Megillah Readings and Magic--plus more at BYDS on Purim

Beth Yeshurun Day School celebrated Purim in a number of ways this year-from Megillah readings on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, students in costumes all throughout the grades, a magician on hand in Reiches Hall, and of course the annual Mishloach Manot.

The readings of the Megillah experienced a BYDS record, with over 50 students taking part, a new BYDS record. The Wednesday evening service, led by Rabbi's Rosen, Strauss, and Morgen, with musical accompaniment from Hazzan Propis, featured BYDS Fifth Grade students, while the Thursday morning's service featured students from several grades, from Second Grade upward.  Cantor Dorf led the instructional project this year, and Sharon Knafo choreographed and led the Thursday morning service.

Costume winners: Noah Berry, Cory Rubenstein, Ryan Peleg, Blake Meyers, and Rebekah Grzebinski

A costume contest capped the Thursday morning Megillah reading assembly, and later in the morning, it was magic time in Reiches Hall just prior to carpool. One of the biggest successes of the day was the Fifth Grade Purim Project, the Mishloach Manot fundraiser, with all students and staff receiving a beautifully designed gift bag of goodies, with an attached letter listing all those individuals making Mishloach Manot contributions, which this year was all handled on-line.  It was a record-setting year for the Mishloach Manot fundraiser, and all of us thank the terrific volunteer leadership provided by Eleonora Leibman, who oversaw the project and signed on many helping hands to pull it all off.

It was a great Purim day for BYDS--next up on the big school-wide calendar...First Grade Siddur Service and the Model Seders. See the dates below in our upcoming events section.

Lila Deutsch and Macarena Garfinkel at Glassel Art School this morning.

Fifth Grade students completed their three course session at the Glassell School of Art in the Museum District today with a tour of the American portraiture gallery at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, followed by a workshop on creating a mask. Two of Glassell School's teachers, Elena Lopez and Judy Gaddis, guided the students on the exhibit tour and led the workshop today.

Over the three weeks, BYDS Fifth Grade students were exposed to a variety of art forms and learned a whole new list of art-based vocabulary.  Students learned about Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, and Pointillism.  Their workshops were focused on sculpture, painting, and mask-making.  Fifth Grade teachers Paula Singer and Eve Zehavi accompanied the students throughout the project, and assisted in incorporating a multi-disciplinary perspective to the students' experience.

The multi-experiential art course has been a Fifth Grade focus in recent years; the course reflects the School's efforts to expose our students to a number of different cultural entities in Houston-such programs as the community guest speaker at Kabbalat Shabbat, Young Authors' Day, and a host of field trips offer students a look at learning well beyond the classroom walls of BYDS.

The iPad 3 winning ticket, pulled out of the box by Mr. E., was Lisa Cohen, mother of Fifth Grade student Clay Cohen. An astonished Clay Cohen walked up to the front to accept congratulations and to see the winning ticket.  Moments later, Clay was excused from the Freedman-Levit Sanctuary to phone his mother with the great news.

The iPad will be delivered to the school on Monday, March 19^th, and it will have all the bells and whistles loaded onto it, a value of over $750.  The BYDS scho

Clay Cohen calling his mom moments after winning the raffle.

ol community thanks the BYDS Board of Trustees for underwriting the iPad for the raffle, which was a huge success, selling over 775 tickets!

Also part of the iPad raffle was a class competition in the Early Childhood and Elementary School programs-the winning class who sold the most tickets will win an ice cream party. The winning class in the Early Childhood program was Tootie Fradkin's class, and the winning Elementary School class was Amy Krost's class.

We thank all who participated, supporting BYDS, and congratulations to the Cohen family!

Sondock Family Heritage Wall Is Installed

The new Heritage Wall, located around the corner from the main hallway art gallery, is now installed and looks fantastic!  The new installation completes the Sondock Family Heritage Wall and Art Gallery, made possible by a generous Build Our Future gift from members of the Sondock family, Annette and Larry Sondock and their children.  The Heritage was an idea the campaign co-chairs had of preserving those who supported Beth Yeshurun Day School from 1962 through 1989. Just before the school's demolition, Mr. Elieff arranged for a team of volunteers to take down all the old brass name plates, over a hundred of them, in order to have them cleaned up, polished, and remounted in the new facility.

·         Tfillot

Yasher Koach to all students who lead the Tfillot this past week:

Chazzanim/Chazzaniot: Reuben Kessler, Sammy Berman, Rafa Camhi

Sarah Goldberg, Sophia Mellon, Adam Katz, Dylan Kessler, Alex Wigder, Hannah Stein, Liliya Webb, Ahnyelah Williams.

Megilah Readers: Yasher Koach to our BYDS stars who read the Megilah at the Synagogue and at the school's service in the morning:

Torah readers:   Mr. Knafo

Aliyot:Joshua Costa, Sarah Goldberg, Bianca Lazarus

Gabbaim : Joshua Strauss, Elan Getz, Reuben Kessler

·         Kabbalat Shabbat

Yasher Koach to our Kabbalat Shabbat leaders this Friday:

Elizabeth Katz, Maxey Levinton, Rachel Lovitt, Adam Ron, Ari Strauss

·         Mensch of the Week- Many of the students presented high values of kindness and entered to the Mensch Box:

Maya Malev - helping Mrs. Adler

 CALL TO PARENTS

A City of Bellaire Parking Permit was found in the BYDS Parking Lot. You must know address on permit to claim.

PASSOVER NEEDS

Please visit the

Beth Yeshurun Sisterhood Gift Shop

M-TH 9:30-4:30

Friday 9:30-2:30

Sunday 10-1:00