Neither Rain Nor Snow... 7 Adar I, 5774
February 7, 2014
This Week at CJHS ISACS Team Coming I Heart Anatomy e Day This Week in Sports Studio Art Sculptures Food, Film, and Friendship Curriculum and Beyond Parent Education Night Sheshbesh is On STAND UPdate A Taste of Torah Alumni Trivia
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ISACS Accreditation Team Visits
Date Sunday, Feb. 9 Wednesday, Feb. 12 ISACS Team Visit Sunday, Feb. 9 ACT Monday, Feb. 17 No School: President's Day Tuesday, Feb. 25 Curriculum and Beyond Tuesday, March 4 Sunday, March 9 Model U.N.
P.O. Corner The P.O. is pleased to continue the gift card "Gelt" program. This program is designed to help families earn money toward their children's junior year Panim program and/or the Senior Israel Experience. Faculty and staff can also buy Gelt to support programs provided for the school by the P.O. By buying things you ordinarily purchase anyway, you can earn money which will be credited to your family or class for designated school trips. Contact Sheri Sandrof at ssandrof@cjhs.org or call her at 847.324.3723.
Community News and Events Solomon Schechter Day School Presents author Lisa Frydman Barr
CJHS welcomes the 12 members of our ISACS accreditation team who will be visiting our school from Sunday through Wednesday. ISACS is the Independent Schools Association of Central States of which CJHS is a member school. ISACS accreditation is renewed every seven years upon the completion of a constituent survey and comprehensive self study, followed by a three-day site visit. The visiting team will be headed by Dr. Ray Levi, Head of School Emeritus of the Amos and Celia Heilicher Minneapolis Jewish Day School, who also led our ISACS team seven years ago. His 11 colleagues are teachers and administrators from independent schools through the Central States region. During their visit, members of the team will observe classes and meet with every member of the faculty and administration as well as parents and members of the Board. Their purpose is to establish the extent to which our school is in compliance with the ISACS standards for membership, how well we live up to our mission, and how congruent school life and operations are with our own self study. The ultimate goal is to support our school in its ongoing efforts to realize improvement in all areas of our operation. Stay tuned for highlights from the commendations and recommendations that the ISACS team will provide us with shortly after the completion of their visit.
Anatomy Class Says I ♼ U Ms. Robyn Murphy's Anatomy and Physiology class culminated their unit on the circulatory system by examining real hearts, preserved and trimmed for their analysis. After the obligatory pause to acclimatize to the chemical odor, cries of, "This is so cool!" began to resound around the lab. Students observed the left ventricle's exaggerated size relative to the right in order to properly circulate blood through the body, pulled on the chordae, tendonae, and otherwise tugged at heartstrings to open and close valves, and researched the
mechanisms for coronary bypass surgery. Several well-ventilated periods later, Ms. Murphy's new A.P. Psychology class practiced brain surgery with oranges and hard candies, using the orange segments to model the cerebral cortex and unbraiding Twizzlers to wire the connections to the spinal cord. They also modeled impulse transmission through neurons in preparation for their upcoming neuroscience experiment.
e Day Join us at Solomon Schechter Day School on Thursday, February 13, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. for a very special evening (free) with international journalist Lisa Frydman Barr, author of the award-winning historical fiction novel Fugitive Colors. Fugitive Colors is a suspenseful take of an artist's revenge during WWII. Julian Klein, a young American Jewish artist, leaves behind his religious upbringing for the artistic freedom of Paris in the 1930's, only to find himself trapped inside a world in which a paintbrush is far more lethal than a gun. With the release of the movie "The Monument Men" staring George Clooney, the book is very timely. Lisa, who lives in Highland Park, has been a journalist for 20 years, served as an editor for the Jerusalem Post, and as managing editor of Moment Magazine and Today's Chicago Woman. If you have any questions about this event, please contact Lisa Levitas lisateck@yahoo.com.
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.
