BH. Cheshvan
24, 5780 / Nov 22, 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 4:09 Shabbat Ends: produced by Rabbi Mendel Rubin & students in the TNT (Torah ‘n Technology) Program 5:12 Maimonides is accredited by the NYS Board of Regents & is a beneficiary of UJF-NENY
RABBI DR TUVIA MEISTER OBM Some in Albany still remember this legendary medical resident, flaming orange beard, eyes always in a sefer, who learned all of Mishnayos ten times, some of his donated Seforim can still be found at the Shteeble. While in Albany he was close with the Younkers, Mrs. Backman’s mother, and often ate there on Shabbos. His oldest son Elchanon went to Maimonides before they moved. Dr. Meister later was a Rosh Kollel in Baltimore, and one of his children married an Albany grandchild from the Rockwood family. He wrote “The Meister Plan” about his ideas for both financial security & success in Torah study goals. More recently, he recommended a Sefer by Rabbi Kanievsky about one of the subjects Rabbi Rubin had been writing about. R’ Tuvia passed away two weeks ago at the end of Tishrei. May his memory be a blessing.
maimonidesschool@gmail.com
MAIMONIDES 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208
This MC Newsletter is dedicated in appreciation of the members of the
Jewish Federation Board
who met at Maimonides this week to see our school in-person and first hand. Thank you for the visit!
LEARNING ON COMPUTERS
RIVKA’S WELL IN NURSERY
(Top) 2nd graders practice their Hebrew reading & vocabulary using the DahBear program using the computer’s touch-screen technology. (Above) This 3rd grader is working on her Mishna powerpoint project, to create visual accompaniment for the texts they study.
Morah Rivka & Nursery students built amakebelieve well with a simple machine to pull up the bucket as your turn the rod. They loved pulling it up and letting it going back down. STEAM & Parsha all rolled up (pun!) in one!
POWDERED VS GRANULATED
KIDS CAN BUILD @CROSSGATES Sugar is made up of carbon, hydrogen and See page 3 for info & photos of 4 schools’ including Maimonides’ CAN sculpture projects on display at Crossgates Mall (under escalators/near elevators, between Seven & Less and the AT&T store) until Monday. The build & ceremony was this past Monday. You can vote for your favorite by visiting Shalom Food Pantry’s Facebook page: Facebook.com/ ShalomFP to LIKE the picture of the school of your choice! Your like is your vote.
oxygen. When an acid like sulfuric acid is introduced, the oxygen & hydrogen form water and all that’s left is carbon. Ms. Brown’s chemistry class experimented using powdered & granulated (regular) sugar and found that it worked much faster with powdered sugar, but regular sugar was more consistent and the carbon remaining had a nicer structure.
AUCTION PRINTED & ONLINE Should reach home over Thansgiving. Its also online now at: maimonidesschool.org/auction
QUADRILATERALS IN MATH 9th grade math is now learning properties of different types of quadrilaterals and how to solve for different measurements.
TALMUDIC SQUARE ROOT Ms. Coffey’s students learned the precise calculation of a diagonal of a square being 1.41421356237 of its sides, and realized that the Talmudic calculation (Eruvin 57a) for the same is 1.4 which is just rounded off the decimals to simplify it.
SOUP OF THE WEEK The weather turned colder and Mrs. Wildman is once again volunteering to coordinate the soup-of-the-week which our kids very much enjoy. Parents: please pick a date to sign up to prepare, cook and cleanup (all in “Nathan’s Kitchen” at school) a delicious big pot of yummy hot soup for our students (& teachers) to enjoy during lunchtime this cold winter!
ANIMAL POSTERS Mrs. Hammond’s 4th graders each made posters about different animals, where they live, what they eat, type of climate & how their shape or size helps them do what they do.
FROM JUST A BIT OF SNOW On Tuesday all we got was a half-inch to an inch of snow, but that didn’t stop our kids from building this snowman. It stands alone in this picture with grass all around it! This is great resourcefulness, making the most of what you have! Thanks to Carl B. for the very helpful toboggan!
SPIN CLASS WITH AMANDA This week on Wednesday, Mrs. Amanda Gurock led the High School girls in a spin class at the JCC, to a special Jewish music playlist! She got them set up on their bikes and showed them the three positions. The girls started on gear 3 (the highest they went to was 11, but it goes much higher than that). They did Tabata (20 seconds going fast, 10 seconds rest), climbs (putting more gears on as if you were going up a hill), and rolling hills (you put on gears as if you are going up a hill and then you take off gears as if you are going down). It was fun and much more of an active workout than they expected!
DOUBLE JEOPARDY Ms. Brown was finishing up an ecology unit with a jeopardy game and it turns out that these same students just learned the Kom Lay bd’Rabah Minei law of double jeopardy in legal cases in Talmud Megillah 7b.
