Enjoy Kushner Connections Weekly Newsletter

November 15, 2018 /7th of Kislev 5779 / Parash a t Vayetzei /Candle lighting: 4:18pm

We are happy to have all of our students home with their families after last night's storm. Thank you to our administration, faculty, and staff for their tireless efforts to keep the children safe, calm, fed and warm, and to get every child home safely. We extend a hakarat hatov to all the school families who opened up their homes, older students who cared for younger students, complete strangers who brought stranded buses food, and so many others who showed acts of kindness and displayed the strength of our JKHA/RKYHS community during a challenging time. We wish everyone a warm and restful shabbat shalom.

RKYHS welcomed a large crowd into the building for its Open House last Sunday. Our JKHA current eighth graders along with outside students from Bergen, Essex, Middlesex, Passaic and Union counties, and Staten Island, New York came to experience the RKYHS difference. Click here to read more .

Early Childhood and Lower School

Throughout the year, students have an opportunity to earn "Cobra Cash" from their teachers for showing kindness, being respectful to others, completing work on time, and completing work they find challenging. As the oldest grade in Lower School, our fourth grade students have the privilege of the running the prize store, which is open once a month during the week of Rosh Chodesh. By showing responsibility in school, as well as respect to their teachers and peers, fourth grade students can earn the opportunity to visit other classes with the prize cart on prize store days.

What a beautiful fourth grade davening for rosh chodesh in the new Naomi Rosenfeld Kehilah Center.

Click here to watch.

Hebrew comes to life in Kitah Gimmel as the students participate in center based learning. These centers focus on reading, comprehension, writing, and speaking. The iTalAm, blended learning, internet-based program gives the students the opportunity to work at their own pace and enhance their Hebrew skills. This student-friendly, engaging program complements and reinforces the learning that takes place in the classroom. Small group sizes enable teachers to provide students with immediate feedback and ample opportunity to participate.

This week, Pre-K learned about the Ulysses Butterfly for the animal habitat of the week. The Ulysses butterfly's natural habitat is in the rain forests of Australia.

To make the habitat, the children marble painted with blue, yellow and green paint to represent the lush foliage of the rain forest. They then use paint droppers on coffee filters to create the blue and black butterfly.

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Middle School

We are proud to announce that Middle School Science Department Chair and RKYHS STEM teacher Mrs. Srividhya Sundaram (Ms. Sri) has been selected to sit as a member of the Infiniscope Education Advisory Board for 2018-2019. Infiniscope is a collaborative project of NASA and Arizona State University (ASU). As an Infiniscope board member, Mrs. Sri will have access to newly developed products and materials and will get to “beta test” them with her JKHA/RKYHS students. Created by ASU’s School of Earth and Space Exploration and NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Infiniscope makes the vastness of space and space exploration inviting, accessible, and interactive for educators and learners of all ages. She is one of only 30 educators nationwide selected to this important position. Read more about this esteemed appointment here. Click Here to Read More.

On Monday, our Middle School students took the opportunity to express their hakarat hatov to veterans. Following an interactive Language Arts lesson in which we discussed the significance of Veterans Day as well as the symbolism of iconic American images, including a saluting soldier and the American flag, the students were introduced to Japanese haiku poems. This short form of poetry encourages students to consider the meaning of language, choose poignant phrasing and recognize the impact of punctuation and line breaks. With an emphasis on articulating gratitude for the service and sacrifices of veterans throughout our country’s history, each student crafted a unique haiku that incorporated the students’ interpretation of American values as the foundation of the fabric of the United States. The students’ poems, written on red, white and blue papers, were used to create a compelling visual of a large American flag, proudly displayed in the Middle School hallway as a continued reminder of our appreciation for those who have sacrificed in the service of this country.

As part of the Middle School's ongoing effort to teach students about being responsible in the fast-paced, digital world, our fifth - eighth graders participated in an interactive program about teenagers and technology with Detective Edward DeLafuente, a local Police detective. DeLafuente highlighted the importance of safe and appropriate digital communication, emphasized the importance of ensuring proper privacy settings on all digital communication, and talked about the challenges inherent in the anonymity of the internet. He encouraged our students to consider the permanency of the internet when they post things online, and gave them suggestions of how to make good decisions about what to post. Students then joined the guidance department and Detective Delafuente during lunch for a smaller Q&A session.

Last Friday, JKHA Middle School students commemorated the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht in their classes. Students were exposed to the sights and sounds of this tragic day and read various excerpts from primary sources. Students and teachers reflected on the importance of this day in our history and about the lessons that we should be taking home today.

