E-News: Eight Nights, Eight Lights!

December 18, 2015

6 Tevet, 5776 This Week at Rochelle Zell

Eight Nights, Eight Lights Chanukah FesKviKes ConKnue

Happy Chanukah Tri-­‐M Music Honors Kashrut Panel Hour of Code DECA Stock Market Contest This Week in Sports From the P.O. Ventra Cards for Students Alumni in the News A Taste of Torah

Class Schedule ​Monday, January 4 A Tuesday, December 5 C

Thank you to everyone who sang, danced, cheered, hugged, and thumped the shtender through the most joyous Hallel Rochelle Zell has seen in many years, to everyone who brought in children's books for Bernie's Book Bank, who baked challot and lit candles and celebrated the fes@val of lights with us!

Wednesday, December 6 BB

Rabbi Feinsmith's guitar was humming, the !sch club was rockin' the ruach, and Chanukah was brought to a joyous close this past Monday.

Thursday, December 7 C Friday, December 8 A

Quick Links CJHS.org Calendars Lunch Menu Edline Give Now

Save The Date December 20 -­‐ January 3 Winter Break

Announcements were blessedly cut short in honor of the holiday, and in honor of the fabulous music video prepared by Mr. Scher and the Va'ad in honor of the Rochelle Zell holi-­‐daze.

And speaking of holidays, a resounding yasher koach to Mr. Griffith for his Friday dvar Torah on the holiness of the holidays and the rebirth of every youthful neshama in happiness and freedom.

January 3 -­‐ January 22 Senior Israel Experience ​January 4 Classes Resume January 5 Freshman Parent Mee@ng January 11 -­‐ January 15 Final Exams January 18 MLK Jr. Day January 19 Semester 2 Begins Sophomore Parents Mee@ng January 25

The Rochelle Zell P.O. kicked off the final week before break with a special Chanukah lunch for the students. Many thanks to Sheila Small and Jodi Weisskopf for their outstanding planning and execu@on, and to Susan Laney, Terri Krauss, Cindy Taitz, and Debbie Copley for helping with the set-­‐up and cleanup of the fes@ve meal. Thank you, too, to the following families for sponsoring the yummies: the Weisskopfs family in honor of

Classes Resume for Seniors Tu Bishvat January 27 Junior/Senior Parent Mee@ng

Joshua's birthday, the Taitz family in honor of Jason's birthday last summer, and the Ecanow family in honor of Natalie's birthday. Thanks also to Rochelle Zell's administra@on for the faculty BBQ!

February 7 ACT at RZJHS ​February 15 President's Day ​March 2-­‐6 Model UN Conference March 18-­‐19 All School Shabbaton ​March 18 2:15 pm Friday Dismissal Begins

This Week in Music Rochelle Zell Admi\ed to Tri-­‐M

STEM Corner Illinois Ins@tute of Technology invites high school sophomores, juniors and seniors to aaend NxtGen Tech Program in the summer of 2016. Students will learn technologies and tools and get a glimpse of the future of the Internet, compu@ng, and the next wave of emerging technologies. To learn more, click here.

The Illinois BioGENEius Challenge is a compe@@on for high school science students to present their original research in biotechnology. The Illinois

Twelve Rochelle Zell students have been admiaed to the Tri-­‐M Music Honor Society, an interna@onal music honor society for high school students. Congratula@ons to Becca Abrams, Zach Becker, Emma Canter, Sarah Comar, Coby Drexler, Audrey Honig, Hana Lieber, Aitan Maeir, Dina Matkowsky, Maya Michalewicz, Sarah Tenner, and Henry Wolle, the society's newest members! Tri-­‐M is designated to recognize

students for their academic and musical achievements, reward them for their accomplishments and service

winner will receive an all-­‐ expense-­‐paid trip to the interna@onal compe@@on, which will be held at the BIO Conven@on 2016 in San Francisco, CA. Click here for more informa@on.

ac@vi@es, and inspire the community through public performances and service projects. Tri-­‐ M's 67,800 members are spread through twenty-­‐four interna@onal chapters in figeen countries; our chapter is sponsored

by Ellen Singer, vocal director. Ms. Singer adds that, "The Tri-­‐M chapter at Rochelle Zell consists of Jazz band members as well as Vocal Ensemble members, and is open to all music students who met the criteria. Mr. Roothaan and I are very excited about this addi@on to our program and connec@ng our students to music students all over the country."

Kashrut Panel Staff Members Field FAQ About Practice and Halacha

Last week, the en@re freshman class aaended a kashrut panel in the Beit Knesset. Ms. Frankel filled the role of the moderator; Dr. Schorsch, Mr. Eskin, Mrs. Steinberg, and Mrs. Agbodza were courteous enough to reflect on their experiences with kashrut, fielding ques@ons wriaen by the freshman students. There was a broad variety of answers from whether or not they keep kosher, their reason for keeping kosher and the connec@on between Kashrut and being part of the Jewish community.