COLOR-WHEEL EYE ART
HS TRIP TO NEW YORK CITY HS Girls attended an interschool convention on Sunday evening in Brooklyn and got to see some of their old classmates now in other schools. Chaya L’s aunt from Texas was the featured speaker. They stopped at 770, also enjoyed froyos and lattes and went out for pizza. On Monday they went to see the 9/11 Memorial and Museum with Ms. Ramsay and Ms. Coffey. They are pictured at wall with shades of blue paint slightly different for each victim to express their individuality. Their tour guide expressed the challenge of sharing the 9/11 experience with students (like ours) who were born afterwards. (We Jews are good at this kind of thing, continuing centuries of tradition and memory into our times).
These 3rd graders made color-wheel eye art, look for a color wheel Maimonides theme on back of the Raffle-Auction booklet! If you are on our school’s mailing or e-mailing list you should get the Raffle-Auction booklet over the Thanksgiving Weekend.
SARAH’S (NOW RIVKA’S) TENT Kindergarten made these colorful paper tents topped with the clouds of glory and Shabbos candles and Challah inside, the three blessings that returned after Sarah’s passing when Yitzchak married Rivka.
THE FOUR CAN SCULPTURES - ON DISPLAY NOW AT CROSSGATES UNTIL MONDAY This first annual “Kids Can Build” yielded lots of cans for the Shalom Food Pantry to distribute and lots of good fun and hands-on learning for the students. The Maimonides structure on left replicates our logo and school theme, of a globe/world in the center with a Torah scroll extending on either side. It took the right color cans (and so many tuna cans for their lower profile) and a long time and lots of practice to get the globe shape right, calculations, trial and error but our students got so good at it, and so efficient that they built it in 20 minutes time at Crossgates, they got it down to a science - literally (winning the team spirit award). Hebrew Academy built a big, fun “Food-Bot” robot carrying bags of food with a big red heart in its center (that was a challenge to get right, too), they won Judge’s Choice. The Robert Parker School built a “Vol-CAN-o” overflowing with food for those in need (they won best poster). And the Woodland Montessori School built an Agamograph - a big square of cans with two sides of it changing colors according to your perspective (they won best meal). You can LIKE the picture of the can sculpture of your choice facebook.com/ShalomFP as a vote for people’s choice. Your like is your vote. Until Monday! Shalom Food Pantry made green t-shirts for all, but as we didn’t know that, we made our own blue school shirts, with the back (see image on left <) explaining both aspects of our can project as well as our school’s style.
NEW CHUMASHIM NEEDED It’s a great sign of much learning, but our first and second grade Chumashim (Breishis) are getting worn and weathered and probably won’t last much longer. We’re looking for a few sponsors for brand new, fresh, crisp Chumash Breishis (we’d need 16+ books) at least for next year, or maybe even the end of this year, for many more years of eager, beginner Chumash students at Maimonides. If interested in sponsoring, please contact Morah Devorah Leah or the school office.
POSITIVITY
Some of our older boys got to see 250+ colorful Post-It notes with nice positive vibes & wishes that UAlbany students FIRST CHIDON TEST put on a giant picture of This week our students in 4-7 the Kotel - Western took the first of 3 Chidon Wall this week. Our tests on the Yahadus boys were also were very curriculum. Morah Dini positive that they made a hot batch of delicious enjoyed a delicious breakfast with toasted popcorn, so the answers bagels & lox, even a yummy Meltaway dessert. would pop right into their heads and so their grades GREAT RATE OF ACCEPTANCE would pop, too! Many of our student felt Ms. Barenboim is proud to share that many of better prepared this time and said the test was our middle and HS students 100-word stories easier than they expected. It is challenging, so in Young Writers’ “Survival Sagas: Mission we are proud of their efforts and learning. Contamination” contest will be published and because of that we’re in the running for their A HALF-DAY MISHMAR LUNCH School of Excellence award. Parents of middle Parents, please note (see page 4) about 11:30 and high school students who participated: Please dismissal on Wed Nov 27th, but an optional be sure to log into Young Writers so your Mishmar with $3 lunch for kids (all ages) with children’s writings can be published. Tzivos Hashem activities until 12:15pm.
EVEN AFTER THEY ARE GONE Morah Rivi’s art students traced the edges of leaves with pastels on black paper and then smudged it for a cool look & glow-in-the-dark effect even when the leaves themselves are gone. Nice metaphor now that winter is here!
FRIDAY FIFTH ACROSTICS Mrs. Mattice’s 5th grade students wrote acrostic poems using the word Bittersweet along with an 3D illustration of a berry bush.
HOW TO VIEW THIS WORLD High School learned an interesting argument between Rambam vs Ramban about it.
at Maimonides and in the Community 11/22: SHORT FRIDAY, REMINDER! meet after 11:30am dismissal with a program and Dismissal at 2:15pm on “short” Fridays. Please be on time, especially on these short Fridays.
lunch. For those staying for the program, dismissal will be 12:15pm. All ages. $3 per child for lunch.
