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For Your Calendar
Wednesday, January 27
7:00 pm
Health Education Meeting for MS parents
Thursday, January 28
Shema Bear program for Kindergarten
Monday, February 1-
Friday, February 5
Schechter Book Fair
Tuesday, February 2
Science Fair with Hebrew Academy
Saturday, February 6
8:00 pm
FOSS Cocktail Party
Friday, February 12 -
Tuesday, February 16
No Classes
February Break
Wednesday, February 17
Classes Resume
Sunday, March 6
PA Parent Social
Friday, April 8
Schechter Shabbat Share
Basketball Schedule
Monday, January 25
Girls at Master's School, Simsbury
Tuesday, January 26
JV & Varsity Boys at JCC New Haven
Thursday, January 28
JV & Varsity Boys at Master's School, Simsbury
Wednesday, February 3
Girls at Mooreland Hill
Varsity Boys at Mooreland Hill
Tuesday, February 9
Girls at Watkinson
Thursday, February 11
Masters Tournament
Varsity Boys and Girls
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Solomon Schechter Day School extends heartfelt condolences to...
Sharon and Neil Kochen and their children, Schechter alumni Matt (2003), Jonathan (2006), Jacob (2009), and Leah (2011), on the loss of their beloved father,
father-in-law, and grandfather,
George Beck.
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Leslie and Steven Neiditz and their children,Schechter alumnus Harley and Summer (5th grade), on the loss of their beloved mother, mother-in-law,
and grandmother,
Pearl Orner.
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Julie and Abner Gershon and their children, Schechter graduates Jake (2012), Gabrielle (2013), and Jonah (8th grade), on the loss of their beloved father, father-in-law, and grandfather,
Martin Steiner.
Funeral service will be in Texas. Local shiva will be held on Monday, January 25 at 7:00 pm at the Gershon home, 19 Buckingham Lane, West Hartford.
המקום ינחם אתכם בתוך שאר אבלי ציון וירושלים
May God comfort you among the mourners
of Zion and Jerusalem.
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Mazel tov to...
Erica and Avi Smith-Rapaport on the occasion of their son
Maxx becoming a Bar Mitzvah this Shabbat at Beth El Temple.
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Mah Jongg Players
To order a new card for 2016, contact Susan Kurtis at
Standard card is $8.00,
Large Print is $9.00.
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Join Our List
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Community Events
Please save the date, January 24, 2016 for the Annual International Holocaust Remembrance Day. Click here for more information. If you have any questions, feel free to contact Anna Huttner
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Friday, January 29
5:45 pm
Mandell JCC
PJ Library Pasta Shabbat
Click here for more information or contact Jane Pasternak, 860-231-6342 or
[email protected].
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Saturday, February 20
8:00 pm
Beth David Synagogue presents a
n evening of Jazz and delectable tasting of Whisk(e)ys and Cordials.
Click here for more information.
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Sunday, February 21
2:30 pm
The Emanuel Synagogue
Greater Hartford Mega Challah Bake sponsored by Chabad.
Click here
for more information or visit www.megachallahbakect.com
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Thursday, February 25
7:00-9:00 pm
Mandell JCC
ADL invites y
ou to a free community briefing on How Does One Become a Terrorist?
Join us for a fascinating conversation as we hear from Oren Segal, Director of the Anti-Defamation League's Center on Extremism and Research Center.
This special event will be offered at no charge, but registration is required. Registration deadline is February 22 at the Mandell Jewish Community Center.
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Shabbat Shalom
Parashat Beshalach
Candlelighting 4:35 pm |
January 22, 2016
12 Shevat 5776
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Would you like a grandparent, relative, or friend to receive the Schechter newsletter?
Email [email protected] and include the name, email address, and relationship to Schechter
and we will add them to our list!
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A Message from Andrea
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Leadership Expectations and Culture
"Culture does not change because we desire to change it. Culture changes when the organization is transformed; the culture reflects the realities of people working together every day."
- Frances Hesselbein
The Key to Cultural Transformation, Leader to Leader (Spring 1999
At a year and a half into the headship at Schechter, I often find myself reflecting on what it means to lead a school, take part in the leadership of the community, and work to create a culture of understanding and growth. Over the last month, I have thought deeply about the kind of leader I want to be and the community we will build together.
It's common that when new leadership comes in, there is great excitement and great expectation for the future. In the first year and a half, I have had the incredible privilege of seeing our school enrollment grow by over ten percent. At Schechter, we witness and benefit from a community that supports the school in extraordinarily generous ways. This generosity allows us to take huge strides in a short amount of time. I work with a team of faculty and staff who are committed and hardworking. We are seeing positive changes for our students on a daily basis. I have also been blessed to work with parents who love this school and want the best for it.
Culture doesn't move in the same way; it has its own inertia. As a matter of fact, as the quote above states, culture cannot simply be changed; we have to transform how we work together everyday.
One of my goals is to help the stakeholders at Schechter work together to solve problems. This will mean a change for me, as well. Until now I have taken on the role of problem solver. The challenge with this approach is that it assumes that I know more than others when actually that is rarely the case. I am working to move from problem solver to facilitator. As a facilitator, I can empower others to come together around a table in conversation where the underlying supposition is each person has positive intentions and wants to solve the problem. I believe that from this place, we will be able to strengthen our school more than ever and best meet our students' needs. When we transform how we approach challenges, we will transform our culture.