It's Friday 2/7, and here at CJHS we are celebrating e Day! A full lunch period was dedicated to Euler's glorious number (e = 2.718...), with the math team sponsoring a pianoplaying, beading, armwrestling carnival to teach the student body about the uses of e in growth and decay functions, logistics, and interest-bearing banking. Many thanks to Sarah Comar, Evan Gorstein, Joe Kupferberg, Alana Spellman, and Jonah Glick-Unterman for m.c.'ing the day's festivities, to the math department for sponsoring eclairs and elephant ears, and for everyone who helped organize the day's events!
Tigers Defeat Aces!
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 idrazin@cjhs.org. Order forms are available online here.
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Forget the Seahawks: the real Super Bowl on Sunday, February 2 was at Classic Bowl in Morton Grove, where the Ten Pin Tigers bowling team faced off against eight contenders from Ida Crown Academy-- the first time ever that the two schools have bowled against each other! Seniors Yadid Licht, Aaron Drexler, juniors Jonathan Schrag, Larry Bender, Benji Fishbaum, Josh Kaplinsky, Eli Krule, sophomore Ranan Vales, and freshman Danny Gabel all bowled great games, and close ones, too; although our notable rivals put on a better show than some bucking Broncos we could mention, our two squads of four both emerged victorious! Go Tigers! (And let's do it again soon.)
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Back in Deerfield, the boys' basketball team triumphed over Ida Crown 57-50 in the big game against Ida Crown. Sports correspondent and power forward Isaac Johnston reports, "Senior Jeremy Goodman led the team with 16 points. The crowd was raucous!" Thanks to all the fans who braved the snow and packed the stands for the motzei Shabbat White-Out (in more ways than one!). Tuesday night sobered us up with a defeat by Highland Park, and Thursday ran 60-76 against Vernon Hills, but we'll be back in the game against Ida Crown and Providence St. Mel next week. The Lady Tigers basketball team lost
in conference against CICS Ellision in the Chicago Prep League. They play Wednesday at 8:00 p.m. in the IHSA regionals at Christian Liberty in Arlington Heights. Good luck, girls!
Studio Art is Wired If Old Man Noah were around nowadays, he'd probably be building a ski lift--but just in case, Mrs. Snyder's Studio Art class is working to fill an entire Noah's Ark with their animal sculptures. Students are practicing wire sculpting techniques with their miniature sculptures before they tackle a larger sculpture piece of their choosing.
Alumni Trivia Which of our alumni is now certified as a doula?
CJHS Community Event Draws Over a Hundred
On Saturday night, January 25, over 100 guests joined us for Food, Film and Friendship: A CJHS Community Event. Parents, community members, and staff mingled over tasty food and cocktails prepared by Danziger Kosher Catering. The featured event of the evening was About Face: The Story of the Jewish Refugee Soldiers of World War II. This compelling and uplifting film about German born Jewish men who joined the US Armed Forces and went back to Europe to liberate the concentration camps left everyone with a sense of pride in what the Jewish people were able to accomplish. Walter Reed, a soldier featured in the film and Steve Karras, the film's director joined us for the evening and were available to talk with guests after the screening. Many thanks to the event chairs Lynn Schrayer, Melissa Spellman, Rivka Zell, Liz Geifman, and Diane Halivni, as well as their entire committee, for a spectacular evening!
Curriculum and Beyond
Join us on February 25, for our annual Curriculum and Beyond night, where prospective parents and students can come discover more about what makes Chicagoland Jewish High School so special
both in and out of the classrooms. 6:45 p.m. Welcome Enjoy an introduction to the many diverse extra curricular opportunities available at CJHS. 7:00 p.m. Model Lessons
Interact and learn with Chicagoland Jewish High School teachers. Visit multiple classrooms and experience for yourself our dynamic, engaging approach to learning. 8:30 p.m. Reception Eat a well deserved snack while mingling with CJHS staff, faculty, students and other prospective families. Click here to register. Questions? Contact Lily Zoberman, Director of Admissions at lzoberman@cjhs.org or 847.324.3706.
