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D'var
Torah
Days
of Awe
As the season of judgement
draws to a close, we approximate
angels. Alas, we are not
angels.
Nonetheless, our condition licenses us to improve ourselves,
inching up the ladder of existence toward a better life, one filled
with purity, goodness and concern for others.
Read more...
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In The
News
Condolences to Schechter parent
Debbie Wengrofsky on the loss of her grandfather, Joseph
Jaffe... to Schechter parent Shoshana Wajnrajch on the
loss of her father, Raphael Ben Shloosh...
to Schechter parent Jay Lipman on the loss of his mother,
Aurelia Lipman... to Schechter alumnus
Zachary Goldsztein and family on the loss of his father
Victor Goldsztejn... to Schechter ES Teacher,
Aviva Stern, on the loss of her mother Rachel
Farage... and to Schechter parent Darryl Lapidus on the
loss of his grandmother Rose Weiss.
Mazel Tov to
Julie Levi Blau who was named a 2010 Woman's
Business Enterprise Star by the Women's Business Enterprise
National Council for "continued success and leadership" as head of
a woman-owned business.
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Upcoming
Events!
9/7
First Day of
Classes
9/7
Kindergarten Noon
Dismissal
9/7
Kindergarten Pizza and
Stay & Play
9/7
PA Social
Kick-off
9/8 -
9/10
Rosh
Hashanah
9/14
MS Meet the Teacher
Night
9/15
ES Meet the Teacher
Night
9/15
E2K Program
Begins (MS)
9/16
ASK
Program Semester I Begins (ES)
9/17
Erev Yom
Kippur
School
Closed
9/19
Board of
Trustees Retreat
9/21
9th
Grade Parent Orientation followed by HS Meet the Teacher
Night
9/22 - 9/24
9/29
1:30
Dismissal
9/30
Shmini
Atzeret
School Closed
10/1
Simchat
Torah
School
Closed
10/4
ES
After-School Band
Begins
10/8
Kabbalat Shabbat Begins
(ES)
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Looking
ahead...
10/11
Columbus
Day
School
Open
10/11
Pre-School
Program
10/15
Principal's Breakfast
(ES)
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MS Siyyum
Awards
Several awards were presented at the 8th Grade
Siyyum Ceremony recognizing academic excellence.
Deborah Spencer received the Brochstein Family
Memorial Award for Academic Excellence, Max Hirsch
was the recipient of a Certificate of Academic Excellence and Civic
Commitment from the Office of the NYS Controller and Harry
Paul was honored with a Certificate of Merit from the Elks
Lodge. Congratulations on a job well done!
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PA
News
The
Parent Association hopes all of you had an enjoyable summer! They
welcome everyone back with three major events in the month of
September. On Tuesday, September 7th at 7:30 pm
they will be hosting the PA Social Kick-off
event with a catered dinner at the home of Carolyn and
Allen Landis. The Annual PA Family Fun
Day will take place on Sunday, September
19th from 12:00 - 3:00 pm in Jericho;
the PA extends a special thank you to Chez-zam for their
contribution to this event. Next up is the PA Sukkah
Dinner on Tuesday evening September 28th at
Jericho. Be sure to RSVP to the PA for the Social on the 7th and
the Sukkah Dinner on the 28th. The PA urges all parents to join
the organization to help support the many programs the PA sponsors
throughout the year.
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Gilad
Shalit
Gilad Shalit was kidnapped four
long years ago... four years of endless suffering and agony. To
the hostage, time itself is torture. It becomes an enemy. Filled
with uncertainty, his time is different from ours. His waiting is
not like ours. His minutes are longer than ours. On
August 28th, Gilad will have marked his 24th birthday - his fifth
in captivity. While Jews across the world celebrate Rosh
Hashanah with family and friends, Gilad remains alone and his
family will be all too aware of their missing son and brother. The
Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations is
launching a new website, www.giladgreetings.org,
to provide people across the United States, in Israel and around
the world, a vehicle to express their solidarity with Gilad and his
family. Please
help spread the word about the website and
urge your friends and family to visit the site and send a message
to Gilad. (You can do this after the holiday as well, just try and
do it.) Please view a special prayer for Gilad.
