May 30, 2019 /25 Iyar /Parshat Bechukotai/Candle Lighting: 8:02 PM
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The JKHA/RKYHS Dinner is this Wednesday June 5th!
If you haven't yet made your reservation, visit www.jkha.org/dinner
We look forward to seeing you as we celebrate our honorees and
our school community!
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JKHA kicked off summer reading today and turned into Hogwarts for the day's theme - Harry Potter! At morning assembly, teachers representing their classes, put on the sorting hat and got sorted into their houses by "Professor Dumbledore" (who had a close resemblance to Rabbi Rubin!). After school, JKHA hosted the Summer Reading Kickoff in a transformed library, where students had the opportunity to obtain their summer reading book, while enjoying a whole host of creative activities, crafts and games, all with the Harry Potter theme. Thank you to Channie Lundner and Abbey Roth for all their hard work in planning the day and for PTC for their generous support.
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Early Childhood/Lower School
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In celebration of completing their animal habitat study and learning the letters of the alphabet, Pre – K took their annual trip to the Turtle Back Zoo. The children were so excited to walk around the zoo identifying animals they had learned about and to see those animals up close. Some of the animals they saw were llamas, flamingos, jaguars, penguins, and coyotes. Another highlight of the trip was riding on the train. A great time was had by all!
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First grade visited the Essex County Environmental Center in Roseland this week for a day of hands-on learning. The morning started with a lesson on insects and monarch butterflies, reviewing the butterfly life cycle and words like metamorphosis and proboscis. The students enjoyed a nature walk where they pretended they were monarch butterflies on their own migration, and visited a greenhouse dome and frog pond as well. Back at the Environmental Center students learned all about the recycling process, and had a chance to make their own recycled paper which will be made into bookmarks.
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The JKHA eighth-graders have been involved all year in the impactful Names, Not Numbers project. The students interviewed Holocaust survivors, preserving their stories for posterity. They researched, filmed, and edited the survivors' stories, and their moving finished product was screened last night, interwoven into a powerful documentary following the students throughout the year-long process. Over the course of the school year, the students visited the Museum of Jewish Heritage and learned about emunah to help inform their interviews with the survivors. They also learned interviewing skills from Mrs. Shira Vickar-Fox, JKHA parent and Managing Editor of the New Jersey Jewish News, and videography techniques from a professional videographer to prepare them for the interview and filming process. We are so proud of our eighth graders for undertaking this project with respect and the understanding of its importance and the sense of responsibility that they now have to transmit the survivors' stories.
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There was so much math creativity for the clock project in Mrs. Bienstock’s math classes where students had to represent all the numbers on a clock, 1-12 in mathematical format!
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Sixth grade girls raised the most money in Middle School in the Big Jump PTC fundraiser earlier this year and celebrated their accomplishment with a trip to High Exposure!
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Last week, seventh graders explored the novel The Way to Bea through creative and inspiring Book Day programming, pioneered, designed and facilitated by Mrs. Staci Zeif and Ms. Abbey Roth. Examining the themes of communication and collaboration through the lens of the novel, the entire seventh grade reflected and engaged with the story through a variety of activities.Building off the inspiring success of Book Day, and in line with the theme of Sefirat H'aomer, under the leadership of Ms. Aviva Wasserman and Ms. Batya Sharbat, our seventh graders engaged in activities designed to encourage the building of friendships and unity as a grade of girls, strengthening their bond and connections. They were also able to learn lessons of respect and friendship from Rabbi Akiva's students. Students made "helping hands" where they traced a partner's hand and then came up with 5 ways they can be helpful to others and a good friend. The girls had a chance to bond outside of school with a bowling trip as well. Thanks to the thoughtful design by Ms. Wasserman and Morah Sharbat, our girls had an important opportunity to discuss what friendship means and looks like, and how friendship itself can expand and strengthen our ties with others and our own sense of self.
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A team of RKYHS students won second place in the first annual CIJE robotics competition! The team of Maya Stein, Yisroel Newmark, Buzzy Brickman and Adam Hollander spent the year working with the VEX robotics set to build and program a robot that pushes balls in and out of areas and moves using a remote control the students programmed themselves. At the competition, Maya and Yisroel were joined by Jason Wasserman-Singer and Yonit Salit. The student works together in a strategic way, keeping calm and staying organized as they made minor adjustments and repairs between rounds as their robot took on others from the dozen schools competing. Working together in partnership with the team from Bais Yaakov Baltimore, RKYHS and Bais Yaakov won the finals.
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Seniors at RKYHS concluded their senior sessions this week, hearing enriching talks from a variety of experts and speakers that will prepare them for their next chapter. Representatives from the Toastmasters Club conducted a workshop on the art of public speaking, Lena Koropey from Gramercy Protocol led a session on social etiquette skills and how to make the best impression, and Elliot Mathias from Hasbara Fellowship spoke to the students about advocating for Israel on their college campus. Other highlights were representatives from NJM Insurance company that spoke to the teens about teen driving safety and the potential hazards they can encounter on the road, and the nutritionist from Shop Rite offered the seniors important tips and information about college students and nutrition.