Freshman Sammy Vayngart writes, "There were certain ideas that stood out to me. A few of the panelists referred to the technical defini@on of Kashrut as meaning “fit” or “appropriate”. A common reason that the panelists kept kosher was because it is a tradi@on kept by the Jewish people and by their families in par@cular. Keeping kosher made them feel connected to all other Jews. All four agreed that keeping kosher is different for everybody. For some of the panelists, it is extremely difficult and challenging to follow all the rules of kashrut, yet they do so; we all respected the staff member who does not keep kosher at all. The most interes@ng comment that I heard was that even though Dr. Schorsch doesn’t completely understand kashrut, she follows it anyway, which displays great confidence in the tradi@on and commandments of God for the Jewish people. The beau@ful thing about Jewish people is that there is always a constant connec@on and rela@onship. No maaer where the Jewish people are in the world, even without a temple, there is always a feeling of hope and love between the Jewish people."

Hour of Code Students and Staff Join Weeklong Computer Programming Jam

Rochelle Zell par@cipated in The Hour of Code last week, joining a global effort including tens of millions of students in over 180 countries increasing literacy about computer programming. Here in Deerfield, student developers Max Gruenberg and Gaby Ecanow were on hand to assist students with their Hour of Code. Par@cipants were able to choose from 9 different coding ac@vi@es, from building a website to crea@ng an iPhone App. The goal was to "demys@fy" coding by providing a hands-­‐on experience. Ms. Kime reports, "It went well for our first event! We had 30 par@cipants from all grades, and a few teachers as well!"

DECA Stock Market Challenge Students Simulate Portfolios Trying to Beat the Market Our DECA Stock Market Game has concluded! The game ran from October 15 through December 11. Twenty-­‐three teams of students were given $10,000 in a virtual stock market account with which to make trades in a simulated brokerage account. Students could buy and sell any stocks they wanted. The only requirements were that they had invest their "money," and they had to invest in at least three companies. To make the game realis@c, trades incurred a $10 commission.

This year's winner is the team of Brian Silverstein and David Levin, earning approximately a 12.7% return during the game. Viktor Cin came in second with an 8.9% return, and Aitan Maeir was third with a return of 3.1%.

During this week's DECA mee@ng, Mr. Baumstark and his devotees debriefed on the overall results. Student observed that frequent trading hurts porsolio returns: the worst performing teams generally made a lot of trades. They noted that it's hard to beat the market: only seven of the 23 teams outperformed the S&P 500. Of course, some@mes you also just get lucky! Teams had a wide variety of trading strategies, which made for a very rich discussion over the course of the game. Overall, the game was very effec@ve at exposing our students to inves@ng, how the stock market works and how to think about performance.

This Week in Sports Women's Basketball Carries On

Despite star@ng the season with a 5-­‐1 record the Lady Tigers have cooled off a liale, recording hard-­‐ fought losses to Christ the King, Chicago Hope, and St Benedict. “We'll be fine," Coach Forde reports with enthusiasm. "We're exactly where I thought we would be at this point of the season. We can do beaer, but we have to take our lumps: it helps us get beaer. This group is preay resilient, and they're learning with every game.” This week, the team faced Cristo Rey Sunday, followed by Providence St. Mel on Monday, and Ida Crown for the second @me this season on Thursday. Well done, ladies!

Va'ad Israel Learns About Lone Soldiers David Pollack Speaks Last Wednesday, students in Va’ad Israel met with former Lone Soldier David Pollack through the Lone Soldier Connec@on organiza@on. This gave students the opportunity to hear David’s life story. He grew up in the western suburbs of Chicago, with very few Jews in his community and found his Jewish iden@ty in college. This iden@ty led him to want to join the Israel Defense Forces. He tried out for the paratroopers brigade and was in service for two years. He also discussed the hardships that all Lone Soldiers face being far away from home. For example, while most soldiers get to go home for the weekend and sleep, David went home to an empty apartment and had to buy food, do laundry, and make sure everything was taken care of.

In Israel, Israeli families have the ability to adopt lone soldiers. Pollack was adopted by a family halfway through his service, along with three other American lone soldiers. Va’ad Israel would like to thank the Lone Soldier Connec@on organiza@on and David Pollack for coming and we hope to see them again in the near future.

Driver's Ed Sign-Up Forms Coming for Freshmen and Sophomores Please be on the lookout for the Driver's Ed email for the Spring Semester. Adams School of Driving will be holding classes at Rochelle Zell Jewish High School beginning on Thursday, January 21, 2016 from 4:10 p.m. to 5:10 p.m. and on select dates. In order to enroll in these classes your student must have been born on or before May 16, 2001. If you have any ques@ons regarding the classes, please call Adams School of Driving at 847.965.6565 or email Janice Dlaa at jdlaa@rzjhs.org.

Alumni Trivia "We be-­‐lieve that we will win!" Which redoubtable basketball star helped make history against Mooseheart in 2013 and beat the buzzer with the winning shot in our second back-­‐to-­‐back IHSA basketball championship? Hint: the field is green, but this Jewish athlete has gone blue!

