Friday Letter

Sunday May 17

Maxine Tannenbaum's Car Wash to benefit the Island Harvest Foundation - 11:00 am - 4:00 pm at Congregation Ohav Sholom in Merrick (previously scheduled car wash was rained out).

Roald Dahl's Willy Wonka Junior  - Thursday's performance was enchanting! Come see our students' Sunday performance at 7:00 pm at the Jericho Campus - Tickets will be available at the door.

Monday, May 18

Town Meeting at the Jericho Campus @ 7:30 pm

Tuesday, May 19 - Thursday, May 21

6^th Grade Trip to Philadelphia and Amish Country

Friday, May 22

No School for 6^th Grade Only

Sunday, May 24

Rosh Chodesh Sivan

Monday, May 25

Memorial Day - School closed

Tuesday, May 26

Annual Meeting at the Glen Cove Campus @ 7:00 pm

MAZAL TOV!!

Mazal tov to senior Leanne Gale on winning the National Scholar Award from The National Society of High School Scholars.   WOW!!!

SCHECHTER CALENDAR

Would you like to include your children's photos in next year's Schechter calendar?  For only $18 for one child or $36 for two or more children, your child's/children's picture(s) can be included in our calendar.  Special Offer to Schechter Parents:  If you place an ad, you can submit your child's/children's photo(s) for free. Please email your unedited picture(s) to Beth Kohler at MBIJS5@yahoo.com.  Send one picture per email and clearly mark the child's name and birthday in the email, and write SSDS calendar in the subject line. Please complete the form that can be downloaded below and send it to the Development Office at the Upper School with a check made out to SSDS by June 1, 2009 (please see link to order form below).

COMMUNITY EVENT

The UJA Federation is presenting Israel's Story: How It's Told on Campus and in the Media, an evening event at the Woodbury Jewish Center on Wednesday, May 20 at 7:30 pm. The topic will be presented by Dr. Kenneth W. Stein, Professor of Contemporary Middle Eastern History, Political Science and Israeli Studies at Emory University (please see link to informational brochure below).

MITZVAH PROJECTS

Our 6^th grade student, Marielle Abrahamson, is conducting a mitzvah project in advance of her becoming a bat mitzvah. Marielle will be collecting canned dog and cat food to benefit the Little Shelter Animal Rescue and Adoption Center in Huntington.

A collection box has been placed in the main lobby for your donated canned goods. Please click on the link below to view a personal letter from Marielle. Thank you in advance for your generosity.

Amanda Kiewe, too, has a mitzvah project underway which will benefit Child Life Programming at Schneider Children's Hospital.

Amanda is collecting art supplies, coloring books and other materials. A box has been set up in the school's main lobby to store your donations.

Please click on the link below to read about Amanda's personal motivation for selecting this worthy initiative and thank you for your generosity.

MARK-THE-DATES

Salute to Israel Parade - Sunday, May 31, 2009 - Assembly time is 11:15 am on West 52^nd Street between 5^th and 6^th Avenues. Estimated step-off time: 11:45 am - 12:30 pm (please see link to informational flier below).

8^th Grade Siyyum - Wednesday, June 17, 2009 @ 7:30 pm at the Shelter Rock Jewish Center

First Day of School for 2009 - 2010 - Wednesday, September 9, 2009

JUNE REGENTS EXAM SCHEDULE

June 17 -   Afternoon* - Earth Science

June 19 - Afternoon* - Integrated Algebra

June 23 - Morning* - Hebrew

* Please note that confirmed start times will be announced shortly.

FRIDAY LETTER

Parashat Behar-Bechukotai

Rabbi Michael Stanger currently serves as the Rabbi of the Old Westbury Hebrew Congregation and is the immensely proud father of first grader Arielle Stanger.

In this week's double parasha, Behar-Bechukotai we read about the laws pertaining to the Shmitta and Yovel -specifically the Sabbatical and Jubilee years.  In essence, every seventh year the land is to lie fallow, it is not to be worked and every forty-ninth and fiftieth year land is given a complete rest for two whole years -not to be pruned, picked or sown.   Furthermore, the land is never to be sold beyond redemption, returning back to its original owners (or their descendants) in the Jubilee year. God never gives a specific rationale for these agricultural laws, other than stating at the close of this section:  the land is Mine, you are but strangers resident with Me. (Lev 25:23) Ostensibly, the land belongs to God and we should remember and respect that fact, valuing and preserving the property we seemingly care for -just as we would be responsible for something that we borrow or rent from its original owner.  Likewise, we should not lose sight of the fact that God put us on this earth to preserve, not abuse it, and we should exercise careful consideration for the soil under our feet.

Europeans in the Middle Ages practiced crop rotation, making sure that every year a certain section of their fields would not be worked, so that the land was never in danger of overuse and the soil would not be eroded or unnecessarily depleted (which makes ecological as well as economic sense).  Just as we are enjoined as Jews to take a mandatory day off every seventh day (Shabbat) lest we burn out our own souls, why not extend the same courtesy to the land that God has lent us? But sadly, many of us don't heed the warning calls that surround us regarding the environment.  We burn more fuels, release more carbon into the atmosphere at an alarming rate, chop down more forests, depleting our already scarce natural resources and allow for the melting of the polar ice caps, eventually flooding our seashores and drastically changing our climate.

Interestingly, this week's haftarah, from the prophet Jeremiah conjures up a vision that relies heavily on the theme of natural surroundings:

he who trusts in man...

shall be like a bush in the desert,

Which does not sense the coming of good:

It is set in the scorched places of the wilderness,

In a barren land without inhabitant,...

(h)e who trusts in the Lord,

shall be like a tree planted by waters,

Sending forth its roots by a stream:

It does not sense the coming of heat,

Its leaves are ever fresh;

It has no care in a year of drought,

It does not cease to yield fruit. (17:5-8)

Jeremiah understands this as sin for putting our trust not in God but in our own hubristic actions and lack of divine faith.  The Rabbis, however, equate it with arrogance of someone who puts his abilities only in his own knowledge  and sense of self, but does not use his intellect to perform good deeds or better his actions on this earth (Pirkei Avot 3:22) -the idea being that without faith in God and without care (according to Jeremiah)  or for one another (according to the Rabbis) we simply won't survive, and will die when exposed to a harsh and hostile landscape, devoid of any surrounding life or sustainable energy.  To me it sounds a lot like the ill effects of a depleted planet! Through neglecting our natural resources without exploring alternative sources of renewable energy we are mortgaging our future. 

Think about the small steps we can take to start: not constantly leaving our car running or lights on, using energy efficient bulbs (and all this can save costs as well).  By cutting down on oil consumption we are taking away both economic support and political leverage for nations hostile to Israel such as Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia.  Cutting out the power base for so many hostile and theocratic regimes may force the rest of the Middle East to actually modernize if there is no longer the crutch of oil exploitation to fall back on!   An old joke had it that Moses had to travel in the desert for 40 years to find the one country in the region without any oil! Maybe that was no accident, maybe as Jews we are meant to find ways to go "clean and green." It is great to have the Pope visit our homeland and Netanyahu visit with Obama, but how much better would it be for us as Jews to be in the forefront of making this century one of clean energy!?  We may not care much at this moment, but our children may not have any choice but to care.  As the book of Leviticus concludes with the triumphant call: Chazak, Chazak, Ve'neitchazek -"be strong, be strong, and together, we will strengthen one another!" Let us all work together, in ensuring our future together on this planet -and let us begin that job today!

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Michael Stanger

Have a Shabbat Shalom!

Allan Dalfen

Upper School Principal