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The kids hand over their cards for Mrs. Schiller at today's farewell breakfast celebration.
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Selfless Dedication - Mrs. Schiller
by Rabbi Holman
Director of Jewish Studies
Graduation Speech 5777:
Continuity. If you ask what Jewish Day Schools do, it's continuity, or
מסורה
- Keeping Torah and Jewish tradition alive, passing it to the next generation.
In the
שמע
that we say morning and evening, the very first mitzvah after
ואהבת
is...
ושננתם לבניך
- "and you shall teach it to your children".
Each year at the Pesach Seder we tell the story to our children and grandchildren.
So central is continuity to Judaism that, in Pirkei Avot, the Mishna lists the key names in this transmission going back 3,000 years.
At each graduation, we are a bridge - carrying the values, lessons and teachings from our parents and teachers, and their parents and teachers, to the graduates and the future of Israel. A living example of this bridge is our own principal, Mrs. Schiller. Born to Holocaust survivors, she emerged from the destruction of 1,000 years of Jewish life in Europe, and she dedicated her life and career to continuing Jewish education.
The Talmud in tractate
ברכות
asks, "Why doesn't G-d perform miracles in our days like He did in the past?" Interestingly, the Talmud answers that we don't have the merit of
מסירות נפש
- selfless dedication to Mitzvot - like previous generations had.
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| The graduates bid Mrs. Schiller a special farewell this morning. |
Perhaps this selfless dedication is the key to being a bridge of continuity to the next generation, and this selfless dedication is precisely what you find in Mrs. Schiller. She is in the office before anyone else, and the last one to leave, making you think she never left the building. Weekends? Among the myriad of other things which filled her time, Mrs. Schiller facilitated Shabbatonim for years, taking care of the food and the safety, while sleeping in the luxurious accommodations of the preschool. Why? So Jewish kids could get a dynamic, bonding, Jewish experience beyond the four walls of the classroom. We even did a Shabbaton at her house... her Sukkah was open every year... and there were even times when you could find a student doing homework at Mrs. Schiller's dining room table for one reason or another.
I guess we now know why Akiba was always full of miracles. It was due to the selfless
מסירות נפש
of its principal, dedicated to transmitting Jewish tradition to innumerable children for decades.
When we learn from books, we learn more from the examples that people make for us. We don't learn selflessness and dedication to heritage from a book; we get it from being with people like Mrs. Schiller, whose example we were all privileged to learn from.
Dear graduates, you
can say that you were the last class to graduate under Mrs. Schiller. And one day, you might try to explain to someone what it was like, but they probably won't believe or understand what you are talking about. The only way to communicate this kind of
מסירות נפש
is by setting your own example of dedication for others.
As you become the next link in the chain of Jewish tradition,
we wish you all Mazal Tov, Class of 2017.
Shabbat Shalom!
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| Mazal tov, Akiba class of '17! |
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Goodbye Message from Mrs. Schiller
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| Preschool Director Carla Goldberg, who was Mrs. Schiller's second hire (after Mrs. Esse, who was the first), presents Mrs. Schiller with a retirement gift from teachers and staff. |
Dear Akiba-Schechter,
As I prepare my final goodbyes to this community, I think back to last night, our graduation. For me, graduations are microcosms of the entire Akiba experience. They showcase not only the accomplishments of our outstanding students and teachers, but the entire philosophy that guides us. Last night we graduated 13 individual students, and those individuals are richer because they were members of this diverse community.
I will miss this community tremendously: the daily interactions with students, teachers, and staff.
Many years ago I had an idea of what education should look like, and I have been fortunate to make much of that dream come true. As a teacher, I have always believed that teachers are the key to students' success. Over and over I have seen our students become successful, caring adults who are leaders in their communities, and that is because of the magic that happens here. It has been an honor to be part of Akiba-Schechter for almost 30 years.
With respect and gratitude,
Miriam
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The students' farewell song to Mrs. Schiller this morning.
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As we look ahead to our future and strive to improve our beloved school, we seek your feedback about this past year. Please take a few minutes to fill out our
parent survey.
It is important that we hear from as many of our families as possible. If you have children in both preschool and grades 1-8, please fill out both surveys. If you have any additional questions or comments, please add those to the bottom of the survey or contact
Yelena Spector:
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Grades 1-8
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As always, the water fight is the greatest fun on the last day of school, and today the weather was perfect for it!
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Morah Dorit(o) and her class with their Dorito hats.
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Morah Dorito!
A huge thank you to Frito-Lay for saving the day and overnighting Doritos baseball caps FREE OF CHARGE for Ms. Dorit Rogan's 8th grade students after the original package got lost in the mail and threatened to ruin her surprise! Ms. Rogan called Frito-Lay on Tuesday and told them her name and how the kids love calling her "Morah Dorito" (not that they're allowed to) and how she got the idea of the hats. The wonderful customer service rep graciously came to her rescue and didn't asked for anything in return. She even enclosed coupons with the hats! What a wonderful story of kind people and a good ending!