11/22-23: SHABBOS CHAYEI SARAH
11/27-: THANKSGIVING SCHEDULE
Huge Shabbos this weekend in Hebron, Israel, as the Parsha describes Avraham’s purchase of the Machpela to bury Sarah. Also huge Shabbos in Crown Heights, Brooklyn as 4000 Shluchim from around the world gather in NY for the Kinus. As many are away this weekend, Shomray Torah could use a little extra help to make Minyans. Thanks!
11/27: Half-Day Judaic Only (see re lunch above) 11/28-29: No School 12/2: School Resumes 8am
11/28-29: ROSH CHODESH KISLEV Thursday (Thanksgiving Day) and Friday.
12/1: TRAIN EXTRAVAGANZA 11/22-23: NCSY SHABBATON @CBAJ Returns to Albany’s Empire State Plaza Convention with a Friday Night dinner and Oneg, Shabbos afternoon lunch and Chaburas and Motzai Shabbos in the mall at Dave and Busters.
11/23: RABBI REISMAN IS BACK
Center with model train setups (some are quite elaborate) in N, HO, and O gauges, LEGO and larger, too! There are vendors and experts but kids just like to see the trains go. Admission is $7pp and kids 12 & under are free. More at GTEalbany.com
Rabbi Reisman’s Navi Shiur is screened live from Brooklyn 9pm on Sat Nights at CBAJ.
12/1: WOMENS SHABBAT SIGNUP
11/23: MYSTERY CHALLENGE Daughters of Sarah’s 13th annual Mystery Challenge is on for this Sat Night at the NYS Museum. $100pp, $50 for under 40. More info at daughtersofsarah.org or call: 518-724-3261
11/24: HOW TO RAISE A MENTSCH
Registration doesn't close on this date, but price goes up in December, so if interested, try to reserve by this date for the Womens Shabbat Retreat at the Gideon Putnam Hotel in Saratoga, co-sponsored by area Jewish Womens Circles. WomensShabbat.com
12/7: PIZZA NIGHT II
Second Pizza Night of the season… Stay tuned! How to Raise A Mensch/Sunday Funday, 2-3:45pm PJ Library with Hebrew Academy at 100 Academy 12/8: SEPHARDIC GENEALOGY Rd. Free. Music, art, gym for kids 3-7. For adults, 1-3pm at Jewish Federation. The Capital Region panel discussion entitled “Parenting Through A Jewish Genealogical Society (CRJGS) is hosting Jewish Lens.” Info: 518-482-0464. Sarina Roffe, professional genealogist, editor of DOROT and author of “Branching Out from Sepharad” and author of Sephardic cookbooks. 11/24: KINUS LIVE ONLINE The annual Chabad Shluchim Banquet can be viewed online via livestreaming on Sunday evening 12/9: WOMENS NIGHT OUT 6pm at www.Chabad.org/Kinus. Bnos Israel Mikvah of Albany welcomes all women to a night out at the JCC with soup, desserts & hot 11/25: SHTEEBLE MAARIV CHANGE drinks, homesteading demos including soap felting, Now that the clocks changed, Maariv is each night recycling weaving and preserving lemons, and a humorous meaningful talk on “Secret of Jewish (Monday thru Thursday) at 8pm. Sunday MinchaFemininity” by Chaya Reich of Mikva USA. In Maariv will be at the Zman. We are still exploring addition there are raffles, Mikva tours & more. the possibility of a 3:15pm Mincha Minyan at $20pp (or sponsorship levels of $54, $180 & $360) school (Mon-Thurs) before pickup but that will or for more info call or text Susannah 518-833depend on how many are able to come. 0633 or Devorah Leah at 518-945-0229.
11/26: NIGHT AT THE PINE BUSH
This isn’t a sleepover, just an evening program with 12/11: PARENT-TEACHER CONF. No school that day so teachers can meet with interactive exhibits and activities 4:30-7:30pm at parents to discuss educational goals and student the Discovery Center on Rt 155. For more info progress. Parents: If you are unable to attend on call: 518-456-0655 or AlbanyPineBush.org/events this date, please let the office know ASAP so we can plan the schedule accordingly and you can be 11/27: HALF-DAY + LUNCH After-school optional Mishmar/Tzivos Hashem will in touch with teachers to discuss your child(ren).
12/22: CHANUKAH BEGINS! 12/23: MAIMONIDES AUCTION Monday night, second night of Chanukah, 5-7pm. Save the date for this special event! The Kochmans always prepare a delicious Chanukah feast - this time a deli-cious old-style deli, with homemade corned beef and sauerkraut and all the fixings!
1/10-12: WOMENS SHABBAT At the historic Gideon Putnam Resort in the heart of Saratoga Spa State Park for an inspiring, relaxing, and invigorating Shabbat weekend together with local Jewish women. Organized by Capital Region Chabad’s Jewish Womens Circles, at an all-inclusive rate of $250pp (per doubleoccupancy). Price goes up after Dec 1st. For more info & to register, see: WomensShabbat.com
1/23: F.C. WINE AND DINE EVENT At Glennpeters to benefit the Friendship Circle.
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!”