Shabbat Shalom,
Andrea
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| Schechter Hosts Community Conversation in Honor of Dr. Martin Luther King |
Solomon Schechter Day School and West Hartford Public Schools partnered for the second year in hosting a community conversation focused on the Urban-Suburban relationship in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King.
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5th Graders Learn from the Teachings of Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel |
On Monday, fifth grade students learned a powerful lesson and
 demonstrated their awareness and responsibility to society. As a means to understanding the bridge between Jewish texts and the work of
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., students participated in a Gallery Walk. During this silent activity, the students read eighteen quotations from Jewish texts that were posted on the walls of the cafeteria. After reading all of the quotes, they chose eight and wrote their reactions on index cards that they taped to the posted texts. Upon finishing all of their reactions, the students then used
 Post-It notes to write "comments on the comments" of their classmates. In the words of
Molly Lerner, "I felt inspired reading other people's comments and seeing how I could build on them."
In response to the famous quotation from
Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, "When I marched in Selma, I felt my legs were praying," one of the students commented, "What is so great about how Rabbi Heschel said,
"My legs were praying" is that it pretty much means that I don't care how tired my feet get! When my feet get tired it reminds me of the good I'm doing."
 Based on Deuteronomy 10:18-19,
God defends the cause of the orphan and the widow, and "loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt." Another student wrote, "God is saying that you must not turn bitter and cruel from bad experiences. You must learn and remember, for no good is done from cruelty." Commenting on this, a classmate wrote, "That is why you shouldn't give up after something bad happens to you. You learn from it and do something good." Both Dr. King and Rabbi Heschel would be proud to know that their legacy rests in the hands-and legs-of our fifth grade students.
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| 6th Graders Tie Tsitsit |
On Thursday night, the sixth grade class, their parents, and even some grandparents gathered together to study and learn how to tie tsitsiyot for the students newly-made tallitot. The evening began with the moving story of The Always Prayer Shawl, a story of a family tallit that spanned numerous generations. After some intergenerational text study [Numbers 15:37-41, plus Rashi commentary], parents, children, and grandparents began work on tying the tsitsiyot. "My in-laws have really been looking forward to this!", confided Danielle Weiss. The participants focused intently on trying to get the 5-7-11-13 wrapping combinations completed for each corner of the tallit. Even the library's Raggedy Andy got into the act. It was a heartwarming evening of parents, children and grandparents happily working together to fulfill a mitzvah: l'dor va-do (from generation to generation)!
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Tu B'Shvat is Here |
In honor of Tu B'Shvat, students in Kitah Alef (first grade) learned about  trees and why they are important. After reading The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein and learning the parts of the tree in Hebrew, students were divided into two groups. Each child was given a card with a part of the tree written in Hebrew and asked to create that part of the tree. They then gathered in their group, assembled a tree, and wrote sentences describing the tree and all the reasons why trees are important to people.
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Challenge Accepted by 6th Graders in Save the Egg Drop |
Sixth grade science students are diving into a unit on forces and motion.  They have been challenged to design and build a reusable device that will allow an egg, when dropped out of the second-story science lab window, to reach the ground without breaking. The students are off to a great start. From a somewhat lower height, the students conducted an initial test of their designs. Every student's egg landed safely and without cracking! Now the students are taking these successful initial designs and preparing for the final "egg drop." As sixth grader Brady Dulitsky said, "When hearing about the project, I thought, challenge accepted!"
Through this process, the students are honing their engineering design skills while experiencing Newton's Three Laws of Motion: gravity, air resistance, and friction, as well as many other forces firsthand. The final projects will be on display at the Science Night with Hebrew Academy on Tuesday, February 2.
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1st Grade is Moonstruck! |
While studying the solar system, the first grade students have had several
 hands-on learning experiences. Students learned about the phases of the moon and then, over winter break, kept a journal noting the shape of the moon each night. To help them understand why the moon's surface is filled with craters students had the chance to create craters on their own moons. This activity helped students understand
the abstract concept that meteorites, asteroids, and even small  rocks collide with the moon and the impact creates a crater.
Each student used clay to make their own moon model. Then they dropped rocks from shoulder height onto the clay moons and observed the impact. The students carefully removed the rocks and let the clay dry overnight.
Milo Cohen said, " I liked to push stones in the clay to make craters."
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Parent Association Updates |
Last Friday, the PA sponsored its second successful Shabbat Share Dinner. Over 100 people came together for a special Shabbat dinner with their Schechter community.
Once again, Yosi's Catering delivered delicious, creative food that wowed everyone. Thank you to the host families: Berson, Golder, Kasper, Resnick, and Temkin. Mark your calendar for the next Shabbat Share on
April 8th!
Beginning Monday, February 1 through Friday, February 5, Schechter will sponsor its annual Scholastic Book Fair. There will be books for all ages and interests. Schechter parent,
Rob Dulitsky is the chair for this event. Please sign up to volunteer at
VolunteerSpot:
http://vols.pt/C1fdFm.
Coming soon, the PA will be unveiling a new "Coffee Talk" series that will feature interesting and relevant topics that affect our families. This program will be both educational and practical.
Finally, the Purim
Mishloach Manot fundraiser
will be launched during the first week of February. More details to follow soon. Please mark your calendars as Leah Berson will need volunteers to help pack the baskets on
Tuesday, March 22
and to help deliver them on Wednesday,
March 24
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Health Education Meeting for Middle School Parents |
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Book Fair |
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Global Community Purim Costume Donation |
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Susan Kurtis, Editor
Lara Lakenbach and Audrey Sobel, Asst. Editors
Solomon Schechter Day School of Greater Hartford |
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