Alumni Day 13 Kislev, 5775
This Week at CJHS Alumni Day Illinois State Scholars Tigers Win Studio Art Mosaics Engineering Club Children's Book Drive Toy Drive CJHS Community Night Sponsored Breakfast Alumni Trivia A Taste of Torah
Save the Date
December 5, 2014
Alumni Day
Sunday, Dec. 14 ACT Monday, Dec. 22 Friday, Jan. 2 Winter Break Sunday, Jan. 4 Friday, Jan. 23 Senior Israel Experience Monday, Jan. 12 Friday, Jan. 16 Winter Exams
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P.O. Corner The P.O. is pleased to offer the gift card or "Scrip/Gelt" program, designed to help families earn money to apply towards their students' Shabbatonim, Junior Class trip, and Senior Israel Experience. By purchasing gift cards through the school for vendors where you ordinarily shop (groceries, gas, household items, etc), a percentage of what you spend each time will be placed in your family's account to be used for these trips. Gift card orders are placed every Thursday. Please contact Sheri Sandrof at ssandrof@cjhs.org or 847.324.3723 with any questions.
Over a hundred former students flocked the halls to hug old teachers and friends on our annual Erev Thanksgiving alumni reunion weekend. The building was filled with news of colleges, yeshivas, and jobs, the sounds of alumni energetically reconnecting with everyone. Wednesday's tefillah discussion allowed alumni to reminisce about the independen ce, hard work, and advocacy skills they learned at school and the close ties with friends and teacher s that make CJHS such a special place. Alumni shared advice about living Jewishly on campus, as well as how to make the most of the close friends and varied Jewish study opportunities at CJHS that have most changed their lives.
Grandparents and Special Friends Association Help us get in touch with some very special people in your students' lives! Please reply here with the names, addresses, and emails of their grandparents and/or special friends so we can forward them a membership form to join our "Grandparents and Special Friends Organization". If you provide an email address, they can also begin receiving CJHS e-news. Contact Sheri Sandrof at 847.324.3723 or ssandrof@cjhs.org with any questions.
Sponsor Breakfast What's better than a birthday celebration with friends? Celebrate your student's birthday or other milestone with a special breakfast at CJHS.
For a donation of $180 (10x chai), bagels, cream cheese, and orange juice will be served to everyone. Announcements will be made in Tefillah and in the dining hall, and the occasion will also be listed in our weekly E-News and on the school announcement board. If you have any questions, please call 847.324.3713 or email dzidman@cjhs.org. Order forms are available online here.
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Ten years for the pioneer class! Can you imagine?Saturday night's alumni reunion and basketball game greeted nearly 70 alumni from a throng of last year's graduates all the way back to Avram Pachter ('06). Va'ad president Eli Schrayer welcomed everyone back to the "new building" which is now the old school, and then the basketball battle was on! Returning alumni made an incredible showing on the court, tying the score at the end of the first and again at the second quarter. New seniors faced off against new freshmen for the 3-point shootout at halftime. Congratulations to Dr. Jeannie Aschkenasy, mom to Rachel Aaronson ('12) and Gingi Aaronson ('14), who won the Bulls tickets at the raffle!
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After being down by as many as twenty points, the current students made an amazing comeback to end the game in a tie. Thanks to everyone who came out for this fantastic event. We look forward to seeing you next year!
Illinois State Scholars During this season of Thanksgiving and celebration, we are pleased to announce the 24 seniors who have been named Illinois State Scholars. Congratulations to Leora Calamaro, Joe Cohen, Benji Fishbaum, Hannah Given, Jonah Glick-Unterman, Rayna Gorstein, Eytan Herman, Jordan Jacobson, Isaac Johnston, Josh Kaplinsky, Elan Karoll, Eli Krule, Jonathan Schrag, Eli Schrayer, Yoni Shapiro, David Steinberg, and Ruli Warner-Rosen.
Tigers Win on Home Court! Basketball season is up and running! The men's varsity basketball team defeated Northtown on Monday, 5442. Led by Josh Newlander's 31 points, the entire team got into the game and contributed. Zach Becker, Coby Drexler, Yoni Maltsman, and Jonah Karoll all had their first varsity baskets. The Tigers defeated CICS Ellison Wednesday 54-41. Josh Newlander once again led the way with 34 points, 9 rebounds, and 6 steals. Coby Drexler had a great game with 7 points, 1 steal, and 1 rebound, to go along with countless defensive stops. Josh Pliskin added in 5, splashing in a clutch 3 pointer in the final two minutes. The team lost 50-42 to Christ the King lastnight. Josh Newlander led the way with 25 points, while Eli Schrayer collected 9 rebounds.
The Lady Tigers rebounded from Monday's loss to Northtown with a smashing victory on Tuesday night against Our Lady of Tepeyac! MVP of the game
was definitely junior Emily Reisler, who was put in on the court in the second half, and led the team to an amazing triumph. Come out and cheer on the Lady Tigers Sunday at 3:00 p.m. (JV) and 4:30 p.m. (varsity) against Cristo Rey! Many thanks to this week's sportscasters Isaac Johnston and Sara Behn for covering this week's games! Send scores and stats to the editor at seliaser@cjhs.org.
Studio Art's "Bits and Pieces"
Students in Mrs. Snyder's studio art class are busy working on their new mosaics, the first of several they will do this winter. To donate old dishes to be reborn as new masterpieces, contact Mrs. Snyder at msnyder@cjhs.org.
Alumni Trivia Which CJHS student used to keep her lunch in the teacher's lounge fridge, and where is she now?
