Shalom Sesame has all of their Jewish videos now online. They can be accessed through their website, or on YouTube. I encourage you to check out the videos. Even though you will see Bert and Ernie, the learning is not just for little children. For those of you wanting to help your child (or yourself) learn some modern Hebrew, check out the word of the day clips. If your interest is in Jewish values, there are plenty of them on the site.  I think you will enjoy seeing them and hopefully will learn a thing or two. 

On the website there are also activities for the younger children (through second grade) to do including  a story maker with a Jewish value the core of each story. Under the section introducing the muppets, you will find some familiar celebrities. For Elmo, you will find Seth Rogan teaching Elmo the word todah. From Bert you will learn how to count in Hebrew. Ernie introduces us to his barvazoni through a song that will sound familiar to you.

If you want to see new videos that are being released and you are on Facebook, look for their site and click like. This past week they had a new video introducing the Hebrew word shoneh which means different.

Take a few minutes in the next few days to explore this fun site and hopefully you can have a lot of fun with Hebrew and Jewish facts all summer long!

The buzz word among Jewish professionals today is Relational Judaism.  The “new” trend is to try and figure out how to build relationships within the synagogue.  There is a wonderful article by Ron Wolfson in Reform Judaism recently which can be found at here.  

I feel so fortunate to be a part of a synagogue that already is doing so many of the things listed in this article.  We work hard to find ways for all of our congregants to be involved if they choose to do so.  The school is just one example but the school needs and uses more volunteers than any branch of the synagogue. 

I encourage you, if you are not already involved in one of our wide range of activities, to become involved.  If you are interested in helping out in the school next year, please let me know.

This past Sunday a teacher told me that her daughter who just graduated from college said that the nicest adults she has ever met are people she met here at Etz Chaim.  I took that as a wonderful compliment to all of our teachers who obviously had a big impact on her as she grew up.  A big public thank you to all of our teachers.  If you see any of them in the upcoming week or weeks, make sure you stop them and let them know how much you appreciate what they do for us at Etz Chaim.  This includes all of the amazing teens that are here every week to help out too.  They always are my shining stars!

The whole process is very intense. It has made us look inward as to who we as a community are and what our educational program really is to the community. The first part was a check list of dozens of things we needed to acknowledge or gather materials or discuss if it was something we felt we did or did not do. We looked at our mission statement and made one change to it, based on what we feel is important. When it was first written over 15 years ago we did not include anything about the importance of learning about Israel. Now we feel that is very important. We submitted part one and were given approval so now we move on to part two. If you would like to see a copy of the materials we submitted, it is on my credenza. It is a thick binder filled with documents.

For part two, everyone on the committee will be conducting interviews and/or observing in classrooms. Every teacher will be observed. For the interviews we are looking for families or individuals that have been affected by some educational program here at the synagogue. We will be interviewing students asking them to tell us about their most memorable learning experience here at Etz Chaim. We will be asking students and/or parents to tell us a way in which they feel Etz Chaim is a home to them or a way that their home is like a synagogue because of something they learned or made here.

Everyone on the committee is really enjoying learning more about the school and the synagogue.  It is really a way for us to be reflective as to who we are. Gary Friedlander is heading up the project. If any of you would be interested in submitting an answer to any of the questions above, please contact Gary or Anne. We hope to complete all of the interviews before the school year ends.

If you want to do something different for your seder this year, go to www.haggadot.com and start creating.  If you have children, involve them in the process.  Some might enjoy putting the whole thing together themselves.  

This Sunday the tenth graders will be cooking for PADS.  They will do this during class and then some of the students will come and help out on Sunday night.  This has become a tradition for our students.  The eighth graders will do the same thing in May.

Our seventh and fourth grade Shabbaton activity is always participation in the Friday night service.  The seventh graders lead the entire service as well as put on short plays totally in Hebrew.

The fourth graders recite Mother Goose nursery rhymes partially in Hebrew.  Both groups prepare most of the dinner on the Wednesday before.  This includes making challah, chicken soup, matzah balls and kugel.  The students have so much fun participating in the Friday night services and makes them feel very connected to the synagogue.

Every Sunday morning and Wednesday afternoon Rabbi Bob leads an assembly.  On Sunday it is for the primary grade students and their parents; on Wednesday afternoon it is for the Hebrew school students.  At every assembly there is a lesson to be learned.  Last week all of the students demonstrated their knowledge of the “Purim sign” by making a hamantashen with their hands.  Every student in our school knows this sign. 

In the fall when we are reading the stories in Genesis, they come alive at assembly time.  Sometimes Rabbi Bob can be found on top of a ladder discussing Jacob’s dream and the angels going up and coming down.  Another week he can be found with a huge pot explaining the story of Jacob stealing the birthright from his brother Esau.  Last fall one of our bima chairs became a camel as he rode in the desert to observe Rebecca at the well.  In the winter he can be found making the letters of the dreidle with his body and having everyone standing and doing the same thing.

All of our students are actively engaged in the assemblies.   Many students as teens remember being turned upside down by Rabbi Bob to demonstrate how to dip an apple slice into a jar of honey.  When he is not here Rabbi Cosnowsky leads the Wednesday assemblies and I do the Sunday assemblies.  We too make them interactive so there is learning going on both for the adults and the students.  If you do not have children in the school or you have children too old for assemblies,  but would like to see an assembly in action, come into the sanctuary any Sunday morning or Wednesday afternoon.

18 months ago we began a wonderful relationship with Meged school in Ranana, a suburb of Tel Aviv. With monies from a grant through the ICenter, we have now had two classes of students with help from their parents involved with the students in Israel. 

Last week the program reached a new high. One of our fifth graders, who went to Israel with her family to Israel over winter break, had the opportunity to meet her pen pal as well as all the sixth graders at Meged. Sandy Elbaz, the teacher at Meged had this to say about Macy’s visit:

Dear Anne!

