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Friday LetterFriday Letter Archive | Friday Letter AlertsNovember 6, 2009 
Every week that passes, I am filled with more and more respect for the mission of this school, with the faculty that implements that mission, and with the depth of experience of the boys and girls who are lucky enough to receive their formal education here. Let me share a glimpse of the fullness of this past week and I hope that it gives you a sense of the dedication and devotion that the school’s faculty puts on providing the very best for your children. Family Math Day - Family Math Day was held on Sunday morning, November 1st at the elementary school. The goal of the day was for families to have a fun, interesting and challenging encounter with math, and to build enthusiasm for bringing math into the home. Therefore, the theme for the day, chosen by our resident math guru (Mrs. Sandi Swerdloff) was, “Games to Play at Home and Away.”Upon registering each child received a goody bag filled with math related items and 10 raffle tickets for the grand prize at the end of the day. Parents received a packet that was chock full of math games, information about helping their children enjoy math activities, a set of tangrams, a set of number tiles, and many, many activities that children and family can enjoy together. Over 250 children and parents filled the gym to participate in math problem solving and estimations. This was only the first part of a very exciting day. Walking into the gym visitors saw children and parents walking around trying to figure out the solutions to over 30 puzzles and math related problems. (See some the photos in the Photo Gallery to get an idea) Some people were sitting on the floor working together and enjoying their bagel brunch, while others were bent over the tables trying their best to find the answers, often with the assistance of the teen helpers, members of our high school community who came down from the Glen Cove campus to lend a hand for the day. After a while, all of the children and their parents went to the first of their two workshops, led by members of our elementary school faculty. In kindergarten and first grade the children and their parents learned about dominoes and playing games using dice, matchbox cars, and shapes. Second and third graders and their parents were treated to candy math, card games, and number games which involved rolling dice and playing cards. Fourth and fifth graders and their parents played games using pattern blocks and figured out an incredible series of logic puzzles involving words, numbers, coins, paper clips, and attribute blocks. When the workshop sessions were over, the teachers, children and their families went to the gym to participate in the raffle drawings. Raffle numbers were randomly chosen, and two dozen gifts were handed out to the children with the winning numbers. If you missed Family Math Day this year, by all means, join us next year for this incredible celebration of Math, family and fun. Election Day in-service – While children were recovering from watching the Yankees-Phillies game on Tuesday, the entire faculty and staff, from kindergarten through twelfth grade were gathered in the New Gym at the Glen Cove campus, reconnecting across the divisions and learning as a full faculty. The morning was devoted to working through the intricacies of a “Case Study” of a Catholic school facing a variety of challenges. Years ago, as a doctoral student at Columbia Teachers College, I had the privilege of participating in 2 semester’s worth of case studies, and over the years, as a fellow in the Day School Leadership Training Institute, I have had similar opportunities. But in all the years, I never saw a group of people stay so focused and get to the depth that I witnessed as I walked around the New Gym on Tuesday. Simply put, I was astounded by the astute observations and the sophistication of strategic plans that our 10 teams of SSDS Nassau and SSHS of LI teachers came up with, each team represented by the elementary, middle and high school divisions. Some teachers may have been skeptical about the wisdom of spending our valuable time analyzing the issues of a Catholic school, but I think most came to appreciate the intellectual challenge as well as the nuanced applicability to our own Jewish day school. In the afternoon, we split up by division, and the elementary school subdivided into General Studies and Judaic Studies. In General Studies, our teachers enjoyed the last of three math workshops led by John Hinton, and in Judaic Studies, we began to map out the Tefillah curriculum from kindergarten through fifth grade. Just to remind you, our professional development focus on math has been a long-range response to results of the 2007-2008 parent survey. When we analyzed the results of the 2008-2009 parent survey, we were heartened to see increased parent satisfaction, but decided to stay the course and continue focusing on improving the teaching of mathematics in our elementary school. Tefillah, another area we identified in need of some attention, will be the central theme of Judaic Studies professional development when we resume our Friday professional development days in the spring. At that time, the general studies team will be moving on to Writing as the next area of professional growth. 4th through 8th grade Faculty Pow-Wow with a focus on English Language Arts – On Thursday morning, members of the elementary and middle school faculty who teach English Language Arts got together with the elementary and middle school administrators for a half-day self-run conference. This was the third time we have held a 4th to 8th grade Pow-Wow, the first, last spring, focused on Hebrew Language instruction, and the second, last month, was focused on Mathematics instruction. Believe me, it is a scheduling nightmare to free up all of the teachers from both campuses who teach a common subject for a half-day! However, the time spent together has been extremely valuable, as we work to smooth the seams between elementary and middle school, and sharing ideas and information to enhance the learning experience of our students. As previously noted, our focus for professional development in the spring will be on writing, and our administrators and teachers gathered valuable insights from the middle school faculty to help us in gearing up for a writing initiative. Cancer Care Hope Mural for Lung Cancer Walk – There is so much more to share about this very busy week, but I will conclude with a beautiful project that was taking place in the art room. Under the direction of Mrs. Teri Fields, the whole school came together to create a giant mural for the upcoming Lung Cancer Walk, sponsored by Cancer Care. Here is how Mrs. Fields got so many children involved: The kids all signed their names on it, the fifth grade (5A) designed the background, first grade painted the grass, and second, third, and 4P helped to write the words help, hope, love, and care around the border. 