20 Elul, 5775
September 4, 2015
This Week at CJHS
Bridge Building Contest
Bridge Building Contest
Physics Students Test Truss Bridges
This Week in Sports Leadership Shabbaton
​Back to School Night Adventures in Precalculus Socratic Seminars in English Mindfulness and Creativity From the PO Students in the News Community Events Sponsored Breakfast ​Alumni Trivia A Taste of Torah
Quick Links CJHS.org Calendars Lunch Menu Edline Give Now
Tension was running high in Mrs. Eliaser's last period physics classes as the juniors brought hours worth of hard work in for the 2015 bridge building competition! Eight graceful truss bridges vied with each other for efficiency, comparing mass supported to the mass of the total bridge.
Save The Date September 7 No School - Labor Day September 11-12 Freshman Shabbaton September 14-15 No School - Rosh Hashanah September 22-23 No School - Yom Kippur September 24 Late Start September 28-29 No School - Sukkot October 1 Sukkah Hop October 5 No School - Shemini Atzeret October 6
Viktor Cin and Emma Siegel's original creation, each of whose beams shone beautifully trimmed, painted and locked into place, supported almost 34 times its own weight before a loading pole snapped and damaged the elegant structure in its fall. Eliana Kaufman and Elli Brody's Warren truss with verticals supported a surprising 48 times its own weight with a flexible feather-light web of light beams, while Jon Silvers modified Warren solidly supported almost 49 times its own weight, tying for a spectacular first place finish and a spot at the Chicago regional bridgebuilding competition at IIT downtown. Way to go, juniors!
No School - Simchat Torah October 13 Grandparent Meet & Greet October 14 PSAT October 16-17 All School Shabbaton October 20 Early Dismissal - Conferences
This Week in Sports
College Season CJHS is pleased to welcome admission representatives from over fifty colleges and Israel programs this autumn! VIEW SCHEDULE >>
Men's Soccer Going Strong The varsity soccer team is fired up and flying around the field. In our game Tuesday against Chicago Hope, Henry Hoffman scored our first goal of the season. In our second match against DePaul College Prep, goalie Gabe Chasin had one of the best games in CJHS history, making twelve saves in a truly spectacular MVP performance. Coach Greg Shannon reports, "It's early in the season, but so far the defense, led by Jason Taitz and Josh Levitas, has been lights out. Ben Saxton and Jonathan Taitz have been solid on the right and left, helping solidify the defense. We will win our share of games this season because our boys care and we have heart!" On the Green
The cross country team pounded the pavement this Monday to kick off the season with the annual Blue/White meet. Men's golf celebrated a major win yesterday, braving a tough course with narrow fairways and rolling hills to emerge in the lead against Faith Lutheran. Senior golfer Seth Wein reports, "While two of the golf team's top players were out, the freshmen stepped in and played fantastic golf. Shai Sklar, Daniel Sacks, and Joshua Weisskopf all broke 70, helping the golf team secure a valuable W, putting their record
at a solid 2-1!"
On the Court
This week in women's volleyball, both the JV and varsity teams had three matches, with JV putting up a tenacious fight and varsity bringing home the win in two of the three games! On Monday against St. Martin de Porres, Jorie Dayan had three aces and five digs; Elliana Brody had two kills, and junior Arielle Small had two aces. Lucy Cohen led the squad in Thursday's rematch scoring seven aces and four kills, while Erin Miller made ten assists, and Claire Gruenberg delivered four aces. The JV team dived into the fray, with spectacular plays by Samantha Wolf, Daphne Budin, and a very determined Tallulah BarkHuss. Next week the girls have three games, and they can't wait to make this school proud!
