Learning to give

The school has always been steeped in the tradition of giving to others and helping the less fortunate.  For years the girls in the girls high school have helped serve free Thanksgiving lunches to the homeless.  Both high schools use Rosh Hodesh as days to spend time volunteering around the city – working with Alzheimers patients, head start students, recovering alcoholics or visiting with patients at the VA Hospital.  High School girls participate in Special Olympics Bowling every Monday afternoon.  Our boys high school has helped people victimized by tornadoes and storms restore their properties.  High school students have participated in Habitat for Humanity projects as character- building activities.  Over the years students have spearheaded tzedakah campaigns for food banks, shoes and coats for needy Israelis, and collecting money for various charitable causes, including our local Federation, as well as Israeli programs.  But what has become some of the most noteworthy and commendable efforts,  have been the activities initiated and guided by Mrs. Sandra Gersten, Elementary Principal.  Last Thanksgiving the students loaded tote bags with toiletries they collected and personal notes they inscribed for the homeless, as they have done for a number of years.  Additionally, they made and distributed colorful flannel blankets.  All of this was done as part of the school’s annual Thanksgiving Day celebration.  Last Thursday, the elementary school students, in conjunction with volunteers from Plough Towers, made over 400 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to distribute to an organization which feeds the needy.  The experience was significant for the students as well as the volunteers.  Students continue to bring in nonperishable food items for a MIFA food bank.  The administrators and teachers do an excellent job in transmitting to our students the importance of lending a helping hand in as many ways as possible, to as many people as possible, within and outside of our community. Kudos go to those people who have made this all possible and to our wonderful students who understand first- hand the importance of helping others.

Getting Into the Classroom

 Earlier this year I directed my teachers to think about times in which they could invite parents into the classrooms in order for the parents to get a feel for what actually is transpiring and to get parents to have access to our school during the school day, so that they can look at our displays and classrooms, pick up on the excitement and enthusiasm, and appreciate the level of the work that our students are producing.  I did not want this to be a “show piece” that required hours of work, preparation, and rehearsals on the part of the students or the teachers.  That would prove to be counterproductive.  What I wanted was for the parents to see what the students normally do and how comfortable they are with their required work, and how excited they are to share it with others.  These visits should be on a small scale, so that parents, grandparents and relatives can share the time in a meaningful way with one child, and not feel rushed or conflicted about which child gets the parents’ undivided attention

Brittney Friedman's first graders have been working on a habitat project, and this morning they got to share those projects with their parents.  Each student had selected an animal to research. Brittney had prepared worksheets for the children to complete as they were researching their animals.  From the information on their worksheets, they created sentences and paragraphs about the size, diet, life span, and environment of their animals.  They wrote out these answers by hand into individual booklets, which they all read perfectly, and accompanied their written explanations with their own drawings.  Finally, they all created individual dioramas of their animals in the appropriate habitat.  All this work was accomplished in school, without the input of the parents.  This project incorporated many of the best practices in twenty-first century education – higher order thinking, even for first graders, researching with technology, expository writing which includes correct grammar, handwriting, and artistic creativity, as well as the ability to articulate the information they had uncovered. The children were absolutely delighted with their own work and the work of their classmates.  Not only did they become experts on one particular animal, like tarantulas or river otters, but they quickly integrated all of the vital information from their classmates’ projects, as well. That made them experts on nine different animal species. The entire presentation took just under 20 minutes!

 

 Throughout the year, parents and family members will have opportunities to share the educational experiences of their children in a variety of different venues and formats.  Look forward to a sophisticated project coming up in sixth grade next week and our Chumash presentation in December.

Who Will Live and Who Will Die?

This morning the junior high students and the 11^th and 12^th grade girls had the privilege of hearing from Leah Kaufman and Helen Yermus, two Holocaust survivors and long time friends, who each shared their unique stories.  Leah was born in Rumania, while Helen was born in Kovno, Lithuania.  Both were very young children at the time of the NAZI conquests of their native countries, who witnessed first hand the unspeakable brutality of the Nazis and their supporters.  They spoke with great emotion and quiet eloquence about their earliest memories, their fear and hopelessness, their yearnings and sufferings, about finding themselves orphaned and alone in the most treacherous of all circumstances.  They shared with their audience those few words or unspoken signs that forced them onward, that kept them from surrendering to the fate of their friends and family.  Their childhood was abruptly stolen from them. Overnight they learned to live by their wits and cunning, in order to survive.  Like so many other survivors, they were plagued with questions like, “Why was I spared?”  Both women, whose experiences were so different, yet at the most basic level, so similar, came to the same conclusion.  We were spared to speak the truth, to tell our stories, to keep alive the memories of our past, of our loved ones, of our tradition and heritage, to educate the next generation of Jews.  We are that next generation.  It is up to us now to deliver those messages.