May our prayers and God's help return him home soon!
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Lunch Program
Update
We are pleased to welcome our new caterer Gabey
Abikser of Culinary Concepts Caterers to Schechter for the
2010-2011 school year. Gabey is the in-house caterer at
Hewlett-East Rockaway Jewish Centre. By now you should have
received the lunch menus in the mail; a pink form for the lower
school and a green form for the upper school. We received a few
calls regarding the ES menu and have revised the ES menu hoping it will address
some of the questions that we received. If you have any further
questions, please contact Julia Hardy at 516-656-5500, ext.
1224.
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ES Summer
Social
Genia and Stuart Taub hosted a parent social
at their home for MS parents this summer. The quintessential hosts
provided a relaxed environment to meet one another and connect.
While there was no formal program, parents could be heard talking
about all the wonderful things Schechter has to offer MS and HS
students. Thank you to all the parents who attended, and special
thanks to Genia and Stewart for so graciously opening their home
for the evening.
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The Jewish Theological Seminary is presenting an informational
program on how you can spend a semester in Israel. For complete
details, please see the flyer or contact Judy Greene, Coordinator of Ramah Programs in
Israel.
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Greetings!
Kol
Schechter is the monthly voice of our K-12 Schechter family.
Please read on to learn more about our school and community, as
well as upcoming events. Welcome back to school, Happy New Year
and Shabbat Shalom!
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 From the Head
Welcome Back! I hope you all had a
wonderful, restful summer break. At Schechter we too took time
away to be with our family and friends, travel, and of course, plan
for the year about to start. We're really excited about the new
school year, and especially the many new programs and improvements
that we're about to implement. In addition to our time-tested
program (44 years!) of excellence in secular and Judaic
studies, this year we will enjoy the benefits of advances in
technology, new student activities, additional outreach including a
community choir, and division-wide charitable and chesed
projects. See the very many articles below to learn more. (I
apologize for the length of this edition of KS, but there are so
many wonderful things to report!)
Welcome to Our New Families!
It is my pleasure to welcome the following families to our
Schechter family: The Bennetts, Cornell & Melissa
Cohen, Janet Cohen, The Gabbaizadehs, The Haberts, The Kalimians,
The Leifers, The Levines, The Mourtils, The Novicks, The Poretskys,
The Ratners, The Rosenbergs,The Schneiders, The Silvermans, The
Sislens, The Taubers, The Weingartens, and The
Weissbergs. We wish you all a wonderful first year at
Schechter and look forward to celebrating many happy years with you
at our beloved school.
Welcome to New Staff
Members!
Joining our staff this year are Helen Mor
(Director of Recruitment and Admissions), Robyn
Feltman (4th grade general studies), Tami
Levin-Bittane (1st grade Judaic studies), and
Rabbi Morris Bernstein (MS and HS Judaic
studies). We also wish Schechter veteran Adele
Spickler well in her new role as US Principal.
Summer's
Over... Good News Continues to Come In
While school ended in June, news of student achievement
continued to grace our desks and in-boxes. Our current students
and alumni are routinely singled out for academic, communal and
athletic honors. And our college acceptance record
continues to prove that Schechter is the best college-prep option.
Read on below about the recent achievements of some of our
students.
Grants
Awarded
We've successfully solicited a few grants this year, which have
yielded, among other things, nearly $200,000 in scholarships,
$100,000 in technology, video equipment and computers. Special
thanks to the Gruss Life Monument Funds,
UJA-Federation of NY, MSG
Varsity, and a number of family foundations.