Leadership Shabbaton Student Leaders Spend a Shabbat in Training Over forty students and staff gathered this past weekend for the first ever CJHS Leadership Shabbaton. The goals of the weekend were defining leadership, exploring personal leadership styles, and collaborating to shape the culture of CJHS. Mr. Frank challenged everyone to consider ideas of charisma and integrity. Students practiced collaboration with a Marshmallow Challenge, attempting to build the tallest structure possible out of spaghetti and tape in just eighteen minutes. Mr. Baumstark spoke about characteristics of leadership from his business and teaching careers. Arnie Harris gave a d'var Torah about Moses and contributed his own experiences as President of Camp
Ramah in Wisconsin; Nina Harris engaged students with her expertise as a social worker and her experiences as president of the board of CJHS. It was a Shabbat full of delicious food, beautiful tefillah, and important conversations about student leadership at CJHS. Thank you to the Vales and Wein families for hosting us and to Moriah Congregation for welcoming us!
Back to School Night Open House for Parents Over a hundred parents and staff filled our hallways on Tuesday for Back-to-School night, starting with a special preview of our Tefillah program and then a tour of our many exciting classes. Parents left the school with a great appreciation for the learning that takes place on a daily basis at CJHS. Many thanks to Mr. Scher, Ms. Keefe, Ms. Drazin, Mr. Kosarev, Mr. Burda, and Mr. Martinez, and the entire faculty/staff for making the evening a success!
Save the Date October 15, 2015
Financial Aid Meeting for College Parents of CJHS juniors and seniors are invited on Thursday, October 15in October, for a college financial aid informational meeting. Contact Ms. Spielman for more details after the chagim.
From the Classroom
Precalculus Hijinks On Tuesday, Ms. Lena Averbuch's precalculus class was busy gambling away its life savings in a game of "What's Your Vector-Victor?" The game encouraged the students to get a sense of how vector addition, subtraction, and scalar multiplication worked. Teams of four attempted to build the largest vector, smallest vector, and special vectors of particular magnitude in order to win. Good Job, mathletes!
Socractic Seminars in English Over in the English department, juniors with Mrs. Vanessa Averbach participated in a Socratic seminar, a student-run discussion format grappling with weighty ideas from their readings. The Socratic discussion begins with students posing their own questions to the group, and having their peers grapple with the text to explore answers from multiple perspectives. The discussion was a basis for a written response, which students laid out graphically or in the transparent format of their choice. Socratic Seminar is one of many ways to prepare students for writing and can be replicated as a technique to drive their own study groups.
Mindfulness and Creativity Mindfulness & Creativity is the theme for Studio Art this semester. Students in Ms. Snyder's class are focusing on the date palm tree; The Jordan River, Then and Now will be the subject for their first painting project. Artists are now busily engaged in small drawing and painting exercises to prepare for their larger scale painting.
From the PO We had our third in the series of Grade Get-Togethers on Sunday, August 30. The senior class had a fantastic evening. Thank you to the Gruenberg family for hosting and to Amy Mishell and Maryl Dayan, our Grade Get-Together co-chairs, for all of their hard work in planning this event. Thanks, too, to all of the families who attended and made the evening a success. Thank you, again, to the Sacks family for sponsoring the Freshman Grade Get-Together. Sponsorship of the Grade-Get-Togethers in any amount is welcome and appreciated. Please contact us if you'd like to contribute. The Junior Grade Get-Together will be on Sunday, October 11 at the Levin home.
Please feel free to contact us with questions or if you're interested in volunteering with the PO. Contact us at PO@cjhs.org. We'd love to hear from you! Karen Ecanow & Debbie Copley CJHS PO Presidents Find the Chicagoland Jewish High School Parent Organization on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/ChicagolandJewishHighSchoolParentOrganization
Community News and Events
Students in the News CJHS Senior Scout Project CJHS senior Daniel Silver has spent the past two years building and running a Youth Training Garden at the North Suburban YMCA, an outdoor nook to enable children, individuals with special needs, and others to feed their passion for the outdoors. The produce grown by Daniel's charges has been used for service projects at the Y camps, Glenview Youth Services, and the Northfield Township Food Pantry. Daniel's accomplishment was recently recognized in a Boy Scouts Eagle Court of Honor Ceremony. Read more in the North Shore Review>>
Alumni Trivia When a graduate student reports that they are doing an internship in beer, this is usually spoken in jest. Not in this case, however! Which of our notable alumni really did just finish an internship in beer--and intends to follow it with a stint in seminary in Israel?