Seventh grade boys had the unique opportunity to learn about the mitzvah of tefillin, which they will all soon perform, in a hands on way. In anticipation of Dov Berger's hanachat tefillin, Rabbi Moshe Sandowski, a proffesional sofer, assembled and completed Dov's pair of tefillin together with Dov's classmates. Rabbi Sandowski engaged students as he explained to them the details of the tefillin and the mesorah or tradition which was passed down to us about tefillin all the way from Moshe Rabbeinu. They will all very soon carry on that tradition. We are thankful to the Berger's for organizing this special opportunity!

Click Here For the Middle School Test Calendar

High School

RKYHS students enjoyed an exciting night of school spirit and camaraderie at its second annual Sports Night and Tailgate. The entire evening and night promoted a sense unity among the students and the school spirit was palpable throughout the building. The evening began with a school-wide tailgate party complete with a BBQ, firepits, games, and a DJ. After the tailgate, students prepared for a night of cheering on their fellow classmates at the SEVEN home games that were all played on the same night. Each student received an RKYHS Sports Night shirt to enhance the spirit. Go Cobras!

The RKYHS Sports Management club welcomed Kirk Berger (JKHA '04/RKYHS '08), Associate General Counsel at National Basketball Players Association (NBPA), the union for the players in the NBA. Berger discussed the intricacies involved in negotiating wages, hours and working conditions for the players and the role of the NBPA for the players. He motivated students with his career path and perseverance in pursuing his career in sports. He offered helpful insight and advice to the students about pursuing a career in the sports industry.

Ahead of their new unit in Gemara class on the mitzvah of lighting Shabbat candles, Rabbi Sinensky’s 10th grade Gemara class developed a list of questions to research regarding the underlying significance and practical halachot of candle lighting. Student inquiry will play a critical role in guiding learning during this coming unit. Students summarized the questions from the class into cohesive lists.

Rosh chodesh Kislev kicked off with our monthly Rosh Chodesh chizuk program, where RKYHS students have the opportunity to meet with faculty and explore area of interest, inspiration, and struggle for them in small groups.

Joanne Snow, AIPAC lobbyist from Princeton, NJ, addressed the RKYHS AIPAC group on the post-midterm election results and its implications for the U.S./ Israel alliance. Students were briefed on some of the key races across the country and what they can expect for the next 2 years leading up to the 2020 elections.

Congratulations to the RKYHS Chess team on their win this week. The team defeated SAR in their first match of the year. After an intense series of games, the team played very well, and we look forward to following their success in the season ahead!

In 2005, Jennifer Mackinday's brother, James Smith, suffered multiple injuries in Iraq while on a mission with his Army Stryker Combat Brigade. Jennifer immediately took on the sudden role of caregiver for her brother helping him navigate everything in his “new normal." She found herself exhausted and in despair until she discovered the Wounded Warrior Project® that showed her she wasn't alone on this journey and provided her with both financial and emotional support. Jennifer shared her message to seek help when you need it and to never feel like you have nowhere to turn. Her inspirational story can be found in her book Friends for Life: Strangers Brought Together by the War in Iraq .

Junior Mendel Dashevsky was featured as the Sportstar of the Week in the Jewish Link for his role on the RKYHS Cross Country team. Click Here to Read About It.

A Look at Science at JKHA and RKYHS

A look at Science in JKHA Lower School

A look at Science in JKHA Middle School

A look at Science in RKYHS

Kushner Torah Videos (KTV)

In this week's KTV, Rabbi Yaakov Mintz discusses the lesson we learn from Parshat Vayetzei of taking a step back in your life, and

to stop going through the motions.

Divrei Torah

The Lessons from Vayetzei

Standing at the Brink

Imagine attempting to follow in the footsteps of an all-time great leader. What kinds of anxieties did John Adams experience following the presidency of George Washington? What was it like for Childeric III watching the empire Charlemagne had built dissolve before him? The pressures of being “the second” are immense.

The are a number of notable “seconds” in Tanach. Yitzchak followed Avraham, Yehoshua followed Moshe and Shlomo followed David. Each of them were great men in their own rights; they were luminaries for their generations and they interacted with HaShem. In each case, it is worthwhile to examine the first time they experience prophecy to truly understand the nature of these individuals.

Click Here to Read More of

Rabbi Srolovitz's Dvar Torah.

Shabbat Shalom!

-Rabbi Aron Srolovitz

KUSHNER

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