Cultural Arts
Programming
Bob's Discount Furniture is offering a gift
of $5,000 to one school in each of a number of states, in support
of the cultural arts assemblies. You can support our school by
submitting your vote for Schechter by completing the entry form online. Please cast your vote for
our school!
School
Calendars
The 2010-2011/5771 School Calendars have arrived and will be
distributed on the first day of school to the youngest child in
each family. This year's calendar is exceptionally well-done and
features art commissioned for last year's Annual Gala. Contained
inside is general but important information about Schechter,
acknowledgment of our exceptionally generous philanthropic
community members, and of course, most (but not all) of our
upcoming events this year. Please check those backpacks at the end
of the day on Tuesday, September 7th for your family's copy.
School
Directory
We're in the process of creating the 2010-2011/5771 School
Directory. With so few days in school due to the holidays in
September, we hope to have it published by early October. Since so
many people communicate via email, we will include an email address
in the directory this year.
Tweet!
Tweet!
Follow Schechter on Twitter! I'll post things from time to time
about our students, teachers and programs, and invite you to do the
same! Additionally, did you know that we have Facebook pages for alumni, and
that the PA has also established Facebook groups? Help get the word out about how great
our Schechter school is. Join us as we enter the world of social
networking!
Wishes
for a Gut Yohr!
Please read my wishes for a moving and
meaningful Season of Awe, a good school year, and happy Jewish
new year. Thank you for reading this edition of Kol Schechter. The next issue will be
published on October 8, 2010. L'shanah tovah, Shabbat
Shalom and have a wonderful school year!
Rabbi Lev
Herrnson
Head of School
516-656-5500, ext. 1212
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 Technology Abounds
Thanks to the generosity of some of our
Board members, a few anonymous donors, and the support of the
Gruss Life Monument Funds and our
PA, we'll introduce an additional seven (7)
SmartBoards to our school this year, two (2) Epson interactive
projectors (similar to SmartBoards, but more versatile), a document
camera, a number of new computers, and in the ES, a new computer
lab. (We are awating installation of a few items, but the bulk is
already in place.) Our faculty will receive training and
additional professional development throughout the
year. ES students will enjoy the benefits of Waterford
Early Learning Program, to be implemented in our
ganim, and the SuccessMaker Program for
math and reading, in grades 1-5. We expect implementation before
the end of September. |
 Robotics Club at
MSMS faculty member Rhoan Clarke will advise a
Robotics Club this year. Thanks to the generosity of the
Hadar Family, MS students can elect to join the
club, which will feature the First LEGO League (FLL)
Program. This first year we'll learn about robotics,
experiment, and build our capacity for success. We hope that, in a
year or two, we'll enter the local and regional tournaments. FLL
is the fastest growing student robotics program in the country. We
look forward to this first splash in robotics and anticipate an
enthusiastic response by our students.
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Presidential
Awards
 The President's Award for Educational
Excellence recognizes academic success in the classroom.
Awards were given to students who graduated from middle and high
school in 2010. To be eligible, our students met the highest
standards in GPA, NYS tests and nationally-normed achievement
tests. In addition, our students who received this award
demonstrated high motivation, initiative, integrity, leadership
qualities and exceptional judgment. We are pleased to announce that the President's
Award for Educational Excellence has been conferred to the
following students: 8th graders Max Hirsch,
Felicia Horwitz, Noa Jeremias, Hannah Linsenbaum, Suzanne Margolis,
Eva Muchnick, Harry Paul, Zachary Pravato, Sigalle Reshef, Sara
Solasz, Deborah Spencer and 12th graders
Danielle Abada, David Beroff, Marc Canarick, Adina Cooper,
Liza David, Israel Geselowitz, Gil Landau, Isaac Rabbani, Sharon
Reshef, Zeeve Rogoszinski, Joshua Schwartz, Max Silverman, David
Smith, Ari Chai Weiss and Noam Yossefy.
