April 11, 2019 /6 Nisan 5779 /Parshat Metzora/Candle Lighting: 7:15 PM
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To mark Israeli Election Day, all three divisions participated in age-appropriate learning.
In Lower School, our Rishon Yehonatan taught students about how the Israeli election is different, then ran a mock election. After learning about some of the animals of Israel, students voted for their favorite.
Middle school students have been learning about the Israeli election and on Election Day they had the opportunity to come and vote for their party. A voting booth was situated in middle school and students came and voted on the two major parties - ליכוד won by one vote!
RKYHS Hebrew classes learned about each political party and about the election process in Israel. Students had to build their own political party according to their views for Israel including economy, health, transportation, security , education and the Palestinians. Each group went over their party with the Israeli teens visiting from the Diller Teen Fellows program, an immersive leadership program, then presented, before a class vote.
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Early Childhood/Lower School
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Early Childhood and Lower School students got ready for the month of Nissan with a beautiful Shabbat Assembly.
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With the culmination of the 2nd grade Colonial Kids research report, students had the opportunity to see their learning come to life at the Liberty Hall Museum. Students rotated through 4 different stations including playing colonial kids games, performing chores, making marble games out of clay to take home, and seeing artifacts from a Colonial Kids school. The museum staff was impressed with the depth of knowledge our students brought throughout the day.
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Yashar Koach to the Middle School Girls Torah Bowl team on their First Place finish and to the Middle School Boys Torah Bowl team on their Second Place finish in the league championship! The teams faced the division champions from all over the New Jersey/New York area to vie for the league title. The teams displayed their vast and detailed Torah knowledge as they were tested on all of Sefer Shemot and its Rashi.
Thank you to their incredible coaches Morah Devorah Levinson and Rabbi Dovid Sukenik who worked so hard with the teams all year.
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Eighth grade boys were all “tied up” this week during our annual Tzitzit making program. After a tutorial on how to make your own tzitzit, students got right to work on making their own. We were so impressed as they worked diligently and with excitement to finish their tzitzit. A remarkable number of students walked away with complete tzitzit and the rest are on their way with this new skill that they can take away for a lifetime. We know that this program will have many “fringe” benefits and are sure that it will add a renewed excitement for this important mitzvah. Please enjoy this animoto from the program!
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The call of “Order in the court!” could be heard this week in Rabbi Feit’s 7/8
th
grade boys Chumash class as students were tasked with bringing Bilaam and Balak to trial as a culmination and review of the study of Parshat Balak. Students played the role of prosecution, defense, jury, Bilaam, Balak, the mule, and the media so that students could review, in a creative and engaging fashion, the skills and lessons learned in this intriguing story. The prosecution has made charges of attempted cursing, conspiracy against Bnei Yisrael,
Tzaar Baalei
Chaim
, and disobeying the word of G-d. The defense and the jury had their work cut out for them and most importantly, students came away with a deeper understanding of the Chumash studied and an enhanced love of the subject matter.
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On Monday, The Quest for Teaching Excellence project hosted a donors breakfast at the MetroWest Federation building in Whippany. The breakfast honored the
four
Jerry Gottesman z"l Award for the Pursuit of Teaching Excellence
winners who won
awards for leadership in professional development. Our school's recipient was MS science teacher and HS engineering teacher Srividhya Sundaram. Mrs. Sri presented her learning experience to the attendees. Through the award, she was able to visit Jewish Day schools in Boston and the Design Thinking Lab at Boston University. She was inspired by the idea of 'Design Thinking' and looked for moments to integrate the concept into her science class. After successful implementation of the program in her classroom, Mrs. Sri initiated an interdisciplinary project that combines the disciplines of science and language arts. She also conducted a workshop for JKHA teachers on Design thinking. Oak Ridge Institute published her 'Design Thinking' lesson plan for the benefit of a broader community. She presented a video at the breakfast of her sixth grade students working with first and second graders to design a board game according to Design Thinking strategies.
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JKHA First Grade general studies teachers joined their colleagues from Golda Och Academy, Gottesman RTW, and JEC via Zoom conferencing. The topics for discussion included homework policies and practices, activities in the classroom and executive functioning and organizational skills. The teachers shared their practices and learned additional approaches from their counterparts at the other area day schools.
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RKYHS students had the opportunity to hear from Father Edwin Leahy, Headmaster of St. Benedict's Prep in Newark as part of the SEED speaker program. Father Leahy discussed how God speaks to us through relationships and experiences- both the extraordinary and the ordinary. He suggested the students ask themselves why they are here, to stop and think about their everyday life and how God might speak to them on just an ordinary day. Father Leahy shared the relatable message that faith is non-denominational and that we are all God's children. St. Benedict's Prep also recently welcomed Rabbi Rubin to speak to their 800 students. Father Leahy has been at St. Benedict's Prep for over 50 years, and under his direction, the school has grown and flourished exponentially.
