Happy Chanukah, Tigers! 27 Kislev, 5775
This Week at CJHS Chanukah Happenings Happy Chanukah From the PO CJHS in the Community This Week in Sports Alumni in the News Science Opportunities CJHS Community Night Exam Schedule Sponsored Breakfast A Taste of Torah Alumni Trivia
December 19, 2014
Bright Lights of CJHS
Save the Date 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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Rabbi Feinsmith's guitar is a-rocking, cookies are a-frosting, candles are a-twinkling in the Beit Knesset, and Chanukah has comes to CJHS! Fresh men, sopho mores , junior s, and senior s painte d their locker s and decorated their hallways to bring some holiday spirit, while Engineering Club sponsored a 3D chanukiyah art challenge and Gvt. Wasserman and Dr. Berman led the singalong with ALL the verses of our favorite Hebrew Chanukah songs. The sophomore boys reenacted Judah Maccabee's epic victory with plastic swords and Nerf battle axes-unless they were just rehearsing scenes from Macbeth for Ms. Friedman! Spin the dreidel or play some improv games at lunch--whatever brings light into your day!
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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.
Each day of the festival of lights, CJHS honored the bright lights of our school, people who have brought together our school in new and important ways to shine
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.
light outward to the community. On Wednesday, Va'ad Tefillah co-chair, Celia Pivo, invited founding leaders of new clubs to light the first candle: Justin Lanoff and Ranan Vales of Film Club and Lucy Cohen and Lisa Klein of Holla for Challah. On Thursday, we honored the incredible leaders of our LGBT organization, Ga'avah, Shira Romanoff, Eli Johnson, and Sarah Behn, for bringing important conversatio ns to CJHS and fosterin g an environmen t of safety for all of our students. On Friday, Va'ad Tefillah co-chair Isaac Johnston honored the freshmen who have had a leadership role in Tefillah, Hadar Halivni, Noah Cope, Max Pivo, and Sarah Tenner. May all of the lights in our community shine forth!
Happy Chanukah From the P.O.
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The CJHS PO kicked off the final week before break
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with a special Chanukah Breakfast. Much thanks to our co-chairs Sheila Small and Terri Kraus for their outstanding planning and execution! Thank you to Susan Laney for helping with set-up and to traffic superhero Ari Rosenthal for delivering the donuts just in time! Our Fall CJHS PO activities were a huge success! Thank you to all of our co-chairs, volunteers and sponsors! From the beginning of the year Grade Get-Togethers co-chaired by Maryl Dayan and Amy Mishell; our inaugural CJHS PO Book Discussion cochaired by Susan Laney, Becky Mati and Abby Polin; Faculty/Staff Appreciation Rosh Hashanah Gift Bags and CJHS PO Chanukah Gift Fund co-chaired by Andrea Becker and Anne McDonagh; to our fantastic Chanukah Breakfast, we could not have done it without the involvement of our amazing CJHS community. Save The Date! We have some great events planned for the spring semester: Tuesday, February 17, at 7 pm Our second CJHS PO Book Discussion Second Person Singular, by Sayed Kashua A Palestinian who writes in Hebrew, Sayed Kashua defies classification and breaks through cultural barriers. Second Person Singular is a gripping tale of love
and betrayal, honesty and artifice, which asks whether it is possible to truly reinvent ourselves, to shed our old skin and start anew. Wednesday, March 18, doors open at 7 p.m. Baking demonstration and tasting by renowned cookbook author, Paula Shoyer The author of The Kosher Baker, The Holiday Kosher Baker, and soon to be released The New Passover Menu, Shoyer will also be signing her cookbooks available for purchase. Light refreshments will be served. Both events are to take place at CJHS. Stay tuned for more information. Chag Chanukah Sameach! Have a safe, healthy and happy winter break. Karen Ecanow & Liz Geifman CJHS PO Presidents po@cjhs.org Find the Chicagoland Jewish High School Parent Organization on Facebook!
CJHS in the Community
Club Gidwitz is rocking the holiday spirit, lighting candles, singing Chanukah songs, and munching latkes and sufganiyot with our neighbors over at the CJE residence. Thanks to the impromptu choir and the residents who participated ! DEAP leaders Aviva Hirsch, Julia Mati, Sarah Gilman, Emily Zfrani, and Emily Reisler, have connected with Campus Kitchens, an organization using extra food on Northwestern's campus to create thousands of meals for locals in need. A number of students have volunteered, and there will be more opportunities to work with Campus Kitchens next semester.
This Week in Sports
The Ten-Pin Tigers are on a roll! The three finalists in the recent intra-squad bowling tournament were senior Hannah Lynch, junior Gabrielle Pretekin and sophomore Erin Miller. Dr. Auslander, our stalwart coach reports, "The final round saw Erin on fire, bowling her best three games of the season. Since the season began, 28 members have increased their average, and everyone is experiencing great success."
