BH. Iyar
5, 5779 / May 10, 2019
ב“ה
Community Newsletter of the Maimonides Hebrew Day School of the Capital District Candle-Lighting: 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 www.maimonidesschool.org 7:47 Pesach Ends: produced by Rabbi Mendel Rubin & students in the TNT (Torah ‘n Technology) Program 8:55 Maimonides is accredited by the NYS Board of Regents & is a beneficiary of UJF-NENY
maimonidesschool@gmail.com
MAIMONIDES 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208
This MC Newsletter is dedicated in honor of Rabbi Rubin’s ‘ שי71st Birthday on RC Iyar, and all those from far & near who contributed Torah writings in his honor in a 150 page book began at his 70th birthday soon nearing publication!
MHDS ROSH CHODESH MINYAN THE BUTTERFLY EFFECT “I never saw another butterfly” is a famous Holocaust poem written by a child in the Theresienstadt concentration camp. Our art and Hebrew teacher Morah Rivi thought to transform this sad poem into a symbol of hope by asking her art students to cut out hundreds of miniature blue and white paper butterflies and glue them on in a collective way to turn into an Israeli flag. It took approx. 1800 paper butterflies (with a nice “Chai” numeric value) and they finished it this week. It was a team effort and took a lot of time to finish. It was first presented at school and then brought to put on display at The Massry Residence where our older students visit as part of the Better Together program.
FELAFEL LUNCH AT SCHOOL This a nice treat every year! Thanks to 8th grade girls for cutting up the Israeli salad and setting the tables. In addition to yummy falafel we also watched several short Israel films: (1) about an eggplant farmer in the Negev dessert (2) the Birkat Kohanim on Chol HaMoed at the Kotel (3) R’ Danny Cohen and the City of Hebron (4) how Americans choose their felafel at shops in Israel (5) a quick tour of the holy, mystical and artsy city of Tzfat in Israel’s north.
We started off this week with a Rosh Chodesh Minyan at school, since Rosh Chodesh Iyar was on Sunday and Monday. Pictured above, an 8th grader at Maimonides reads Torah as Chaim K. a Maimonides alumnus gets his Aliyah. Special thanks to Chaim for helping chaperone the 8th grade boys graduation trip to Washington DC before he headed back to Yeshiva in Miami (not long after this Aliyah pictured). More about their DC trip on page 3.
THE UPS AND DOWNS OF LIFE HS Girls in Tehillim class are now learning and discussing Psalm 30 which is said each morning near start of the Shacharit prayers. Its verses speak of faltering fail & happy uplift, life’s unexpected challenges & transformation from sadness to joy. May it be much more UP!
MIXED-BREED KOSHER Q’S Odelia & the 6th graders came up with some interesting questions about Kosher animals. If you cross a pig with a cow, and the baby ends up chewing its cud—is that Kosher? How about a camel with a pig—if the baby gets both signs (chewing cud and split hooves) would that be a Kosher animal? This sparked all types of questions! Rabbi Shmuly showed them a discussion by pre-WWII Talmudic genius Rabbi Yosef Engel whether Kosher signs are telling symptoms or are they causations? The difference between these two approaches of R’ Yosef Engel may have some bearing on some of the scenarios 6th graders came up with on their own!
WORMS IN SCIENCE Why worms in biology class? They are small but complex, accessible & informative. Ms. Brown got excited that they have blood vessels, some species are segmented and some are not, they learned about gizzards and digestive systems and all kinds of other things about worms. Timely, as we now have worms working away in our compost bin and more of their cousins (& future kids) are coming over to help turn it into rich compost!
OUR MAN IN COLORADO Once again America recoils after a shooting, this time at a STEM-themed school in Highlands Ranch Colorado (not far from where Columbine happened 20 years ago). It so happens that the Chabad Rabbi who deals with Jewish youth at this school is Rabbi Meir Simon, a MHDS alumnus. Here he is pictured above praying and putting on Tefillin with some from that school shaken by what happened. May we share happier news of our alumni, but it is very meaningful that Meir is there to provide comfort and uplift.