We had a wonderful time with Macy and her family. They are so nice!!  My kids were very happy to welcome Macy, we had a party for her. We ate falafels and danced a lot. Macy is an amazing girl, she kept thanking us the whole time- she is so sweet. May, her pen pal was overjoyed  to spend some time with Macy. The best part was seeing all the kids together, it was so emotional!!

I feel truly blessed to be a part of this project and today I felt the real meaning of what we do. No matter who we are or where we come from, we are connected in so many ways.

Below are Macy’s reflections of the experience.

I walk in through the gates of the Meged School after having to wait for the teacher (Sandy) and my pen pal, May, to get us.  As we get closer to the front door I hear kids screaming from the top floor windows, “Welcome to Israel”.  I felt so special.  As I walk in to the school I notice how big it is, a lot bigger than my school.  We continued down the hall and I could see some of the kids from lower grades playing outside on the playground.  All of the sudden I see all of these sixth graders running up to me.  May was with another girl who had lived in London and spoke perfect English.  They started to introduce me to some of the kids but the teacher led them to another area and we kept walking to get a tour of the school. I looked at the walls and saw how colorful they were and what the kids had made. We finally got to a huge room which was their gymnasium. It was a party!  I was so surprised and they gave me a crown that was a little small but “pretty”.  May introduced me to more kids and I even met the principal and one of the counselors.  As I looked around I saw a big table filled with a lot of food and a giant circle of chairs.  Then the principal got everyone to sit down and told the kids to ask me questions.  None of the kids said anything and I am guessing that was because I don’t speak very good Hebrew and they would have to speak in English.  So the principal started asking me questions like where did we go in Israel?  What was my favorite sport? Stuff like that.  Then she told me to ask the kids questions.  I asked what sports they play and I think some of them said basketball.  It was so cool but I also felt like a million eyes were just staring at me.  The principal saved the day and told May, me, and all of the sixth graders to go eat.  It turns out that each of the kids helped make all of the food except the falafel.  Well it was so good and I was still in shock that they did all of this for me, just one person, and that is amazing.  I ate hummus and falafel but my sister is a peanut butter addict so all she ate were these peanut butter puff things and she loved them.

We then sat down and ate but it wasn’t long before the boys started to dance.  Two of the boys were the DJ’s and they played a lot of American songs.  I got up and joined the fun leaving my half eaten falafel and hummus pita on the chair.  I walked up to a circle of girls with May.  They told me their pen pal names and I am supposed to tell Jen and Brooke that their pen pals said, Hi!  The teachers called the kids together in a circle and they sang a song in Hebrew and put their arms around each other so I did too.  I didn’t know the song so I just mumbled a tune that I thought matched what they were singing.  They then sang a prayer that I knew so I could sing a long this time.  I was about to walk back to my pita sandwich but then my sister told all of the sixth graders to have a dance party.  I’m not much of a dancer because I’m not very good so I finally got to eat the rest of my sandwich and watch the boys versus the girls in a dance-off.  There was one boy who had one ear pierced and had a white t-shirt.  He was really good at dancing and so were the other boys.  They all break-danced and would spin around on their heads, it was really cool.  Then it was the girls turn.  May was in it and they made up a dance with some other girls.  They had like four different dances they would do and their moves were so cool.  If I had to choose I would say it was a tie between the boys and the girls.  I mean kids in America can’t do half of that.  Then my mom wanted my sister Jade to help the girls win by doing some flips.  She did some flip flops but didn’t want to do a back flip on the cement so she went back to my parents.  The sixth graders wouldn’t give up and they wanted to see her do a flip so they pulled out a mat and my sister did a back flip.  We danced a little longer and then it was time for the worst part of my vacation, saying goodbye.

Most of the boys and girls left when the principal and teacher said it was time to go but they all said bye to me.  Some girls stayed and we hugged and said goodbye.  Two of them asked me to come to their Bat Mitzvah on January 7th but I had to leave the next day to go back home.  After I stayed and hugged all of the people who waited, May invited me to her house but we couldn’t stay.  I felt really bad and I wanted to go to Mays’ house.  They gave me some presents and also some T-shirts for the kids at our school.  May walked me half way out and we hugged and then I said goodbye to her and her teacher.  It was really sad but I was so happy to meet so many great people.  This was my favorite part of my vacation!

This program has had much more of an impact on some people that I ever really thought it could do.  I am so pleased that it all worked out for Macy and her family.  I look forward to her sharing her experiences in person with all of our families at our family program this Sunday.

All of the students in our school participated in the letter writing campaign for Make-A-Wish Foundation by writing letters to Santa asking that he keep Gabriella Miler in his prayers.  We have never asked students to write letters to Santa before but Gabriella’s mom grew up at Etz Chaim and her grandmother, aunts, uncles and cousins all still belong.  Gabriella, who lives in VA has a cancerous tumor on her brain.  Gabriella is Jewish and she has been granted a trip through Make-A-Wish but she wanted to give back to the organization and help others get a trip too.  We had several students that took this project to their public school, scout troop, skating group, etc and we collected over 3000 letters.  So far Gabriella’s group has collected over 60,000 letters.

This past Saturday night, December 1, 2012 at our fifth grade sleep-over we skyped at midnight with our Israeli pen pals. It was 8:00 in the morning and they were just beginning school.  All of our kids now have had a short face to face conversation with their pen pal.  It was very cool.  The rest of the Shabbaton was great fun too. Hopefully lots of new friendships developed.

This coming Sunday, December 9, 2012 will be our seventh grade family program where parents join their child for the hour of Judaica to learn Torah together. This is always a well attended and interesting program for the parents.

The following Sunday will be our third grade family program where parents will spend half of the morning with their parents learning about Hebrew names. Each family will make a beautiful Hebrew name plaque that will be hopefully hung somewhere at home.

Hanukkah begins in three nights, December 8th.  I know some families have started a tradition of making one night of Hanukkah be one to help others instead of gifts for themselves.  There are so many opportunities out there today for families. 

