HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הוֹדָוֹת) New Information It's almost time for our second shuk (market) of the year! If you are interested in donating, please take a look at our Amazon Wish List. We are always looking for donations of gently used Squishmallows, board games, and more!
The next few months is the perfect time for your student to meet their service attendance requirement. As a reminder, Kindergarten and 1st grade students are encouraged to attend 1 service; 2nd grade attends 2 services; 3rd grade attends 3 services and so on. Attending grade level services, zoom services, bar/bat mitzvahs out of town all can count toward this goal.
Previous Information Sent! Calling all siddurim!!! If you currently have a copy of Har Shalom's siddur/prayerbook, that you are not actively needing, please return ASAP. We have many b'nai mitzvahs and grade-level Shabbat services over the next few months that will be needing these copies. Thank you!
TZEDAKAH! Prior to spring break, each class will be designing mitzvah projects. All the money collected through weekly tzedakah contributions will be used for the project. This is a great way to be a mensch and a wonderful habit to form at a young age!
Important Dates & Upcoming Events
February 10- 4th/5th grade Havdallah from 5:30-7:30pm February 11- NO SCHOOL FOR 4TH AND 5TH GRADES ONLY February 23- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm, oneg to follow February 24- 2nd/3rd grade Saturday Morning Shabbat Service February 25- NO SCHOOL FOR 2ND and 3RD GRADES February 25- Beresheet Day 5 at 10:30am March 10-17- NO HSRS for SPRING BREAK March 22- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm, oneg to follow March 24- Purim celebrated during HSRS, costumes encouraged March 30- 6th/7th grade Havdalah from 5:30-7:30pm March 31- NO SCHOOL FOR 6TH AND 7TH GRADES ONLY March 31- Beresheet Day 6 at 10:30am
BBYO & Teens Teen of the Week! Madricha of the week is Eliana. She is new to our program but has jumped right in and is great at helping students with Hebrew. She works with the 1st grade class and is engaging with the kids when it comes to games, activities, or any jobs around the classroom!
Synagogue & Community News
From Our Teachers
Beresheet (Preschool) Day 4 of creation was all about the sun, moon, and stars. We made suncatchers, completed space puzzles, painted our own moon and sun, and made star of David tessalations. We even had Sunchips and Starfruit for snack.
Kitah Gan (Kindergarten) Sunday from Morah JoJo- Hey everyone! We started with our Hebrew lesson. The kids wrote several lines of letters we learned in the previous weeks and then went on to a couple new ones. We had a quick Aleph-Bet Yoga competition and then practiced writing our letters on the whiteboard. After a snack break, we headed to the classroom for one on one time with Rabbi. The class listened to a history lesson about the Aleph Bet letters and where their shapes started. To finish up, everyone was able to ask the Rabbi any words they would like to learn in Hebrew. Finally, we had our main lesson, which was all about courage. The kids started by making their very own wrist gauntlets. While they decorated, we talked about what courage looks like. How in life we have situations that can be difficult, like going to a new school, and how brave everyone was to face these situations. We also talked about who can be a superhero, and how our ancestors had mighty courage. We ended with a book about a brave bird migrating to Israel. Everyone did great, see you next week.
Kitah Alef (First Grade) Sunday from Morah Alison, subbing for Morah Katie- After shira, we went to the classroom and spent some time reviewing Alef through Tet before we learned Yud. These kids are fast learners! After break, we focused on Jacob and Esau. We read a story and watched a video teaching us about this biblical story. Ask your child what they remember from the story. We ended with Jacob and Esau coloring pages, puzzles, word searches, and more.
Kitah Bet (Second Grade) Sunday from Morah Anne- Hi All! We had another fun, crazy Sunday in Kita Bet. After Shira, we started the morning studying a little Hebrew-reviewing letters, sounds, and vowels before learning some new letters, sounds and vowels. After a quick break, we read a story about Moses and the 10 Commandments. We discussed the Torah and virtues it teaches us. And, why we think these things are so important to us. We did an activity incorporating both the 10 Commandments and different virtues we consider to be important. We ended the class with a little independent work, questions, as well as some independent reading. Have a great week and I look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday!
Kitah Gimmel (Third Grade)- Wednesday from Morah Robin- Wednesday was a big Hebrew review day. We reviewed all our letters and vowels learned thus far. We then played a game with two teams translating Hebrew words. It was a very close and exciting game!! After a short snack and break outside, we continued with our Hebrew and finished Lesson 9! Just one more lesson in this Hebrew workbook!!!
Sunday from Morah Robin- Right after Shira, we had the pleasure of Librarian Judy visiting our classroom. She discussed the Mizrachi Jewish community of Yemen and read a folktale about King Solomon and the hoopoe (the national bird of Israel). We then did a craft project making a Hamsa out of cardstock. After a snack and short break outside, we revisited our discussion on Avodah - the work we do to find sacred connections to God, community, and ourselves. Sunday’s lesson was focused on how it can be trying to recognize or be aware of God during times of stress or challenges. We watched a video about the Torah story of Jacob and Esau. We discussed how even though Jacob felt remorse and upset about tricking Esau, God was still by his side to comfort and reassure him. Finally, our last half hour of class, we started Lesson 10 in our Hebrew workbooks.
