January 18, 2013 / 6 Shevat 5773
This Week in Jerusalem! In This Issue Senior Israel Experience English Projects Spanish Orals World History Summations Curriculum and Beyond Prospective Student Pizza Party Sophomore Class Meeting Summer Abroad Musical Auditions
Jerusalem of Gold...
Librarian's Corner Alumni Trivia A Taste of Torah
Save the Date Sunday, Jan. 6 Thursday, Jan. 24 Senior Israel Experience Tuesday, Jan. 22 Second Semester Begins Sophomore & Parent Meeting Beitar Gold, that is! One week in Jerusalem yielded a fabulous taste of cultural Israel with a soccer match at Teddy Stadium Monday, Jan. 28 (where Beitar Senior Classes Resume Yerushalayim beat HaPoal Ramat Gan 3-2) Sunday, Feb. 10 and a one-woman show ACT by Helen Gottestein. In more weighty moments, Wednesday, Feb. 13 the group davenned at Curriculum and Beyond Robinson's Arch--the area reserved by the Monday, Feb. 18 Israeli government for No School egalitarian prayers--and explored the Temple Mount, the Al-Aqsa P. O. Corner mosque, and the Christian quarter. "To Gelt Program prepare us for the The P.O. is pleased to once again narratives of the church, introduce the gift card "Gelt our tour guide read the final chapter from Luke, which program" to our families and we reflects Jesus's final hours alive. Mr. Griffith related his have made it much easier (look class's reading of Camus to those words, which brought for upcoming email with details on how to register). Faculty and smiles to many of the faces around the circle." So says staff can also buy Gelt that will our correspondent at our amazing SIE blog--take a look at help to support programs it for many more video reports and reactions courtesy of provided for the school by the P.O. This program is designed to our seniors! Sunday, Jan. 27 JNF Tu B'Shevat Fair
help families earn money toward their children's junior year Panim program and/or the Senior Israel Experience. The program is a passive earning system, in which you buy the things you ordinarily purchase anyway, and earn money which will be credited to
your family for designated school trips. If you have any questions, contact Sheri Sandrof at ssandrof@cjhs.org or call her at 847.324.3723.
Community News and Events
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. An announcement will be made in Tefillah and in the dining hall, and the occasion will also be listed in our weekly E-News. If you have any questions, please call 847.324.3713 or email idrazin@cjhs.org. Order forms are available online here.
Quick Links Our Website
Online Calendar
Trumba Calendar Tips 2012-2013 Year Calendar
This week's theme has been the tension between Israel's high standards simultaneously as a Jewish and democratic state. What defines the state as Jewish? How do Jews express their religion if they are opposed to the Chief Rabbinate's interpretation of Judaism? What are some of the current hot-button issues in both political and religious life in Israeli society? In addition to meeting with rabbis of different backgrounds, the class toured the Menachem Begin museum and met with representatives from Parents Circle Families Forum, a group of Palestinian and Israeli bereaved families that seek dialogue and reconciliation. They began the week at the Chazon Yeshaya soup kitchen, and have now dispersed up and down the land for their free weekends with friends and relatives.
Lunch Menu
Join the Tiger Club
Freshman English: Telling Stories "Man cannot help but tell stories: our stories help us find a purpose or pattern in our lives, a truth to guide us. Literature and history are records of the human search for truth." Thus CP freshman English teacher Ms. Katz, who is sending her class out, in the spirit of The Odyssey, to venture into the world and find a story that they feel needs to be told; this week, they wrote a narrative to be true to the story. Next week, the students will be sharing their narratives!
Spanish III: Journalism in the 21st Century For their final projects, the Spanish III students are playing the role of newspaper editors to discuss the challenges they face as many people are reading the news on the internet. Our fictitious Spanish-language journalists are planning what they need to do to sell more copies of the newspaper and to attract more readers, especially young people. The students practiced giving their newspaper a name and using vocabulary and grammatical structures learned in the first semester. ยกBuena suerte a todos!