MORE ISRAEL MAP ART Above: 3rd graders filled in blank outlines of Israel filling in with color, detail, cities & landmarks. Right: The Kindergarten with Morah Chani folded up a shape of Israel into segments, then painting & coloring each segment differently for a special effect. The bold white border and words is because there was tape on those parts which was removed after they finished coloring and painting it all in.
EYES UPON THE LAND Morah Devorah’s first graders colored and IN A GOOD RHYTHM illustrated and labeled this giant map of Israel Lag B’Omer is swiftly approaching (Thurs May hanging in their classroom. They labeled 23rd) and our students are eager for another major cities, lakes and oceans, drew palm trees parade! Morah Dini arranged for Ben of the and other icons. It was fun to try to find UAlbany Marching Band to give our boys specific cities some lessons and to get them into shape. and places, as Rabbi Rubin is still working on the parade Chaim in 3rd route and the parade theme, but the 6-8 grade grade found the boys are already drumming away! We are short city where the a few straps, some drum-sticks and maybe a Semels lived on snare drum or two, but it’s working out so far. a big detailed map at school.
UNDERGROUND RAILROAD
6th grade history class with Ms. Ramsay is learning about this railroad that had no trains and wasn’t really underground either, but it was a secret way and coordinated effort to get escaped slaves from the south to build new lives freedom. Kumbaya was a code song, Harriet Tubman was a famous “conductor” but lesser known are several Albany sites that served as helpful stations along the route.
KEDOSHIM RELEVANCE! This Parsha has the highest Mitzvah per verse ratio of the whole Torah! So many Mitzvot! This is a perfect Parsha for our Yahaddus curriculum students to listen more closely and follow along with the Torah readings, because the more books of Yahadus they studied, the more familiar verses they will recognize, the Mitzvot will just jump right off the page!
WORD-COUNT REGENTS TESTS For HS Social-Studies, Ms. Ramsay took Regents tests from the past decade, and created a set of review sheet based on the word -count of people, places, and issues mentioned most frequently in past Regents tests.
TRIFLES—THE PLAY HS English with Mr. Conley finished reading & discussing “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell about a murder mystery and the background to it. This short one-act play touches on many things, from the disproportionate significance of small things, to the differences between men & women, the difference between the two women in the story (they used VennDiagrams to plot that out), and much more!
NEAR PAST, NEAR FUTURE.. No, this isn’t social-studies or a sci-fi novel, it is French class, and Ms. Brown’s students are learning how (in French) to conjugate verbs into near past (just went) and near future…
BOYS 8TH GRADE GRADUATION TRIP TO BALTIMORE AND WASHINGTON Many thanks to Rabbi Mathless and Chaim Kudan for chaperoning this amazing trip. The Baltimore Harbor was fun, they rode on a water-taxi, got behind a canon, laid down on symbolic railroad tracks, hi-fived a statue, and rolled a 1,600 lbs ball full of facts. In Washington they toured the Capitol, saw the White House & Washington Monument. They visited Paul Tonko’s office and saw vintage photos of Capital Region landmarks and “met” the Wright Brothers at Air & Space. And more! They learned along the way! They studied in courtyard of congressional offices, in a Smithsonian Lobby and at the Baltimore Cheder—even on the long car rides. 8th grade girls trip will be later this month!
BALLISTA EXPERIMENT A ballista is a historic tool/weapon that is similar to a bow and arrow (there’s a Lag B’Omer connection!), but works using a different method of torsion instead of tension, twisted ropes & levers for added momentum. STEAM classes got to experiment with a minimodel and see how all the parts worked.
Mrs. Maher’s students are learning symmetry in math and made opposing yet corresponding colored paper faces as a fun way to illustrate it.