5A helped to pull it all together with words and images that they drew directly onto the mural. Members of the 5P class had the opportunity to come in at lunchtime to help for a few minutes on their own time. The blank framed canvas was donated by a woman named Lois Schwartz, who wanted a giant banner dedicated in her father’s memory, Mr. Alex Drucker. With permission of the Drucker family, our students also dedicated this banner in the memory of Alan Zucker z”l, husband of Iris Zucker, and father of Amanda, Eric, and Andrew Zucker, who passed away a few years ago from lung cancer. Here is an excerpt from an email Mrs. Fields and I received yesterday from Bertie Downs, Special Events Coordinator, CancerCare, New York: I am so excited to see the finished product! I know the kids put a lot of time and effort into this and I am very grateful and happy that Solomon Schechter Day School was able to take part. This day means so much to the participants and the added touch of artwork will surely make the day the most memorable walk to date! Parent and friends of the Solomon Schechter Day School, this has been such a rich and rewarding week at the school. Shabbat Shalom, Dr. Cindy Dolgin Elementary School Principal __________________________________ D’var Torah Genesis 18:1-22:24 November 7, 2009 / 20 Heshvan 5770
In this parashah, we find Abraham personifying the virtues of hospitality, compassion, humility, peacemaking, and fear of God. All of these qualities can be found in our musar literature and in Max Kadushin's rabbinic value concepts. It is tempting to let the horrific story of the Akedah dominate the discussion of Abraham as moral exemplar. This narrative centers on the middah of fearing God, Abraham binding himself to God's inscrutable demands, and passing his ultimate test of faithfulness. During the Middle Ages when rampaging Crusaders massacred Jews (why wait to get to the Holy Land to kill the infidels when there were infidels en route?), these Jews imagined themselves latter-day Abrahams. In 1140, Solomon bar Samson recorded the horror that befell the community of Mainz: "They tied their sons as Abraham tied his son, and they received upon themselves with a willing soul the yoke of the fear of God, the King of Kings, the Holy One, blessed be He . . . The ears of him who hears these things will tingle, for who has ever heard anything like this? Inquire now and look about. Was there ever such an abundant sacrifice as this since the days of primeval Adam? Were there ever eleven hundred sacrifices on one day, each of them like the sacrifice of Isaac, the son of Abraham? " (Ed. Marcus, Jacob R.; The Jew in the Medieval World: A Source Book, 315–1791; 117–118). This understanding of Avraham Avinu is highly problematic. Although those who died for Kiddush Hashem (sanctifying God's name) claimed to be following Abraham's example, their reading of the Akedah makes sense only if Abraham killed his son. Also, the readiness to sacrifice one's child does not fit MacIntyre's criteria for a virtue. Unlike other ma'alot or middot that constitute normative behavior bounded by communally determined rules ("this is the way we do things around here"), child sacrifice is not held up as a Jewish ideal. A far better example of Avraham as avatar, one that reflects the simple meaning of the text, is in the depiction of hakhnassat orhim (welcoming guests), a narrative that is twice as long as the Akedah. The parashah includes three vignettes of greeting wayfarers: how Abraham, Lot, and the people of Sodom understand the moral obligation of hospitality and the practice of this virtue. According to tradition, Abraham's tent was open on all sides to view passersby. Upon seeing the three messengers, Abraham runs to them, bows, arranges for water and shade. He promises a morsel but prepares a lavish spread. "Such is the way of the righteous; they promise little but perform much" (BM 87a). He orders Sarah to use the choicest of ingredients: the flour that would later be used in the Mishkan, curds and milk much prized in the Ancient Near East, and tender veal (Rashi, no doubt prefiguring the French obsession with gastronomy, observes that Abraham needed to kill three calves to serve each guest the delicacy of tongue with mustard sauce [Rashi on Gen. 18:7]). Unlike Abraham, Lot does not run to greet the angel-messengers who visit him in chapter 19. He sits until they approach him and then stands. While he does urge them to stay in his home, rather than in the public square, he prepares a much simpler meal than the generous Abraham, i.e., unleavened bread rather than cakes of fine flour. To his credit, Lot does try to protect the visitors from the rage of the people of Sodom. Although living in Sodom, Lot is still somewhat connected to the moral values of the Abrahamic family. His mores, his understanding of normative behavior, are at odds with those of his neighbors. The rabbis capture the moral depravity of Sodom through its contempt for hakhnassat orhim. They claim that the Sodomites refused to expend any of their lavish wealth on strangers and that they brutally killed a young girl for helping a poor man (Tosefta Sotah 3:11f). Genesis Rabbah tells us that Sodom provided only one bed for strangers; if an unlucky wayfarer was too short to fit, he was stretched until he could; if another was too tall, his legs were chopped off. Reflecting on the oddity of Abraham not standing when the Lord spoke to him (Gen. 18:1), but running to greet the messengers, the Rabbis opined, "Hospitality to wayfarers is greater than welcoming the Divine Presence" (Shab. 127a). We are called upon to test our moral centeredness in the quotidian. Judaism provides a map for living in ordinary times. How does Avraham the avatar show his love for God? As we should: by practicing on His creatures. PDF filesChesed CornerPA Havdallah Flyer Solomon Slammers Registration Information Pre-school Thanksgiving Program Shop to Support Schechter |
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