An interesting new program came to my inbox a couple of weeks ago that I thought would be fun for some families: 

Heifer at Hanukkah.  Television celebrities Ed Asner and Mark Feuerstein have filmed two Hanukkah videos that invite children and grandchildren to share in the joys of tzedakah and tikkun olam. Click here to watch them.  For as little as $10 you can make a difference to people in need.  I like their concept which is the highest level of tzedakah – helping others to help themselves.

If you prefer to do something hands on, you can bake for PADS, let your kids pick out toys, preferably using their own money, and donate them to a local shelter or, if you prefer a Jewish organization, you can take them to the ARK.

If your kids are a little older, have them surf the internet looking for something that jumps out at them as being something they would like to support.

For younger children, have them help put together a coupon book of things they will do to help others, be it family, neighbors or people they don’t know.  If you do this, you need to make sure there is follow through so the kids actually do what they have pledged to do.

Our children need to learn from an early age that giving is an important Jewish value and Hanukkah is the perfect time to begin to instill this in their minds.  If you come up with some unusual ways to promote tzedakah in the home, please let me know so I can share the ideas.  I’m sure you can all find meaningful ways to celebrate the holidays.

Kate Gelman talked about her stuffed animal project that has sent hundreds of stuffed animals to children all over the world who have never had any type of toy like this. She has her own organization and distributes stuffed animals to doctors around the United States who are going on missions to countries around the world.

Ben Hall spoke about his cookbook that he co-authored with a friend of his with all of the proceeds going to PADS. In his cookbook are many recipes; all of them are in two formats – one for normal use (whatever the original portion size was) and the other for serving a crowd such as our PADS guests. They have reprinted the book a few times already and have now started work on their second cookbook.

Jared Wiseman spoke about his mitzvah project in which he asked students to donate school supplies to children in a small African village. He then took the supplies to the village, met all of the children and gave out the supplies. He learned so much about their culture and shared some of that with us.

During the program families learned about some local organizations including PADS, Sharing Connections, Maot Chitim and TOV. TOV is a subsidiary of JUF and Hannah and Jacob  Bender spoke about the wonderful experience they had working with the TOV group.

At one point in the morning everyone decorated a bag and filled it with toiletries and other small items/gifts for children that they brought from home. We collected over 300 lbs of supplies and we shipped them to a synagogue in New Jersey that was in an area that was very hard hit during the super storm.

On Monday, November 12th the school committee presented their Public School Teacher institute program. Participants learned about Jewish holidays and life cycle events as well as a little Torah from the rabbis. They also had an opportunity to taste the foods that are important for each holiday as well as what they should know so they don’t put their Jewish students in an uncomfortable situation. The attendance was small but everyone thoroughly enjoyed the program and promised to promote it in the future.

This past Sunday our tenth graders put together a “Dreidels for Afghanistan” project.  They purchased tin chanukiyot, boxes of candles, boxes of Hanukkah cookies, a dreidel and gelt.  They put all of the items in colorful Hanukkah bags and inserted greeting cards made by the children in the primary grades.  The set up a table in the lobby to raise money for the packages.  They raised enough money to cover their costs and send a check to cover the postage.  The packages will be sent to chaplains in Afghanistan who have Jewish soldiers in their platoons.  It was an amazing project.  The class hopes to do the same thing for Pesach. 

Two weeks ago our seventh graders, along with their teachers Rabbi Cosnowsky and Rob Honig made a video using a song written by Rabbi Cosnowsky.  The video “Mi Chamocha Style” is a parody of the “Gangam style” video by the Korean rapper Psy.  To see the video, go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kyaejNRfYI. 

This coming Sunday, November 11th, is our annual 3rd – 7th grade family program.  This year the program is titled “Power of One”.  Some of our teens will speak to the group about extraordinary projects they have undertaken.  Then families will rotate through five stations.  Three of the stations they will learn about ways they as families can become involved in making the world a better place, one person at a time.  Each family is asked to bring toiletries for a girl or a boy.  They will decorate a drawstring bag, put all of the items in the bag and we will send the bags to Aberdeen, NJ where people at Temple Sholom will distribute them to families displaced during Sandy.  In the last station families will learn what Judaism tells us about giving of ourselves.  It should be a wonderful morning of learning for these families.

This past Sunday, November 4th, our preschool 4s class went outside to pick up trash from around the where the sukkah was.  They did this as they learned about bal tashit, taking care of the earth.

Our kindergarten students continue to work on making their arks which will hold their little Torahs that they receive at Consecration.

October 2th our tenth grade went to Lyman Woods to help do some fall clean up. 

A few weeks ago our first graders had their family program about Creation.  Each family made their own Creation book, one page for each day of creation.  On each page, besides decorating it appropriately for the particular day, they wrote how they can help God make the world a better place in relation to what happened on that day.

During the workshop I do an introductory piece about Judaism in general and explain the symbols they see in the sanctuary.  Then they meet with Rabbi Bob who does a session on Jewish holidays.   The teachers and principals always leave his session amazed that Hanukkah is not our most important holiday!  The next segment introduces our guests to the cultural part of Judaism – food!  People on the school committee each are in charge of a table which represents a holiday.  Participants taste the foods of that holiday, see the artifacts associated with that holiday and can ask questions about the holiday.  The last session is led by Rabbi Cosnowsky who talks to them about bar/bat mitzvah and Torah.  She unrolls the Torah and explains how it is made and what it contains.

Participants leave the workshop having learned so much and they are so appreciative of having the opportunity to come to the workshop.

We need your help in getting people to come to the workshop.  This is our hardest part of the project.  PLEASE make a personal appeal to your child’s teacher(s).  We have found that the personal connection is what works best.  Most people that come tell us they came because someone asked them to come.  The cost of the workshop is $10.00 and sometimes parents have offered to pay for the teacher to come.

This program can only help your child.  It will alert the teachers to things that they just do because they have always done it such as making Santa pictures in December, having a pizza party during Pesach, scheduling school events on evenings when we have a holiday.  The list goes on and on.

