BH
Iyar 26, 5772 / May 18, 2012
Community Newsletter of the Maimonides Hebrew Day School of the Capital District 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 www.maimonidesschool.org
produced by Rabbi Mendel & students in the TNT (Torah ‘n Technology) Program Maimonides is accredited by the NYS Board of Regents & is a beneficiary of UJF-NENY
maimonidesschool@gmail.com
Candle-Lighting:
7:56 Shabbos Ends:
9:05
WASHINGTON DC TRIP
LAG B’OMER SPIRIT LINGERS
Our 8th graders were away all week (SunThurs) on their graduation trip to Washington DC. They raised all the funds with weekly bake-sales, lemonade/hot-cocoa, raking leaves and other small-jobs. We look forward to their pictures and reporting in next week’s MC. They took journals along to jot down tidbits, memories, insights as they went from museum to monument to Metro…
The joy, the spirit & pride of the sunny Lag B’Omer parade remains vivid and fresh.. so see inside this newsletter for a few more pictures of this memorable event, that didn’t make it into last week’s MC two-page photo spread.
MAIMONIDES DINNER ‘12
This newsletter is dedicated in loving memory of
Kay Greengarten Chasha bas Shimon - Yartzeit Today Iyar 26 by her daughter Debbie & Sid Stark
RECOGNIZING APPECIATION
Secretaries Day at MHDS was featured a few MC’s ago, but the kids insisted we put in their picture with the giant card they made to show their appreciation of the many things Mrs. Rabbi Dr. Norman Lamm Backman does for them and their classroom… Dr. Morton Berger Memorial Award The distinguished and renown Learning to be appreciative is one of the most Rabbi Dr. Lamm is former valuable character skills in life. Recognizing President and Chancellor of Yeshiva and highlighting positive behavior is one of the University, author, philosopher and best things we can do to foster it.
This year’s dinner will be held on Tuesday, June 5th at the Shabbos House. Dinner honorees are:
A BLAST FROM THE PAST
That’s what Chazzan and attorney Usher Fogel called it when he was at a Long Island wedding and heard Rabbi Mendel Rubin honored to read the Ketubah... He remembers Mendel at scholar, a colleague and mentor of our beloved Dr. Morton Berger of blessed memory. age 5! The Fogels lived in Albany until 1996. DINNER JOURNAL DEADLINE Usher and his wife Sharon were active at Beth Sage Colleges May 23rd is the last date for ads in the journal, Abe, where Usher served as cantor, and their Community Service Award after that date we place ads in the supplement. kids attended Maimonides. His daughter Lisa In appreciation of the Ads can honor this year’s honorees (see left), was at the wedding, too. He emailed his son dedicated Sage students who enriched and assisted congratulate this year’s MHDS graduates, or Joel, now married with 3 children out in Los Maimonides as sports coaches, artists, and aides. promote a business with an ad or greeting. Angeles. Lisa is now working as a social worker Please call the school office 453-9363/3434 for at a girls school in Crown Heights (where Lewis & Beth Gray - “Eitz-Chayim” Award invites/ad-blanks/additional info. Usher raves about the “Basil” restaurant). Dedicated school parents, communal pillars, and honorable “Mentschen!”
Special Presentations to: Dr. Leonard Morgenbesser Proclamation Tribute Remembering Rivka Losice “Aishes Chayil” Tribute Invitations were mailed. If you didn’t get yours, please call the office at (518) 453-9363/3434. The Tribute-Journal deadline is May 23rd, ads arriving after that date will be included in the supplement. This important school fundraiser is a communal event, an annual memorable milestone. Take part!
MAIMONIDES 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208
A “TIMES-UNION” TZNIYUT MESSAGE They may not have the same Halachic or personal standards as we do, but this past Sunday’s “Ask the Expert” column in the TU’s Parent-to-Parent section shares the same message: “Clothing should reflect your values… regardless of what other people are wearing… you are smarter than that…” Outside our school code, different families may keep varying standards, but across the board the same message is true: Clothing ought to reflect our values!
BERNIE NOWITZ OBM Our condolences to Mrs. Reeva Nowitz and family on the passing of her beloved husband Bernie. For a quarter century, they ran Burns Pharmacy in Rensselaer, and were active in Troy and Capital Region Jewish and general organizations for even longer than that. Born in the Bronx, Bernie grew up in Troy and remained active in the community his entire life (his wife Reeva is from Cohoes). Bernie also contributed to Maimonides each year.
