15 Tevet, 5777
This Week at Rochelle Zell
January 13, 2017
An Evening to Scher
A Tribute to Our Mul talented Academic Dean Rochelle Zell Jewish High School | January 14, 2016, 7:30 p.m.
Mr. Scher Tribute
Senior Israel Experience Curriulum Night Penn Shabbatones Driver's Ed Welcome Teachers Mazal Tov Baruch Dayan Emet Community News Alumni Trivia A Taste of Torah
Exam Schedule
January 13 Talmud Exam ‐ 9:30
January 16 MLK Day ‐ No School
January 17 English Exam ‐ 9:30 Spanish Exam ‐ 12:30
January 18 Math Exam ‐ 9:30 Social Studies Exam ‐ 12:30
Join parents, alumni parents, and old friends from across the years as we appreciate the spirit, sensiĕvity, hard work, and dedicaĕon which our fabulous Mr. Bruce Scher has brought to our school community. Many thanks to alumni parent and well‐ known poet David Silverman‐‐proud papa of Jessie (CJHS '05), Maĥhew (CJHS '07), Reby (CJHS '10), and Josh (CJHS '14)‐‐for contribuĕng to the fesĕviĕes a beauĕful new composiĕon, How Fabulous the Half‐Full Glass, his own composiĕon in honor of the selfless, opĕmisĕc altruism we have all experience from Mr. Scher. Also stay tuned for the public premiere of "Bruce‐ical the
January 19 Science Exam ‐ 9:30 Bible Exam ‐ 12:30
Musical," our staff's special tribute to the singing, dancing, praying dean who makes our school such a happy place to be!
January 20 Hebrew Exam ‐ 9:30
The Seniors Have Landed!
Israel, Here We Come!
Quick Links
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Save The Date January 8‐30 (NEW!) Extended Senior Israel Experience
The Class of 2017 enjoyed three days in New York City on their
January 23 Second Semester Begins
January 31 (NEW!) Classes Resume for Seniors (C Day Schedule)
February 12 ACT
February 20 No School
way to their Senior Israel Experience! The group was able to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art, study the American Jewish experience at Ellis Island and drop by an improv show at the Upright Ciĕzens' Brigade. More importantly, the class was able to sight a few celebriĕes as they checked out some of the kosher dining opĕons available to wayfarers in the Big Apple‐‐ namely Rabbi Ayal Robkin, Mr. Joseph Eskin, and soon‐to‐be Rabbi Joel Goldstein, who are studying Torah at Chovvevei Torah, Mechon Hadar, and Hebrew College, respecĕvely. The class is now seĥling down in Jerusalem for Shabbat. Read all about their adventures, trials, and tribulaĕons on the SIE blog: seniorisraelexperience.wordpress. com.
Curriculum Night
Rochelle Zell Hosts the Shabbatones
Joint Choral Concert With RZJHS Vocal Ensemble
The Beit Knesset filled up Monday night with students, parents, alumni, and community members to rock out with the Rochelle Zell vocal ensemble and the University of Pennsylvania Shabbatones! The audience was energized by the music and the power of the vocal groups. The Shabbatones even led a workshop for our vocalists before the performances to work out a collaboraĕve performance! Thank you, Penn students, for the fabulous concert, and great to hear your beatbox, Aaron Zell (CJHS '13)!
Driver's Ed
Registraĕon for Drivers Educaĕon 2017 is now open for students born on or before May 16, 2002. Adams Driving School will be holding classes at Rochelle Zell Jewish High School beginning Thursday, January 26, 2017. Adams is offering 20 classes for 90 minutes beginning at 3:30 p.m. and ending at
5:00 p.m., which will allow our students who use the shuĥle to Braeside to catch the 5:10 p.m. train. Please contact Adams directly for class informaĕon at 847.965.6565. Click here for registraĕon forms and schedules. If you have have quesĕons, email jdlaĥ@rzjhs.org.