Information about this went out to all school families this week via email.  Please print it out and hand deliver to some teachers or email it with a personalized note to the teachers.  It’s your encouragement that will get the teachers to come.

Teacher Letter             Principal Letter

This year we have 100% of our post b’nai mitzvah students returning.  In addition we have all of last year’s ninth graders back as our Confirmation class.  As I said to the teachers at our inservice, this is quite an accomplishment.  I’m not sure there is another synagogue in the country of our size that can claim the same statistic.  It says something about the program we offer, the teachers that teach and, most importantly, the parents that understand the importance of continuing on beyond bar/bat mitzvah.  We try very hard to have all of the students connect with their peers.  Living out here in the western suburbs, most of our students have no or very few Jewish kids in their public school; therefore, we are their link to Jewish connections.  We pride ourselves on giving kids plenty of opportunities to interact with their classmates.  This begins in first grade when we set up Shabbat dinners in the home.  This is a chance for families to connect with other families with kids the same age.  Another highlight for the students is the fifth grade sleep-over where the students spend 15 hours together having fun and really getting to know all of the kids in their class.  In sixth grade our team building chug makes the kids interact with all of their classmates, not just their friends.   In the upper school everyone looks forward to bagel break.  I think it is an important part of the morning as it gives the kids unstructured time to just schmooze and maintain relationships they have formed through the years.  When I was talking to our eighth graders this past Sunday morning many of them said how excited they were to get bagel break!  They have come of age!

We do a lot to keep our kids coming back but our work is never done.  If you have any suggestions of other things we can do or you would like to help out in some way, please let me know.  We never have too many volunteers.

Wishing all of you a very happy new year.  For those of you with children in the school, keep encouraging them.  Make sure they come to the extra fun things we do such as the Shabbaton programs and Chavayah.  Our school is not just about learning about Judaism; it is also about being connected to the community.

When the booklets are passed out there will be a cover letter explaining how to let us know what you have done. Some of the activities are clearly for adults to do; some are for the whole family to do and some are geared to the children. You will have several options for each category so you can customize your own program.

Enjoy the last days of summer and I look forward to seeing everyone on either September 5th for Hebrew school or September 9th for Religious school.

Each morning Jacob would come into the dining room and greet me with a smile and say “Boker Tov Mrs. Stein”.  He did this to everyone on the trip every day.  It was a great way for all of us to begin our day.  Jacob was a part of every activity that we did.  He climbed Masada at 4:30 AM, climbed down the narrow steps to go through Hezekiah’s tunnel in David’s City (the tunnel is dark, very narrow and has water in it which in some places came up to his hips), walked through the tunnel by the Western Wall, rode a camel, dug for artifacts in a cave (and he actually found a piece of pottery that was half of the bottom of a pot), went spelunking in another cave where we had to lie on our backs to get through narrow passageways, floated in the Dead Sea and loved standing under a waterfall at Ein Gedi.  With each experience he smiled and often said “this is amazing”. 

Jacob was an inspiration to all of us.  Most of the time he started out being reluctant to try new things.  With gentle prodding from his parents, sister and papa, he almost always ended up doing the activity and being so pleased with himself that he did it.  All of the other kids on our trip took a special liking to Jacob.  Everyone took turns pushing his stroller when the terrain was okay for the stroller.  The other kids were always very encouraging to him and he felt a real connection with his new friends.  I must say, it gave a special dimension to the trip that I had not considered but I was so happy to have Jacob as part of our group.  Jacob, you are amazing.  Beth, Joel and Hannah, you are all amazing too.  It’s not always easy but you guys are the best parents Jacob could ever have.

Three days later I had the privilege of attending the graduation ceremony for soldiers who were completing officer school.  I was one of thousands of people in attendance to watch the 400 soldiers become officers.  This is a very special ceremony in which people come from all over the country to see their son, daughter, nephew, niece, grandson, granddaughter or friend become an officer.  Zack, one of our former students, was one of those soldiers.   After all of the splendor of the ceremony, it concluded with the singing of HaTikvah.  I had goose bumps.  Here I was in the middle of the Negev standing in the hot sun with thousands of Israelis all singing their hearts out.  The song is about hope.  These 400 officers are the hope for the Israeli army.  They will be the leaders to help Israel through whatever lies ahead for them. 

From now on when I sing HaTikvah, my thoughts will be with these two special memories.

When I first came to Congregation Etz Chaim twenty-one years ago Rachel was our B’nai Mitzvah tutor as well as a Hebrew teacher in the younger grades. She developed a language lab for children who needed alternative ways of learning Hebrew. I learned all about some equipment that I had never seen before because it was so new. A number of years ago, Rachel and I met and decided that it would be good for the B’nai Mitzvah students to have her as their sixth-grade teacher so she could prepare them for their tutoring experience. This change has worked well as the children now come into the tutoring with the basic knowledge she was looking for them to have.

In my mind, Rachel is at her best when she works with children with special needs. Last summer my great nephew Tommy became a Bar Mitzvah in our sanctuary. When Tommy was in second grade, his parents asked me if I thought Tommy would be able to become a Bar Mitzvah at the synagogue. I said to them, "Of course." I knew this would not be easy because Tommy is autistic and has a very different learning style from other children. Rachel worked her magic and I must say that the Bar Mitzvah was one of the highlights of my days at Etz Chaim. I’m not sure anyone else could have gotten Tommy to be as successful as he was. Even his public school teachers were amazed.

I feel very blessed to have Rachel as part of our staff at Etz Chaim and look forward to continue working with her. I hope you will all come and help us celebrate her many accomplishments.

