Enjoy Kushner Connections Weekly Newsletter

February 8, 2024/ 29th of Sh'vat 5784/ Parsha Mishpatim

Candle Lighting: 5:05 PM

JKHA and RKYHS students have been rehearsing for weeks for their joint production of Frozen. Come see their performance this Monday night, February 12 at 7pm in the Epstein-Stein Auditorium. Admission is $5 and free for RKYHS students. The cast is composed of students from all grades at RKYHS and JKHA students in the Drama Club. RKYHS students have also assumed the roles of stage managers, sound engineers and set designers allowing them the opportunity to explore their interests in many different aspects of the stage and performing arts.

Early Childhood/Lower School

The first and second grade classes have been learning coding skills all year. First, we read books about coding and logic including discussions of variables and loops. Then the students spent time on block based coding on iPads. Finally, the classes are playing board games like Robot Turtles and Coding Farmers that reinforce these logic and coding skills in a screen-free environment.

Technology in education came alive in 1st grade! In the first grade classroom, students learned how to tell a biography by capturing pictures and recording video on the app SeeSaw. Students told different elements of the story of our earliest presidents in preparation for Presidents’ Day.

After a successful bracha bee experience before winter break, students in Lower School are now working on the skill of bracha achrona. In first grade, students are learning borei nefashot, while students in grades two through four are working on al hamichya.

Middle School

The fifth graders are using a curriculum called "Red Hot Root Words" - they are learning Greek and Latin roots and vocabulary words connected to those roots. This week, they all learned the word scribe focusing on the root "scrib." To bring the word to life, Rabbi Adler joined the class and explained what a sofer stam does and how scribes were part of Megillat Esther.

Mrs. Bienstock and Mrs. Babich took their 8th grade classes on a field trip to the Livingston Mall to apply their knowledge of discounts and sales tax to actual real life scenarios. They completed a unit on percents and decided as a class to assess their understanding by putting it to the real life test instead of a written test! They figured out how much items cost after reading the sale signs and computing the sale prices. (No one hesitated to figure out the tax on their Kosher Cinnabons that they purchased after they shopped ;)

Rabbi Mintz visited our 8th-graders to discuss artificial selection and its ethical considerations. He drew connections between the science of selective breeding, its impacts, and the teachings of the Torah. In class they had covered the concepts of natural selection and artificial selection. The project at the end of the unit was a debate in which students weighed the pros and cons of artificial selection. Thank you Rabbi Mintz for enhancing the classroom study!

Seventh graders in Mrs Shanskhalil's class have been researching different careers and will be writing career research reports based on their work. As part of learning about different careers, the class had the opportunity to interview a neonatologist, Dr Alexander Feldman (and JKHA parent). Students asked many insightful questions about this specialty, the education and skill required for this job, what his days look like, why he chose this profession and much more.

High School

RKYHS parent and Data Analytics expert Mrs Lansey generously volunteered to run a workshop with our 9th and 10th grade Computer Science students on SQL (Structured Query Language). The workshop started with crime scene tape and the announcement that 'A murder occurred in SQLCity'. Students were given an overview of basic SQL and an Enterprise Relationship Diagram and were challenged to write SQL to solve the crime and identify the murderer. The students were engaged immediately and it was amazing to see how much could be learned in such a short time!

RKYHS girls "Got Skirted" yesterday at lunch with a pop up skirt sale. Students were able to try on their favorite skirts in a variety of sizes and order directly from Carlyz Craze with 20% off the entire website! This discount is available for one week to all JKHA/RKYHS families by using the discount code RKYHS20. For orders over $100 shipping is free and we have arranged delivery to RKYHS free of charge under $100, just select store pick up option. These popular school skirts will be available for try on as well before ordering at the Middle School concert with Esther Freidman next week on Tuesday, Feb 13 before the concert. Happy shopping!

Click here to order directly from Carlyz Craze.

Last Shabbat, 9th and 10th grades headed out to the Holiday Inn in East Windsor, New Jersey for an amazing shabbaton! Shabbat was filled with opportunities to further meaningful connections with classmates and faculty, inspirational divrei Torah and learning sessions, tons of great food and more. With round robin speaker sessions Friday night on “My Relationship with Myself, Others, and Hashem,” engaging shiurim led by faculty, Torah Talks led by 12th grade peer leaders and divrei Torah from classmates, the Shabbat was filled with inspirational Torah learning. Students enjoyed the opportunity to spend time with their classmates and faculty outside of the school setting. After a ruach-filled Havdalah complete with much singing and dancing and led by an impressive faculty band, it was off to Urban Air and a melave malka. With a separate shabbaton for the ninth and 10th grades, the younger grades had the opportunity for more individualized attention and to truly bond with one another.

Rabbi Pecaric, our RKYHS inhouse linguist with a fluency in 7 languages, recently finished translating all six orders of the mishna into Polish. The next two have just come out, with the last 2 to be published in the upcoming months. These volumes add to the monumental translation that Rabbi Pecaric completed in 2001-07 of all five books of the chumash into Polish.

Ninth and 10th grades kicked off their grades’ shabbaton with chesed, starting the morning by packing 1500 fleece leggings to be sent by BC Lev Echad to IDF soldiers and families that have been displaced up north to keep them warm. Students also wrote heartfelt letters to soldiers to offer them chizuk and support.

