May 14, 2020 /20th of Iyyar 5780 /
Parshat Behar-Bechukotai/Candle Lighting: 7:49PM
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Early Childhood/Lower School
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Early Childhood and Lower School began their day on Lag BaOmer by coming together to learn about Lag BaOmer from Rabbi Srolovitz and to create their own bonfire crafts so that they can keep the flame of Torah burning in their homes.
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Fourth graders played Shorashim charades during their class this week. A student would act out a shoresh (root of a word) and they got to call on other students to guess what they were acting out. The method kept students engaged and provided a creative way to solidify shorashim.
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Kindergarten students played freeze dance in Hebrew with colors. They started by coloring with one color while listening to music and then when the music stopped they changed colors to use a different one. They said the colors in hebrew as they were playing. At the end of the game the students shared what they created and labeled the hebrew colors they used.
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Fourth graders practiced writing Hebrew words that connect to Lag BaOmer. Morah Nechama would say the word and then the students wrote however they think it's spelled and if they know what it means. Afterwards they went over the correct spelling and translations. Then each student wrote sentences in Hebrew using those words and they listened to each other each read the sentence.
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On Lag BaOmer, Middle School students went on "field trips" in Israel where via a live video over zoom, tour guides, including JKHA alum Rabbi Yishai Fleisher (JKHA '90) led our students through Chevron and Shiloh. It was a surprise Lag BaOmer Maccabiah breakout for 5th and 6th graders as they rushed to complete the challenges and win points for their teams. View the Maccabiah video
here
. The day was completed for Middle School with a bonfire led by Rabbi Feit and family and inspirational words and singing from Rabbi Elie Mischel from Suburban Torah in Livingston.
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Lag BaOmer was put into context with a video from JKHA Middle School Judaic Studies Faculty to "Spread the Joy." They challenged students to spread chesed by doing chesed, as one act of kindness inspires another.
Watch the video here
.
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Kol HaKavod to sixth grader Sophia Steiner and eighth grader Samuel Colchamiro for advancing to the national competition for Chidon HaTanach which took place last Sunday remotely. Students took three tests over the course of the year on parts of Vayikra, Bamidbar, Shmuel Alef and Ezra/Nechemia. Their scores on those tests qualified them for the national competition. Congratulations to Samuel Colchamiro who placed in the top four students for eighth graders nationally which will advance him to an additional round in the US Chidon competition in August.
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Mrs. Shanskhalil's Language Arts class has been reading "Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library" by Chris Grabenstein. The class had the special privilege of having Mr. Grabenstein himself join their class today. Grabenstein led them on a tour of his writing studio, discussed how he conceives of stories and lays out his books. The affable author spent time with the students and answered their many questions about the editing process, how long it takes him to complete a finished novel, people that influenced his characters, his background, and more. He also offered advice for the students including writing tips, pursuing their passions, and creating an "idea box" to store potential story ideas.
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The Middle School math department longs to be back in their classrooms with students. The JKHA middle school math teachers put together a mathematical message to express how much they miss their students!
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Rabbi Sukenik’s 6th grade Mishna class has been studying the first perek of Masechet Sukkah which details the laws of valid and invalid Sukkot. Students were assigned to draw pictures of the halachot in the mishna to illustrate their understanding of the laws.
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Yashar Koach to eleventh grader Eli Novick for advancing to the national competition for Chidon HaTanach that took place last Sunday. In Sunday's competition, done remotely, Novick placed in the top four students for high school students nationally which will advance him to an additional round in the US Chidon competition in August. Novick will then be tested on Devarim, Shmuel Bet, and Yirmiyahu.
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To celebrate Lag BaOmer, High School students took part in an "Escape to the Zoom" challenge during their morning Judaic Studies class. Working in remote teams they had to solve puzzles and collect codes throughout locations in our school building, in the Old City, in Lag BaOmer festivities in Meron in Israel, and in other locations, to reach the Zoom at the end where Dr Levy was waiting. Throughout the day in their free time students participated in a March Madness style bracket tournament of the traditional Lag BaOmer game of archery via an interactive online app, competed in a scavenger hunt, completing 20 missions, and tested their music skills in a name that tune competition on zoom.