Flo Appel
Hannah Bender
Kathie Bender
Harry Benson
Henry Benson
Lena Benson
Mike Blonder
Rabbi Bob
Ellie Brown
Steve and Cara Cap
Allan Carter
Julia Carter
Robin Carlini
Robin Channon
Maddy Chinn
Loni Cohen
Jamie Cosnowsky
Rabbi Cosnowsky
Debbie Cox
Elyse Degen
Marissa DeZara
Robin Dombeck
Gail Farr
Barb Fidlow
Daniel Frankel
Marla Friedman
Elizabeth Gossage
Ellen Gossage
Rachel Hayes
Becca Heisler
Mark Heisler
Shelley Hoey
Brandon Honig
Rob Honig
Heather Hurtado
Mike Kayman
Rachel Lapidus
Sue Leftwich
Steve Levin
Laurie Lopez
Max Lucansky
Robin Lucansky
Ellyn Margulies
Drew Margulis
Mike Marion
Rachel Patterson
Kathy Pena
Paul Prinz
Steve Prinz
Jason Push
Susan Push
Renee Ray
Rick and Susan Rizzo
Amanda Schneeweis
Mark Shapiro
Kathy Shulman
David Sigale
Ellen Simsohn
Bridget Slone
Carolyn Slone
Reuben Slone
Anna Spyrison
Sam Spyrison
Nathan Stadt
Lori Stoakes
Rachelle Stoller
David Titiner
Audrey Tonkinson
Virginia Weiskopf
Janet Widmaier
Uli Widmaier
Rachel Wood
Lainie Wright

In addition, we had so many people who helped out in so many other ways such as making the parking lots in both buildings safe, being room parents, coordinating bagel break, and coordinating snacks, as well as all the volunteers who have staffed all the activities just mentioned.

A special thank you to Diane Roubitchek who has been my assistant again this year. She has made sure that every detail for every program has been covered. She makes sure that every teacher gets what they request and keeps me on track for all programs as well as the day-to-day operation of the school.

If you would like to be a part of the team next year, please let me know.

Pesach should be a time for creating memories and to me those memories revolve around the kitchen. My five year old granddaughter loves to help me cook. She helps to make the chocolate chip cookies and she will help me set the table and make the meringue cookies.

At our family program in March for 3rd – 7th grade, we asked people to bring a Pesach dish to share and bring the recipe to share. We put together a cookbook with all of the recipes that we were given  I hope everyone finds at least one recipe that can work for them. We were were given lots of chocolate covered matzah, toffee matzah, etc recipes. All the recipes given were easy to make. To view the cookbook, click here.

Wishing you and your family a very joyous Chag Pesach Sameach (Happy Passover).

If we want our kids to have good Jewish memories, this needs to happen in the home as well as in our school. Tonight is Purim. Make hamantashen with the kids. This could be done this afternoon before coming to the Megillah reading or tomorrow after school. In making hamantashen, let the kids help decide what the fillings should be. The most traditional filling is poppy seed but not many children (or adults for that matter) enjoy poppy seed. How about Skittles, Junior Mints, M&Ms, peanut butter and jam (jelly is too runny). You can find recipes for dough on the internet or send me an email and I will pass along a recipe. If you make the hamanteshen, make sure you save some to give to some as a gift. This is the mitzvah of shalach manot, giving of gifts to our loved ones. The children could decorate a box or plate for the hamantashen.

In my next article I will share my adventures of being a Kitchen Jew preparing for Passover.

Hopefully the next generation of children will not even know what the word litter is and will automatically do many things to help the environment that today is just beginning to be on our radar screens. So, enjoy the wonderful fruits of Tu B’Shevat and recycle as much of the waste as you can.

We are up and running with the project. So far, so good! We have our own secure website which the children can discuss topics and post videos. We have had a number of assignments for the students to complete so that kids on both sides of the Atlantic can learn from each other.

Initially the kids made videos about themselves so everyone could learn about each other. Since then they have had several written assignments. One of the assignments was to talk about their favorite place in their community. Our students had an opportunity to learn about what kids like to do in Ranana, a suburb of Tel Aviv. Likewise the students there learned what our kids like to do. I think they now all realize that there is not much different about the things they do.

The Israelis were curious about Halloween so our kids wrote about and posted pictures of what they did for Halloween.

The December assignment had two parts. The students were asked to write an acrostic poem about some aspect of Hanukkah. The second assignment was about Jewish identity since that is a theme of Hanukkah. It was most interesting to see what the Israelis wrote about what it means to be Jewish.. 

Below are a few comments from the Israelis:

From Clil: To be Jewish for me is to celebrate the Jewish holidays, to eat Jewish food like Felafel, to be proud living in Israel and to sing songs in Hebrew. The most important thing is to remember the history of the Jewish people.

From My: To be Jewish is to care about Israel and pray for our soldiers.

From Semi: To be Jewish is to go to the synagogue with my family and to pray. I go to the synagogue every Friday night and I love to have the Shabbat dinner with my family.

From Nevo: To be Jewish is to go to Jerusalem and pray for peace in Israel.

From Lee: To go to the synagogue and pray for peace in Israel.

From Zlil and Shahar: To be Jewish is to celebrate the Jewish holidays, to pray, to have a Bat Mitzvah or Bar Mitzvah, to do a Kidoosh, sing the Tikva and to go to the army.

From Dana and Adi: To pray in Jerusalem.  To celebrate the Jewish Holidays.

From Amit: To be Jewish is to go to the synagogue, pray for peace and light the Shabbat candles every Friday night.

From Asaf: To be Jewish is to treasure Judaism and remember our history.

From Roni: To be Jewish is to sing the Tikva and mean it with all of our hearts.

Most of our Etz Chaim kids wrote about celebrating holidays with family, going to Hebrew school and learning about their heritage.  It was so interesting for our kids to see how the Israelis perceive their Judaism in comparison to them.

Next month the Israelis will share with us how they celebrate Tu B’Shevat. We will continue to share holidays with the Israeli students and learn about each other.  I’m hoping the kids will form long time friendships with their pen pals.

I really owe a debt of gratitude to the ICenter for giving us the grant to make the program work, to Rabbi Tammy Kolberg in Ranana for helping me find our partners at the Meged School and especially to Sandy Elbaz, the teacher who works with the kids to make sure they are doing their part for the project. 