Students in SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions) heard from Mike McCormick from the NJ Consumer Safety division for NJM insurance company. McCormick spoke on the topic of "What do you consider lethal?" and focused on distracted and reckless driving, especially as it relates to teenagers.

Head of the JKHA/RKYHS security team Jim Morrison spoke to the Sociology Class about the inner workings of gang culture. Prior to working in private security, Morrison was a member of the police force specializing in gang intervention. Morrison held a q&a with the students answering their many questions.

RKYHS students participated in the Essex County Mock Trial Competition, facing off against schools from around the county at the Veterans' Courthouse in Newark. They competed over two days last week, and after those trials, finished in the top 8 in the county, placing them in the semi-finals that they participated in Tuesday night. In separate trials, students argued both the Prosecution and Defense side of a criminal case involving a college admissions scandal and also played the role of witnesses. We are proud of the sharp skill, dedication, and hard work that the students put into preparing for and expertly presenting at these trials

SPORTS

Congratulations to the RKYHS wrestling team on an outstanding performance on Sunday in the West Orange High School wrestling tournament (aka “King of the Mountain“ wrestling tournament) Special recognition goes out to the below placements in their weight classes:

Aaron Epstein - 2nd place

Sam Tennenberg and Matanel Sher- 3rd place

Playoff fever at JKHA and RKYHS!!

The RKYHS Boys Varsity Hockey Team is ranked 4th out of the 17 varsity hockey teams in the yeshiva hockey league across NJ and NY.! They face HANC in their first round playoff game at HANC next Wednesday, 2/14 at 8pm. GO COBRAS!!!

Good luck to the Middle School boys JKHA hockey team in their first round playoff game against WDS tonight!

Congrats to the JKHA Middle School basketball team on winning their "play-in" game to GOA last night - they are playoff bound!

Good luck to the MS girls basketball team tonight in their "play in" game v Yavneh! (If they win this, they advance to the playoffs)

Come cheer on the RKYHS Girls Varsity Basketball team in their last game of the season at GOA this Saturday night at 8pm!

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Earlier this week, JKHA and RKYHS faculty joined the close to 20 teachers from the Greater MetroWest Day Schools that gathered in Whippany for a workshop on best practices for teaching Election 2024, facilitated by Audi Hecht, Civic Spirit's Director of Education and Innovation. The session was organized by the Greater MetroWest Day School Initiative. Participants engaged in discussion and explored a variety of pedagogical strategies to bring back to their classrooms.

DVAR TORAH

Click here to view this week's Kushner Comments

Click here for a printable version of the Kushner Comments

Click Here to Read JLC's The Schmooze

ALUMNI

Mazel Tov to Eliana Tajfel (RKYHS '19) on her engagement to Mordy Neuman!

Mazel Tov to Hana and Israel Haar (JKHA '05/RKYHS '09) on the birth of a baby boy!

Mazel Tov to Leora (Levitan) (JKHA ‘08) and Michael Berkowitz on the birth of a baby girl! Mazel Tov to grandparents Judy and Ari Levitan (HYA ‘80) and great-grandparents Phil and Shirley Levitan (HYA ‘50)!

KPAC

EVENTS

PARNAS HAYOM

February 8 - 29 Shevat

Was dedicated by

Rivka & Malcolm Greenberg & Family

Wendy & Marc Herman & Family

Joddie & Eric Pelofsky & Family

Sarah Schapiro & Family

in memory of

Carolyn Dupre z"l

beloved mother of David Feiler, mother-in-law of Regina Feiler

and grandmother of Alyza (RKYHS ’21), Marissa (RKYHS ’21), and Michaela (RKYHS ’23) Feiler.

May today's learning serve as an aliyah for her neshomah.

February 6 - 27 Shevat

Was sponsored by

Paula & Joseph Peikes

Gail & Mitchell Novick

in memory of Bernice Edelcreek

Rifka bat Pesach z"l

beloved grandmother of

Vitah Peikes Yankovich (JKHA ’02) and Rafi Yankovich (JKHA '01/RKYHS '05), Daniel Peikes (JKHA '15/RKYHS '19), Rutie Peikes z"l, Eli Novick (JKHA '17/RKYHS '21), Roey Novick (JKHA '18/RKYHS '22)

and Tali Novick (JKHA '19).

May today's learning serve as an aliyah for her neshomah.

February 5 - 26 Shevat

Was dedicated by

Meyer Reichman

in loving memory of his father

Chaim Reichman

Ezekial Chaim ben Yoseph z"l

grandfather of Yonit Sinnreich (JKHA '92)

and Chaim Reichman (JKHA '99)

and great-grandfather of Ethan (JKHA '18/RKYHS '22)

and Noah (11th Grade) Sinnreich

and Naomi (4th Grade) and Dahlia (1st Grade) Reichman

in commemoration of his yahrzeit.

Click Here to Donate

We Invite You to Dedicate Our Children's Torah Learning at JKHA/RKYHS

If you are interested in sponsoring a Day of Learning, contact Aly Greenstein: agreenstein@jkha.org or (862) 437-8001

COMMUNITY