Thanks to all who celebrated Purim with us.  The Megillah Reading and Carnival Festivities were a huge success.  On the whole, people had an amazing time, a lot of positive Jewish memories were created and friendships were started and/or further built!  We have a very special community and we don’t take this for granted.  The biggest successes comes when we have large numbers of staff, teachers, madrichim, youth groups/leaders, students and volunteers planning and/or facilitating our programming together and that was clearly the case for Purim 5777!

The Ark pantry would like to offer sincere thanks to you for your generous Purim Matanot L’Evyonim donations. They are greatly appreciated by the clients of  the Ark whom the pantry serves. Am Yisrael has consistently been a very generous donor through the years, and the most recent donations continue this most worthwhile and necessary tradition. Once again, many thanks.

Mazal Tov to our costume contest winner Michael Lieber and to those who had the best guesses of how many toys were in the jar.  For those who were part of those competitions, Evan Lieber won the contest of guessing how many toys were in the jar: 141 and Drew Weiss won the contest of guessing how many candies were in the jar: 150.  -Mr. Sherman

Class Updates: Wed, Mar 15

Gimel (3rd Grade) 

Shalom Parents,

This week we continued with the second lesson in the unit for Hakarat HaTov.  We discussed Jewish rituals and texts that focus on showing gratitude for ourselves and our families. We recited a bracha or blessing before or after a special event. The students explored this as a way to demonstrate gratitude and recognize good things about even mundane activities. The students created their own prayers to thank G-d for those things that make them feel grateful. The students learned about the Shehecheyanu, a blessing that thanks G-d for bringing us to a special moment in our lives, such as a life-cycle event.

Recap:

·       Students learned that Judaism gives us blessings to say for the world around us.

·       Students learned common and uncommon blessings we use in our everyday lives.

·       Students created ways in which they can show gratitude to their families.

Table Talk: Do we have any prayer rituals as a family? How can we incorporate Jewish prayer into our lives?

 

MyShalomLearning Activity for next week: 3.5.3 Hakarat HaTov Week 3 

Login to My.ShalomLearning.org and watch the video in preparation for the next lesson by listening for “kinds of ingredients” and how they are put into “family soup.” Write down your own recipe for “family soup”, answering the question of what ingredients (and how much of them) that you need to make a good “family soup?”

Ivrit (Hebrew):

               This week the students continued to work on their understanding of the Shema, focusing on their reading and comprehension of the first and third paragraphs.  The yeladim worked as a larger group this week, supporting each other with their Hebrew reading and letter-vowel identification.  The students also looked at some prayers we recite during the shacharit (morning) service – this was done in conjunction with our Jewish Studies topic Hakarat Hatov.  The students read the basic structure or “building blocks” of the blessings, and then we broke down the ending of these blessings.

Next week:

In next week’s session we will focus on family relationships.  Students will take time to think about all of their family members, and reflect on the support and love they get from them.

Have a great week!

B’Shalom,

Mrs. Sender and Morah Myra

Dalet (4th Grade)

This week we reviewed reading many prayers during class.  I tested the students reading the Shira Chadasha paragraph.  Our focus with all of these prayers is getting Kitah Dalet ready to lead the congregation during services on Sunday morning, May 7 at 9:15 a.m.  As always, please continue to practice the prayers at home.  To access the prayers that we are studying, please go to the “Practicing Tefillah” page of our website: https://www.amyisrael.org/practicing-tefillah.html and click on the 1st prayer “Morning Blessings,” the 2nd prayer “Baruch She’amar,” the 5th prayer “Chatzi Kaddish,” the 6th prayer Barchu, the 9th prayer “Sh’ma, V’Ahavta,” the 10th prayer “Vayomer” and the 11th prayer “Mi Chamocha, Tsur Yisrael.”  Please Click on the name of the prayer to listen to the mp3 and the page number in our Siddur Lev Shalem is listed.  For easy access, if you do not have a copy of our Siddur with you, please click next to the name of the prayer on the word “Text” for a PDF of the page in the Am Yisrael SJS Siddur, that we use in our classes in the School of Jewish Studies. -Mrs. Moustakis          

Heh (5th Grade)

This week we worked on the Friday Night Kiddush.  As part of our studies we counted how many times the Hebrew word with the root “Kuf Dalet Shin” appears in the Kiddush.  We discussed why this word is so important (Kadosh = holy).  After much discussion, the main idea is that G-d wants us to make the Shabbat Holy because we should be holy with the Mitzvot.  Following this we reviewed the songs Rabbi Akiva, Gesher Tzar Me’od and we started to learn about the song “Ani V’Atta” and how you and I can change the world with the Middot (Jewish Values) that the students are learning with Mr. Sender.  As always, please continue to practice the prayers at home.  To access the Friday Night Kiddush, please go to the “Practicing Tefillah” page of our website:  https://www.amyisrael.org/practicing-tefillah.html and click on the final prayer on this web page “Friday Night Kiddush.”  Please Click on the name of the prayer to listen to the mp3 and the page number in our Siddur Lev Shalem is listed.  For easy access, if you do not have a copy of our Siddur with you, please click next to the name of the prayer on the word “Text” for a PDF of the page in the Am Yisrael SJS Siddur, that we use in our classes in the School of Jewish Studies. -Mrs. Moustakis     

Shalom,

We reviewed the letters and sounds and moved on to working on reading, while playing reading game.  For the easiest access to review the Hebrew letters and sounds, please go to the Hebrew Step-By-Step page of our website: https://www.amyisrael.org/hebrew-step-by-step.html. As always, please continue to practice the prayers at home.  To access the Friday Night Kiddush, please go to the “Practicing Tefillah” page of our website:  https://www.amyisrael.org/practicing-tefillah.html and click on the final prayer on this web page “Friday Night Kiddush.”  Please Click on the name of the prayer to listen to the mp3 and the page number in our Siddur Lev Shalem is listed.  For easy access, if you do not have a copy of our Siddur with you, please click next to the name of the prayer on the word “Text” for a PDF of the page in the Am Yisrael SJS Siddur, that we use in our classes in the School of Jewish Studies.Thank you, Morah Anna & Ms. Rosenfeld

Vav (6th Grade)

In the wake of our wonderful Purim carnival, there were many (many, many) materials to be sorted, catalogued, and put away. Vav and Zayin put on their clean-up crew hats and stowed away everything we used, labeled and organized so that next year’s carnival setup will go smoothly and quickly. Great job, everyone! -Hazzan Szenes-Strauss (Mr. S.)

This week our Vav students continued our discussion about what life was like inside the ghettos during the Holocaust.  We heard video testimony of the conditions in the ghetto as well as what it was like when the ghetto was liquidated.  Please note that we recognize the sensitivity of this topic and great care is put into presenting the Holocaust age-appropriately.  -Morah Sandra

Zayin (7th Grade)

As we are nearing the end of our gevurah unit, we spent this class preparing presentations on individuals we consider heroic. Beginning next week, students will be giving (approximately) five-minute presentations explaining who their chosen hero is, why they were chosen, and what they did or do to help others. Students have been working hard in this, and I am looking forward to some of the interesting and creative presentations to come.  In the wake of our wonderful Purim carnival, there were many (many, many) materials to be sorted, catalogued, and put away. Vav and Zayin put on their clean-up crew hats and stowed away everything we used, labeled and organized so that next year’s carnival setup will go smoothly and quickly. Great job, everyone!  -Hazzan Szenes-Strauss (Mr. S.)