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Upcoming Events
March 3
Motzaei Shabbat Learning
See flyer for details
March 9 and 10
Grandparents/Special Friends Day and Weekend
March 10
Kehilla Shabbat
Grandparents/Special Friends Shabbat
See flyer for details
March 11
Matzo Ball Run
See flyer for details
March 12
Parent Teacher Conferences
Pupil Free Day
(Camp Day- See flyer for details)
March 13
School in Session
PN-K Regular Dismissal
Pre-1-8th at 3:00pm
Parent Teacher Conferences from 4:00-8:00pm
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In appreciation
of all the tremendous hard work our maintenance team put into ensuring Winter Wonderland was a huge success, your Hillel PTA honored them with Maintenance Appreciation Week! This week they received special gift cards to Starbucks, fruit from our fruit cart, donuts and coffee, and a special treat today to take home for the weekend. When you see any of them around campus, please say thank you and express your appreciation. The school could not run without their hard work and dedication!
(missing a few of them in the picture)
Birthday Book Club
Your birthday child will get to choose a new book for the library with a dedication to him or her inside, check it out first, and have their picture proudly on display in the library. Kids love to see their names in the books! Excess funds will be used for recreational supplies like games, balls, hula hoops and jump ropes.
Click here for information and to sign up!
The next birthday celebration will be Monday, March 26th.
Co-Sponsor a Rosh Chodesh Breakfast for the teachers and staff in honor of your child's bar mitzvah, birthday, or teacher; or in honor or memory of someone you love. The teachers
really appreciate
this gesture
! Sign up online in advance for any month. $100, or add multiple times to your cart to contribute $200 or $300 if desired.
Give your children the gift of healthy food. A fun and enjoyable treat! Fruit cart sign-up entitles your student to a bag of fresh fruit once a week during the entire school year. Fruit cart is available for Grades Pre-1 to 8 on Wednesday mornings. Sign up online here for the remainder of the year.
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Mazal Tov!
Chumi & Buri Rosenberg on the birth of a baby boy!
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Parnas Hayom
Parnas
HaYom
is a beautiful way to honor a yarzheit, merit a refuah shelemah, or celebrate a simcha. Dedicating the Torah learning of students at Hillel to mark an occasion helps us to imbue both a love of learning and appreciation for the value of Torah scholarship.
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ISSUE NO. 021
Friday, March 2, 2018
Shushan Purim, Erev Shabbat Parashat Ki Tisah, 5778
15 Adar, 5778
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Click Here to Register for the Matzo Ball Run Today!
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The Challenge of Doubt!
By Rabbi Sufrin, Head of School
This week's
haftarah
portion from the Navi, "Prophets," which is read at the end of each week's Torah reading, recounts how the generation of King Ahab became followers of the
Baal.
Elijah the prophets response was to gather the prophets of the
Baal
and the Jewish people on Mount Carmel. Elijah laid out a challenge. If the worshippers of
Baal
built an altar and then prayed to their deity to miraculously light the sacrifice on the altar, and
Baal
responded to their wish, then all should follow
Baal.
If the
Baal
did not respond then an altar would be built to G-d and He would be asked to miraculously light the fire that would burn the sacrifice. If Gd answered their prayer and burnt the sacrifice on His altar then all would know that G-d is the true Master of the Universe. After the followers of
Baal
failed to have their prayer answered and their sacrifice did not burn, Elijah prepares the altar for G-d. Before he begins his prayer to Gd he declares: עד מתי אתם פוסחים על שתי הסעיפים - "How long will you vacillate between two opinions?" Elijah was sending a message to the people that there is only one Gd; he wanted to make it clear that it was time the people stopped searching for other deities.
Why did Elijah describe the
Baal
worshippers as people "leaning on two supports?" Why did he not simply say, "Till when do you follow the
Baal?"
Elijah's intention in describing followers of
Baal
as vacillators between two opinions, was to show that doubt in Gd is tantamount to idol worship. In fact, wavering between beliefs, or doubting whether Gd can help, is sometimes as bad or even worse than paganism. When a person has veritable conviction and absolute faith there is a certainty that Gd will take care of his or her needs and desires as well as be a constant source of strength and guidance throughout life.
As the holiday of Purim is soon behind us and we begin to prepare for Pesach, this message is especially salient. Belief in one Gd as our Creator, Provider and Support is an underlying theme in both holidays of redemption. True belief is what saved the Jews on Purim and is the source of all future redemptions.
Happy Shushan Purim and blessings for a Chag Kasher vesameach!