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Students in the RKYHS Career Club heard today from Dave Schoner, Associate Director of the NJ Motion Picture and TV Commission. Schoner is responsible for selecting and organizing filming locations throughout New Jersey including the The Wolf Of Wall Street, The Godfather, Goodfellas, A Beautiful Mind, Empire Records and more. Schoner shared advice for all those students who are interested in pursuing careers in the movie and TV industry on what they can be doing now and in the next few years to set them on the right path.
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A book awards ceremony for eleventh graders was held over zoom this week. There were 12 awards given out. Students are nominated based on specific criteria given by the participating colleges and universities. The awards consisted mainly of books with additional gift certificates that will be mailed to the students' homes. Books awarded are from Yeshiva University, Yale, Columbia, Princeton, Brandeis, George Washington University, University of Rochester, Rensselaer Polytech and Wellesley.
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The RKYHS AIPAC group heard from Congressional candidate Rosemary Becchi. Becchi is the Republican candidate running for Congress to represent New Jersey's 11th District. Becchi spoke about her background and what she hopes to bring to the role. She also spoke about the US Israel relationship, the challenges of running a virtual campaign and more.
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The SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) group heard from Ms. Lindsey Giannini. Giannini is a former Miss NJ and safe driving advocate. She is currently Chief Marketing Officer of Victory Lane Motorsports for NASCAR Cup Driver Brennan Poole where she has taken on the important issue of distracted driving. Giannini spoke about her advocacy for combating distracted driving, beginning while she was a high school student and continuing to this day.
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The Sports Management Club had a chance to hear from Abner Neufeld of the Brooklyn NETS. Neufeld has been with the NETS for 16 seasons and is currently the Director of Youth Basketball for the team. Neufeld spoke about his career path within the NETS organization and potential scenarios for NBA games to return. He offered career advice in how to get started in a career in sports.
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The tenth grade Scientific Engineering students had to make a significant shift when they started remote learning. In the physical classroom, students were working hard using circuitry and programming to build physical prototypes of solutions they designed to solve real world problems. In the last two months, students have risen to the challenge and pivoted using online tools to build simulations of their prototypes and used the time to build websites and videos to explain their projects to the world. Sample projects include "Alerta" that identifies allergens in foods and identifies when someone may be having an allergic reaction and notifies emergency personnel and the person's In Case of Emergency contact, "Better Bussing" which uses fingerprint scanning and databases to eliminate unneeded school bus stops and minimize pollution, "G-Lock It" which activates a lock on a gun when the gun is near certain locations like schools, religious institutions or shopping malls and alerts the police, and "The MOTH Drone" which proactively identifies temperature and humidity conditions that can lead to forest fires and alerts professional.
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Support for the JKHA/RKYHS Annual Campaign is more important than ever.
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This year’s Celebrate Israel Parade is going online with a theme of "TODAH" – Thank You. The June 7th virtual parade will have a charitable component with proceeds going to Covid-19 relief and recovery locally, nationally, and in Israel. The event will be streamed via YouTube and on the Parade’s website, Facebook and Twitter accounts at both 1 pm and 7 pm on June 7th.
We are asking for JKHA/RKYHS families and/or students to film short (about 5-10 seconds) clips about the following (videos do not need to be about all of the themes, one theme per submission is ideal):
- Saying Todah (just the one word)
- Saying Thank you (just those two words)
- Saying Celebrate Israel
- Waving an Israeli flag(s)
- Waving an American flag(s)
- Holding up a sign expressing thanks to healthcare and other frontline workers (delivery people, law enforcement, grocery stores, first responders, etc…)
Click here
for details on how to make the best clips.
Get creative! But you must strictly adhere to social distancing guidelines in creating videos. Please make sure you are wearing Kushner swag or parade shirts from previous years in your video. Send in your clips to
sgantz@jkha.org
for JKHA and to
hlevy@jkha.org
for RKYHS by Wednesday May 20th.
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Mazal tov to Torrey (RKYHS ‘12) and Nikki London on the birth of a baby boy!
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