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Friday LetterFriday Letter Archive | Friday Letter AlertsFriday, November 14, 2008
Shabbat Vayera – Members of the Elementary School Choir in grades 3-5 will perform at the luncheon of the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism Biennial METNY convention held at Temple Hillel, 1000 Rosedale Road North Woodmere. Nov. 17th - 20th – Learning to Look – Parent-run art appreciation program will be substituted for regular art classes for the entire week, all grades, K-5. Mon. Nov. 17th - Parent Satisfaction Survey Presentation for Elementary Parents – Please join us for a “Town Meeting” at the Jericho campus to explore the results of last spring’s parent satisfaction survey. 7:00 pm. Wed. Nov. 19th – 5th Grade Field Trip – Scavenger Hunt at the Solomon Schechter Middle School in Glen Cove. Hosted by the 6th graders. Fri. Nov. 21st – Kabbalat Shabbat – With guest Cantor Marcey Wagner, Jewish Congregation of Brookville. 8:15 am, all welcome. Sun. Nov. 23rd – Israel On Campus – What Students and Thurs. Nov. 27th – THANKSGIVING – School Closed Wed. Dec. 10th – Family Literacy Night - 5:45-8:00. First and
In honor of our Melanie’s 5th birthday. If I were to ask you to think of a day that personified the true measure of a Solomon Schechter education, I wonder what your response would be. Erev chag perhaps, the eve before a Jewish holiday? The day of the Torah play, when the third graders dramatize a midrash about receiving the Torah at Mt. Sinai? Or would it be the Lag B’Omer Field Day? Among those who truly appreciate the value of a Jewish education, these and many others would definitely be high on anyone’s list of quintessential Schechter days. But how many of you would you have thought to include Veteran’s Day on the list of days that reveal the true measure of a Schechter education? I’d like to take you inside our school-house and share with you a taste of our day on November 11th, 2008.
Stand beside her and guide her, Through the night with the light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, to the oceans, White with foam, God bless America, my home sweet home. We then talked about the meaning of Veteran’s Day, its origins as Armistice Day, when 90 years ago, at the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour, on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, the Great War ended, the first World War that was supposed to end all wars. And we talked about veterans, about service to our country, and about the difference between Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day. I will admit that I did not have much prior knowledge about this particular national holiday, because I did not learn much about Veteran’s Day when I was growing up. As a student in public school throughout the Vietnam War, Veteran’s Day was just another day off from school. Yes, my dad had been an aerial photographer in the Navy, but still, never throughout my childhood did I attend a Veteran’s Day parade, ceremony, or event. As I recall, the 60’s and 70’s were not decades where this country was in the mood to honor veterans. Not so at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County in the year 2008! Later in the day, all of the children in grades 1-5 re-assembled in the auditorium to hear the words and see the visual presentation of Lt. Colonel Mary Ann Cline, the Executive Officer of the 106th Rescue Wing, located in Westhampton Beach. Lt. Colonel Cline has served for over 27 years in the United States Air Force, and has much to be proud of, but I am sure she would agree that the job she loves best is being the mom of Madeline Schlesinger, one of our students in the 4th grade. As Colonel Cline told the students, the 106th is devoted entirely to rescue, whose missions range from extricating soldiers from dangerous situations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to rescuing crew members from endangered merchant vessels in the Atlantic Ocean, to saving the lives of victims of natural disasters such as Hurricane Katrina, to distributing shoes to Afghani children who have never owned a pair in their lives. In full military uniform and armed with many slides from all over the world, Colonel Cline gave our students a very clear picture of the kinds of missions executed by her particular unit. She also drove home the point that “freedom isn’t free.” Throughout the assembly, our students listened with care, evidenced by their outstanding and respectful behavior, and by the intelligent and intriguing questions they asked. There were questions about whether members of Colonel Cline’s unit carry arms, about solutions to the problem of abandoned mine fields, about the dozens of countries she has visited throughout the world, and about the differences and similarities between the armed forces of Israel and the United States. This time, in thanks to Colonel Cline, in honor of all who have served this country, and with the accompaniment of Mrs. Elana Stern on piano, we ended the assembly with the singing once again of God Bless America. But hold on! I have so much more to tell you about Veteran’s Day at Solomon Schechter! As those of you who have children in the elementary school know, for those few schools that actually hold classes on Veteran’s Day, there is no yellow-bus transportation on that day, as all of the school districts were closed. This regrettably presented a dilemma for many working parents, who needed to get their children to and from school, but it also opened doors to possibilities, and we at Schechter took full advantage. For example, parents of all three second grade classes were invited to join their children for Open Circle, our social competency program. In classes 2A and 2P, the Open Circle was facilitated by the general studies teacher, Mrs. Marrache, and in class 2C, it was facilitated by Mrs. Calev, our Director of Pupil Services and Social Worker. All of the classroom teachers – Mrs. A. Stern, Mrs. Douek, Mrs. Kramer, Mrs. Schlanger – participated with the parents and children in the Open Circles, as they do each week and it was beneficial to parents to see how this program supports the healthy development of social and emotional intelligence. One would think that with a rigorous dual curriculum, a Jewish day school would not have enough time in the day to devote to targeting these intelligences. But at this Jewish day school, we find the time, because it is that important. Another way of taking advantage of the fact that almost all other schools were closed on Veteran’s Day, we opened out doors to pre-school children and their parents for a morning a storytelling, music, art and fun. Organized by Susan Katz, our Director of Admissions, Felt Songs performed for over sixty guests as