MISSION CATASTROPHE
THE GRASS IS GREENER Remember the grass seed that Nursery planted in soil? They have sprouted and are growing so nicely!
HS Navi (prophets) class just completed the entire book of Melachim (Kings I) with Morah Dini. Their final assignment is to each write and illustrate a children’s book based on one of the many stories they learned.
LIKE A CAMERA Morah Rochel brought in a cute meme to share with her students. Life is like a camera: Focus on what’s most important, Capture the good times, Develop from the negatives, always take another shot!
SYMMETRY PROJECTS
Mr. Conley’s 6th graders are each assigned to write a story about a catastrophe with exactly 100 words, not one word more nor one word less! This exercise helps you think about each word, wondering if it is necessary, how to reword a sentence differently or how to add words to enrich a description… It’s hard fun!
KINGS I IS IN THE BOOKS
MATH & DESIGN
OMER BY THE NUMBERS
First graders use these varied length colored sticks for visual math activities, but then Ms. Mattice told them to use it to make any design pattern they wanted. Patterns are not only pretty they are also a form of math!
Of course, the whole Omer is about numbers, each day counts, but 2nd graders learned and illustrated some significant numbers relating to Lag B’Omer, which is the 33rd day of the count, on the 18th of Iyar, after mourning the NURSERY PROJECTS THIS WEEK passing of Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students. Shrinky-dink beaded heart necklaces for Omer’s love your fellow, answered a TILTING A BOTTLE TO POUR IT questionnaire about and drew a portrait of Kids often do that without lifting it. It their mothers, & colored big letter Shin’s! was in Talmud Hamafkid this week!
at Maimonides and in the Community 5/11: SHABBOS KEDOSHIM
5/19: WATERFORD CANAL FEST
Kiddush this week at Shomray Torah sponsored by the Kochmans in honor of R’ Shmuel and DL’s birthdays.
10am-6pm at the Waterford Harbor Visitors Center and Lock E-2 Park with marine exhibits, boat rides, a fishing contest for the kids, cars, boats, petting zoo and more—all at no charge.
5/11: WOMENS SHIUR RETURNS! The women’s shiur back for another summer season! This week’s shiur will be given by Ayelet Semel at her home 220 Hansen (corner Ryckman/ West Erie) at 4:45pm on Shabbos afternoon. If you’d like to host or give the shiur for a future summer Shabbat please contact Mrs. Chaya Tal.
5/12: TULIP FEST WEEKEND Sunday is the last day of the annual Albany Tulip Festival in Washington Park. The tulips are in bloom for a short time, you can stop by Monday or Tues for pics before they uproot & sell the bulbs.
5/12: HAPPY MOTHERS DAY Some of our classes made special Mothers Day projects/gifts to take home. Moms, Enjoy!
5/13: WARSAW GHETTO FILM The Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library (475 Moe Rd) is screening “Who Will Write Our History?” a documentary about the Warsaw Ghetto at 6pm. More info? CliftonParkChabad.com 518-495-0772.
5/21: SCHOOL PICTURE DAY Dress kids nicely that Tuesday May 21st. Picture Day at school! Class pictures and individual photos will be taken of all students. also recognize our school’s first 5-year completion Parents can purchase their children’s photos by pre- of the Yahadus curriculum and our students order: carasmaticdesign.com/schoolpics/ achievements, recognized nationally . This dinner will also be a communal remembrance for R’ 5/23: LAG B’OMER Moshe Losice who recently passed away after a It’s on Wed night into Thursday this year. lifetime of local leadership and dedication. The A Pre-Lag-B’Omer event at Saratoga Chabad at dinner invites have been mailed, the journal 5pm on Tuesday, 5/21. Call 518-526-0773. deadline is May 27th. If you have questions or University Heights Chabad Firepit on eve of Lag would like more info, call the school office 518-453 B’Omer, Wednesday night after 8pm. -9363 or Raizy at 518-772-7299. THANKS for your School Parade on Thursday morning. Stay tuned support (via journal ads, in person attendance etc) for parade route and details. Families and of this important school fundraiser and annual friends are welcome to join us! communal event. Bethlehem Chabad BBQ event on afternoon of Lag B’Omer 5pm. 6/2: YOM YERUSHALAYIM + SIYUM Look for more communal event info and school CBAJ’s Tanach collective Siyum celebration. Those parade info to be updated here next week… who took study chapters should finish by this date.
