IN THIS ISSUE 

January always brings some snow, flurries that gust and blow, but happily (or unhappily, depending largely upon your age) -- haven't accumulated enough to cause a single snow day.  

But, the flurry of activity within the The Agnon School has been very productive this winter, as you'll read below. Among other achievements, we're particularly happy about the enrollment of several new students who join us mid-year, about newly-awarded grants that will permit us to extend school programming and staff training, and about the personal and educational goals reached by our students every day.     

BEAUTIFUL VALUES

How many floors were in the tevah (the ark)?  A dozen four-year old hands shot up: Three!  What did Abraham's father sell in his store?  Fake gods!  How many brothers and sisters did Joseph have?  What did Pharaoh dream?  What did it mean? 

Friday morning I was privileged to sit in on a messibat siyum -- the traditional celebration when students complete a book of the Torah or other passage of learning. These students hadn't completed a tractate of the Talmud, nor had they mastered medieval Biblical commentators or sweated over the difference between Greek and Hebrew renderings of the same passage of Torah. What our pre-Kindergartners did do was demonstrate a sheer love of learning. They remembered that Jacob had to marry Leah before Rachel, and that the "skinny cows ate the fat cows" in Pharaoh's dream, but it was more than that. With their shout-outs of Ya'acov! (Jacob) and Gan Eden! (the Garden of Eden) -- four year-olds only speak with exclamation marks -- they were also showing that they felt connected -- to our ancestors and to our national narrative. 

This session of Tic-Tac-Torah was brought to them courtesy of their teachers' own love of Torah and learning; by an environment that celebrates wondering as much as remembering; and by the opening "ground rules" of the game: that they were celebrating everyone's enthusiastic knowledge of B'reishit, the first book of the Torah that they had just completed.  In that light, the response of either team if the others had more X's than O's was to say, Good game!  Their very comfortable use of the term derech eretz (ethical behavior) wasn't just a sign of memorization abilities - it was a signal that values can be internalized, at the youngest age.

This year we've enrolled seven - soon to be nine in a couple of weeks - mid-year 

transfer students. While Agnon has specific programs and protocols in place to ease the transition, joining a new school can be a daunting experience -- all the more so if one enrolls in October or November or January. I'm very happy to say that our families -- our parents and our students -- also know how to demonstrate the value of hachnasat orachim (showing hospitality to the stranger). Everything from greeting visitors when they enter the room to including the new boy or girl in play to asking about their family, their pet and their life (and listening to the answer) - these are real-life manifestations of hachnasat orachim. We're told that we're to emulate Abraham, who opened his tent flaps in the desert as a welcoming sign to all weary travelers. Our students, I'm happy to say, know full well the value of open doors and welcoming smiles.

Jerry D. Isaak-Shapiro

Head of School  

A record 60+ Agnon middle school students and high school alumni gathered for the 4th annual Camera Scavenger Hunt.  Fourteen teams captured pictures showing the diversity of Cleveland and then gathered back at Agnon for snacks, while judges tallied team points.  Check out the trophy in the front lobby.  Proceeds from the evening benefit the 8th grade Israel trip.  Congratulations to the following winning teams: 

DEVELOPMENT NEWS: ANNUAL FUND FOR ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE

The Annual Fund for Academic Excellence is Agnon's single largest annual fundraising effort, and thanks to the generosity of more than 200 donors to date, we have passed the $450,000 milestone toward our goal of raising $680,000.