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Friday LetterFriday Letter Archive | Friday Letter AlertsFriday January 9th, 2009
. Tues. Jan. 20th PA Sponsored performance by Poetry Alive - grandparents, friends, and loved ones of all 4th graders are invited. Refreshments to follow. Jan 26th-30th Learning To Look. Volunteer-led art appreciation program. Our studies of Ancient and Classical Art move on to Greece. Mon. Jan. 26th Rosh Chodesh Shvat
B’Shvat Seder. 9:00 AM in gymnasium. Fri. Feb. 6th 2nd Grade Tu B’Shvat Play. 9:00 AM, Parents, grandparents and loved ones of second graders, mark your calendars. Mon. Feb. 9th Tu B’Shvat Tues. Feb. 10th 3rd Grade Evening Family Program – Our obligation to Animals: Tsaar Baalei Haim. Sponsored by the PA, for all 3rd graders and their families. Thurs. Feb. 12th Kindergarten and 1st grade Parents’ Social – at the home of Genia and Stewart Taub. Fri. Feb. 13th Re-Enrollment Agreements due. Feb. 16-20 Presidents’ Week. School Closed.
Stand Up and Support Israel – Please join us as we join our voices with thousands of others at the Rally for the State of Israel on Sunday, morning January 11th, across from the Israeli consulate in NYC. We will be assembling at the SW corner of 40th and 2nd at 10:30 and then walking over together at 10:45. See flyer below. “ASK” – After School for Kids – Our first successful semester of midweek after school clubs is winding down and registration is now underway for the second semester of ASK, which begins on Monday, February 2nd. There will be six different clubs offered, 2 per day from Monday through Wednesday. See attachment for more information and registration forms. Registration forms and payment are due no later than January 26, 2009.Kosher Food Drive – In the weeks leading up to Chanukah, we conducted a Kosher Food Drive to collect non-perishable food items to be donated to the Alex Rubinger Kosher Food Pantry in Massapequa. Todah Rabbah to all who participated and a special thanks to Michele Moscovitz, mom of Sarah (3rd grade) and Sylvie (6th grade) for delivering the food to the school. Before we began collecting, we had been told that the pantry routinely runs low, but Michele Moscovitz reported how shockingly bare the shelves were. Therefore, we have decided to keep the food drive going, and we ask that when you food shop, please add one extra item to your cart to contribute to Solomon Schechter’s box, located in the entrance of our building. All non-perishables are welcome, such as pasta, rice, canned vegetables, canned fruit, sugar, oil, coffee and mayonnaise, as well as high protein items such as peanut butter, beans, tuna and other canned fish. As our box fills, we will continually deliver its contents and then fill it again. Paper Grocery Bags Needed – Keep them coming! Our paper recycling program is going great and the 5th graders need paper grocery bags to help with their weekly paper collection. Read-a-thon Winner of the Circus Tickets – Mazal Tov to Breena Nachbar, our first grader who won two tickets to the circus at the conclusion of the 2008 Read-A-Thon. Our theme was “Reading Under the Big Top,” and the elementary school students exceeded our communal goal for reading for 208,000 minutes! You can read our students’ reflections on the Read-A-Thon, displayed in the corridor of the school. Natural Sunbutter – for those of your children bemoaning that peanut butter is not allowed in our nut-free school, look in your supermarket for delicious peanut butter alternative, called Natural Sunbutter. Made from sunflower seeds, it is absolutely delicious, kosher, and nut-free. Thanks to Rich Blau for finding Natural Sunbutter for us! If your child brings a sunbutter sandwich to school, please put a note inside the lunchbox, stating that it is NOT nut butter. Remember, we are on a careful watch to protect our nut-free school. For additional information about Sunbutter, visit their website at: www.sunbutter.com. _______________ B’ruchim HaBa’im, welcome back for the 2009 part of the 2008-2009 school year! By most accounts, the Chanukah Winter Break was a lovely vacation for our students, teachers and parents, but it has also been lovely to be back in school. Many of our children came back with stories of their adventures, whether locally or in places that required a plane ride. I’ve heard of movies they saw, games they played, family they visited, and sleeping late after staying up late. It sounded like everyone really enjoyed themselves. At the same time, everyone also returned with a very heavy heart, knowing all too painfully that Israel is at war against Hamas and this has been the focus of our thoughts and prayers throughout the week. Several of our own students and teachers were in Israel over the Chanukah holiday and all reported having a fantastic time, but all also carried a heaviness, an extra burden in their hearts, knowing and seeing the country mobilize for war. Each morning, Monday through Thursday, when we begin our day with morning assembly in the gymnasium, we recite the Pledge of Allegiance and then sing the national anthems of the United States and Israel. This week, we added a 4th element: the singing of the Prayer for the State of Israel, Avinu SheBaShamiyim. Interestingly, this prayer and the prayer for Israel’s soldiers, are not included in the red siddur that Solomon Schechter students receive at the end of 1st grade. However, we overcame this omission by gluing an extra page into the back cover of the siddur that contains these 2 prayers. Since these prayers are routinely said as part of the daily prayers each class recites, I considered whether it was appropriate that we also say the prayer for the state of Israel at morning assembly. After all, morning assembly is not a school-wide minyan! However, I decided on Monday morning, our first day back, that under these unfortunate circumstances, an extra prayer can’t