Congratulations to all the award recipients. Yashar
koach! |
Gold
Medal Winners en Espanol! 
Congratulations to Jay Canarick
and Danielle Kristal, who received the "Premio de
Oro" (Gold Medal) Award for the National Spanish Examination 2010.
The "Entrega de Oro" (Presentation of Gold) was held at Jericho HS
for the Long Island winners. Gold Medal winners scored in the 95th
or higher percentile on the exam. Jay and Danielle were also the
winners of a random drawing for a $50 check. Congratulations
to Jay and Danielle for their outstanding
accomplishment.
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 St.
John's "College Advantage"Qualified juniors and seniors will have an opportunity to
earn three college credits while taking English in our HS through
the College Advantage Program at
St. John's University. Faculty member and HS English Department
Coordinator Robin Stanton will act as site
coordinator. We expect that, over the course of this and the
coming years we'll add additional advance college credit
opportunities to our repertoire, including courses in social
studies and mathematics. |
 Right
Start Scholarship Several months ago, Custom Computer Specialists, Inc. launched
the Right Start Scholarship program, to which over
400 seniors applied. We are pleased to announce that two of the
ten winners are from SSHSLI (the
only private school winners). Jordan Dashow and
Sharon Reshef have been chosen as recipients of a
scholarship valued at $3,000. They were chosen based on the
outstanding quality of their essays, academic achievement and
letters of recommendation. Congratulations Jordan and
Sharon!
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 HS Provides Television
Content We recently forged a partnership with MSG Varsity
Television to produce content for broadcast on the cable
network. Our students now have an opportunity to learn the skills
associated with the production of video content for TV. Students
will record raw footage of various educational, "feel good" and
sporting events at school, will learn how to edit the HD data, and
then post our SSHS content to be aired on the MSG Varsity
channel. HS Faculty members Joan Cohen and
Howard Levine will advise the club. Recent events including the
Senior Trip to Israel are already available for viewing. |
 Glee,
Schechter
Style We are pleased to invite the entire Schechter community,
faculty and staff to join our newly formed Adult
Choir. Our Glee Club will meet on Tuesday evenings at the
Jericho campus, under the direction of Cantor Eitan
Leifer of the Merrick Jewish
Center. Details with start date and time will be forthcoming.
In addition to this new choir, our MS & HS
students will have the opportunity to participate in
" Schechter Glee" during their lunch period on
Tuesdays. We are grateful that Cantor Leifer, also a new Schechter
parent, has offered his expertise to bring the joy of music to
Schechter.
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 Schechter's Cup Runneth
Over!The year that just ended included so many individual and
communal accomplishments, far too many for individual KS articles.
Here's a brief list of other notable events and milestones from
this past year:
- Designed by ES reading specialist Mindy Horowitz, the ES
faculty implemented an English reading assessment program and plan
to apply it to the Hebrew program in due time;
- A Tzedaqah Council was established in the ES;
- Writing rubrics designed of the course of last year, will be
implemented in the ES this year;
- MS students collected and donated over 1,000 hoodies and other
articles of clothing to local charities;
- Five musical and/or dramatic productions were presented in the
ES, MS, and HS;
- The Class of 2010/5770 presented "Kazablan" in
Hebrew;
- For the first time, HS students received email addresses with
the ssdsnassau.org domain;
- "Moodle" was implemented at the HS;
- HS students performed over 4,000 community-service hours;
- Alternative minyanim were implemented in HS;
- Seniors blogged daily while in Israel; and,
- Student awards for 2009-2010 included National Merit
Scholarships, the JTS Ahavat Torah Award, Jewish Partisans
Educational Foundation Essay 2nd and 3rd place winners, Holocaust
Museum Art winners, as well as a student selected to participate in
the US Senate Youth Program, and a student honored by President
Obama and the EPA.