They have made videos and shared pictures and she has worked tirelessly to make the program a success. I look forward to continuing to work with her on this project.

One parent emailed me to say that her son skyped with his digital pen pal for an hour and, when he hung up, asked when they could go to Israel.

My goal for the project was for our families to begin to feel a real connection to the people and the land of Israel. For some of them this has already happened. Hopefully as we continue, this will happen with many of our families.

Barbara and I had many shared interests. The one that brought us together was our love for Jewish education. Barbara was the first religious school principal of Etz Chaim over fifty years ago.

When I started working here 21 years ago Barbara befriended me and offered to help me in any way she could. Over the years her interest in the school never waned. She has been my biggest supporter since the beginning. About ten years ago she thought we should have some of our students create a living history of the synagogue – so this  became a project of our ninth and  tenth graders. She thought it was important for future generations to know about the history of the synagogue from its humble beginnings. She worked with the kids and helped them do interviews. This documentary is still on the Etz Chaim website for people to see and learn about our congregation. I watched it again this week-end with a heavy heart.

Every time Barbara came into the building, she always came down to my office to say hi, asked about Harvey and my grandkids and asked how things were going with the school. She always read my bulletin articles and often would call to tell me how much she enjoyed a particular story or a particular project. She loved our recent project of connecting our fifth graders with students in Ranana, Israel. As we sat together last week at the senior program watching Greg Chejfec’s documentary she told me we should see if Greg would edit it down so we could use it for our upper school students. Barbara was always looking out for ways to enhance our school program.”

May Barbara’s name be for a blessing to us all.

I came across a wonderful group on Facebook last week.  “Cruel’s Not Cool” has wonderful ideas for helping deal with cruelness.  This quote was the first one I saw on their page:  “As a parent, the best you can hope for is that your voice is in your child's head when (s)he is deliberating over important decisions. If you've done your job well transmitted your values of compassion & caring, then you can take a full measure of confidence that your child will (more often than not) make healthy choices. Since you can't live their lives for them, that's got to be good enough.”

I encourage you to click on this group and become a friend of the group so you can learn from others.  Most importantly, though, is that you share this with your children and/or grandchildren. 

I really think that most of our parents are trying to keep on top of what their children are doing.  Please talk to you child and see if there is anything going on in public school, in the neighborhood or at the synagogue that makes them feel uncomfortable.  This past week I was in a classroom talking to the students about poor decisions.  I will continue to be an advocate for each child.  To me, it is an important part of my job.

The main part of the talk described what Dr. Mogel called her Twelve Step list for “OVERPARENTING ANONYMOUS”.  Below is this list:

1. Resist taking the role of butler, sherpa, concierge, talent agent or the secret police—parents lead best by example.

2. Don’t mistake a snapshot for the epic movie of your child’s life. Kids go through phases.

3. Before you nag, criticize, praise or over-explain remember the slogan W.A.I.T.: “why am I talking?”  

4. Be alert but not automatically alarmed.

5. Don’t confuse children’s wants with their needs.

6. Remember that your child is not your masterpiece.

7. Learn to love the words “trial” and “error.” Let your child make mistakes before going off to college.

8. Don’t fix what’s not broken.  Accept your child’s nature even if he’s shy, stubborn, or not great at math.

9. When you child doesn’t make the team, the school play, or the in-group, remember that this is good preparation for adult life.

10. Recognize that the grades your child receives are not the measure of your worth as a parent.

11. Emphasize ordinary chores and family citizenship along with schoolwork and extracurriculars.

12. Give your kids time to play… lest they sue you for stealing their childhoods.

She talked in depth about some of these steps. She really emphasized listening to our kids, no matter what age they are.  We should listen three times as often as we speak.  If you wish you are able to read some of her articles online. You will find that many have Jewish content and all contain helpful hints for child rearing. If you have not read her books, we will have them at the book fair in December.

We all have our favorite foods.  It is interesting to know the traditional foods from other parts of the world.  Some foods that Jews worldwide serve for the New Year are:

• Carrots- Merren in Yiddish connotes the word more. Sliced, they look like gold coins.
• Pomegranates- are supposed to contain as many seeds as the 613 mitzvot and are a new fruit of the season
• Apples- the Gematria (number association) of Tapuach (Hebrew) is equal to the Akeida-lamb of the binding referring to the story of Abraham and Isaac.
• Fish- the whole fish or head is served as a wish for a year placing you at the head of life also a fish never closes its eyes so like God it is ever watchful over us.
• Beets- its Hebrew word relates to removal as removal of our sins and our enemies
• Leeks- its Hebrew word sounds like to cut—may our spiritual enemies be cut down
• Pumpkin- represents the hope that as a thick covering protects the vegetable, God will protect us.

No matter what your tradition is perhaps you will want to add something new to your holiday meal.  Whatever you do, I hope you all have a wonderful and meaningful new year.

Tommy is my great nephew. When Tommy turned three he was diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum. He was in special classes for several years through the Elmhurst schools and the last two years he has gone to Giant Steps in Lisle.

When Tommy was ready to turn five his parents asked me if there would be any way that he could come to our school. As I would say to any parent, the answer was “of course”.  When Tommy was in the primary grades he would always acknowledge me on Sunday mornings by saying “where is Uncle Harvey?” My answer to him every week for a few years was “he is playing golf”. If it was snowing I would change my answer. As he grew older he would always remind me that he could not eat the cookies until dinner was over as he heard me say that one time when he wanted the cookies at our house before dinner. To this day he still likes to tell us about how Uncle Harvey carves the turkey for Passover. These behaviors are very typical of kids with autism. 

For years he has wanted to have a bar mitzvah. Again Nancy came to me to ask if I thought this was a possibility. Again I answered “of course” even if it means Tommy just saying the Shema.