hurt. Mrs. Goldsmith volunteered to lead the singing of the prayer for the State of Israel, and what began as a very quiet chant, built and built over the week as more and more children’s and teacher’s voices joined in. Surely God must be hearing our prayers, sang with such sincerity and Kavannah, deep and meaningful intention. Throughout the week, children in different classes and grades have been drawing pictures and writing letters to Israeli soldiers that we have collected to send to army units in Israel. As the kindergarten children drew pictures, they dictated their letters to the soldiers. By first grade, the students have been able to write their own letters or one or two sentences, also adorned with heartfelt drawings. You would not believe the quality of the writing produced by our first graders, and their pictures are filled with love for Israel, fear for the lives of soldiers and civilians and hope for peace. By second grade, the children have continued to mature: Their thoughts are more complex and are able to begin editing and perfecting their work, from a first draft to a final product. The second graders wrote their own prayers to God in Hebrew class, and letters to the soldiers in English class. And on it goes up the grades. Magnificent work, full of Kavanah from our wonderful students, under the guidance of their incredibly caring teachers. Under the circumstances of war, and our need as a community to respond in solidarity, and because we love Israel and have faith in God, our motivation to communicate our emotions and prayers is particularly high right now. And because this is a school-wide effort to relay our feelings and prayers not only to God, but also to the soldiers of Israel, we have chosen to do so in writing. For many of our students, writing is hard, particularly in Hebrew, a second language written from right to left, in an entirely different alphabet than the one that surrounds them in their world. But they have risen to the occasion, with great distinction, just as their young voices have risen over the week from a piano, through a crescendo to a booming forte, as we sing together: Avivnu She Bashamayim, Tzur Yisrael V’Goalo. Rock and Redeemer of the people Israel, Bless the State of Israel, with its promise of redemption. Shield it with Your love, spread over it the shelter of your peace. Guide its leaders and advisors with Your light and Your truth. Help them with Your good counsel. Strengthen the hands of those who defend our Holy Land. Deliver them; crown their efforts with triumph. Bless the Land with peace and its inhabitants with lasting joy. And let us say: Amen. I look forward to seeing you at the Rally in Support of Israel on Sunday morning. Shabbat Shalom, Dr. Cindy Dolgin D’Var Torah Rabbi Moshe Schwartz is Director of Jewish Life at SSDS and SSHS. In this parasha we read that Jacob gathers his 12 sons together so that “I may tell you what is to befall you in the days to come.” He tells them “I am about to die” and here is what you need to know for the future. He then offers each child an individual blessing, along with the well-known blessing to his grandsons Ephraim and Menashe. Jacob is, in essence, saying that it is time for his children to grow up and face the difficult challenges ahead. Until now, he has been the patriarch but now they are B’nai Yisrael, the Children of Israel. He is telling them “consider yourself the leaders; accept this responsibility and develop because of it.” Jacob’s words and their meaning for today are sometimes difficult to hear but also a needed dose of reality. Though I wasn’t alive during the time of the Great Depression I recently read a story about the roaring 20’s. It recounted how many blue-collar workers were actually not getting adequate wages that supported buying the very products being made by the industries of that time. One economist claimed that it was this disconnect between wages and prices that may have played a significant role in causing the Great Depression. If history is any lesson to us about our current economic situation, then like Jacob’s sons, our industries must also “grow up” (and I don’t mean the Big 3 should become the Big 12!). True, downsizing may be appropriate in some cases, but usually not to the point where companies are out of business. Therefore, we must find new ways to harness the talents of our entire workforce and apply it to new areas of industry so that our country can continue to grow and develop. We are the Children of Israel (Jacob) and so perhaps, we can use this weekend for some reflection on ways each of us can mature and develop. We all likely want to save our money, pay fewer taxes and feel the weight of huge bonuses jingling in our pockets. But, in the end, nobody wants to see friends and neighbors suffer, to see our society flounder and crumble while a small select few prosper and to see our children and future generations pay the price for our greed. Jacob’s dose of reality about the challenges of the future is exactly what we need now. Each of us in our own way faces difficult issues. Let’s not face them naively but astutely. Jacob’s serious talk to his sons should serve as a reminder to us that we must face reality and we must begin 2009 by maturing a bit, being a year older, but also a year wiser. As we conclude the book of Breishit, we recite the words Chazak Chazak V’nithazek. May each of us be strong and most of all, may each of us receive strength during these difficult days. May the new leadership of our nation, including our President-elect advisors be blessed with the wisdom of Jacob. After all, the future of this nation depends on it. Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Moshe PDF filesChesed CornerArt Auction ASK Program Act NOW on the 2009 Sluggers' Early Registration Special which ends January 16th! Stand Up and Support Israel |
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