World History Sums it Up
Mr. Danko's freshmen are writing a paper comparing and contrasting Eastern and Western religion and philosophy. To help them in this enterprise, guest leader Rabbi Feinsmith highlighted the deep differences in both by leading the class in both Eastern and Western-style meditation exercises. Although history buff William Martin "Billy" Joel was unable to visit, Mr. Danko's sophomores are following in his footsteps by writing their own additional lyrics to "We Didn't Start the Fire"--Billy Joel's famous response to Mr. "Nothing Happened in the Fifties." The students are extending the headlines from 1990 up to 2012.
Mr. Danko bids a fond farewell to his first-semester sophomores as they conclude their 18-month program of World History and embark on a new semester of Jewish History through the ages; he has made sure that in addition to knowing history, each and every one of them can now tie a tie properly.
Alumni Trivia Which Russian Club maven is now a Russian minor at Oberlin?
Curriculum and Beyond On February 13, parents and students will be treated to an evening devoted to learning more about what makes CJHS so special. At 6:15, families are invited to the Student Activities fair where they will be introduced to the more than 25 clubs and activities that CJHS offers its students. A light dinner will also be served. At 7:00, parents and students will learn about the courses in both the general and Jewish studies programs at CJHS. Teachers will be available to give curriculum overviews and to answer any questions you may have. To learn more about either upcoming event, please contact Admissions Director Lily Zoberman (lzoberman@cjhs.org) or Gita Karasov (gkarasov@cjhs.org). We are looking forward to seeing many of our prospective families at Curriculum and Beyond and at the pizza and ice cream party (below).
Prospectives Pizza Party : Scavenger Hunt Interested eighth graders are encouraged to attend the first annual CJHS scavenger hunt on January 20 from 3:30 until 5:00. Prospective students will be joined by current CJHS students for an afternoon filled with fun games, exciting surprises, and delicious treats. All are welcome to attend. To RSVP or for additional information, please contact Ms. Karasov at
gkarasov@cjhs.org.
Sophomores: Academic Planning Meeting On Tuesday, January 22, at 7:00 p.m. in the Beit Kneset, all sophomores will receive their PLAN and PSAT score reports, a detailed explanation of the test, and learn how to interpret their scores. Ms. Rostker, Ms. Spielman, and Mr. Scher will explain college admission tests and the timeline for taking them, as well as balancing academic and social life in the coming months. If you have any questions, contact Bruce Scher, Academic Dean, at 847.324.3708.
Summer Programs Abroad Interested in living in another country this summer? Come to an information session on Thursday, January 24, at 3:30 p.m. in room 125, to meet with a representative for The Experiment in International Living, a non-profit organization that offers cultural and language immersion programs in nearly 30 different countries. From Argentina to Tanzania, the program themes include eco-adventure, photography, community service, culinary arts, language study and more. See Sra. Linda or click here to learn more.
Auditions Are Here! CJHS is excited to announce that our drama and fine arts students will be working with playwright Joanne Koch in a raucous and melodic version of her play "Flying Feathers." Danielle Brothers will be directing the story of Duvid and Yossel, two brothers traveling through the countryside outside Chelm in search of true love and klezmer music. The Chelmites demonstrate their legendary problem solving skills and the audience is brought in to participate to bring all the characters together in a rollicking and joyous finale. Will Yossel find his true love? And can a lonely matchmaker make her own match? Find out March 17 and 18! Pick up audition materials from Danielle Brothers, CJHS Theater Director, Rich Green, Vocal Director, or Peter Roothaan, Music Director.
Alumni Trivia Samantha Aisen ('10) reports, "These days I'm working towards my anthropology major and Russian minor at Oberlin. I've been exploring what Oberlin has to offer by eating in our co-op system, holding a position in our reproductive freedom group on campus, and working as a student manager at a campus cafe. Oberlin is great but this upcoming semester, at the end of January, I will be off to study abroad in Amsterdam focusing on progressive social policies and their impact on society and culture through an anthropological lens."
Librarian's Corner In commemoration of Tu B'Shvat, the library is displaying some of the materials in our collection. Please feel free to view these items at your convenience. Reminders of the celebration will also be visible in other areas of the building.