Sponsored Breakfast Happy birthday to Sarah Tennar, Anna Ecanow, and Josh Lederman. Many thanks to their families for sponsoring bagels. To sponsor breakfast in honor of your favorite Tiger, contact Diane Zidman in the front office.
Alumni Trivia Peri Axelrod ('10) is currently finishing her master's at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. From her first day of 18th grade, Peri reports, "I'll be graduating with a masters in human resources and industrial relations, looking to start a full-time position in an HR role this coming May. Last summer, I interned with Anheuser-Busch (Budweiser) on their talent acquisition and selection team. I really loved the experience and culture of working with a food and beverage company, so we'll see where I end up!" Peri also intends to spend several months before graduation learning at Midreshet Rachel v'Chaya in Givat Shaul, Jerusalem. Mazal tov, Peri!
Jewish Federation Annual Meeting September 17, 2015 | 12:00 p.m. | Hyatt Regency Chicago Luncheon 12:00 p.m. Julius Rosenwald Memorial Award Recipient: Frances G. Horwich $40 per person; $20 for senior citizens, clergy, Jewish communal professionals, and students
Guest Speaker: Dr. Deborah E. Lipstadt ​Business Meeting and Members' Forum 10:00 a.m. No admission charge for meeting & forum
​For more information, click here or contact Pam Dierking at 312.357.4876, annualmeeting@juf.org.
Buy Your Schach September 10, 2015 Best quality, fresh, fragrant evergreen Arbor Vida schach is available for $15 per bundle pickup, $18 per bundle delivered. Additional fee for orders under 4 bundles. Orders must be placed by September 10th. Please see more details and place your orders at www.schachchicago.com. This is a community service advertisement and is not affiliated with CJHS.
Maccabi Tel Aviv Plays Chicago October 1, 2015 | 7:00 p.m. The Maccabi Tel-Aviv Basketball Team will be coming to Chicago to play at the United Center against Armani Milano in the first International Israel-Italy Friendship Games. Half the proceeds from this program will go towards Breakthrough’s Coaches United Against Violence Program. Coaches United Against Violence has 18 public league coaches that work with students in the community and in schools to learn how to resolve conflicts peacefully. READ MORE >>
A Taste of Selichot
This Saturday night, Ashkenazim will begin reciting the Selichot penitential prayers, as we prepare for Rosh HaShanah. As the name of the service suggests, these prayers give more context to a month of requesting forgiveness from others in our lives and also from God. A glimpse at the liturgy and its Biblical origins adds additional texture for what this forgiveness might look like. At the center of these prayers of forgiveness we recount one of the most dramatic interchanges in the Bible (Shemot 34), highlighted by God’s description of Godself, the 13 attributes of God. Directly after the Israelites create the Golden Calf, Moshe stands in the breach between God and the people Israel, beseeching God to “pardon the iniquity of this people according to the greatness of your mercy, as you have forgiven the people from Israel until now.” God then says, “Salachti kidvarecha,” I have pardoned according to your word. Because of God’s forgiveness for this ultimate sin, we are here today. By reciting the same words from this scene that Moshe said and that God said we envision ourselves both from God’s perspective and from Moshe’s. We see ourselves as Moshe, who teaches God that others deserve to pardoned. We also envision ourselves as God, who forgives a nation that sins in dramatic fashion. Asking forgiveness certainly stands as a core element of Elul and the High Holiday season. But forgiving others can so often be the toughest task we do, particularly when somebody has greatly offended us. Forgiveness by no means suggests forgetting or excuse what another has done to us. But it does indicate that a person is able to continue
her life and “let go of the inclination for revenge.� We reenact the moving scene in Exodus during Selichot and play the parts both of God and Moshe to prepare ourselves for what so often is the difficult task of forgiving others. Doing so, provides the potential for entering the new year the fullest version of ourselves. Rav Beit Sefer Zach Silver
E-News Wants You We welcome feedback from our readership about the new CJHS E-News. Send your reviews to our project chair Tara Seymour, tseymour@cjhs.org, or your ever-faithful editor, Mrs. Shira Eliaser, seliaser@cjhs.org, and look for further changes this fall!
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