Welcome!
New and Returning Staff
Rochelle Zell is pleased to welcome Ms. Elizabeth Wolfe to teach freshman biology! Ms. Wolfe has degrees in biology and teaching from Northwestern University and comes to us a├er many years' experience at Lake Forest High School, Triton College, and other big names on the North Shore. Rochelle Zell is also delighted to welcome English teacher Ms. Vanessa Averbach back from her maternity leave. We're thrilled to see you‐‐and we want baby pictures!
Alumni News: Mazal Tovs Abound! Engagements and New Babies
Mazal tov to Ma阀�hew Silverman (CJHS '07) on his engagement to Kira Heller! Maĥ made aliyah in 2011, a├er graduaĕng from University of Maryland. He is a captain in an IDF intelligence unit, now entering his sixth year of service, and will leave the army in January of 2019. Maĥ plans to aĥend graduate school in internaĕonal studies and conflict resoluĕon in Israel. Yakira, a Barnard graduate and NCSY veteran from Balĕmore, made aliyah in 2014 and is now in her second year of law school at Hebrew University. The couple is planning a September wedding in Israel.
Mazal tov next to Jeremy Frankenthal (CJHS '08) on his engagement to Becca Kipnis. Jeremy aĥended Indiana University, where he studied theater and telecommunicaĕons; he is now an execuĕve at CLICKON Media. Becca is the markeĕng coordinator at LiveNaĕon, having finished a degree in communicaĕons from George Washington University. Both Jeremy and Becca work in Los Angeles. Love is in the air! Mazal tov to Aaron Miller (CJHS '11) on his engagement to Hadar Freund! Aaron is now a business development manager at GPShopper in New York, where he also acts as an advisor for New England NCSY. Aaron and Hadar both work in New York, where he graduated from Yeshiva University in 2015.
What a month it has been! Last but certainly not least, mazal tov to Deanna Levin Abrams (CJHS '05), her husband Breĥ, and her big boys Gabi and Jonah on the birth of their third child, Ari! When she can spare ĕme from her three delighĔul boys, Deanna designs curricular materials for K12 and has also been the north suburban division of jBaby Chicago.
Baruch Dayan Emet
We offer condolences to our Hebrew teacher, Ms. Ayala Shahaf, on the passing of her father, Igal Tal. The funeral and shiva are taking place in Israel. וירושלים ציון אבלי שאר בתוך אתכם ינחם המקום May God's presence comfort the Tal/ Shahaf families among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.
Alumni Trivia
Heads up, entrepreneurs! Which of our alumni is one of Forbes 30 under 30?
Sponsored Breakfast
Happy birthday to Bea and Sol Triester, and many thanks to their family for sponsoring breakfast. To sponsor bagels in honor of your favorite Tiger, please contact Diane Zidman in the front office.
Community News and Events
Alumni Trivia
Leore Avidar (CJHS '07) and his Michigan classmate Harry Zhang are in the spotlight for Lob, their west‐coast company that aims to make paper mail as seamless as email. Forbes reports ,"A few years a├er meeĕng at the University of Michigan, Zhang and Avidar le├ their jobs at Microso├ and Amazon respecĕvely to enter Y Combinator in 2013. The pair cofounded Lob to build a suite of API's for enterprises, sending mail at scale and automaĕng operaĕonal tasks. The nearly 30‐person startup has raised
more than $29 million from investors and surpassed $9 million in revenue in its latest fiscal year from customers such as Amazon, Square, and Microso├. Lob's API allows companies to send postcards, leĥers and checks nearly as easily as sending an email." Read all about it online!