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Members of the RKYHS senior class arrived home from their eight day Holocaust Studies Seminar in Poland. After arriving in Warsaw, the group started their non-stop touring immediately. As they walked through the once-vibrant Jewish communities in Poland, the seniors came away with a new understanding of the devastation of the Shoah. The journey included visits to concentration camps and also to surviving area synagogues, which our students filled once again with the sounds of Jewish prayers, songs and dancing. The RKYHS students completed their trip with a brief visit to Israel. This meaningful and powerful trip truly strengthened their Jewish identities and connection to their history and roots, and will be an experience that will stay with them for a lifetime.
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The High School was immersed in a school-wide program learning about the First Amendment and its influence on current events. Professor Bernard Bell, a Rutgers University Law Professor and expert on Constitutional Law, presented the keynote address about the foundations of the First Amendment, and the topical, yet controversial current situations based on this right. Breakout sessions discussed Freedom of Speech, Freedom of the Press, Freedom of Religion, and Freedom to Protest, given by faculty members who were assisted by students who acted as facilitators of discussion and debate. The culmination of the program ended with a viewing of pertinent sections of the movie "The Post," which focused on publication of the Pentagon Papers. In this complicated age of digitalized news and social media, it is a quintessential responsibility for all educators to stress the value and implications of these essential freedoms.
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There was a palpable excitement and energy that filled the hallways of RKYHS as the students participated in the Kushner Cup today. Competing in two teams, students were involved in a variety of skills, challenges and competitions as they vie for the Kushner Cup. Activities included The Great RAE-ce, a pep rally, geography bee, Torah challenge, blacklight dodgeball, chess, gaga, dance competitions, mural, video and SO much more. The competition will culminate in the final competitions tomorrow. Kushner Cup is a celebration of our school culture, and gives students an opportunity to take initiative and allows each student to exercise their skills, talents and passions as they contribute to their team’s competitions. It is a wonderful bonding experience for our students that instills camaraderie and ruach throughout the building.
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A Look at Technology at JKHA/RKYHS
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Kushner Torah Videos (KTV)
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What do the Six Day War and the Celebrate Israel Parade have to do with this week's parsha? Rabbi Sinensky discusses the answer in this week's KTV.
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The very first pasuk of this week's parsha, Parshat Bechukotai, says, "אִם־בְּחֻקֹּתַ֖י תֵּלֵ֑כוּ וְאֶת־מִצְוֹתַ֣י תִּשְׁמְר֔וּ וַֽעֲשִׂיתֶ֖ם אֹתָֽם:"which means, “If you follow My statutes (laws) and observe My commandments and perform them.” When translating this phrase, we explain the word "חוק" as "statutes" or "laws"; however, we know that the word משפט means the same thing. So what is the difference between these two words and why choose one over the other? Rashi explains that there are two different categories of mitzvot, some are in the category of chukim and some in the catagory of mishpatim. Chukim are mitzvot for which we do not know the reason. Mishpatim, in contrast, is the term used to describe mitzvot for which the purpose and objective are intuitively understood.The first Lubavitcher Rebbe offers a different interpretation. He says the word בחוקותי is related to the word חקיקה, which means engraved. This means that we must study Torah and do the mitzvot until the words of the Torah are metaphorically engraved on us. The word “engrave” communicates permanence and embraces the notion that the mitzvot ought to become a permanent part of our self-image. You cannot erase an engraving: it is merged with and becomes part of the being so engraved. Similarly, we strive for and hope that the mitzvot we learn and perform become engraved on our hearts and become an essential part of our very being.
Shabbat Shalom
Ms. Batya Sharbat
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Mazal tov to Emunah Ehrlich and to Belinda and Reuben Ehrlich on the occasion of Emunah's Bat Mitzvah.
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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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We were honored to include school alum Sam Kaye (Class of '51) as one of the interviewees for this year's Names Not Numbers documentary who shared his personal story with our students. Picutred above, Sam Kaye attending last night's screening of the Names, Not Numbers with two of his children, Alex Kaye (Class of '78) and Susan (Kaye) Wisotsky (Class of '85).
Mazal Tov to Max Kirshblum (JKHA '09/RKYHS '13) on his engagement to Deena Borenstein.
Mazal Tov to Tikva (Jacob JKHA '05) and Levi Morrow on the birth of a baby girl.
Mazal Tov to Aviya and Alex (JKHA '99/RKYHS '03) Halpern on the birth of a baby boy.
Mazal Tov to Zach (JKHA '07/RKYHS '11) and Alex Ratzker on the birth of a baby boy.
Mazal Tov to Rachel (Ullman JKHA '07)) and David Schenkler (RKYHS '08) on the birth of a baby boy.
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