Engineering Club
CJ students have been building and programming robots in Engineering Club! Stude nts in Tea m Maxim us, Team Kumq uat, Team eHond a, and Team Washington Roboteers will soon compete against each other in an epic Sumo-like battles. The rules: whichever robot autonomously pushes the other out of a playing field first wins. Senior Elan Karoll reports, "In addition to learning valuable skills about robotic design and teamwork, everyone is having tons of fun!"
SSDS Children's Book Drive Did you know that 61% of low-income families don't have any books at home for their children? Our friends over at Solomon Schechter are hosting a children's book drive for Bernie's Book Bank. Bernie's delivers books-for-keeps to low-income and at-risk families so their kids, babies through sixth graders, can have a chance to start out right and learn to love reading. So, clean off your bookshelves, graduating seniors and empty nesters! Are you really reading all those Spider-Man and Judy Moody books? Bring your used or new books in to school by Thursday, December 10, and hand them off to Mrs. Eliaser or to junior Jorie Dayan or her brother Jake. This message is placed by third grade book drive organizers Asher Dayan and Davita Eliaser, CJHS Class of 2024.
DEAP Toy Drive for Chai Lifeline DEAP is sponsoring a toy drive for cancer patients and other children with serious illnesses. Please help out with new, unwrapped, toys for infants through teens, especially ages 13+! Gifts and donations in any price range are welcome. Our drive goes through this Monday, so bring what you can in today!
SUSHI AND SAKE TOO: 2nd Annual Chicagoland Jewish High School
Community Event
Reconnect with old friends, meet new ones and see what's happening in the halls of CJHS Saturday, January 17, 2015 27 Tevet 5775 7:30 p.m. Suggested Couvert: $50 per person RSVP to Michelle Friedman by January 9.
Sponsored Breakfast Happy birthday to Jonah Karoll! Many thanks to his family for sponsoring breakfast on Monday.
Alumni Trivia
The culprit was Miranda Smerling ('13), but she did have permission from her mother, our former development director,Ms. Stephanie Smerling! Now home from Nativ, Miranda is in her first year at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts. Mi randa reports, "When I'm not writing research papers, studying, writing theory papers and so on and so on, I spend a lot of my time involved with my Hillel on campus. I am on the board and the Tikkun Olam Committee. One of my biggest accomplishments so far has been starting a Rosh Chodesh/female empowerment group geared towards people of any religion or background. Our kickoff event "Bras for a Cause" was a huge success--it was part of Hadassah's Uplift Project in honor of breast cancer awareness month. We decorated bras, gave some info about breast cancer awareness, and introduced the themes of Rosh Chodesh, too. It was an amazing event!" Way to go, Miranda!
A Taste of Torah: Vayishlach Thanksgiving brings many greetings from family and friends. And you know how so often after considerable time apart, you don't know quite whether to go in for the hug or a handshake. Perhaps even a kiss? Ya'akov feels this immensely in this week's parasha. After some time apart,and considerable tension, Esav finally returns to meet Ya'akov. Ya'akov acts cautiously, perhaps deferentially, bowing as Esav approaches. But Esav goes straight in for the kiss. Ya'akov certainly didn't see that one coming. In the Torah, above the word, "he kissed him, "Vayishakehu" are six dots, one of ten times in the Torah that there exist such a scribal note.
The educated reader knows of two Esavs: the man of the Bible and the man of the commentaries. One Esav is a mere man, a hunter whose twin conspired with their mother to trick him (or buy him?) out of his birthright. The other is a living symbol, father of the Roman Empire and all of its excesses; in rabbinic lore, Esav gives birth to the Edomite nation, and in turn, the Edomites to Rome. With this in mind, the text of the midrashic text, Breishit cites two divergent opinions of the meaning of this "kiss": 1. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar suggests that in that very moment, a moment of pathos, Esav becomes merciful and kisses him with his full heart 2. Rabbi Yanai says that the dots on the word indicate that he went in for a kiss but instead bit him on his neck. Such differences highlight important different lenses in how one can read the Torah. They also highlight how differently a person can interpret a text, or even the merits of another person, when he does not have all of the information about a situation. The difference between a kiss and a bite are the difference between an expression of love and attempted murder. Rabbi Shimon ben Elazar's
interpretation suggests a startling appeal to the nature of humanity. After years of pain and suffering, familial love overtakes even Esav and leads to the embrace. May such passion fuel our own relationships and also ensure that these embraces are never a surprise. May we also be willing to explore the entirety of a person and a situation when only cursory evidence is provided on first glance. --Rav Beit Sefer Zach Silver
Shabbat Shalom Candlelighting this week is at 4:01. Shabbat shalom! ַהנְׂתּונִים,ַאחֵינּו כָּל בֵית יִש ְָּׂראֵל הָּעֹומְׂדִ ים בֵין ַבי ָּם,ש ְׂבי ָּה ִ ְׂבצ ָָּּרה ּו ַב ַהמָּקֹום י ְַׂרחֵם ֲעלֵיהֶם,ּובֵין ַבי ַ ָּבשָּה, ּו ֵמ ֲא ֵפלָּה,וְׂיֹוצִיאֵם מִ צ ָָּּרה ל ְִׂר ָּוחָּה שתָּ א ַב ֲעגָּלָּא ּו ִבזְׂמַן ק ִָּריב ְׂ ַה,שעְׂבּוד ִלגְׂ ֻאלָּה ִ ּו ִמ,ְׂאֹורה ָּ ל.