DR. BENO STERNLICHT OBM
GEMORAH APPLICATIONS
NURSERY’S PROPELLER HATS
8th grade Gemorah class (now on Bava Metzia 37a) explored these modern-day issues as they relate to the Gemorah discussion: Crime (malicious intent) vs. business negligence in regard to monetary penalties Joint accounts vs. single accounts in terms of banking/accounting accuracy Legal obligation vs. moral right These issues are in the news all the time, and its fascinating to see the relevance of the Talmud to real-world situations.
In keeping with Lag B’Omer’s “Mitzvos to GO!” theme, Nursery students made and proudly wore propeller hats - made of yellow, orange, green and blue straws sticking up, out & about on their blue headbands painted with white fluffy clouds. Each Mitzvah we do, brings the 3rd Beis HaMikdash swirling closer down towards us, hovering just above us!
PRE-SHAVUOS GEMORAH After spending all year learning the very relevant laws of Kiddush, Havdalah, Pesach Seder and more in the 10th chapter of tractate Pesachim, Rabbi Yossi’s 6/7 grade Gemorah class now jumped to tractate Shabbos for a study of the Giving of the Torah, just in time for Shavuot. They’re now learning about the timeline of days leading up to Shavuot, starting at Rosh Chodesh Sivan, the historical background, required preparation and focus of each of those days - which begins next week!
LEADING UP TO CIVIL WAR 6/7 graders are each designing mini-books on five historical backgrounds to the Civil War: (a) Bleeding Kansas (b) the Dred Scott case (c) John Brown’s Raid (d) attack on Senator Sumner (e) Stowe’s “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”.
The late Dr. Beno Sternlicht was a successful AND GEMORAH FLOWCHARTS engineer and entrepreneur, who survived the Rabbi Shmuly’s 5th grade Gemorah class Holocaust with his father (his mother died in made their own flowcharts! The chart shows the Warsaw ghetto) by escaping to various the flow of logic in PREPARING FOR SHAVUOT countries during the war. Despite being on the the Gemorah: These 2nd graders are displaying their Shavuot run, with limited resources, his father always questions and booklets, a work in progress as Omer count took time to teach him math and science and answers, proofs and ticks up toward Shavuot… Other classes are other subjects, and most of all impressed on statements (all using preparing for the holiday, too! Kindergarten Beno the importance & value of an education: different shapes). made a papier-mâché Har-Sinai. 6/7 are “Everything material can be taken from you, They took a whole learning about Shavuot in Talmud (see left) but not your education!” Beno came to amud (one-side of a 2 and also in Chumash (they just began Parshas America with nothing but a desire to learn. He -sided Talmud folio) Yisro). 2nd and 3rd graders learned the story got a degree in electrical engineering from of Brachos 28b and of Ruth. 4th graders are designing a Shavuot Union College, and later a PhD in energy condensed it all into themed bulletin board. Morah Devorah Leah conversion from Columbia. He first worked one long and busy is now doing a short Shavuot trivia game at for General Electric and then co-founded MTI flowchart. lunchtime. More in next week’s MC! - Mechanical Technology Inc. which later launched fuel cell manufacturer Plug Power Inc. both are important local hi-tech companies. Rabbi Rubin once spoke to him about the education of our youth, and Beno’s concern that today’s youth be instilled with a love of learning and a thirst for knowledge. Dr. Sternlicht was also a sponsor of the annual Bnai Brith Holocaust Essay awards, at which SATELLITE MODELS 6/7 graders are learning about space and astronomy with Dr. our Maimonides students were recognized Sahay. Each student was assigned a different satellite to research and prepare a paper model numerous times over the years. for display. Their different shapes & tools have to do with their orbits, uses and functions.
MATH TIME CLOCKS So many different ways to tell time! Mrs. Sahay’s math students each designed a unique clock for the bulletin board using a mathematical theme, principle or formula, including: Pi Clock (out of 360 degrees) Ternary Clock (base-3 numeral system) Angle Clock (based on hands-position) Square Root Clock (to arrive at time) Random Equations Clock (to find time) Time Flies Clock (with number of flies) Geometric Sequence (one at each hour) And a bunch of other unique clocks… Some from the old country remember a Jewish saying at Bar-Mitzvahs: “I give you a silver watch with golden minutes!” Realizing the value of time - is in itself golden!