Leah Kaufman’s experiences can be found in her profoundly moving autobiography, Live! Remember! Tell the World! The Story of a Hidden Child Survivor of Transnistria.  Leah is the mother of Dr. Seth Kaufman and the grandmother of Jonah, Talya, Elaina, and Ariana Kaufman.  Both Leah and Helen are in Memphis to celebrate the upcoming wedding of Talya to Aryeh Sand.

A Day in the Life

6:30 – Wake up

8:00 – Daven Shachrit with the GMSG

8:30 – Teach Jewish history in the GMSG

10:15 – Pre-K 4 comes to the office to invite me to their Shabbat Party on Friday.  In keeping with the Parsha, they are inviting guests to their “tent”; complete comments on report cards for high school classes

11:30 – meet with Office Staff

12:00 – Teach  AP US Gov

1:00 – Grab some sloppy Joes from the hot lunch line; ( Sandra looks at my purple hat and purple dickey and asks me if I know it is purple day in pre-k 3);chow down while visitors roam in and out of my office, apologizing for interrupting my lunch ( no problem – I don’t like eating alone!!)

1:30 – Return tray to the kitchen, encounter Barbara Kutner on the way – make an appointment to visit the pre-k 3 room dressed in purple; return to office to attack emails; office in an uproar – Where is the banner from last year’s tournament?  Ahh Erica to the rescue!! Check on ads – for house on Conwell, for high school open house.

1:50 – Samantha stops by to remind me to visit the pre-k ( good thing, I was so absorbed in the emails I didn’t look at the clock!) I, in purple, was given the royal treatment by the pre-k.  I visited their “tent “and was provided with hospitality –a bag of SkoobyDo  cookies that got the pre-k 3 students drooling, and got to share their circle time ( them on the floor, me on a chair); Chany drops off paintings made by high school students to judge for their Renaissance Fair – I can only say “wow!!”.

3:30 – Meeting with a parent – First remark – “Don’t worry Mrs. Kutliroff, everything is fine.  My son loves this school.  Conversation about possible joint programs with other Jewish children in the city during Chanukah – following up on the good vibes of the “Shabbos Project” and thinking about ways to expand on the concept and include more members of the community.

4:30 – Try to sneak out to vote; caught up in the hallway to discuss recent issues that have presented themselves over the course of the day.

5:15 – Vote at Shady Grove elementary school

6:00 – Prepare dinner ( easy – we still have leftovers from Shabbat); catch up on the day with Jerry

8:00 – Attend meeting of Alumni Committee

9:30 – Think about newsletter article for this week – read through relevant section in Rabbi Shlomo Riskin’s memoir , LISTENINGtoGOD, finish cleaning up from dinner; final view for the day of family Whatsap – Is Gavi really going to be on “X Factor Israel?” Check on election results – Yup, I knew it – a Republican sweep!!

10:45 – Settle in bed with A Murder in Lemberg, the latest selection for the Jewish Book Club at Baron Hirsch; can’t really fall asleep – muse about the day – What a wonderful life I have; I feel blessed!!

"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

Sometimes you just have to smile

Last Friday I was walking down the hall, when something caught my eye in the kindergarten class room.  There seemed to be some older children milling around, so I went in to investigate. To my gratification and exultation, Mrs. Martin's 5th graders were reading with the kindergartners.  They were spread all over the room.  Some were sitting with their arms around each other.  Others were relaxed on the floor.  Some of the kindergartners were reading to the 5th graders. Everyone was totally absorbed.  It was a very sweet moment.  Shortly after this, the children were dismissed.  The fifth graders came out of school with the biggest smiles on their faces, still talking about the experience,

 This is only one example of the partnerships we have between classes.  It is one of the great advantages that we have because our school houses students in pr-k 3 all the way up to 12th graders.  The interactions between the older and younger students throughout the year is a shining example of how we promote both leadership and respect, warmth and understanding.  We have the

opportunities to send many important messages home with our students.  Enjoy the pictures below.