"The Right people at the right place at the right time"

“The right people, at the right time, in the right place” – Our

school has been in existence for 65 years and with G-d’s help will be around for another 65 years.  But, we must never lose sight of the fact that we are here because some very selfless , committed people had a vision and were willing to see that vision through, and that in each succeeding generation, there were torchbearers to light the way for the next generation.  Once a year, during the 10 days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a small group of dedicated fundraisers make their calls for our operational campaign.  They need to raise nearly $700,000 to keep our school running, and they do a remarkable job.  What always impresses me is the very significant number of contributors to this event.  Ninety-one families pledged at least $1000.  Scores more made smaller contributions.  This truly demonstrates the breadth of community support there is for our school.  Yes, we need more donations.  Yes, we need donors who can pledge and fulfill those pledges with larger donations. But, we also need to be thankful to all of those people who continue to support and work for our school’s success. 

Over seventy people attended a celebratory dinner last Thursday evening At Dr. Joe and Cindi Weinstein’s gracious home. A delicious repast was prepared by Heart and Soul Caterers.  Rabbi Feigenbaum extended greetings from the Vaad HaRabbanim and Dr. Joel Siegel spoke as President of the Board of Directors and I spoke as Interim Dean.  To lighten the mood a bit I began with “The top Ten Reasons to Be a Donor to the MHA/FYOS.  You can look below to see that list.

Let me begin this evening with the top 10 reasons why you should be a donor to the MHA/FYOS. Please forgive my irreverence. We’ll start in reverse order.

Reason #10:  So that we will have a school for the children of all the new Jewish doctors that Project Move to Memphis is going to bring to town.

Reason #9:  So that we have a school for the children of the next kosher gourmet restaurateur who comes to Memphis.

Reason #8: So that we can provide ruach to the Orthodox shuls on a Shabbat morning.

Reason #7:  So that we can provide the next, and the next, and the next   NCSY Midwest regional president.

Reason #6: So that we can have 1 good kosher steak dinner a year.

Reason #5: So that we can maintain a repository for gently abused high mileage vans and minivans .  By the way, we really appreciate them.

Reason #4:  So that we can provide Josh Kahane with the opportunity to pad his resume with 10,000 hours of volunteer-related work in his next profession, as CFO of a Fortune 500 company.

Reason#3: So that we can single-handedly keep the last remaining shop of spare parts for ancient air conditioners open and flourishing.

Reason #2: So that the community will have continuous opportunities to do hachnochos orchim -  to have teens from around the country and young men and women from Israel at their weekly Shabbos tables.

And, all kidding aside -

Reason #1:  So that we can provide an authentic Jewish education to the children of Memphis. Tennessee.

Hebrew Immersion Works

For the past 6 years the school has been seriously committed to improving our Hebrew language program.  The best way to do this is to begin when the students are young and immerse them in all aspects of the language: listening, speaking, singing, reading, writing.  The more Hebrew that they hear spoken, the more comfortable it becomes for them.  Not every word needs to be translated. The meaning of many words can be derived from context, body motion, pictures and illustrations,and even facial expression.  I did not have the privilege of attending a Hebrew Day School.  I had the traditional after school experience.  Picking up the Hebrew language proved exceedingly difficult for me.  But, I can contrast that with my knowledge of Yiddish.  From birth on, I was exposed to Yiddish.  All of my grandparents and their siblings spoke it, as did my parents.  I never had a single formal Yiddish lesson; I never asked anyone to translate a single Yiddish word into English.  Yet, by the time I was 7 or 8 years old, I could understand everything that was said to me in Yiddish.  I was discouraged from answering back, and encouraged to answer in English, so I never got comfortable speaking the language, but to this day I still understand a good deal of spoken Yiddish and because the language uses the Hebrew alphabet, I can struggle through a bit of reading.

As I walk the halls of the school the smile on my face broadens as in room after room children are speaking, reading, writing and listening to Hebrew.  Now that the program has been in progress for a number of years, we have students in the junior high who have been immersed in Hebrew for quite some time and can discuss ideas and stories and write creative and expository essays in Hebrew.

The links below are to conversations in the 11th and 12th grade honors Hebrew language course taught by Hemda Booth.  Before the recordings the girls discussed with their teacher the recent events in Gaza.  The pictures were taken in Shimshon Soleman's  junior high Hebrew class.

                           

ברית (חמדה) חלק  1.wmv <https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6jBAxwF2tMOZkVCMEpsT0hyWHM/edit?usp=drive_web> ​​ עברית (חמדה) חלק 2.wmv <https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B6jBAxwF2tMOSEN6cVF3bUZFcFU/edit?usp=drive_web> ​בינ"ו