Over the years I have had different high school students work with Tommy on a one to one basis. The students that worked with him were Sean Anderson, Allison Porton, Ann Hasenfang, and Anna Sompolski. The last two years we knew that this was something we needed someone a little older to do so Anna Wood and Rachel Hayes, both graduates of our school and college graduates, worked with him for a year each. Tommy grew to really enjoy working with all of these fine young adults. When it came time to start preparing for his bar mitzvah Rachel Wood met with Tommy’s parents and they came up with a workable plan. Rachel oversaw the work that the tutors did with Tommy to make the most of his time in our school. Rachel had every lesson with Tommy in the sanctuary so he became very comfortable reading from the bima.

At his bar mitzvah Tommy did everything, other than Haftorah, that all of our students do. He read beautifully from the Torah. He chanted blessings and led the congregation in prayer in a meaningful way. As he stood on the bima holding the Torah, there were probably not many dry eyes in the sanctuary. He so proudly carried the Torah around the sanctuary.

This bar mitzvah was not about the gifts and not about the party, although he certainly had a great time at his party. In the past he has been at b’nai mitzvah parties and he always wanted to be lifted up in the chair. On his day he was lifted high and waved his napkin as everyone danced around him. To Tommy the bar mitzvah was the service and his ability to read from the Torah. It was a proud day for everyone that was there to witness this wonderful simcha. It made me so proud of our congregation and so pleased with all the people that made it happen, especially Rachel Wood and Tommy’s parents Mark and Nancy.

We send dozens of teens to Israel every three years but we have some families that do not want their child to go to Israel because they have a fear of the unknown or they listen to the news which is often slanted anti-Israel. I have always been of the belief that if people have a personal connection to the land, they will be more apt to want to go there or at least realize what a wonderful country it is.

Our fifth grade families will be paired with Israeli families with children of similar age. The children, with help from parents, will have several tasks over the course of the year. Each family will be given a web cam and a mini camcorder if they do not have either or both. Part of the project will have families skyping with each other and creating videos to share on a secure website set up just for these families.

On Saturday Lena Benson and I will be going to Israel to meet with our counterparts there. I have been working for months with Rabbi Tammy Kolberg in Ranana. She has found a school that wants to be a part of our program and the school has identified a teacher to be Lena’s partner in the project. We will continue to report to you on our progress. We hope to kick off the project in September. Brian Mehrman, Ann and Barry’s son, is developing a game that the kids will be able to play with each team being made up of one Etz Chaim and one Israeli student.

Lena and I very excited; the fifth grade families are excited and we hope to create a model that can be shared by others around the country.

Ten days ago I returned home from two weeks at camp. After an exciting two-week stint as faculty for the youngest unit of OSRUI (Olin-Sang-Ruby Union Institute), Kallah Aleph, where we had 17 Etz Chaim campers,  I am back in the office working on recovering my voice and use of my fractured kneecap which I attained in a fall,  happily reflecting on what I taught and what I learned. As usual, I set out to teach campers and counselors, and ended up learning from them as much or, more likely, more than I taught them. 

Our theme this session was Biblical archeology. What, you might ask? Biblical archeology with 8-10 year olds in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin? Indeed! We made a tel (archeological mound layered with levels of civilizations) at camp and our campers set out to learn about sites in Israel ancient and modern. Campers learned about one site and made artifacts that might be found there, guided by an outstanding team: our protagonist counselor/actor/teachers, dubbed Yisraeliana & Jones (our own Sam Sterling was Jones), and guided by many counselors with background planning and guidance from my colleague Rabbi Lisa Greene from North Shore Congregation Israel in Glencoe and me.

Then, the archeological teams buried those artifacts for another group to find and were, themselves, assigned a new site to dig up and glean information about which to learn. Cabins then dug up their new sites and drew conclusions as best they could with their new artifacts. As well, they received basic facts about their new sites to help them ground their work. And each group learned at least one biblical citation that grounded their site in TaNaKh, our Hebrew Bible. 

It was great! The campers literally got dirty and got digging in their sites, mapped out on a grid laid out like the map of Israel. Needless to say, burying and digging was a big hit. We had shovels and buckets, screens and paint brushes for dusting off. We had rulers and recording sheets for transcribing data about artifacts. Comments heard along the way sounded something like these: 

“I buried that mosaic whole – they found it broken!”

“We buried the golden calf at Tel Dan, but they never dug it up.”

“Look, we found the ancient Hebrew alphabet on this paper (aka parchment).”

“Did you see the altar we made?”

“There’s Meggido!”

“No, we dug up Jerusalem, not Jaffa!”

“I can’t find that last piece of this broken pot – look I glued the rest back together.”

Indeed our young campers worked hard and made observations that to them were novel and eye-opening, if seemingly basic to an adult eye or ear. Not to them! Think about it – a 10-year old seeing that archeologists pull in many sources of information to glean what artifacts are or might be. A 9-year old realizing that what is found is rarely whole, an 8-year old recognizing that this digging and finding things is hard work. And, a hot, sweaty group of young children beginning to understand the power of archeology and Bible to teach us about our Jewish history in a current context was very exciting to watch.

In total during the two weeks I was there we had over 30 campers at OSRUI.  Over the course of the whole summer we will have 70 campers enjoying the outdoor living and education. OSRUI is a magical place. I overheard one of our kids run up to his parents and announce that next year he wants to go to Tzofim, the tent unit.

My take-aways? You just can’t beat Jewish camping for learning and identity formation. You certainly can’t beat informal interactive education in the fun, active learning department. And, a little digging goes a long way.

Digging can be actual, and metaphorical. It’s about exploring. It’s about finding out. It’s about getting or learning something new. Whether we physically dig, intellectually dig or spiritually dig, all of us can do it. So, we still have a lot of summer left. Whether we’re at an archeological site, in a garden or at the beach with a book, within our souls asking tough questions, or at Shabbat services, we all have the potential do dig. Yes, it’s hard work. Yes, we often find fragments. We may find obvious conclusions or deep truths. Or, we just may learn a bit more about our selves as Jews, as people.  Whatever you do, have a great rest of summer and let me know if you discover anything on your personal dig.

