Enjoy Kushner Connections Weekly Newsletter

November 30, 2023/ 18 of Kislev 5784/ Parsha Vayishlach

Candle Lighting: 4:12 PM

There’s still time to get your tickets to see Shulem Lemmer this Sunday, December 3 at the annual concert for the ATID SOCIETY of JKHA/RKYHS! The performance will be followed by a deluxe dessert for all attendees. Click here to purchase tickets.

Get ready for the ATID concert with this Spotify list of music from Shulem Lemmer and previous ATID performers!

Rabbi Rubin and JKHA/RKYHS President Jeremy Halpern were featured on JM in the AM this week. Click here to hear them discuss the future of Jewish education and the ATID SOCIETY event this Sunday.

Early Childhood/Lower School

First through fourth grades classes have been busy this week writing letters to soldiers that will be sent inside of boots as part of the Boots for Israel initiative. Boots for Israel helps IDF units get the tactical military boots they so desperately need in a timely manner. You can learn more about this initiative and how to show support by clicking here.

Second grade had a hands on learning activity to help reinforce the "why" in regrouping in addition. This practice, and being able to see the reasons, will help them when solving pencil/paper regrouping equations, and help move from concrete to abstract math concepts.

In this week's parsha, EC4 learned that Yaakov's name was changed to Yisrael. For a parsha project, EC4 explored their Hebrew names. They culminated their study by making signs of their Hebrew names and doing a fine motor activity using qtips to fill in the letters with paint.

Middle School

You could hear a pin drop in 7th grade as they "competed" in the Textbook Takedown! The intense competition to finish is felt by all. The unit on the initial settling of British America culminates in the pooling of all information learned via notes, slides, videos clips, class discussions, and specific textbook pages. Students have been preparing as teams all week, and need to fill out question and answer documents. The accuracy and speed are factors in determining the victors. The winners…TBD!

The eighth graders have been learning about the Lincoln-Douglas debates, a series of seven debates between the Democratic senator Stephen A. Douglas and Republican challenger Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 Illinois senatorial campaign, largely concerning the issue of slavery extension into the territories. Students were tasked with recreating the debates, in a podcast format with a host and a student representing each debater. This format showcased their knowledge of each of the candidate's positions and their understanding of the debates.

Seventh and eighth grade chumash classes focused on sequencing yediyot kloliot using Rashi letters. It was a unique challenge to organize the months of year, the shevatim, the parshiyot etc., as well as being able to read the words in Rashi font.

High School

RKYHS is part of a meaningful initiative to support Israel as a high school community. As champions of goodness and promoters of justice and peace, RKYHS students are joining the efforts to have a presence in the chambers of Congress and have a voice in the White House. Along with 55 other schools in the country, RKYHS joined the Israel Advocacy Project to mobilize students to write to our highest elective officials on behalf of Israel. Three times a week, the Israel Advocacy Project will send an email with the text of an email for students to copy and paste and send to the link provided to forward to the White House, or Congress and/or other elected officials. The project began this week with our students sending letters.

Two separate groups of students volunteered at a work site with Habitat for Humanity in Jersey City this week. They worked hard getting the house ready for its new owners, a US army veteran. The students spent time spackling, painting, and tiling the house

The RKYHS Chesed Executive Board program called Super Readers visited Lower School classrooms during the high school chug period this week and read to students in Early Childhood and Lower School. The RKYHS Super Readers are also available to Lower School students to provide one on one assistance with reading.

The RKYHS Sociology class heard from a guest speaker to their class this week. They welcomed Johnny Hincapie from the Innocence Project. Hincapie served in jail for 25 years for a crime he didn't commit and was later exonerated. He spoke about the work of the Innocence Project to help those who are wrongfully accused of crimes. The speaker was part of the class unit on deviance in today’s society and the judicial role

SPORTS

Congratulations to the RKYHS Boys Varsity Hockey Team on their 2-0 win vs Hillel.

Congratulations to the JKHA Boys MS Hockey on defeating WDS 5-3

Congratulations to the JKHA Girls 7/8 Basketball team on their 27-20 win vs RPRY.

We commend the Middle School Boys Basketball team on their hard fought game vs GOA this week, ending with a 1 point loss.

Molly Kurlander, member of the Middle School's new Media Club has her second article on Middle School sports published in the Jewish Link this week. Yashar Koach! Click here to read it!

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

High School mentors and mentees had a professional development lunch with Dean of Faculty and Instruction Mrs. Debbie Finkelstein where we shared best teaching practices surrounding formative assessment. We looked at how different learning tasks can be measured in different ways, and we were able to see why we need a variety of formative assessment tools that can be deployed quickly and in a low-stakes manner. Formative assessments need to be checked, not graded, as the point is to get a basic read on the progress of individuals, or the class as a whole.

ALUMNI

Mazel Tov to Judah Ullman (JKHA ‘14/RKYHS ‘18) on his marriage to Shani Hans!

So proud to see our JKHA/RKYHS Alum and member of the IDF, Sarah Silverberg (JKHA '11/RKYHS '15) on a billboard in Israel!