A Taste of Torah: Vayigash
In the midrash, Judah and his brothers are one in their resolve to fight their way out of Joseph's presence, filling Egypt with corpses as they rescue Benjamin from danger. They refer to the massacre at Shechem with shameless pride, saber‐raĥling and saying they can do to Egypt what they did to the last city who slighted their clan. Joseph's taunts about their missing brother arouse neither soul‐searching nor remorse. Jews are Jews and nokhris are nokhris: Judah and his brothers have no qualms about insĕgaĕng truly apocalypĕc violence to move other Jews out of danger.
The midrash makes laughably clear that this is no idle boast: Judah and Joseph and all the sons of Israel are presented as supernaturally endowed cartoon heroes, with hairy chests that show through five suits of armor, leaping whole countries in a single bound, spiħng brass pellets, and trash‐talking each other over the fate of naĕons. (Peruse the original midrash in the Sefer Ha‐ Aggadah here‐‐it reads like a monstrous Iron Age comic book!) A single hero from among them is perfectly capable of laying waste to the enĕre country with one searing glare from his bloodshot eyes. What is more, the confrontaĕon escalates from scene to scene, as each Torah character shoots from the hip with brilliant one‐liners, delivering the perfect Twiĥer‐burn, "What Our Awesome Ancestor Ought to Have Said!" instead of the intelligent subtleĕes that Torah characters are wont to use. The sequence is so comically inflammatory, one hardly believes that the Tanchuma and midrash Bereshit Rabbah are reading the same parasha as we are. Wasn't this burlesque supposed to be the epic tale of brotherly reconciliaĕon?
Conflict resoluĕon is at the heart of this grotesque and ludicrous aggadah. With its larger‐than‐life superhero Jews, the midrash presents a subtle and thoughĔul portrait of resolving quarrels in difficult ĕmes. In this highly untradiĕonal retelling, Joseph, not Judah, is the peacemaker; as the viceroy of Egypt, he feels personal responsibility for the welfare of the people he has been chosen to govern, as well as a universal imperaĕve to safeguard the prosperity and peace of the enĕre region. Although Joseph can see that his saber‐raĥling brothers repent nothing and regret nothing, he sees that innocent lives (e.g. the Egypĕans) will be harmed if their conflict is not speedily and peacefully resolved. Their great stature enables them to wipe out civilizaĕon as they strive for total victory in their fraternal controversy; Joseph sees reconciliaĕon as the necessary step to preserving life and order for Jews and non‐Jews alike.
In this bizarre version, the brothers neither deserve nor seek forgiveness, but Joseph surprises them with olive branches and embraces regardless. In a supreme moment of altruism‐‐and no small amount of personal danger!‐‐Joseph chooses to reveal his secret idenĕty and draw his brothers close as a loving family, not because they have earned it, but as a calculated negoĕaĕng tacĕc, a move towards de‐escalaĕon. At first, the brothers conĕnue to see violence, lies, and cover‐ups as their only possible salvaĕon, but over ĕme, Joseph's repeated certainty that he welcomes them and knows how sorry they are for what they did to him breaks through their clannish defensiveness. In the end, the brothers do feel sorry for what they did, and the family does reconcile. Whether this happens for the right reasons or the wrong reasons is beside the point.
The midrash on Vayigash is a consummate work of modern art, a brilliant saĕre that confounds all our expectaĕons. For all its cartoonish nuħness about brass‐eaĕng, earth‐shaĥering superheroes, the midrash employs subtlety and finesse to make these skills acĕvely counterproducĕve, even as its boasts about them with saber‐raĥling Jewish pride. The point of the whole story is not about brotherly love, but about saving the blameless Egypĕan people from the ravages of other people's personal vendeĥas, of ensuring that Jewish strife does not touch off a firestorm to destroy the civilized world. The point is neither self‐defense nor victory, but de‐escalaĕon, pracĕced at the highest level by leaders who are aware of the magnitude of their acĕons and who feel their responsibility to safeguard both their people and the enĕre world.
Mrs. Shira Eliaser
1095 Lake Cook Road • Deerfield, IL 60015 • ĕgers@rzjhs.org • 847.470.6700