HSRS Newsletter Archive

HSRS Announcements (Hodaahot הוֹדָוֹת)

Important Dates & Upcoming Events

October 29- Beresheet Day 1 from 10:30-12pm
November 3- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm (oneg to follow)
November 12- Har Shalom Hanukkah Market
November 19, 22, 26- NO HSRS
November 29- BBYO meeting from 6:30-7:30pm, feel free to come as early as 5:15 to hang/do homework/bring your own meat-free dinner.
December 2- Kindergarten/1st grade Havdalah at 5:30pm
December 3- NO SCHOOL FOR KINDERGARTEN/1ST GRADE ONLY
December 3- Mitzvah Day with Or Hadash (details to come!)
December 8- Shabbat Jr at 5:30pm (oneg to follow)
December 10- Hanukkah celebrated at HSRS
December 16- 7th grade Saturday Morning Shabbat Service
DECEMBER 17- NO SCHOOL FOR 7TH GRADE ONLY
December 17- Beresheet Day 2 from 10:30-12pm

BBYO & Teens

Synagogue & Community News​​​​​​​

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From Our Teachers

Kitah Gan (Kindergarten)
Sunday was all about projects and creativity. We started with a little cooking class, the kids all helped make their very own Challah French Toast. It took a bit of patience and time but they all had chocolate French Toast energy afterwards. To help with this, we had several races around the yard to get back into focus. After the snack and racing we headed to the classroom for Hebrew. We went over last week's letter Bet, and learned a new letter, Gimmel. We practiced writing both letters on the white board and in our books. While they wrote, Aiden read us a great story about praying for rain. We then moved on to our other project, letters to IDF soldiers. Everyone colored two pictures and wrote a personal letter for each IDF member. They all meticulously wrote out at least three lines of introduction and appreciation for the hard work and dedication of those defending Israel. Everyone was fantastic, see you all next week.
     



Kitah Alef (First Grade)
In class we went over the letters we have already learned, bet and Alef, and introduced them to gimmel. We then got to make some French toast and eat it with chocolate spread straight from Israel! After that we talked about simchat Torah and the importance of the holiday and what it means to us. We also talked about why we love the Torah and then made our own little Torah scrolls and wrote something special in them!
     

Kitah Bet (Second Grade)
We had a great morning in kitah bet! After shirah, we had a mini lesson with Safran Judy who read us a story and then taught us about mosaics. We walked around the congregation looking for examples before making our own mosaic squares.  After break, we worked on our Hebrew letters before ending our day with a quick parschat study of Noah and his ark. Everyone did amazing! Have a great week.

Kitah Gimel (Third Grade)
Wednesday from Morah Robin- We continued our discussion on Leviticus/Parashat Shemini – Kashrut – Holy Eating. In addition to keeping Kosher, Jews also say blessings over the food they are about to eat.  Saying blessings over food makes us think about the foods before we eat; it helps us feel closer to God; and it makes us grateful for the food we have.  As a class, we practiced the HaMotzi – blessing over bread, Borei P’ri HaAdamah – blessing over fruit of the earth, Borei P’ri HaEitz – blessing over fruit of the tree, and Borei P’ri HaGafen – blessing of the fruit of the vine. We then turned to our Chai Workbooks and each student wrote a Haiku about food and God.  After a short break outside, we reviewed our Hebrew Lessons 1–4, and started on Lesson 5 in our workbooks. 

Sunday from  Morah Robin- We read “Because Nothing Looks Like God” and “In God’s Name”.  We began our discussion about Avodah, the work we do to find sacred connections to God, community, and ourselves.  We focused on our synagogue – Har Shalom – as a way to connect us to God and our community.  We did a scavenger hunt in the sanctuary to find tools that help us connect to God; the ner tamid, prayerbooks and torah, rabbi, and mezuzah as a few examples. After snack and a break outside, we had story time with Judy.  She talked about how synagogues in Israel are decorated with mosaics. Judy then led us in an activity for the students to make their own mosaic.  She then read the class “In God’s Hands” in which a boy puts loaves of challah in the Ark for God but eventually he realizes he’s helping other people this way. Finally, the class did an Acrostic about G-d.  It was also Jayden’s birthday so we enjoyed cookies and sang Happy Birthday in English and Hebrew! It was a very busy Sunday!!!

Kitah Dalet (Fourth Grade)
Wednesday from Morah Merav and Morah Sophie- We enjoyed our weekly pizza party followed by T’filah with Josh (aka T’filah Josh). Afterwards the whole class worked together and focused on Hebrew. We spent some time working in our ‘Time To Read’ workbooks. We also read from the word wall where we are practicing our reading skills.

Sunday from Morah Merav- Half the class spent their time working on the Aleph-Bet. Everyone is getting more and more comfortable identifying the letters. We worked on the Aleph Bet out of order.   This will help us with reading in Hebrew. 
The other half of the class was challenged with new words on our word wall. We are working on both being able to read the words and understanding their meaning.  A big Thank you to Morah Ellen who we all had the pleasure of cooking with in our Har Shalom kitchen. Everyone made their own French toast with Challah. There was delicious special chocolate spread from Israel to top it off or honey butter, and course some powdered sugar too! It was super yummy!

Sunday from Morah Sophie- We played a game where the students guessed the location of an Israeli city. After each of them guessed, we found it on a map and showed them where it was. We also discussed items that they wanted to have in the shuk to spend their shekels on. Cooking took up a bunch of class time today!!