From the Parent Organization Our Fall ac@vi@es were a huge success! Thank you to all of our co-­‐chairs, volunteers and sponsors: to Amy Mishell and Maryl Dayan who co-­‐chaired our Grade Get-­‐togethers, to Liz Geifman who organized the Rosh Hashanah Faculty/Staff gig bags, to all who aaended the P.O. fall book club; to Mar@ne Gorstein for chairing the Faculty/Staff Chanukah Gig Fund, and again, to our Chanukah lunch organizers and helpers. We couldn't have done it without the involvement of our fantas@c Rochelle Zell community.

Save the Date: We have some great events planned for the spring semester: Monday, February 22: Rochelle Zell P.O. movie night Saturday evening, March 12: Rochelle Zell Parent and Alumni Parent Event Tuesday, April 5: an evening with Mia Adler Ozair, author of Cook, Pray, Eat Kosher Stay tuned for details about these events coming in early January. Have a healthy and happy winter break.

Karen Ecanow and Debbie Copley Rochelle Zell P.O. Presidents

Renew Your Ventra Pass Today!

Reduced Fare For Public Transportation Students who use Ventra cards must RENEW REDUCED FARE RIDING PRIVILEGES EVERY SCHOOL YEAR. Fill out this form and email it to idrazin@rzjhs.org for the school to place its official seal on the form and send to Ventra Chicago.

Sponsored Breakfast

Happy birthday, Livi! Thank you to Livi Moses's family for sponsoring breakfast. If you would like to sponsor breakfast in honor of your favorite Tiger, contact Diane Zidman at dzidman@rzjhs.org.

Community News and Events

Alumni in the News Students Spotlighted in Crown Family Center for Jewish Studies The brothers Licht are taking NU by storm! Iszy ('11), Aitan ('13), and Yadid ('14) Licht have formed the core of Northwestern University's new Talmud program. “ This course helped us to realize that ‘ancient’ and ‘outdated’ are not synonymous,” [Aitan] explains. “ The Talmud con@nues to act as the foremost basis for modern Jewish prac@ce. As we studied... we gained a new mode of grasping the text that underlies current Jewish life.” Yadid con@nues, "The different approaches of high school and university Talmud study are equally important. The religious, personal engagement with the text that we employed at CJHS is as vital as the cri@cal, analy@c study of the Talmud that was introduced at Northwestern.” Read all about their new program here.

Aluma Writes for Jewish Council on Urban Affairs Avra Shapiro ('08) is on the south side, campaigning for beaer health care for the vic@ms of violence! She reports, "For the past year, JCUA has been part of a coali@on organizing to expand trauma care on the south side in the midst of a “trauma center desert”. The coali@on was started five years ago by FLY (Fearless Leading by the Youth) ager 18 year old community ac@vist Damian Turner was shot and had to travel 10 miles to the closest trauma center at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. Damian died on the way. Appallingly, Damian was shot only three blocks away from the University of Chicago Medical Center, one of the most well resourced hospitals in the na@on. This tragedy was the star@ng point of a campaign to bring comprehensive trauma care to the South Side, and to call upon the University of Chicago to facilitate and sustain a trauma care center." Read all about her effort with JCUA here, and the thrilling news that their efforts are succeeding!

Alumni Trivia

Jeremy Goodman ('14) is a sophomore at the University of Michigan. He reports, "I have recently become a part of the School of Educa@on here, and am majoring in History. I am planning to teach at the high school level when I graduate. In my free @me, I have been working to bring Jewish life to students outside of Hillel; I am actually working with Gita Karasov! I also teach at a Hebrew school and play on a Scout Team that prac@ces against the women's varsity basketball team, so I am keeping up with sports. Everything is great here and this semester has been incredible!"

A Taste of Torah: Vayigash Joseph says it best when he explains that it wasn’t his brothers who sent him into slavery, but God – all so that he could eventually save his family years later. This line of thinking sounds a lot like the thinking of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who submit wholeheartedly to God’s will. But there is another side to Joseph. As Rabbi Jonathan Sacks has pointed out, the scene in which Joseph reveals himself to his brothers is the first recorded example of forgiveness in human history. Un@l that point, no person – not even God, according to the p’shat of the Torah – had ever acknowledged that someone had commiaed a wrong and forgiven that person nonetheless.

Forgiveness is not a mo@f which typifies the lives of the forefathers. Does Isaac forgive Abraham for the Akedah, or does he keep that pain within him for the rest of his life? Does Jacob forgive Isaac for loving his brother more than him, or does he pass that same favori@sm onto the next genera@on? Joseph steps out of the paaern of his fathers and forgives; forgiveness is a human choice. And ul@mately, it is forgiveness which brings Joseph and his family happiness and fulfillment. READ MORE>>

Mr. Joseph Eskin

1095 Lake Cook Road Deerfield, IL 60015 | cjhstigers@cjhs.org | 847.470.6700