well as for our kindergarten classes. From the looks of their happy faces, it looked like our own students and our young guests had a wonderful time. So why do I consider Veteran’s Day a quintessential Solomon Schechter Day? Because while most of the children in this country were at home, watching TV or having play dates, Veteran’s Day at Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County entailed so much more than the obvious. Yes, throughout the day the children learned math and Hebrew, had workshops in Guided Reading and visited learning centers. Yes, on the day after Veteran’s Day, the third graders were up on the stage beginning to prepare for the upcoming Torah Play while the fifth graders were taking Part I of the New York State Social Studies Exam. Yes, we are devoted to excellence in Jewish and General Education, but we are so much more than that, and of this, as a school community, we have so much to be proud of. Children at the Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau County truly grow up with a unified sense of themselves in the world, as experts-in-training in a core curriculum that honors not only logical and verbal intelligences but also social and emotional intelligences. On Veteran’s Day, every single student in our school felt deep pride as a Jew and as an American. Shabbat Shalom, Dr. Cindy Dolgin Elementary School Principal One final note: We will begin the Learning to Look program, a completely parent-run art appreciation curriculum, this coming Monday, November 17th. This year’s theme is Ancient Art and Civilizations. More about Learning to Look in next week’s Friday Letter. However, it has come to my attention that there is an excellent exhibit at the Children’s Museum of Manhattan called “Gods, Myths, and Cultures: Discover Ancient Greece, which happens to dovetail nicely with our Learning to Look curriculum. So if you are looking for something fun, child-friendly and wonderful to do with your children in the city, check out this exhibit, which closes on December 31st, 2008. D’var Torah
Judith May is a member of the Judaic Studies faculty of the Solomon Schechter High School of Long Island. Karen was a frumpy, unpopular, sad girl when the popular girls Penny and Aggie took her under their wing and coached her until she became stylish and popular. Penny and Aggie’s motives were partly altruistic and partly selfish—they felt sorry for Karen, but they also enjoyed the power of patronizing Karen. Things spin out of control when Karen, now pretty and popular, feels empowered to act as arrogantly toward Penny and Aggie as they used to act toward her. She assembles her own clique of friends, ditching Penny and Aggie, her former patrons. This story line, from the on-line cartoon “Penny and Aggie,” by Gisèle Lagacé & T. Campbell, could take place in any middle or high school, even ours. It could even take place in the Torah. This week’s parasha, Vayera, includes a story so powerful that we read it on the first day of Rosh Hashana: the story of Hagar and Ishmael (Genesis 21). The story began in last week’s parasha. Although God had repeatedly promised Abram that he would become a great nation (Gen 12:2, 15:5), Abram’s wife, Sarai, remained barren. In Chapter 16, Sarai proposed a solution to Abram: “Consort with my maid; perhaps I shall have a son through her” (Gen. 16:2). Like Penny and Aggie, her motives were mixed. Altruistically, she introduced her own rival in order to give her husband a son, but selfishly, she hoped to maintain control over her underling. Abram acceded to Sarai’s plan, Hagar conceived, and then matters spun out of Sarai’s control: [W]hen she saw that she had conceived, her mistress was lowered in her esteem. And Sarai said to Abram, “The wrong done me is your fault! I myself put my maid in your bosom; now that she sees that she is pregnant, I am lowered in her esteem. The Lord decide between you and me!” (Gen. 16:4-5) Rashi comments on the words “her mistress was lowered in her esteem,” saying that Hagar began to think that Sarai must not be such a righteous woman after all, since God had not given Sarai a pregnancy, while she, Hagar, was pregnant! Like Karen in the comic, Hagar’s newfound self-esteem grows out of all proportion, leading her to despise those who led her to her good fortune. Sarai escalates the conflict, treating her maid so harshly that Hagar flees to the wilderness. There she encounters an angel who sends her back to Sarai—the conflict is unresolved. Hagar bears a son, Ishmael. In this week’s parasha, the story of Hagar returns. Sarai, now renamed Sarah, has miraculously conceived in her old age and borne a child, Isaac. Yet even in this moment of triumph, Sarah carries the bitterness of her first encounter with Hagar, to the extent that she cannot watch the two boys playing together. She urges her husband (now renamed Abraham) to cast Hagar and Ishmael out. Sarah’s cruelty is shocking. The commentaries fall over themselves trying to justify, or at least mitigate it. They interpret Ishmael’s “playing” as mocking, lewdness, even idol worship. But even if we accept these apologetics, Sarah’s willingness to expose Hagar to hardship and possible death seems out of proportion. Abraham’s acquiescence in Sarah’s plan is as deeply disturbing as his involvement in the near-death of his other son, Isaac, in the next chapter. The story of Hagar and Ishmael is resolved only by divine intervention: “God heard the cry of the boy, and an angel of God called to Hagar from heaven” (21:16). God opens Hagar’s eyes and she sees a well of water in the desert, saving the boy’s life. What are we to make of a story like this, in which all characters behave so badly? We could try to justify it or explain it away. We could relativize it, saying that standards of behavior were different back then. Or we might turn the light of criticism on ourselves. How often are we, like Sarah, tripped up by mixed motives that we mistakenly think are pure? How often do we blame others for the unintended consequences of our own actions? How often do we, like Hagar, think that we are better than others who are not so blessed as we? How often do we, like Abraham, acquiesce to abuse? How often is cruelty, among children, among adults, among nations, motivated by a sense of our own inadequacies? How often is bitterness carried long past the time to let it go? The Bible, like our own world, is replete with stories of all-too-human behavior. [1] I am indebted to Sarah Hoberman, student at American Jewish University’s Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies, for the genesis of these ideas, and for introducing me to Penny and Aggie. For more you can visit (http://www.pennyandaggie.com/index.php?p=48)
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