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Mrs. Nicole Landzberg, Second Grade General Studies Teacher
Providing students with opportunities to grow as independent learners is an educator's ultimate goal. Part of this goal includes solidifying knowledge students have learned, and teachers create experiences that allow students to express their unique selves and make individual choices about their educational experiences. In light of this idea, an important part of our 2
nd
grade Writer's Workshop Program is providing students with a variety of paper choices, wherein students construct their own writing pieces, using papers that best match their ideas and skills. Providing this choice also and gives them a means to express themselves through their writing.
As you walk into our classroom and look at our writing center, you will see a plethora of paper choices, appropriate for each specific genre and labeled for easy use. Currently in our writing center you will notice writing choices that match our current unit on Informational Writing. If you look closely, you will see paper choices of all sorts. Options range from paper that allows students to teach their readers through diagrams, captions, zoom-ins, comparisons to paper that offers students a means to illustrate different kinds of steps in a process. We even allow students to use blank papers! By opting for blank papers, students can choose a different way to share their information that was not provided by the teacher. How cool is that?
To make appropriate decisions about the papers students choose, we provide books to students during writing so that they can explore books they love and learn from authors around the room. Paper choices give students autonomy over the way they display, present and share their information with their readers. In doing so, students feel motivated, inspired and empowered to write more and create books that represent who they are while growing themselves as authors.
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Rabbi Morris Israel, Elementary School Judaic Studies Teacher
 This month in second grade, we are continuing to focus on our learning of Chumash. Our class has already learned up to Parashat Vayishlach, where Yaakov's wives have given birth to 11 of the 12 tribes. The students love hearing the stories from the Chumash - and because they know many of the words, they are able to retain the pasuk's message more effectively. We strengthen our students' independent learning skills by empowering them to answer key questions from the Pesukim. With the help of the vocabulary words we study weekly, we dove deeper into the meaning behind the names of the tribes and created illustrated booklets.
This hands-on project gave the students a stronger appreciation of the tribes and what they represent. After reading the Pesukim as a class and with partners, with its proper Ta'amei Hamikra, we were ready to move into the creative phase of our learning. Each student created a booklet with the names of the tribes, their meaning, and an illustration. Through this experience, the students had the opportunity to connect to the Pesukim in a variety of ways. They connected with the text, its meaning and how they can apply the lessons to their own lives.
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By Daphne Orenshein, Associate Elementary Principal of General Studies
 Eavesdropping! Staring! 'Home'-invading! These words conjure feelings of discomfort and criminal inappropriateness. When one thinks about one critical element of being a principal, one doesn't consider that it entails Supervision By Walking Around, i.e., walking into classrooms, listening in to the teaching and to the students' responses, and observing relationships and behaviors. I am now encouraged to be acutely in tune with conversation topics among students, the manner in which students and teachers conduct themselves and how classrooms are running. And yet, no one is harassing me about the rudeness of walking into the elementary classrooms all day!
All kidding aside, in my new role, I have observed learning and teaching magic! I have been witness to fascinating interactions and lessons, each different, and each actualizing Hillel's hashkafa. In room 201, co-teachers Mrs. Sapir, Mrs. Landzberg and Ms. Lee implement parallel teaching, guiding their 2nd graders in small groups to infer a story's message using textual cues. I waltz into 102 and 103 to discover Ms. Marion, Mrs. Moorvich, Ms. Heller and Ms. Resler using station-teaching to support their students' literacy skills. Some students are writing, some using a literacy tool on the iPad and some are working with their teacher at the Smartboard. In 252 and 255, Mrs. Baruch, Mr. Lightbourn, Ms. Brock and Mrs. Bendahan are conducting Morning Meetings during which students are asking questions about their upcoming Colonial Expo and what elements are required to fulfill their project-based experience. Mrs. Littman, Mrs. Benporat, Ms. Schiele and Ms. Steele collaborate during the students' PE to discuss how to arrange the Reader's Workshop reading groups in order to support each student's learning needs. Mrs. Benhamou and Morah Shima are conducting reading groups in 102! Ms. Tymon, Ms. Maestri and Ms. Asher are discussing the most recent Scholastic Weekly Reader's current events with their students. In 206, Ms. Thai and Mrs. Barnett are reading and laughing as they read a chapter of
Chocolate Fever
with their students. All the students are engaged and enjoying their learning. What a blessing to be able to peek into the creative, diverse teaching and learning brewing in every classroom and celebrate this kehillah of learning at Hillel!
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Harkham Hillel Hebrew Academy accepts paid advertising if it conforms to the values of the school. However, the school and it's personnel with the Board of Directors do not accept liability or responsibility for advertisers' claims or kashrut of products advertised.
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