5/27: MEMORIAL DAY No School. Enjoy the extended weekend.
5/17: ESHKOL ISRAEL BREAKFAST
6/9-10: SHAVUOT HOLIDAY Shabbat goes straight into Shavuot’s Sunday and Monday for a “3 Day YomTov”. No school on Friday 6/8 and late 9:30am start on Tuesday 6/11.
Visitors from our sister region, Eshkol in Israel will 5/27: DINNER JOURNAL DEADLINE be in town, and Federation is hosting a community Please have your ads/greetings etc for the school’s annual Maimonides dinner journal/yearbook breakfast with them on Friday morning. Info/ 6/19: MOVE UP & GRADUATION submitted by this date so it can be designed and RSVP? Contact Jewish Federaton: 518-783-7800. Moving-Up Day ceremonies (and the end of school) printed in time for the dinner. will be in the morning with 8th grade graduation ceremonies in the evening of the same day. High 5/19: PESACH SHEINI The 2nd Pesach is one month from the first, and is 5/30: CBAJ INSTALLATION DINNER School students have a Regents testing schedule of their own. symbolic of second chances. It is customary to eat a FOR RABBI ROY FELDMAN little Matzah on this day. Sometimes our school has RSVP for honorary committee, dinner RSVPs or a Pesach Sheini Breakfast or Lunch with Matzah journal ads online at: cbaj.org/dinner This dinner 6/23: FRIENDSHIP CIRCLE WALK and shmears but it falls on Sunday this year. is the formal installation ceremonies of Rabbi Roy 11am-1pm at Tawasentha Park in Guilderland. Feldman as CBAJ Rabbi.
5/19: UNION TORAH DEDICATION 11am at the Nott Memorial of Union College, dedicated by Irwin Krasnow & Robin Laveman in honor of Sara Covelli ‘18. This date is both Pesach Sheini (the 2nd Passover) and also the Sunday of Union College’s ReUnion Weekend.
5/19: WINTER RAPTOR FEST See eagles, owls, hawks, and all kinds of raptors at this annual event at the Washington County Fairgrounds in Greenwich NY. $12 admission for ages 13 and up, $6 ages 7-12 and under 6 is free. More info at: www.winterraptorfest.com
6/2: ISRAEL PARADE BUS TRIP Jewish Federation is chartering a bus down to the Celebrate Israel Parade. $30pp includes bus ride, tshirt. Bus leaves 7:30am from Federation. RSVP your seat by May 12th. Info? Marci at: 518-7837800 x239 or mgalinkin@jewishfedny.org.
6/4: MAIMONIDES DINNER This year’s Maimonides Dinner “The whole world is a (very narrow) bridge!” will honor Josh and Amanda Gurock, who are dedicated parents, an invested school family with broad and lively communal vision and involvement. The dinner will
6/30: BATTLE OF THE BBQS 2.0 Teams now assembling for the 2nd Battle of the BBQ’s to benefit the Shalom Food Pantry, to be held 2-5pm at Bethlehem Chabad.
7/8-8/15: CAMP GAN ISRAEL DATES Now is a good time to find out more about what Gan Izzy has in store, and to register for day-camp this summer, kids ages 3-10. One tidbit: This year’s preschool division counselor is Simcha Cadaner, a Jewish Montessori teacher in Brooklyn. More info contact Morah DL Mathless: 518-698-1836
MAIMONIDES SCHOOL & 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!”