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Dear Students and Parents,
Last weekend, we had a wonderful time with our current students, prospective students and the many alumni who flew in from all corners of the USA for this special shabbat. It was a jam packed weekend and I'm not sure which part of the Shabbaton to talk about first; the light up Frisbees for glow-in-the dark sports, bowling, non-stop delicious food (by the best Chef in Seattle: Eli Varon), the game room, free time, the bus ride, Minute-to-Win-it, Miracle Ranch, the band, Eruv Committee, the t-shirts, havdalah, the Israeli Soldier, the American Soldier who's a religious Jew, or the 35 dozen doughnuts!!!
And yet, there is more. Upon reflection of the Shabbaton, the most meaningful part for me was the theme and how it was actualized. The theme of the Shabbaton was "In a place where there are no leaders, strive to be a leader". This is a quote from Pirkei Avot and is a message to all to stand up for your values and sometimes be a leader to yourself and others.
I observed many examples of this over the weekend. Here is a short and incomplete list:
Yotam Bentov 2013, new to our community and to our school, played with the band sat night and did a great job!
Ellie Silesky 2011 filled the role of the keyboard player because the advisor that was supposed to take that role got snowed in back east and missed the shabbaton.
Jeremy Voss is an 8th grader at SHA and played part of a song in front of everyone. He's not even in the Yeshiva yet!
Josh Voss 2011 performed solo "One Day" by Matisyahu which talks about peace!
Jamie Shwartz 2011 ran a program which required her peers (fellow juniors and seniors) to be wacky, and they loved it!
Jonny Sassoon 2014 joined the Eruv Committee very last minute and worked for hours, starting Thursday afternoon and continued through Sunday morning, despite his broken wrist.
The freshman boys rotated checking up on one of the boys who wasn't feeling so well on Friday night, unprompted.
Juliana Gamel 2011 joined the Minute-to-Win-it game after walking in the door with no idea what was going on.
Amos Boldor 2014 and Daniella Rivkin 2013 volunteered to stay back from the Saturday night event in order to help Eli Varon in the kitchen.
And there were many, many more examples of leadership and initiative. In short, we are proud of our students for involving themselves in a variety of activities that were sometimes outside of their comfort zone and yet in line with their values.
Many thanks go to Shabbaton Chair Rena Genauer 2011 and Student Council President Juliana Gamel 2011 for organizing and running a successful Shabbaton. Rena worked with a large group of students to plan and execute the event. To name a few (and hopefully we won't forget anyone): Amos Boldor, Ashley Cohen, Ellie Silesky, Ben Golden, Binny Greene, Daniella Rivkin, Dena Phillips, Elie Aboulafia, Jamie Schwartz, Jennifer Mendoza, Jeremy Voss, Jonny Sassoon, Josh Gladstein, Josh Voss, Julia Owen,Makena Owens, Molly Dubow, Sarah Varon, Sarar Rossen, Shawn Sobel, Shmuel Treiger, Yotam BenTov, Zak Shayne, and Zev Behar.
Thank you to Eli Varon for an amazingly tasty, non-stop supply, of the most delicious food.
Thank you to Isser Rubelow and his family for joining us for the Shabbaton and speaking about his experience as a religious Jew in the US Army.
Thank you to Assaf Nissanboym for speaking with our students about his experience as an Israeli Soldier and why Israel should be important to us as Jews.
Thank you to our Oneg cholent makers: Benjamina Menashe, Shirly Fox, Sarah Weiss, and Ariella Margolese
Thank you to the Teachers & Staff for bringing their families and spending Shabbat with us.
Thank you to all the alumni that gave up of their busy schedules and some who traveled long distances to be with us.
Thank you to Kevin Hanan for helping produce the Shabbaton T-Shirts-they look great!
Thank you to Karen, Melissa, Michelle and Edison for taking care of a ton of details that made the Shabbaton possible.
Thank you to all the students who made the Shabbaton a ton of fun and a meaningful experience for everyone there.
Shabbat shalom!
Rabbi Yona Margolese
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