Senior assistant coach Larry Bender is joined by David Weisskopf, Hannah Lynch, Itamar Broekman, Oliver Friedman, Matthew Duhlberg, Max Gruenberg, Shira Forester, and Viktor Cin who bowled personal high games this round. Ranan Vales has become the all time leading CJHS bowler, with a current 173 averag e. Man y thanks to assista nt coache s Larry Bende r and Josh Kaplin sky for all their help. Watch for the community invitational after break! On the basketball court, the Tigers faced tough opposition this week against Providence St. Mel, Chicago Hope, Beacon, and Luther North. Come out after Shabbat to cheer on the Tigers against Fasman Yeshiva!
Alumni In the News
CJHS graduates are movin' on up! Mazal tov to Aaron Zell ('13), seen here at the White House performing at the presidential Chanukah party with UPenn's a capella group, the Shabbatones!
Alumni Trivia Which of our graduates is the big name in interscholastic journalism on Uloop? Hint: on her home campus, she's a Hawkeye!
Science Opportunities Seniors--interested in applying for a science program that allows research and an opportunity to tour Israel? The Weizmann Institute of Science is offering a full scholarship, including airfare, for the 47th International Summer Science Institute program held July 1-July 29, 2015 in Rehovot, Israel. Applications are due Monday, March 2, 2015. Please see Mrs. Levinson for more information and an application and/or visit http://davidson.weizmann.ac.il/en/issi.
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.
Exam Schedule Click here for the January exam schedule. Have a wonderful winter break!
Sponsored Breakfast Happy birthday to David Steinberg! Many thanks to his family for sponsoring breakfast. Many thanks again to the generous parents of the P.O. for sponsoring the Chanukah feast on Monday!
A Taste of Torah: The Miracle of
the Oil How did our ancestors know the oil was there? To begin with, Jewish priests don't usually stroll around the sacred precincts, tucking small flasks of sacred supplies into inconvenient closets on the off chance that someone may yet play "find the afikomen" with a bottle of wine or a cruse of oil. Moreover, children's literature and associated illustrations have blurred the important point: the Hellenistic officials and their Jewish supporters were not destroying or disarranging the Temple, but using it! Our enemies desecrated the sacred supplies by using them in the service of Zeus: their worship was abominably treif, but by no means untidy! What use would a thunder god have for a sloppy Temple? The Herculean task of the Maccabean conquerors was not housekeeping, but rekashering all of the ladles and altars used by the Hellenists for their all-pork Bachanalian BBQ!
The Chidushei Harim alone among midrashim explains the nature of the miracle. The old High Priest, meticulous in his observance of hidur mitzvah, insisted that some of the finest extravirgin olive oil from the bedek ha-bayit (grounds and maintenance fund) be kept back for his own personal use: this holy gentleman insisted on bringing his own mincha offering with nothing less than the finest of reserve oils. While board members and congregants everywhere may look askance at this use of communal funds, the High Priest's dedication to his sacrifice seeded hope in the darkest of times, saving the day when all was lost and nothing but a miracle would do. When the Maccabees retook the Temple and found all the olive oil poured and stored in treif keilim, the question flew from mouth to mouth: where did the old priest keep his special jars of oil? A search was made and its results were golden:
one tiny jar of oil, sealed with the High Priest's own seal, tucked away on the top shelf of his secretary's supply closet with a spare set of teffilin, a retired havdalah set, half a cup of semolina, and a vintage bottle of the 425 BCE Shiraz. Intended for a mincha offering alone, this tiny bottle was not enough to light a lamp for one day, let alone for eight; to the Maccabees, however, an hour of light was better than none at all, and they resolved to make do with what they had. A miracle! The oil lasted for eight days, and the wine had only improved with age. (Imrei Eliaser!)
And so, concludes the Chidushei Harim, when you do a mitzva, never do it by halves. Make everything you do as special as you can possibly make it. Do it with style, with beauty, and with the best things you have. After all, who knows what special touch only you can make might spark a miracle for someone else? --Mrs. Shira Eliaser
Alumni Trivia Natalie Roytman ('11) is a senior at the University of Iowa, majoring in journalism and international studies. She is one of the most notable writers on the Uloop circuit, covering travel, fashion, and campus issues. Natalie is an avid photographer and travels with her friends
!whenever she gets the opportunity
Shabbat Shalom Candlelighting this week is at 4:03. Shabbat shalom and !Happy Chanukah ש ְׂבי ָּה, ַאחֵינּו כָּל בֵית יִש ְָּׂראֵלַ ,הנְׂתּונִים ְׂבצ ָָּּרה ּו ַב ִ הָּעֹומְׂדִ ים בֵין ַבי ָּם ּובֵין ַבי ַ ָּבשָּהַ ,ה ָּמקֹום י ְַׂרחֵם וְׂיֹוצִיאֵם ִמצ ָָּּרה ל ְִׂר ָּוחָּהּ ,ו ֵמ ֲא ֵפלָּה ֲ ,עלֵיהֶם שתָּ א ַב ֲעגָּלָּא ּו ִבזְׂמַן שעְׂבּוד ִלגְׂ ֻאלָּהַ ,ה ְׂ ְׂאֹורהּ ,ו ִמ ִ ל ָּ .ק ִָּריב