The year just started should be no exception as far as
achievement is concerned. Below is a "taste" of what what's to
come:
- An Instrumental Liturgical Music Program will be launched in
the MS and HS;
- MS students will partner with the "Fly With Me Fund" to learn more about Fragile X
Syndrome, raise awareness, and engage in a division-wide chesed
project; and,
- We've opened an additional Kindergarten class
for the 2010-2011 school year.
In anticipation of the great things we will achieve, we wish
you all a productive and successful school year!
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 Class of 2010/5770
It was with a tear in our eye that we bid our
final adieu to the Class of 2010/5770. The evening was
hosted by senior students Jacob Feinberg and
Adina Cooper, who skillfully blended humorous
anecdotes with heartfelt emotion as they introduced the various
speakers of the evening, including: Rabbi
Herrnson and Allan Dalfen, and students
Jamie Adges, Rebecca Silverman,
Marc Canarick, Netta-Lee
Lax, Liza David, Noam
Yossefy, Josh Rubin, Ayal Prouser, Josh Schwartz,
Zeeve Rogoszinski, and Eliana
Goodman. Teacher Joseph Ragada was the
Faculty Keynote Speaker. The class sang "Uf Gozal", a song
by Israeli composer Arik Einstein, about birds leaving the nest.
There wasn't a dry eye in the house! Joan Cohen,
who accompanied the group on the first leg of their Israel trip,
created a video montage that was presented during the
graduation as well. Following the awarding of the diplomas, a
grand collation was held giving the faculty and families a chance
to wish the graduates mazal tov and to say
goodbye.
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8th
Grade Siyyum
 Our 8th grader makes their completion of MS and
announced their readiness to embark on their high school careers.
The MS Siyyum was a
delightful evening filled with song, dance and gentle humor about
the students' recollections of their past three years. (Most
notable was Jordan Abada's hilarious imitation of Mrs.
Hiltzik!) A video montage
presented photographs of special moments from the 8th graders' MS
years. Following the
program and speeches, the students were called up to the bima where they all
received certificates and gifts. The evening concluded with the
students singing the SSDS Nassau signature graduation theme song
"We're Moving on
Up". |
 5th Grade Moves
Up The 5th Graders took
their Moving Up Ceremony to new heights, having written their own
skits portraying their experiences at the ES. From reciting rap to
playing classical piano and violin, the 5th graders composed their
own music and wrote their own lyrics to express their
memories. They charmed and wowed the audience, and we wished the
graduating 5th graders great success as they move up to the MS.
The faculty and younger students in the ES will miss
them!
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 Gan
Celebration
At the "Gan Siyyum," our little "Gansters"
strutted their stuff, showing off all they had learned in
kindergarten before a packed auditorium of parents, guests and
Schechter ES "upper-classmen." The Hebrew word, "Siyyum"
means completion or closure, and traditionally refers to the
celebration that takes place upon the completion of studying a
tractate of Talmud. While our little ones have not yet
begun studying Talmud, they did have a super-successful
and joyous year of learning with Mrs. Lichter and Mrs. Shampan!
Hooray for our Gansters!
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Alumni Corner
Calling
all HS graduates! Please be sure to stay connected to Schechter!
Send your email address to Michele Posner, Director of Development, so we
can add your name to our database. And, of course, be sure to
update us frequently about how college life is progressing. Visit
us often. Please mark your calendar for our Annual Alumni Day in
January 2011. Details will be forthcoming.
We would love to hear from all of our graduates! Please reach
out to a fellow alumnus and encourage those you are in touch with
to connect with us. Please contact Michele Posner, Director of Development, at
516-656-5500, ext. 1223. Let us know where you are and what you
are doing!