A Taste of Torah: The Parasha and the Earth "Now Moses extended his hand out towards the sky, and there was utter darkness in the entire land of Egypt for three days" (Exodus 10:22). We find ourselves in the midst of the Torah readings describing the Ten Plagues. Like the Plague of Darkness described above, most of the Plagues were set in motion by a physical act on the part of Moses. However, a close reading reveals that the first three Plagues-Blood, Frogs, and Lice-were set in motion by Aaron. With regards to the first two, The Eleventh-Century French commentator Rashi explains according to the Midrash: "The Nile protected Moses when he was cast into it. Therefore it was not afflicted by his hand neither with blood nor with frogs, but was afflicted by Aaron" (Exodus 7:19). And further in connection with the Plague of Lice: "The dust [of the earth] was not fit to be afflicted by Moses, for it protected him when he killed the Egyptian and buried him in the sand. So it was afflicted by Aaron" (Exodus 8:12). In one word, Moses' actions according to Rashi typify the importance of not biting the hand that feeds you. This attribute, called ה כ ר ת
( ה ט ו בhakarat ha'tov) in Hebrew, is all about recognizing the forces that have sustained us in life, and relating to them from a profound sense of gratitude. As part of our Middot (moral development) Program, this month CJHS is exploring how we might become better stewards of Planet Earth and its natural resources. We have a great deal to learn from Moses about the nature of our responsibility in this venture. During the Amidah, we reaffirm daily that God "sustains life in loving-kindness." In my personal opinion, this loving- kindness is not made manifest through supernatural means. Instead, it is carried out through what might appear to be the mundane natural cycles of rain and dew, the changing of the seasons, the decomposition of organic matter that becomes our topsoil, the process of photosynthesis, the interaction of a vast web of species and ecosystems that make life possible, the exchange of gasses between trees and living beings, and the power of our sun. These processes may not be supernatural; but they are miraculous. And they make our lives possible in every moment as we continue to draw breath and find our basic physical needs met in spades through very little effort of our own. The complex natural processes of our world are an expression of Divine loving-kindness. The question is whether we live with a disposition of ה ט ו ב ה כ ר ת, of recognizing the immense goodness bestowed upon us in every moment by our planet, or whether we take these blessings for granted. Do we see ourselves as tiny cells within a larger web of existence, or as the masters of the house? Rashi's reading of Moses' actions in relating to the Nile and the dust of the earth remind us to choose to cultivate the former mindset in our daily lives. Yet when it comes to relating to the planet, we often choose the latter. And we do so at our own peril. Perhaps we take the gifts bestowed by our planet for granted because we have become so far removed from a direct encounter with the forces that sustain us. Most of us no longer work the land to grow our own food. Instead we go to the supermarket for nourishment. We do not draw water from a well. Instead we get it from the tap. Though the act of eating brings us into a direct encounter with our interdependence with the web of life, the way in which we procure food creates the illusion that it is an isolated entity completely divorced from myriad interdependent processes and entities that make it possible. Our means of getting food creates a willful ignorance, a plague of mental darkness. The other day in school I asked our students if they knew where in the world various foods on their dinner plate came from. Not a single student answered in the affirmative. Our students' lack of consciousness about the origins of their food presents our entire
community with an educational opportunity to develop heightened awareness with regards to our interdependence on the planet, and the potentially harmful impact of our habits of consumption. Towards that effort, I invite all members of the CJHS community to begin a conversation this Shabbat about where our food comes from. As we sit down to eat and celebrate with family and friends, let us take time to offer blessings of gratitude for a great web of life that sustains us, allowing us to feel that we live in a world overflowing with loving-kindness. Let us also explore if in our rush for expediency and convenience we have neglected to treat our planet with as much kindness as it has bestowed upon us. Perhaps such a community-wide conversation will help us to better understand our place in the world, and ultimately lead us to take action as a community to heal our relationship with our only precious home-Planet Earth. --Rabbi Sam Feinsmith
Shabbat Shalom Candle lighting this Friday night will be at 4:30 p.m. Shabbat Shalom!