Kitah Hay (Fifth Grade)
Wednesday from Morah Lauren- It was wonderful to see so many friends this Wednesday. We learned new vocabulary from chapter 13 and used it in sentences. We reviewed pronouns from the last two weeks. We discussed the importance of a good name and speaking well of others while working on our beautiful Hebrew Name Project for our notebook for this first unit.
We played outside with friends at dusk and chanted prayers with Tefillah Josh, which was beautiful and funny. Ya had to be there! 

Sunday from Morah Laurel- We learned about the Tanakh, the Hebrew Bible. We learned its three parts (Torah/The Five Books of Moses, Nevi’im/Prophets, and Kethuvim/Writings.) We practiced finding citations in the Tanakh. We also learned that many of the songs we sing in Shira and at services come from Kethuvim, like Etz Hayim Hi, Hinei Ma Tov, Hallelujah, and Esa Einai. We took a break to cook French toast with honey butter and real Israeli chocolate spread. Afterwards, we finished our Torah craft. Make sure you ask your child to show them to you!
     

     

Kitah Vav (Sixth Grade)
Wednesday from Morah Debbie (subbing for Morah Leah)- Hi, I'm Debbie Duffy and I had the pleasure of teaching your Kitah Vav students. After t'filah, we began class with me speaking to them in simple Hebrew. Through gestures and context, they learned that they understood more than they thought they did. We followed that by reading the opening lines of the Avot prayer. After break, we continued our Family Tree project by writing our English and Hebrew names as well as our Gregorian and Hebrew birthdays on flower-shaped decals. Thanks for sharing your kids with me! 

Sunday from Morah Leah- After Shira we moved the classroom and began the day by reviewing the books, writings and poems of the Jewish bible (Te-Na-Kh); Torah, Nevaiim (prophets) and K’tuvim (writings). We will be working on K’tuvim this year beginning with the Megillah of Ruth in the coming days. Judy joined us and lead Storytime. After our break we came in the classroom and worked in earnest on our Hebrew prayer reading of the AVOT prayer. Wishing you a good week - Shavuah Tov!
     

Kitah Zayin (Seventh Grade)
Wednesday from Rabbi Finestone- For the first half of class, the seventh grade students practiced reading the Hebrew of the prayer V’Shamru, which is sung at the end of the Saturday morning service. Each student read the complete prayer, and everyone did a great job. For the second half of class, we began chapter 2 of the book the Topical Bible, which focuses on accepting responsibility for our mistakes, using the story of Adam and Eve as the example.

Sunday from Morah Michelle- We had a great day! We started class by learning different Jewish symbols like chai, the Star of David, menorah, lion of Judah, and a few others. We then went outside and drew these symbols in chalk to decorate the campus. I then started a discussion on antisemitism. We defined the word and then I introduced two common antisemitic myths: deicide and blood libel. We watched a video produced by the ADL that details the myth of deicide. In honor of the spooky season, I read the students the book Golem by David Wisniewski. This story details the Jewish folktale of the golem: a creature made out of mud who is animated by a rabbi or tzaddik whose sole purpose is to protect the Jewish people. There are many different tales involving a golem, and the story I read takes place in Prague in the 1500’s. The Jews at that time were being accused of the “blood libel”; an antisemitic rumor which falsely accused the Jewish people of murdering Christian children and baking their blood into matzah. The rabbi of Prague creates a golem to protect the Jewish people from persecution. Ask your student what Hebrew word is written on the golem’s head and how one kills a golem. Over the next few weeks, I will be using the ADL’s guide to combating antisemitism as a resource when teaching the students about some common antisemitic tropes. I try to walk the fine line of educating our students without scaring them. If you have any questions or concerns do not hesitate to reach out.
      

From Our Specials

Shira News
     

News from the Sifriyah (Library)
Storytime: In 2nd, 3rd, 6th and 7th grades we started our exploration of the art and culture of Jewish communities around the world.  Our first stop was Israel.  We talked about mosaics as an art form, that many ancient synagogues had mosaic floors, and that we still use mosaics today as an art form (think our entryway or the memorial board).  I showed each class pictures of synagogue mosaic floors, especially pictures of the synagogue in Tzipori, in the north of Israel.  It dates back to around the 5th century CE and is renowned for a beautiful mosaic known as "the Mona Lisa of the Galilee".  You can google images of her!!  Each class got to make their own mosaic tile, and I was very impressed by their creativity!

In 2nd grade, we read the story "Bagels from Benny" and in 3rd grade we read "In God's Hands", which are variants of the same story, in which a person puts bagels or challah in the ark, thinking he is helping God, but he is actually helping someone less well off than he.  A great story for learning about tikkun olam and how we help God to make the world a better place.

In 6th and 7th grades, we read a story about the Talmudic Rabbis Rabbi Yochanan and Rabbi Shimon ben Lakish (Reish Lakish) of Tzipori and what can be the terrible consequences of lashon hara (evil speech).
     

     

     

     

     

News from the Kitchen 
Todah Rabah to Morah Ellen for planning a delicious cooking class for our Kindergarten, First, Fourth, and Fifth Graders.  Challah French Toast!  Students helped with cooking the french toast, making honey butter, and more!  They even had the opportunity to try Israeli chocolate spread.  Next week, 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th will follow the same recipe!