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 Alumna
in Jerusalem MASA, an organization that, under the auspices
of the Jewish Agency, promotes long-term study in Israel, selected
Schechter alumna Ariella Kristal to represent the
face of the organization. They filmed and interviewed her before
her departure, once at the beginning and once at the end of
her year in Israel. This film was then showed as a mini-documentary
at a mega-event held in Jerusalem this May. (You can download the
film here.) Over a thousand people, including gap-year
participants, junior-year-abroad students, and post-college MASA
participants, gathered at Binyenei HaUma in Jerusalem for
a MASA Next Step Conference, followed by a HaDag Nachash
concert. Before the concert, the audience was addressed by
Natan Sharansky, Chairman of the Jewish Agency,
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and Ariella
Kristal. In Ariella's
speech, she quoted eloquently from her Schechter kindergarten
celebration: "eretz yisrael sheli yafa v'gam porachat, mi bana
oomi natah koolanu biyachad." Ariella reflected, "Who knew
when I said those words as a kindergarten student how much they
would come to mean in my life." After spending a meaningful year
in Israel, Ariella returned home to start her freshmen year at Yale University.
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 6th
Grade Orientation On Wednesday, September 1, the incoming
6th graders visited the Glen Cove campus to familiarize
themselves with the plant and meet their teachers. After a brief
introduction by Mike Hirsch, the students met
faculty members Rhoan Clarke, Esther
Gadon and Paul Schlank. They enjoyed
learning about their teachers and seeing their classrooms. They
toured the rest of the campus, learning where all the fun spots
were. Along the tour, they met key people who would be able to
assist them during their time in MS, including the nurse,
Frances Lopilato, Lisa Eisner, Senora
Cahn, Ms. Hartman and more. The tour concluded with a fun
quiz about the school with delicious prizes! The afternoon wrapped up with a
team-building activity which proved to be quite funny. The 6th
graders left very excited to begin their MS journey at SSDS in Glen
Cove! And the MS staff is
exciting about their arrival.
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 Kindergarten
Orientation Our incoming Kindergarten students met
their teachers at the Annual Gan Orientation this week.
Affectionately known as "Gansters," our newest members of the
Schechter family met their teachers (Ronit Barr
and Pam Shampan in Gan 1, and Levana
Lichter and Rosalie Goldstein in Gan 2),
met new friends, heard a story, played games, enjoyed a snack and
had a super time. While the children and teachers were becoming
acquainted, the parents of the Gansters met with Rabbi
Herrnson, members of the ES administration and support
staff, and the PA co-presidents. On the first day of school,
September 7th, the Gan parents will be back for an Open Circle
meeting, followed by a parent-child Pizza Party at noon. It is so
exciting to welcome our 32 Gansters to our school! |
Guila Marrache teaches about "Hidden
Sparks"
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Teacher In-Service
While Schechter families were enjoying
the last days of the summer vacation, our teachers were busy
preparing for the new school year. ES General Studies
teachers directed their focus on our new Writing Curriculum, based
on the 6+1 Traits of Writing, while ES Judaic Studies
teachers continued the work begun last spring on broadening student
meaning-making in tefilah. Additionally, the entire ES
faculty deepened their understanding of student social and
emotional development through "Collaborative Problem
Solving." Second grade teacher Guila Marrache
led the workshop. Guila is newly trained as an "Internal Coach" for
the "Hidden Sparks" program for our school. MS teachers
spent intensive time with Canadian specialist Karen
Gazit discussing and learning about Differentiated
Instruction. Gazit offered legitimate applications of DI
for our teachers to try out this year; during the summer all of the
MS teachers read one of five books focusing on different aspect of
this cutting-edge instructional methodology. The best teachers are
great students!
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 METNY
USY METNY USY held its annual encampment
program at Camp Ramah in the Berkshires at the end of
August. Over the course of the 8-day program, over 450 Jewish
teens and young adults in the metro area enjoyed an action-packed
program of dances, creative tefillot, color war and
sports, Israel awareness
activities, a spirited Shabbat celebration and
lots of fun. We at SSDS/SSHS are so proud that over 40 of our
current students and alumni participated as USYers and Staff, and
are excited to deepen the connection between the USY and Schechter
worlds.
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