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Best Picture: Hopeful Friendships
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Make a Scene Awards
The students in Mr. Millner's 5th/6th grade Language Arts classes spent a good chunk of their last trimester working on a major culminating project for the novel, Rules, by Cynthia Lord. They learned about the literary techniques of setting, theme, and symbols, and applied them to their group projects, determining the most important settings, themes, and symbols in the book and deciding which scenes from the book best exemplified those techniques. Then they wrote a script for the scenes they felt were most important, filmed these scenes and used iMovie for editing their films.
The students had various jobs for this project and, much like the Academy Awards, they were rewarded for their hard work with an awards ceremony. The Akiba community voted on the six movies the students created (View them here.)
And the winners are:
Best Picture:
Hopeful Friendships
Best Acting: Ava Noth:
Life in Catherine's Eyes, Consequences
Best Acting in a Supporting Role: Kiwi Altgold; Therapist -
Consequences
Best Director: Avi Zeller -
Life in Catherine's Eyes
Best Sound/Music: Merav Price -
Hopeful Friendships
Best Editing: Mayrav Bader -
Hopeful Friendships
Best Cinematography: Sholom Lifchitz -
Hopeful Friendships
Best Adapted Screenplay:
Hopeful Friendships
The Stallion SCRUM Award for Strength Creativity Relentlessness Understanding and Maturity: Rafi Nagorsky -
Consequences
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Mrs. Wiesenfeld's Kitah Gimmel learned about various cities in Israel and presented their findings to the class on Yom Yerushalayim.
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| On Tuesday, Kitah Bet celebrated a year of learning with a Siyyum. |
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The 3rd/4th graders did a fabulous job presenting their Chicago architecture project.
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| Mrs. Basa's Math class did a unit on toilet paper geometry. After calculating volume and surface area of the roll, they figured out the surface area of the sheets to determine how many rolls it would take to cover a basketball court, a football field, and a baseball diamond. |
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Rube Goldberg Project from Ms. Rotfeld's Science class
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Members of the Akiba-Schechter Orchestra perform for the Kindergarten.
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Mazal tov to Room 201 on a successful FIFTY STATES Celebration! The 1st/2nd graders in Ms. Friedman's/Ms. Rodin's class did their own research and wanted to share what they have learned with family and friends. They are so proud of their accomplishments and so is everybody else!
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Mazal Tov, #discoverjewishdayschools Winner!
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Eva Basa's winning #discoverjewishdayschools video: What makes my teachers special
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Mazal Tov to the Akiba-Schechter Fencing Champions!
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| Foil: 1st place - Nina Block; 2nd place - Yonathan Ezra; 3rd place - Ezra Frankel |
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| Saber: 1st place - Zev Faier; 2nd place - Aaron Faier; 3rd place - Joseph Friedman |
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The Kindergarteners made colorful carp kites.
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3rd graders studied 2-point perspective and used it to draw their own fabulous cityscapes.
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ATT Summer Program
Have your child experience an awesome summer in the state-of-the-art fully air-conditioned high-tech facility at the Nathan & Shirley Rothner ATT Summer Program . Kids will learn new skills and develop talents with sewing, drama, sports, art, science, rocketry, dance, cooking, magic, robotics, track and field, self-defense, computer programming and more, while making new friends, and visiting new places.
Discount to Attend Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development
A special stipend has been made available to students who attend Jewish day school through J-Stem. Learn more here.
Type in J-Stem code JSTEMSPR17 to receive a 50% discount.
Kehillah Fund
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Dates to Remember
Monday, August 28
First Day of School: Grades 1-8
Monday, September 4
Labor Day
No Classes
Tuesday, September 5
First Day of Kindergarten
Preschool Visitation Day
Wednesday, September 6
First Full Day of Preschool
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Please note that three Staff Professional Development half days have been added to the calendar for next year. The staff professional development will be from 12:00 - 3:30 p.m. on each of these dates: December 4, January 29 and March 12. These days will provide our teachers with much needed time to collaborate, learn and plan together.
On these days, regular classes will be dismissed at 12:00 noon and parents may opt to pick up their students at that time. These afternoons will be good opportunities for families to schedule doctor appointments without missing class time.
Akiba-coordinated programming will be available for all students who opt to stay at school until their regular dismissal time on these afternoons. Buses will run at the usual 3:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. time and after-school programs will happen as usual.
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June 9, 2017
Volume 13, Issue 21
Candle Lighting:
8:05 p.m.
Parasha: Beha'alot'cha
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Refuah Shleima
...to Millie Miller, who is recovering from pneumonia.
Mazal tov
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Mazal tov
...to Toibeh Sarah Gersten and her family on her Bat Mitzvah on Sunday, June 18!
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Since 2004 Akiba-Schechter has received
$534,355
from the Kehillah Fund; this month it is $ $3,707. Over 1,400 community members participate in the Kehillah Fund's recurring donor program in support of Jewish day school education, and every month $71,000 is distributed to Chicago area day schools.
To learn more, please call
(847) 745-1668 or visit
www.kehillahfund.org
.
Thank you for your support!
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Affiliated with the Associated Talmud Torahs and supported by the Kehillah Jewish Education Fund
773-493-8880
Check out our new website!
www.akibaschechter.org
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