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Congratulations to the RKYHS Boys Torah
Bowl teams on their amazing season
and on their performance in the regional championship. The team had an undefeated season and were division champions going into the league championships, and came in second
place in this week's competition.
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Students all over JKHA and RKYHS have been learning about The Space-IL (Israeli) Beresheet Lunar Lander's journey into space. It was a momentous day as Beresheet arrived to the moon late this afternoon. All of RKYHS and JKHA Middle School watched the live broadcast from Space-IL Mission Control.
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Looking to find out test schedules, upcoming events, programs and sports games, or the latest SEED speakers and more? Make sure you're keeping up with all things RKYHS in the comprehensive Kushner Buzz.
Check it out today!
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On Wednesday night, we held our annual College Fair for all the sophomore and junior families. It was an engaging and informative program with 50 colleges represented. Following the fair, parents and students were invited to a special panel presentation, where admissions representatives from four schools shared their personal tips and a behind the scenes look at the application process. We look forward to providing outstanding programming to help reduce the stress related to the college admissions process.
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In the spirit of the NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament, RKYHS hosted a boys basketball tournament for RKYHS students last Saturday night. The event was run entirely by RKYHS students who worked together to organize the teams and arrange the game schedule. The money raised will be donated to Camp Simcha. The winning trio is pictured above.
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Girls Varsity Soccer defeated Hillel
Boys Varsity Baseball defeated JEC
Boys Varsity Baseball defeated HAFTR
Girls Varsity Hockey defeated SKA
Girls Varsity Soccer defeated Bruriah
Boys/Girls Varsity Golf defeated Passaic High School
Boys JV Soccer defeated Westchester Hebrew High School
Girls JV Soccer defeated Flatbush
JKHA Boys Soccer defeated Yeshivat Noam
JKHA Boys Soccer defeated Hillel
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A Look at Navi at JKHA/RKYHS
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Kushner Torah Videos (KTV)
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In this week's KTV Rabbi Tzvi Sinensky delves into the greatness of Shabbat Hagadol.
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Dvar Torah- Parshat Metzora
Parshat Metzora sheds light on a very practical and meaningful message concerning Lashon Hara. The title
of the Parsha and the name of a person afflicted with Tzoras is a Metzorah. Unique to a Metzorah is the very fact that the person has their own name rather than being described as having the disease. One can infer that the name describes the essence of the person. The Kli Yakir comments that the conjunction Motzei-Rah which means ‘speaking evil about others’ is the root of the name Metzorah. With that in mind, by speaking negatively about others, the Metzorah is revealing to
the world their character defect as a human being.
An interesting commentary about the disease Tzoras and the action of speaking Lashon Harah is that the
Torah does not directly connect Lashon Harah to causing Tzoras. Rather, Chazal ties them together through the cases in Tanach where people like Miriam were afflicted with Tzoras. However, we also find a connection between Tzoras and what causes it by the offerings that must be given in order to remedy it. These Karbonos remind the sinner of the sin he committed.
The two doves that must be given, send a clear message to the Metzorah. According to Rashi, the two birds, offered by the Metzorah point to one cause of Tzoras, excessive talking the same way a bird chirps. In contradiction with our classic perception of Lashon Harah as a calculated action, it is quite oftentimes the opposite. Lashon Harah can also come about by casual excessive talking as depicted in the image of birds naturally chirping. In our own lives it is important that with the gift of speech, we have a meaningful way of communicating, but we also have an obligation to not misuse it in a manner of talking which inevitably leads to gossip. The Torah is therefore teaching us that it is an important characteristic to be mindful of our speech.
Shabbat Shalom
Ms. Debbie Finkelstein
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Discount cards are here! $20 per card. Cards will be available at the school office next week. Venmo @JKHA-PTC or pay via cash or check. Thank you to all the amazing local businesses who have participated!
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Mazal Tov to Molly Cohen and to Nancy and Michael Cohen on the occasion of Molly's Bat Mitzvah.
Mazal Tov to CM and Chaim Gerson on the birth of a baby boy!
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We Invite You to Dedicate Our
Children's Torah Learning
at JKHA/RKYHS
If you are interested in sponsoring a Day of Learning, contact Sarah Levinson: slevinson@jkha.org or (862) 437-8001
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If you are interested in dedicating a mezuzah, please contact Lauren Shapiro, Director of Development at
lshapiro@jkha.org
or
(862) 437-8192
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Mazal Tov to Emily (Freeman JKHA '03/RKYHS '07) and Aaron David on the birth of a baby girl.
Mazal Tov to Ovi (JKHA '95) and Michal Jacob on the birth of a baby girl.
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