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The Agnon Agenda
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Spring 2009 #3
electronic edition
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Greetings!
Welcome to the third and last electronic Agenda of the school year, part of our continued effort to "go green." Feel free to forward this newsletter to grandparents, other family members and friends who may be interested in learning about The Agnon School.
Please note: Agnon's new e-mail newsletter contains several pictures. If your e-mail software prevents you from viewing them, add kpeskin@agnon.org to your e-mail software's address book or, in Microsoft Outlook, to the "safe sender list." Alternately, click here to view the e-mail as a webpage.
Contents:
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 True Value
by Jerry Isaak-Shapiro, Head of School
For months they've been the star themes of our daily
headlines and evening newscasts.
Deficits and debits and debts; how much is owed and to whom - these are
the topics and questions that have invaded and captured our national
discourse. The non-profit world has been
struck in a particularly distressing fashion, and Jewish day schools, as a
subset of that world, have certainly not been immune. 
As the academic year winds down, it's appropriate to address
these concepts and to try to answer those questions. Yet to really benefit from the exercise, it's
equally important to approach these issues from an altogether different
perspective. Let's start with the
concept of debt - just what is owed and to whom?
We do indeed owe a debt - an enormous debt - to all those
who came before us. Those genuine
pioneers who forty years ago thought to found a school that would transcend
denominational boundaries and reach out and teach to the entire breadth of the
Jewish community. How do we reach the
stars? We stand upon the shoulders of
giants. Those founders and donors
and first parents - and first students - were those giants, and our debt to
them is incalculable.
Read more from Jerry -->>
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Pen is Powerful at Agnon
 Congratulations to the 12 Agnon Middle School students who participated in "Power of the
Pen" and in particular to 7th grader Molly Kazen and 8th grader Max Barnett, who represented our school at the state level in May
after successfully competing in the district and regional tournaments.
In "Power of the Pen," a
leading Ohio interscholastic program in written expression, 7th  and
8th graders write in three genres on topics not known in advance.
Coached by Language Arts teacher Tracey Lavine, Agnon students competed against
opponents from 275 schools. |
Frankel and Oif win
Agnon Alumni Scholarships
At the May Annual
Meeting, Agnon presented college scholarships to Daren Frankel (Agnon Class of 2005) who recently graduated from
University School and will be attending the University of Pennsylvania and Alana Oif (Agnon Class of 2004) who is
a freshman at The Ohio State University.
Based on merit, funding
for this scholarship was made possible through the Bernie and Ethel Lazar Alumni Scholarship Award. After this year, the fund is being
retired.
Excerpts from Frankel's and Oif's winning essays:
Daren Frankel: "Every structure, whether it is a one-bedroom
home or a towering corporate skyscraper, is erected on a sturdy and promising
foundation. Agnon built a foundation for
me in every academic subject." Read more-->>
Alana Oif: "Agnon
provided me with a family that accepted me and encouraged me to be the very
best I could be. Yes, Agnon had an
amazing curriculum, but it wasn't the physical classes that impacted me
alone. What truly changed me was not
learning about the Civil War, but instead learning indirectly about my Jewish
identity and receiving the push to succeed from teachers who sincerely cared
about me." Read more-->>
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Agnon Elects New Board Members
Congratulation to the following new members elected to Agnon's Board of Trustees during the school's recent Annual Meeting. Their terms begin Jun3 2009.
Clockwise from upper left: For a term beginning June 2009:
- Ryan Rivchun (1-year term filling a vacated seat)
- Dan Dobres (3 year term)
- Glenn Starkman (3 year term
- Michael Pasternak (3 year term)
- Emily Ludwig (3 year term)
- Helen Salz (3 year term)
- Karil Bialastosky (3 year term)
- Scott Simon (not pictured; 3 year term)
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Jerry Isaak-Shapiro
Selected As RAVSAK Program Mentor
Agnon Head of School Jerry Isaak-Shapiro is one of four
Jewish day school leaders in North America selected by RAVSAK, the national
Jewish community day school network, to mentor this summer for Project SuLaM: Study, Leadership and Mentoring.
Jerry will teach and mentor
participants during a ten-day seminar in New York focused on liturgy, Jewish
history and achieving a balance between excellence in Judaics and general
studies.
Jerry was
among the first Project SuLaM mentors when this unique two-year
professional development program began in 2005 with funding from the AVI CHAI
Foundation. He rejoins the program for 2009-2011 session, which will include
two intensive ten-day summer seminars, Shabbatonim,
monthly phone/video check-ins and site visits in both the mentee's school and
their mentor's school.
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Class of 2009: Strong Start to a Great Finale
Mazel tov to our entire 8th grade graduating class who
will attend the following high schools in the fall:
Beachwood High School ●
Hawken School ● Laurel School ● Mayfield High School ● Orange High School ● Shaker Heights High
School ● Solon High School ● University School
We wish continued
success to our Class of 2005, now graduating high school and accepted at:
Bowling Green State
University ● Brandeis University ● Case Western Reserve University ● Drexel ●
Emory
University ●
Indiana
University ●
Kent
State University ● Miami
University ●
Michigan State University ● Muhlenberg College ● Northwestern University ● Ohio State University ●
Ohio State University-Honors College ● Ohio State University-Scholars College ●
Ohio
University ● Purdue University ● Syracuse University ● Tulane University ●
University of Illinois ● University of Miami-Coral Gables ● University of Michigan ●
University
of New Hampshire ● University
of Pennsylvania ● University
of Pittsburgh ● University
of Vermont ●
University
of Wisconsin
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Washington University ● Youngstown
State University
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Alumni Update
Featuring Stephen Lazar, Agnon Class of 1996
Stephen Lazar, Agnon Class of 1996, reflects on the impact of Agnon teachers -- like Michele Sudow, Barbara Goldstein, Pam Delong, Barbara Weiss and Leah Spector -- on his own career as a teacher. Stephen, a Brown University graduate, has spent the past four years teaching in a new public high school in the Bronx, in a pilot program which increased graduation rates from 20% to an astonishing 92%.
He writes:
"As I've gotten older, I've continued to realize more and more just how much I benefitted from my 11 years at Agnon; and how Agnon put its own imprint on my life ... Agnon showed me the transformative power that teachers who are committed to building relationships with their students, educating the whole child and doing so in a student-centered, project-based, interdisciplinary manner...". Read more about Stephen's teaching experience-->>
Attention Agnon Alumni!
Please keep
us updated on all of your successes and accomplishments by e-mailing
information to Laura Leventhal,
Director of Development.
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Agnon Fund Contributions
A big thank you to all our Agnon contributors. Please click here for a list of Agnon Fund Contributions (Note: The last Fund Contributions list appeared in Fall 2008 in the last printed Agenda newsletter).
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Comments, corrections, or feedback?
Please email Kathy Peskin, Marketing Director, The Agnon School
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"The Mystical City
of Tzfat," by Amilia Teren