6/7 Grade “Going Up to Jerusalem” banner
Bnai Brith residents greeted us on Hudson Ave with flags and balloons
8th grade girls’ banner gives direction!
A FEW MORE LAG B’OMER PICTURES Last week’s 2-page spread just wasn’t enough! As the Lag B’Omer spirit lingers on at school, we’re including here a few more photos of the “Mitzvot on the GO!” banners, the parade festivities & fun in Washington Park.
1st graders “Tefilat Haderech” amidst road-signs
Up on Playground…
CONDOLENCES TO MS. ZALAK on the passing of her grandmother, so close to her wedding. May her memory be a blessing.
Thanks again to Albany Falcons marching band!
CAUTION: LAPTOP FIRE
6 members of the Shaer family in Rechovot tragically died in a fire caused by an overheated laptop computer left on a bed, the BIOME PROJECTS IN PROGRESS mother was the sole survivor. Desert, grassland, rainforest, swamp, ocean The Israeli fire commission twilight zone, deciduous forest, coral reef - are found that soft materials of the bed blocked habitat eco-systems that Mrs. Maher’s 5th the ventilation vents and caused it to overheat graders are researching & preparing for display and catch fire. Be sure to keep laptops cool! in their classroom. The project requirements include: a map on where these biomes can be found, pictures and names of animals who live BATTERS-UP TEE-BALL SETS there, the predator and prey food-chain, facts Thanks to Batters-Up USA for donating 2 teeand data about the foods and plants to be ball sets, complete with bases, just found there, and a description of the weather. in time as we now have access to the small Little League field (just behind the soccer field at the READING “THE CAY” park) thanks to Albany 9th 5th graders started this WWII-era historical Ward’s Mr. Jim Sano, and the novel. They’re eagerly checking up definitions National Little League of Albany. in dictionaries & discussing chapter themes.
8th grade boys’ twist on the AAA...
CROSS-SECTION DIAGRAMS Cross-sections “cut-through” layers allowing viewers to see “inside” the picture. 4th graders each made their own: one allowed you to peek inside the rooms of a house, they also did it with a coconut, layers of cake, & a sandwich…
DAH-BEAR COMES TO ALBANY In addition to the black bear sighted around the area, and put down yesterday at UAlbany, our school welcomes “Dah-Bear” (a play on Chicago’s “da-Bears!” and the Hebrew word for speak) as an online Hebrew language curriculum enhancement (in addition to our Ivrit curriculum) with aids and tools for school & home, courtesy of Legacy Heritage Fund.
at Maimonides and in the Community 5/19: CHAZAK & MEVORCHIM This Shabbos we read a double-header Torah reading, concluding the book of Vayikra. We bless the new month of Sivan (Rosh Chodesh on Tues).
5/19: WOMENS SHABBOS SHIUR 4:45pm, given by Mrs. Shayna Kudan at her home, 6 Peyster Street (just off Ridgefield Park).
happiness workshop, buffet luncheon and silent auction. $15pp advance/$18 at door. 495-0772/9.
6/5: MHDS ANNUAL DINNER Save the date! See honoree info on page 1… If you didn’t get your invite in the mail or need an adblank please call the school office: 453-9363/3434.
REGISTRATION OPEN FOR CGI Call Mrs. Clara Simon camp director (439-8280) for info, cost, forms etc. Gan Israel is based out of the Maimonides school building, with new, dedicated staff, crafts, activities, sports, trips, enjoyable learning, and lots of memorable, meaningful fun! Stay tuned for updates, there’s a lot new this year...
6/10: F.C. WALK AT CENTRAL PK
5/20: BABY ANIMAL DAYS @ I.L.F.
“Walk for Friendship” will be at Central Park, 500 Iroquois Way in Schenectady. See www.walkFC.org 9am-5pm at Indian Ladder Farms. Chicks, duckfor info, support walkers or a team, and/or register. lings, bunnies, lambs, goats and calves now in the Baby Barn! $5 per child, 1 free adult per paid child. Free admission. First 300 registered via website will get free t-shirt. iPad Raffle, Kosher BBQ for purchase. Family/5K Walk 11-12, registration 5/21: MISHMAR AFTER-SCHOOL 10am, entertainment (outdoor gaming, bounceMishmar for boys grades 2+ 3:30-5pm at MHDS. houses, face-paint etc) 12-2pm. Rain or shine!