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Debbie, subbing for Morah Merav- We spent some time sight reading in our workbooks and focusing on the letters Fay and Final Fay. We also discussed the importance of learning Hebrew numbers and how numbers show up a lot in the Torah. Thanks for sharing your students with me!
Wednesday from Morah Sophie- The kids were so excited to continue learning about the 12 tribes and making their own. To expand their knowledge on each tribe, we did a quiz game on the name, meaning, symbol, and stone/color. This week we focused on Judah, Joseph, Levi, Gad, Dan, and Benjamin. Everyone won some shekels of course. Next week, we will continue with the other 6.
Sunday from Morah Merav- We had a chance to connect and share with our kitah. We thought about each student and filled out a worksheet with a kind sentence for everybody. We worked on our Hebrew word wall, and constructed some sentences in Hebrew. We had a wonderful story time with Judy. She read us a folktale about King Solomon and the hoopoe (the national bird of Israel) in which the hoopoe teaches the King about sensitivity to the needs of others. We learned about the Jewish Yemen community which is known for its artisanship and saw many examples of their art. Everyone made their own hamsa and decorated it. Thank you Judy for another wonderful lesson. We are lucky to have you! We also had the pleasure of having Rabbi in our class to answer some of our questions. This led to a great discussion about the Tribes of Israel. Do you know which Tribe you’re a descendant of? Thank you Rabbi for sharing time with us! As usual I look forward to our next class together.
Sunday from Morah Sophie- Like I said in last week’s letter, we learned about the other 6 tribes. Again, we learned the name, meaning, symbol, and stone/color of the Issachar, Zebulun, Levi, Asher, Reuben, and Simeon tribes. They loved the quiz game again to test their knowledge. We will continue working on our own tribes in the coming weeks!
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Lauren- We spent time getting to know our new student and then worked on some Hebrew.
Sunday from Morah Lauren- Kita Hay had an eventful morning at religious school! They learned songs with Josh, learned Hebrew, and had a lesson on Yemeni Jews including a folklore tale read by Morah Judy. Students made Hamsa hands and learned of its symbolism and amulet origins. Students learned about Joseph and his brothers and Moses. Rabbi came in to answer student questions about what Judaism teaches on living a Jewish life and what happens afterwards. It was a deep and fun discussion. We learned the Hebrew word for sloth and flamingo! Looking forward to seeing Kita Hay on Wednesday!
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Leah- Wednesday we spent the entire class in the sanctuary readying ourselves for Saturday’s Shabbat Morning Service.
Mazel Tov! to all of Kitah Vav and a Todah Rabah (Thank you!) to our families. Saturday’s shabbat service was joyous. Shavua Tov! A good week to you all.
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday from Rabbi Finestone- We continued to work on the prayers of the Torah service, specifically the prayers we sing when the ark is first opened. Each student sang the prayers individually and then as a group. Since ALL the students brought tzedakah last week, we had a ice cream sundae party to celebrate. During the last part of the evening, we looked at an ethical dilemma where someone deliberately overcharged a desperate person for an item. The question is whether or not the desperate person should get a refund for the overcharge, even if they knew it was too much. After reading three passages from the Talmud which address this, the students decided that the person definitely gets a refund. We then had a great discussion about ethical business practices and Jewish law.
Sunday from Morah Michelle- After having Hebrew with the Rabbi, we continued learning about the Holocaust. We discussed the Milgram experiment on obedience and variations on the experiment that caused his results to change. Milgram found that when the experimenter wore regular clothes as opposed to a lab coat, only 20% of the participants gave "fatal" doses of electricity as opposed to 65% of participants. We then watched a short video from Yad Vashem that described the selection process at Auschwitz. We ended class learning about the Righteous Among the Nations; the non-Jews who took great risks to save Jews during the Holocaust. Unfortunately, bystanders were the rule during WW II; rescuers were the exception. Yad Vashem was established to perpetuate the memory of the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust. One of Yad Vashem’s principal duties is to convey the gratitude of the State of Israel and the Jewish people to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. We will spend our next class looking up individual stories of those rescuers. We ended our day with storytime with Judy. See you next week!
From Our Specials
News from the Sifriyah (Library) Today in Kitas Gimmel, Dalet, Hey and Zayin, we visited the Mizrachi (Middle Eastern) Jewish community of Yemen. We learned that that the Jewish community there was known for its artisans and musicians. While many Jews from Yemen started migrating to the Land of Israel in the late 1800s, nearly all of the rest of the Jews of Yemen were airlifted to Israel, many during the War of Independence in 1948. Yemenite style has greatly influenced Israeli culture, and Yemenite musicians and dances are very popular. We read a story about King Solomon and the hoopoe bird (dukhifat in Hebrew; which is the national bird of Israel), the moral of which is that even wise and intelligent people can learn from those around them. We did some "show and tell" with a Yemenite embroidered challah cover, 2 yadaim (Torah pointers) and a shofar made from a kudu's horn. In 7th grade, we had the privilege of hearing Rabbi Finestone chant Torah according to the unique Yemenite Torah trope, which is thought to be the closest to how the Torah was chanted in the days of the Temple. Our craft was to make a hamsa (a kind of protective amulet common to all cultures in the Middle East) and decorate it.