Here is their list:

Say "please" and "thank you"

Listen to each other -- pay attention to each other

Be nice -- don't be mean to people

Show people around if they are new, so that they don't feel left out

Play what your friend wants to play -- don't be bossy

Do not hit / punch / call names / kick / tease / pinch

Do not hurt others physically or with your words

Do not lie

Do not tattle tale

Do not brag

I hope all of us adults can take the words taught by our kindergarten students and use them as a life lesson.  If we all do this, our world will be a much better place.  Thanks to Ellen Simsohn and Sue Push for sharing these gems with me.

1. Tell the story of Hanukkah. Have a discussion about maps since the Maccabees needed to know where to go to stay hidden in the hills. Then make a map of the neighborhood and the different places each of you go during the week.
2. Family game night. After the candles have been lit, for the next hour while the candles burn, the family can play age appropriate games with everyone. Dreidle should certainly be included as part of the games.
3. Go to a pottery place and make something one evening of Hanukkah. If you do this every year you will end up with a wonderful collection of things that can always be a “Hanukkah” memory.
4. Research online how Hanukkah is celebrated in other parts of the world, especially Israel. I think the kids will be amazed to find out it is a very minor holiday.
5. One night go out and buy things for kids less fortunate than us. No presents that night, instead, we give presents to others.
6. Find one family volunteering event. Last year we served food in a soup kitchen on Christmas Eve. We've made holiday cards, stuffed gift baskets, etc.
7. Family music/video night. Sit around the computer and see how many Hanukkah videos and Hanukkah songs you can find online. Make sure you include the Adam Sandler song.
8. Family cooking night. In advance have a family discussion as to what Hanukkah foods can be made. Try making soufganyot, the Israeli Hanukkah food using refrigerated biscuit dough, cut in quarters. For a recipe, ask Anne. Or, if you have never made latkes, this is the year to try.

Jibjab about matzah

How to break a matzah in half

This one can be shown when you do the part about the four sons

The ten plagues (with playmobil characters)

Looking for the afikoman with Shalom Sesame characters

Horseradish: the bitter herb by Shalom Sesame

Getting ready for Pesach with an Ethiopian family in Israel (Shalom Sesame)

Dayenu

A very clever robot seder from the R & D Institute for Intelligent Robotic Systems in Israel

An accapella group overview of the seder – might be fun to start your seder

If you or your child got an ITouch or an IPhone for Hanukkah, try downloading the app Ishma. It is an app to teach the Shema. You can hear the Shema and you can play games to learn the words. This is put out by Behrman House, one of the publishers of Jewish educational textbooks. All of the Hebrew books and most of the Judaica books that we use are from Behrman House. They are always on the cutting edge in terms of ways to engage students. Hopefully they will be adding to their “app” line.

There are many other apps that have Judaic content to them. If you look you can find Torah commentary, Hebrew-English dictionary, Jewish holiday calendars, Hebrew prayers, etc. Anyone with a Smartphone can have instant access to just about anything Jewish.

We won’t be requiring our students to use their smartphones but if a child comes to class with something of interest Judaically, I will make sure the teachers let them share their information with the class, if it is appropriate.

School is up and running again after a nice winter break. We have several family programs coming up. On Sunday, January 17th the 5th graders and their parents will be doing Israel activities; on the 24th the sixth graders and their parents will have their bar/bat mitzvah workshop; and on the 31st the eighth through tenth grade families will have their annual family program. This year they will be viewing an Israeli film with participants being able to Twitter with the director and producer of the film who is in Israel. After the movie, we will skype with him so people can ask questions. This should be a very unique morning.

• If you get rid of the chametz (any flour products) in your home, have the children help.
• Let the children help with the baking if they are old enough.
• If the children are younger, let them make centerpieces or placemats for the table.
• Make bags of the ten plagues. If you have not done this as part of a family program here at the synagogue and want ideas, give me a call.
• Let the children help plan menus during the week. See how creative they can be coming up with matzah nachos, matzah pizza, etc.
   

This should be a joyous holiday and one that does not become a chore. I look forward to our seder this year. Two of my grandkids will be able to recite the four questions this year. Jared will be able to read them in Hebrew and Sam will be able to read the English and Allee should be able to recite the first four words of the Mah Nishtanah – a first for all three.. Ahhhhhh, the memories continue!

 
Steve Thomas told us his story starting all the way from when he was a child to a year ago, when someone helped him get off of the streets. Steve's story began when he was just 13, by getting into the wrong group of kids, who got him hooked on drugs and dealing. His story continued on with losing jobs, apartments, family members, and getting addicted to different drugs. Finally when he was 53, someone offered to help him. For the past year he has been working, fixing things with his family, and getting his life back on track.

The next day, we visited S.O.M.E. (So Others Might Eat).  Our group helped out during lunch time. We helped get food ready and set tables. At 11:30 AM, crowds of people starting coming through the doors and it was our chance to help. Seeing these people and hearing their stories really made me want to do something about homelessness and help out more. This trip taught me a lot about homelessness, for example that not all homeless people messed up some how in their life. Things can happen to anyone and everyone. After spending this time in Washington D.C. I plan to help out more at PADS and different soup kitchens around the Chicago Area.

The highlight of the morning will be the Rick Recht concert which will begin at 10:45 AM. Earlier in the morning Rick will spend time with all of the students in the school, teaching various groups each one song that they will sing with him.

The primary grade parents will stay with their child all morning as we will have family activities from 9:00 AM – 10:40 AM. The intermediate grade students will have their Judaica and Hebrew classes as usual with no chugim in between. The upper grade students will also have regular class time until 10:40 AM.

There are several parking lots around the school. Please follow the signs and do not park on the driveway. We will have cones out to signify no parking places. There should be enough parking places between the various lots on all sides of the school.

Parents and adults with no children in the school are most welcome to come and join us for the concert. It should be a wonderful morning. Looking forward to seeing you all there.

If you would like to be a part of the team next year, please let me know.