5/22: ROSH CHODESH SIVAN 8am morning minyan at Maimonides.
6/11: DANCE & SONG AFTERNOON
1:20-2:20pm now in the last 6-week set, ending Wednesday June 6th. Come and get right into it!
2-3:30pm at MHDS. Dance teacher Eve Cameron and her dancing students will present for Mothers & Daughters (all women welcome). Fathers & Sons will have a Niggunim sing-off at the same time (all men welcome).
5/23: JLI MARRIAGE COURSE (III)
6/11: WOMENS BET MIDRASH
5/23: WOMENS YOGA AT MHDS
“The Art of Marriage” 6-week course Weds 7:309pm at Chabad of University Heights, 147 South Lake. Sign-up/info: myJLI.com / 522-1872.
5/23: JOURNAL DEADLINE Ads after this Wednesday will go into the journal supplement. Ads can be a tribute to the honorees, congratulate graduates or promote a business.
5/25-29: SHAVUOT / MEMORIAL
8pm at Maimonides. This month focuses on ShirHaShirim - Song of Songs. Call 495-0772/9.
6/18-19: GRADUATION NIGHT AND MOVING-UP DAY @ MAIMONIDES Graduation will be on Mon evening, June 18th and Moving-Up Day (last day of school) will be on Tuesday June 19th (half-day AM only).
6/21: REBBE INSPIRATION
Friday 5/25 no school (note change). Shavuot is on In commemoration of the Rebbe’s yartzeit on the Sun-Mon, it falls over Memorial Day Weekend. 3rd of Tammuz (this year on Shabbos), brothers School resumes at 9am Tuesday 5/29. Rabbi Mendel Samuels of Farmington Valley CT (humorous, engaging and insightful speaker) and 5/30: ZALAK BRIDAL SHOWER Cantor Yehoshua Samuels (lyric tenor) of Howard (Note date is 5/30, not 5/31 as listed last week) Beach NY, will jointly share inspiration from the Faculty, parents & friends (adults only) are invited teachings and vision of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. to a bridal shower for our own Ms. Zalak (getting Suggestion donation is $10pp, Sponsors: $100. married in late June) 4pm at Mrs. Debbie Stark’s Thursday evening, 7:30pm at the Shabbos House, home. Contact Mrs. Jen Mulder (or the office) to 320 Fuller Rd (please park in adjacent University pitch in for group gift or purchase your own. lots) hosted by Capital Chabad and area Chabad Centers. For more info call: 866-7658.
5/31: JERUSALEM CELEBRATION
JERNY’s 3rd annual Unity Celebration of Jerusalem, this year Thurs, 5-9pm at Beth Emeth.
6/3: C.P. WOMENS LUNCHEON 4th annual Clifton Park Jewish Womens Circle: “The Gift of Joy - Wrapping it Up!” starts 1pm at Shen. Adult Community Center: Judy Clements
ADDITIONAL MHDS DATES May 31 - 2nd grade goes to Dyken Pond June 6 - K-2 goes to Colonie Crossings & Picnic etc, 3-7 to Erie Canal &Herkimer Diamond Mine June 12 - K-3 sings at The Massry with Mrs. Gross June 12 - Last Day of regular HS Classes June 13-20 - NYS Regents administered for HS
MAIMONIDES SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY (Nursery / Elementary / High School)
404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 maimonidesschool@gmail.com Founded in 1980, Maimonides is chartered by the NYS Board of Regents and is a JF-NENY Beneficiary “A Beautiful Blend: Torah & Worldly Experience!”
P.S. LOSES BELOVED PRINCIPAL Our condolences to the Philip Schuyler school & his family, on the untimely passing of their new principal Mr. Anthony Clement (at age 47).
TICK SEASON IS UPON US Ticks aren’t only out in the countryside, so parents should be aware and check kids for ticks after playing in (tall) grass - anywhere.
PLAY THE NEW TORAHPALACE The Shavuos game is up on TorahPalace.com. After Rosh Chodesh Tammuz R’ Leibel will tally points earned by game participants from around the world! to award valuable prizes! So, with your parents permission, be sure to play!
CIVIL WAR SPIES & MORE... couldn’t fit in this MC… check back next week!
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