Summer Camp Are you looking for an overnight camp or specialty experience for your children? With more than 150 traditional and specialty overnight camps to choose from, you can make this summer a perfect adventure for your first-time camper! And... Did you know that first-time campers may be eligible for a One Happy Camper Grant? Campers attending 12-19 days receive $700 and those attending 19+ days receive $1,000. If you have any questions or need additional information, please reach out to Heather Flowers, OHC Professional at JEWISHcolorado, at hflowers@JEWISHcolorado.org for further details. Adventure Awaits! Har Shalom will be hosting a Jewish Summer Camp fair on February 9 after HSRS. Attending Services It was absolutely wonderful seeing so many students at High Holiday services. Don't forget that we have "Service Attendance Recommendations". One of the best ways to feel confident and prepared for leading Saturday morning services is by watching others lead. It is suggested that our Kinder/1st graders attend 1 service over the course of the year, 2nd grade attends 2 services, 3rd grade attends 3 services, and so on. These can be attended virtually, at other synagogues, at a classmate's bar/bat mitzvah, at one of our grade level Shabbats, etc. High Holiday services count towards this goal!
Important Dates & Upcoming Events February 1- 4th/5th grade Saturday morning Shabbat Service at 10:15am February 2- NO SCHOOL FOR GRADES Fourth and Fifth February 2- Beresheet Day 4 from 10:30am-12pm February 7- PJs and Pancakes Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm February 15- 3rd/4th/5th grade Havdalah from 5:30-7:30pm February 16- NO SCHOOL FOR GRADES Third, Fourth and Fifth March 1- 2nd/3rd grade Saturday morning Shabbat Service at 10:15am March 2- NO SCHOOL FOR GRADES Second and Third March 2- Beresheet Day 5 from 10:30-12pm March 7- Shabbat Jr at 5:30-7:30pm March 7- 5th and 6th Grade Friday evening Shabbat Service at 6:30pm March 9- Purim Celebrated at HSRS. COSTUMES ENCOURAGED!!!!
BBYO at the Summer Camp Fair There will be a BBYO table at the summer camp fair that will be sharing summer involvement opportuities for our members. We hope you and your teen will join us!
Teen of the Week! Each week, we will be recognizing one of our amazing teen volunteers who went above and beyond to help. This week, we chose Zelda and Ryan as our madrichim of the week! We were slightly short staffed this past Sunday and Ryan and Zelda came in on their off day to jump in and help with snack and around the school in some of the classes. We are so grateful for them always being willing to jump in and help no matter what!
Synagogue & Community News
From Our Teachers Beresheet (Preschool) from Morah Kyla and Morah Joanie Morah Kyla and Morah Joanie will see you on February 2. Don't forget to water those plants from last week!!
Kitah Gan, Alef, and Bet Thank you for your understanding of our needing to cancel Havdalah. We are looking at two dates to reschedule and will let you know those as soon as confirmed.
Kitah Gimmel (Third Grade) from Morah Robin Wednesday- Kitah Gimmel focused again on the Jewish values of G’milut Chasadim - deeds of loving kindness. Specifically we discussed the relationship between G’milut Chasadim and K’lal Yisrael – the community of Israel. Jews around the world care for each other no matter how far apart they live. We read about Jewish communities around the old - specifically in Argentina, Ethiopia, and Russia - and the struggles these countries have endured and how Jewish World Organizations have come to their rescue by providing donations, Aliyah, and other support. We looked online at 3 websites to view up-to-date situations around the world and how these organizations are helping Jews around the world currently, and how we as individuals can also get involved and help:
World Union for Progressive Judaism Website: https://wupj.org
Sunday- In Kitah Gimmel we continued our discussion about G’milut Chasadim - performing acts of loving kindness to make the world a better, holier place. We learned and sang the song “Mitzvah Gorereth Mitzvah” which means “One Mitzvah leads to Another Mitzvah”. We read a few short stories about children performing acts of G’milut Chasadim in their communities and how these acts grew into even larger acts among larger groups of people. The students then interviewed each other to discuss personal acts of G'milut Chasadim that they have performed and how it affected them and the people around them. After a fun break playing gaga indoors, we moved on to our Hebrew lessons. We practiced building and translating short Hebrew sentences. Then we moved onto finishing Hebrew Lesson 7 and starting Lesson 8. Thank you to our Madrichim for all your help with the students today - Micah, Ryan, and Odem.
Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade) from Morah Merav Wednesday and Sunday- This week we focused on preparing for our student led Shabbat service. The students are all looking forward to leading the service and having their families present. We still found time to work on our Hebrew skills and to connect and share with each other in class. We ended our week practicing the service with Kitah Hay and Rabbi. We look forward to seeing everyone on Shabbat morning.
Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade) Wednesday from Morah Lauren- Hebrew Class for Kita Hay focused on reviewing tricky letters that sometimes carry vowels by reading them in compound sentences full of vocabulary from the first half of the year and our blessings and prayers. Students are doing a great job decoding, asking good questions, and practicing with friends. Wednesday and Sunday from Morah Sophie- Both Wednesday and Sunday, the students spent time working on their prophet for their devar for the Shabbat service.
Sunday from Morah Lauren- Sunday Hebrew Class for Kita Hay focused on reviewing questions words, verbs, and key vocabulary in fun sentences. We are finishing our review of the first half material to begin with new Hebrew lessons and a Prayer Path Project after their Saturday service.
Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade) from Morah Aviva Wednesday- On Wednesday, we practiced our possesive hebrew with Go Fish. We then took an indoor recess playing hebrew twister, then finished up reading the Gvurot prayer.
Sunday- On Sunday, we continued to practice possesive pronouns with hebrew charades. We then discussed key words in the Gvurot prayer, talking about the meaning behind the words, then began learning the melody. For Chai, the kids learned about the Torah's texts teaching compassion for animals. The students acted out various quotes from the Torah and then made art with their selected quote.
Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade) Wednesday from Rabbi Finestone- During the first half of class, we once again looked at the prayer for the hostages, and practiced our Hebrew reading. We then discussed the aspects of the prayers that the students found to be the most meaningful to them. After break, we continued our examination of the story of Moses in the burning bush, and the importance of not being afraid to take on new challenges and to try new things.
Sunday from Rabbi Finestone- In the seventh grade this morning, we began our study of the Sabbath prayer Lecha Dodi. We talked about the concept of looking at the Sabbath as a queen, and how we would act if a queen came to spend Shabbat with us. We also talked about the image of turning to welcome the Sabbath queen in the synagogue, which means that the first people in the community she encounters as she enters are the ones that sit in the back: the poor, the shy and the stranger. These are the people that the Sabbath queen greets first. We then talked about what message this sends to the community.
Sunday from Morah Michelle- After having Hebrew with the Rabbi, we talked about the 4 female soldiers who were released and then we continued learning about the Holocaust. We watched a short movie that detailed the life of Dr. Ruth Westheimer and how she survived the Shoah. You can watch the movie here: https://youtu.be/fL9V06b14L0. We had an interesting discussion about the variety of experiences survivors of the Holocaust had and the traits we admired in Dr. Ruth. We ended class with a discussion about evil. One factor that I want students to keep in mind when learning about the Holocaust is how ordinary people ended up believing and/or doing terrible things. Were all the Germans during that time evil or vengeful? We all agreed that Hitler was evil; what about the rest of the German populace that participated either indirectly or directly in the persecution of their Jewish neighbors? As a psychology undergrad, I've always been interested in human behavior so we watched a short video about the Milgram experiment on obedience. If you aren't aware of the experiment, ask your child if they can describe it. The big takeaway is that normal, ordinary people were capable of giving lethal doses of electricity simply because someone in authority pressured them to do it. We talked about peer pressure and how it has an impact on adults as well as teenagers. Overall, it was a wonderful class, filled with interesting questions and commentary! I'll see everyone next week.
From our Specials (chuggim חגים)
News from the Sifriyah (Library) Safranit (Librarian) Judy had the day off on Sunday. Prizes for the Reading Challenge will be given out next week, so keep reading!
International Holocaust Remembrance Day was Monday, January 27th. See the checkout bookcase in the foyer this week and through February 9th for NEW books about the Holocaust for all ages.
News from Teffillah (Prayer Session) with Deb In Tefillah Wednesday we started with the first prayer, Ma Tovu, and followed the service through Hallelujah. Each week we’ll add new Tefillot. News from Small Group with Deb Students in Small Group Hebrew continue to make excellent progress on the vowel and consonant sounds. Their motivation to learn Liturgical Hebrew to be able to lead services on their B’nai Mitzvot is wonderful!