The Gospel According to Griffith and Torah Taught by Schorsch
"The Gospel According to Griffith and Torah Taught by Schorsch: An Interfaith Conversation" Presented by Rebecca Schorsch, PhD and Dale Griffith, M.Div. Tuesday, February 18, 2014 - 7:00 p.m. at CJHS Back by popular demand, you are cordially invited to the conversation with two esteemed members of our CJHS faculty and scholars of theology. Questions? Email po@cjhs.org. We hope to see you there!
Sheshbesh is On! For the first time in several years, the annual CJHS Backgammon Tournament has begun with a full dozen players seeded! The first players to win three points wins the match and moves on to Round II; two points are awarded for a gammon and 3 points if you miraculously score a backgammon. Good luck to sophomores Ranan Vales and Maya Michalewicz, junior
Benji Fishbaum, seniors Josh Silverman, Benny Gabel, Jonathan Gidron, and Evan Gorstein, as well as staff players Dr. Roberta Miller of English Department fame, Martha Keefe, school registrar, Robert Krakowsky, Director of Finance and Business Operations, and Rabbi Sam Feinsmith representing the Judaic Studies Department. Thanks to Dr. Gary Auslander, School Social Worker, for organizing the annual tournament.
STAND UPdate Senior Shira Harris reports, "The United Nation is currently battling a humanitarian disaster in South Sudan. With an estimated three million people facing acute to severe hunger and another 60% at risk of hunger, South Sudan is currently experiencing civil war after only two and a half years of independence from Sudan. On Tuesday, the UN humanitarian coordinator for South Sudan launched an appeal for $1.27 billion by June to combat the situation."
A Taste of Torah: Tetzaveh You shall command the children of Israel, that they bring me pure olive oil for the light, to cause a lamp to burn continuously (Shemot 27:20). Most Biblical instructions--including those in last week's Parashat Terumah--begin with a saying (using the root amar) or speech (using the group diber) to a particular person or group, but here, rather unusually, we begin with a second person command. The Rashbam (Rabbi Samuel ben Meir) suggests the shift in language because this commandment of lighting the ner tamid (the eternal flame) is one for all generations -- the commandment is not just for Moshe, but for you, for every successive generation. In a post-Temple age, this commandment continues in both synagogues and many houses of study. But the commandment to kindle pristine light in our lives exists on a weekly basis, as well. During the pre-electricity age, lighting Shabbat candles was necessary on a physical level, so that everyone in the house could see each other on this day. In the Mishnah Berurah, the 19th century halachist, Rabbi Yisrael Meir Kagen thus suggests that lighting Shabbat candles is necessary because it brings shalom bayit, peace in the home, for how can a family celebrate with each other without seeing each other But the idea of shalom bayit transcends the physicality. The Mahara"l of Prague (Judah Loew ben Bezalel, 16th century) explains that the evening is known as erev because things are mixed up with each other (meuravim). But light is dubbed boker because it allows people to visit (levaker) one another. More than a clever wordplay, the kindling of lights, by its very essence, facilitates peace. The commandment that we read at the beginning of this week's parasha is a commandment for the ages to kindle the light of the mishkan, one that has continued communally in our places of prayer and study. But it is also one for our homes, a mini-Temple, where lighting Shabbat candles elevates the day and helps to facilitate peace among those closest to us.
--Rav Beit Sefer Zach Silver Courtesy of Rav Benny Lau
Alumni Trivia Esther Bier ('09) graduated from the University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign) in December with a major in gender and women's studies. In the course of her work, Esther is hoping to break down the social taboo of female sexuality. In addition to being a birthing doula, Esther is now a very popular instructor for reproductive health at Cook County correctional facilities. (Read all about her first experiences on the job here.) Who knows--she may yet be a midwife one day! Good for you, Esther!
Sponsored Breakfast Happy birthday to Jonah Glick-Unterman. Many thanks to his family for sponsoring bagels and to his friends on the math team for sponsoring everything else!
Shabbat Shalom Candlelighting this week will be at 4:55 p.m. Shabbat shalom!