities we haven’t listed.

What we can tell you is what it feels like to walk in. It’s loud. The pizza hits you at the door, still warm, cheese sliding off the slice. Somebody is always cheering about a prize. On a cold October night on Bathurst, coming in from the parking lot to that kind of noise does something good for a kid who spent all week feeling like the new one.

How to get your child registered

ChillZone registration happens at chillzone.org, not at the door of the Centre. Do it before 4 October so your child isn’t standing in the lobby while you fill in forms on your phone.

Where it is, and who’s coming from where

The Israeli Centre sits in Promenade Village at 7700 Bathurst St, Unit 1, right on the Bathurst corridor. Families come up and down that street: from Thornhill and Thornhill Woods, from around Bathurst and Centre, from Vaughan and Richmond Hill, and from North York down toward Bathurst Manor.

That spread matters on a Saturday night. It means your kid from Richmond Hill might sit next to a kid from Bathurst Manor they’d never meet at school. For Israeli kids who arrived mid-year, that’s often the whole point.

The shul around the program

ChillZone runs inside a working Sephardic shul, not a rented hall. The Israeli Centre davens daily in Nusach Edot HaMizrach: weekday Shacharis at 8:45am, Mincha and Arvit at 7:00pm. More than a hundred people come for Shabbos, with a kiddush every week, and yom tov events fill the building with two and three hundred.

Rabbi MG (Moshe Gershon), the Mara D’asra, came to Toronto four years ago. He opened a Thursday night shiur that started with two men and grew to fifty and sixty, and the Centre itself grew from about twenty-five people. He speaks Yiddish, Flemish, French, Hebrew and English, so whichever language your family defaults to at 9:00pm pickup, you’ll be fine.

Related Question We Often Hear About ChillZone

Parents mix the two up because both are active, both live at the Centre, and both appeal to kids who don’t sit still. Keep them separate in your head and on your calendar. It saves a wasted drive.

When the Answer Is Different for Your Family

The ChillZone answer above fits most Thornhill families. A few situations change it, and it’s better to know before 4 October than to find out in the lobby.

You’re not sure which night is the very first one

ChillZone’s season is listed as starting 4 October 2026, and ChillZone meets on Motzei Shabbos. Before you plan that first evening, confirm the exact first session on chillzone.org or with Rabbi MG at 647-588-9967. Five seconds of checking beats an excited kid in the car for nothing.

Shabbos ends at a different time every week

The ChillZone hours are listed as 7:00 to 8:00pm for boys and 8:00 to 9:00pm for girls, but Shabbos and Havdalah times move every single week. We don’t print those times in articles, because a printed time is a wrong time by next month. See the calendar at merkazisraeli.com/calendar and plan your Havdalah, the smell of the candle smoke still in the kitchen, and the drive to Bathurst around it.

Your child needs something extra

A child who struggles with big, noisy rooms, has allergies, or needs a little more attention should not just show up and hope. Call Rabbi MG first. We can’t promise you specific arrangements in an article, but a real conversation before the first night is always the right move.

You’re the parent looking for your own evening

ChillZone is for kids and teens, not for parents. If you’re the Israeli mother in Thornhill Woods who wants something for herself, the Tuesday 7:00pm women’s shiur on bitachon with Rabbi Yaakov Amsalem and the Rosh Chodesh evening are yours. If you’re a father, the weekday classes for men are yours. The full weekly picture:

Notice the pattern. Every family member has a slot somewhere in the week. ChillZone is just the one that usually gets the family through the door first.

Our Take After Building a Sephardic Home on Bathurst

Israeli parents in the Thornhill and Vaughan area overweigh the wrong things when they choose a Saturday-night program for their kids. They ask about activities, schedules, what exactly happens minute by minute. Those matter. But in our experience, the thing that decides whether a kid keeps coming is much simpler: does he walk in and see a face he recognizes from school, from the park, from shul?

That’s why the size of ChillZone at the Centre, about 250 kids, matters more than any single week’s plan. A room that full means your child’s classmates are probably already there. And a Motzei Shabbos with friends and a slice of pizza turns Shabbos into something that ends with a smile instead of a screen.

The one thing we’d tell a friend? Don’t wait for the “right” week. Register at chillzone.org, come the first night, and let the kids do what kids do. Parents who hold back “until we’re settled” usually find the settling happens faster once the children have a Saturday-night crowd.

And if you want to support the youth side of the Centre, donations in Canadian dollars go through merkazisraeli.com/donate at $18, $36, $180, $360 or $1,000, designated to the area of greatest need, Kiddush and Shabbat meals, Torah learning, or the building fund. No pressure. Coming is enough.

FAQ: ChillZone and Motzei Shabbos in Thornhill

What time does ChillZone run on Motzei Shabbos in Thornhill?

ChillZone at The Israeli Centre runs boys from 7:00 to 8:00pm and girls from 8:00 to 9:00pm every Motzei Shabbos at 7700 Bathurst St, Unit 1, Thornhill. Shabbos end times change every week, so see the calendar at merkazisraeli.com/calendar before you leave home.

How do I register my child for ChillZone?

ChillZone registration is done online at chillzone.org, and the 2026 season starts 4 October. For questions about the Thornhill groups at The Israeli Centre, call Rabbi MG at 647-588-9967.

How many kids come to ChillZone at The Israeli Centre?

ChillZone at The Israeli Centre draws about 250 kids across its weekly boys’ and girls’ groups on Motzei Shabbos. Over two hundred children pass through the Centre’s youth programmes every month.

What else does The Israeli Centre offer families?

The Israeli Centre in Thornhill offers Sunday 9:00am Shacharit with a full breakfast, a Tuesday 7:00pm women’s shiur on bitachon with Rabbi Yaakov Amsalem, and Shabbos with a kiddush every week. Men can learn in Kollel Zichron Avraham every night from 8:15 to 9:00pm with a $300 monthly stipend, and women can join the Rosh Chodesh challah evening at 7:00pm with $18 to tzedakah.

Sources

1. ChillZone registration and season information – ChillZone
2. Shabbos, Havdalah and holiday times at The Israeli Centre – The Israeli Centre Calendar
3. Program schedule, address and contact details – The Israeli Centre official site
4. Donation tiers and designations – The Israeli Centre Donate page

Have a Similar Question? Come See the Centre Before 4 October

The best way to answer your own ChillZone questions is to walk into The Israeli Centre before the season opens. Come on a Sunday morning: Shacharit is at 9:00am, followed by a full breakfast, and nobody will ask you how long you’ve been in Canada before handing you a coffee.

Or come to a class, or come for Shabbos (times on the calendar at merkazisraeli.com/calendar). We’re at Promenade Village, 7700 Bathurst St, Unit 1, Thornhill. Rabbi MG picks up at 647-588-9967. Upcoming evenings are listed on the Centre’s events page. Yalla, bring the kids.