Kitah Bet Update

Dear Parents,

On Tuesday we completed a lesson in our Hebrew reading books. You should have received a parent homework sheet to read with your child. 

Thank you to those who are reading at home with your kids, the practice does help. With the short amount of time we are together, the home component is important. Please check your mailboxes for the riddles, your children are telling me you are not reading these to them. (?)

This Sunday we are lucky enough to be going to the Maccabeats concert at the synagogue. We will be in our class until 11:00AM and then go the concert. Pick-up time is the same as usual. Next Sunday, December 14 is our in "Simchat Limmud". I hope you will join us for this.

We missed Zachary on Tuesday. 

Shabbat Shalom, 

Davida

Kitah Hey Update

Dear Parents,

It's hard to believe it's December and we are almost finished with our first semester of Religious school! We are all excitedly awaiting our move into our beautiful new wing at The Berman Center. Until then, we continue to study our Shabbat, Friday night table service in our classroom downstairs.  Our Unit will culminate with Challah Bake on Dec.14. We hope you will be able to join us. You will receive information shortly.

We are excited to see the Maccabeats this Sunday. The kids love their songs!

Shabbat Shalom,

Cillia Kleiman

Morah Hollenberg Update

Dear 6th Grade Parents,

This week we continued studying Chanukah. We focused on the practices of this holiday; what qualifies as a Chanukiah (eight lights of the same height + a Shamash) and how we light it (we place the candles in from right to left adding an additional candle each night of Chanukah but light them left to right). Then we reviewed the three blessings we say over the lighting of the chanukiah on the first night of Chanukah as well as the two blessings we make when we light the chanukiah on the rest of the eight nights of Chanukah. We are looking forward to celebrating the first night of Chanukah with you at Hebrew School on December 16th! Please arrive at 5:40 pm for a community candle lighting and Chanukah songs. We will use the beautiful Chanukiot the children are creating.


Best,
Morah Hollenberg

Kitah Zayin Update

Dear 7^th Grade Families,

We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This week we began exploring the Jewish value of Tzedakah. While the Hebrew root of the word Tzedakah means justice, we often hear it translated as “charity.” So what does it mean – justice or charity? How are these concepts similar to and different from one another? We learned that justice comes from an obligation to makes things right, while charity is a desire to act in a way that helps others. Some Jewish opinions understand justice and charity as inherently different, while other Jewish opinions see them as two sides of the same coin.

One important Jewish thinker, Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, explains that in English, things can only be either justice or charity. If I give you 100 dollars, it’s either because I owe it to you (justice), or I don’t owe it to you (charity). In Judaism, however, Tzedakah is both justice and charity. As Jews, what we possess we don’t ultimately own since everything we have is really God’s, given to us in trust. One of the conditions of this trust is that we share it people that have less than we do. Therefore, in Judaism, charity is justice and justice takes the form of charity. Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks teaches that Tzedakah, in this way, is one word that has “the power to change the world.”

We look forward to continuing this important exploration with your children over our next few classes together. Have a wonderful weekend and Shabbat Shalom!

Rachel Rudman and David Lerner

Morah Schlussel Hebrew Update

Dear Parents,

This past week we were in session only on Tuesday due to the Thanksgiving holiday. I hope you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family and friends.

As usual, we started our day with teffilah with Cantor Gutman. He and Allison reminded the students about the new Shaarey Zedek youth choir.  Please find the flyer with all pertinent information below. It will not involve any extra school time to be part of the choir and it will be a wonderful way to learn and participate in the synagogue service.

We continued with our reading on Tuesday and we are making good progress.

This Sunday, Shaarey Zedek Hebrew school will have the opportunity to attend the Maccabeats Acapella group concert during school in our own building. It begins at 11:00 a.m and will be over by 12:15 p.m. in time for dismissal.

It is free for the students and it is a great pre-Chanukah concert. I hope to see everyone there.

The Macabeats will also be performing at Shaarey Zedek on Saturday night . There is a fee and it should be a great evening.

Have a wonderful week and I hope to see everyone on Sunday. 

Kitah Alef Update

Dear Parents,

Welcome back! Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and a relaxing few days off.  Last week we learned the letter Zayin. We learned how to read the word Zebra in Hebrew and practiced writing the new letter. Your children colored in a zebra that had different Hebrew letters on it. Each letter had to be colored a specific color and when they finished they could see the zebra very clearly. They really enjoyed this and it was a great activity for them because they didn't realize they were actually learning.

We worked on our word building and each student read various lines of different letters and vowels. The also learned the vowel "Eh" they understand that three dots make the eh sound along with five dots. Some students wrote letters and vowels on the board and other students had to figure out what they were writing. The students also had to listen to several words in Hebrew and match them to the proper picture. For example, Degel is Hebrew for flag...the word Degel was spelled out in he brew and the picture of the flag was mixed in with ten other pictures of different things. Some students figured it out right away and some had to think about it for a bit. Both were successful at matching the correct words to the correct pictures. Once they knew it was okay to make a mistake, they were more relaxed and enjoyed this exercise rather than being frustrated.

Lastly, we played an End Game which was listening to the sound they hear at the end of each word. I read the word and they had to focus on what the sound was at the end of the word and find the Hebrew letter in the sentence and circle the correct answer.  We talked a bit about Hanukkah and will continue learning about the holiday and the miracle of the oil. We will continue learning the next letter and reviewing the ones we have learned so far.

Have a great rest of your week and we will see each other on Sunday.

Thank you,
Morah Dresner  Wais

AM I MY BROTHER"S KEEPER

Our Kitah Dalet students have been talking about responsibility to self, others, and the community at large. Our Torah gives us plenty of opportunities to think about our commitment to family, and the the importance of taking care of others.  Specifically, we examined the text in the Torah about Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve, and shared our ideas about birth order and family loyalty. Students participated in a lively debate about how much responsibility one has to take for the errors of others, and what they have to do to protect family.  Finally, we shared our ideas about learning right from wrong, and how we have to be taught what is right before we can do something wrong.  

Our Torah Talk discussions have expanded into our values lessons and we continue to talk about taking things that don't belong to us, and what is rightfully ours.  Our discussion have moved from taking things to finding things, and what we have to do to insure we find the rightful owner of lost items.  Please ask you student to share their thoughts with you.