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Issue Number
September 25, 2015
Volume 12, Issue 4
Candle Lighting: 6:23 p.m.
Parasha: Ha'azinu
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Dates to Remember
Monday & Tuesday, September 28 & 29 Sukkot No Classes
Wednesday, September 30 - Friday, October 2 Chol HaMoed Sukkot Classes in Session Please see notice below. Saturday, October 3 Neighborhood Sukkah Hops See info below. Monday, October 5 Shmini Atzeret No Classes
Tuesday, October 6 Simchat Torah No Classes
Thursday, October 15 Parent/Tot Class Begins Thursday, October 22 A Trip to Reggio Emilia Presentation on the preschool teachers recent educational trip 7:00 - 8:30 p.m. Preschool
Sunday, October 25 Preschool/Kindergarten Brunch 10:00 - 11:30 a.m. Loeb Hall
Monday, October 26 A Taste of Summer Panel Discussion on Jewish Overnight Camps For Parents, but children are welcome, too! 5:30 p.m. Loeb Hall |
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September 30 - October 1
Please note that there will be no 4:30 p.m. bus and no after-school classes (except for Kids Club and Late Pick-Up) on Wednesday, September 30, and Thursday, October 1, in honor of Chol HaMoed Sukkot.
Kids Club and Late Pick-Up will be in session. If your bus rider usually stays after school and rides the late bus, he/she will come home on the 3:30 p.m. bus unless you notify the front desk.
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Neighborhood Sukkah Hops
Saturday, October 3
Download flyer for Hyde Park Sukkah Hop.
Coordinators for the other neighborhoods are listed below. Look out for more info in next week's Weekly Bulletin!
West Rogers Park: Estie Spero
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Updated School Calendar & Directory are available on the Parent Portal:
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 Dvar Torah
Sukkot
by Rabbi Holman
On Sukkot we take the "Four Species" - Lulav (date palm), Etrog, Hadassim (myrtle) and Aravot (willow) and hold them together. We are told that these symbolize four different kinds of people. The Etrog is both tasty and fragrant. The taste represents intellectual knowledge stored up inside, and the fragrance represents good deeds, the effects of which reach far and wide like a sweet smell. The Etrog has it all.
The Lulav's dates are tasty, but have no fragrance. This represents someone who is learned but does not reach out to help others. The Hadassim (myrtle) smells lovely, but has no taste, symbolizing an ignorant person who nonetheless does kind deeds for others.
The fourth species, the Aravot (willow) has neither taste nor smell and represents the boorish, self-centered person.
On Sukkot, we take all of these species and hold them together, symbolizing our unity, and the importance of each individual. We recognize that, although we may be different, everyone must be valued.
Chag Sameach!
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Mazal tov
...to Shaina Grossman on her Bat Mitzvah this Shabbat.
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Refuah Shleimah
...to our dear Millie Miller who is still recuperating from a disc/nerve issue. Millie wishes everybody a happy and healthy new year, and she's sorry she's not at school.
We hope you feel better soon!
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Donate Honey for the Ark
As a Chesed project, a group of 8th graders is collecting honey to donate to the Ark. Please support their effort to make sure the Ark has enough honey for the upcoming holidays. Bring a jar (or more) and place it in the bin in the school atrium.
This project will run through Sukkot.
Thank you!
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Honey Cakes for Sale
The 8th graders are selling honey cakes for Rosh Hashanah through Sukkot, baked according to Matt Klionsky's special recipe. This is part of their fundraising efforts for their graduation trip to Israel, $15.00 each. Various pick-up dates.
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Revised Tuesday Hot Lunch Calendar & Order Form
Parents, please note the following two REVISED hot lunch documents:
These are also available on the Parent Portal.
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Looking for Hebrew Books
We are looking to expand our library of Hebrew books for all ages. Please look around your homes for Hebrew books that you have outgrown and would like to donate and encourage those you know to do the same. Additionally, if you or someone you know is going to Israel, we would be most grateful to those who would bring a book or two from Israeli bookstores. Please contact Ahuva Wiesenfeld if you have any questions or would like information about Akiba's "Hebrew Book Wishlist."
Thank you for partnering with us!
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Tzedaka to Support ADA Walk
This Sunday, Margalit Roitman (class of 2015) will be walking in the American Diabetes Association's "Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes." Margalit was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes just before starting 7th grade and received a lot of support from her friends and teachers at school. So far, Margalit has raised over $1,000 for the Step Out Walk. To support her, Akiba-Schechter is donating all Tzedaka collected this month to the ADA. Check out Margalit's story here.
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Sukkot Fest in West Rogers Park
Thursday, October 1
1:00 - 4:00 p.m.
Bernard Horwich JCC
3003 W. Touhy
$18/immediate family in advance (max 2 adults), $25 at door
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After-School Programs
Are you interested in an after-school yoga class for 4th through 8th graders? Please email Elisa Aranoff if you are.
There is still room in other after-school classes. Check out the full list here. Use this form to register. Contact Elisa Aranoff, After-School Program Director, for more information.
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Kehillah Korner
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Since 2004 Akiba-Schechter has received $402,983 from the Kehillah Fund. Our allocation this month is $3,794. We are grateful to our leadership and parents who contribute to the fund. Kehillah Fund represents the broad Jewish community and advocates for day school support.
We endorse the Kehillah Fund and are proud of our partnership. Over 1400 community members participate in the recurring donor program in support of day school education. To date, Kehillah Fund allocations to schools across Chicagoland have reached $5.5 million.
Kehillah Fund
8180 McCormick Blvd.
Skokie, IL 60076
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 This Week |
Sukkot and Community
by Miriam Schiller
Principal
As I look at the images of our students and families from this past week and watch our school's beautiful Sukkah come together, I cannot help but think that the holiday of Sukkot is a good metaphor for Akiba-Schechter.
Sukkot is, above all, a holiday about community. In fact, it's the one holiday on which the Torah actually commands us to be happy. Not such a difficult feat when you're cocooned in the Sukkah, surrounded by friends, family, song, food, and the aromas of evergreen branches and citrusy Etrog. Celebrating Sukkot naturally promotes community.
Akiba is a community, too. In fact, it's more than a community; it's an extended family, the center of a matrix of connections. I watch students arrive at school way before 8:30 a.m. to meet and play together, and parents and children stay long after dismissal to sit and talk on the playground. The school is their home base, their source for social and spiritual connection. I see families picking up their challah each week because this is where they've picked up their challah every year for as long as they can remember. I see 7th/8th graders selling honey cakes upon which so many of us feasted after Yom Kippur. I see parents relying on us to order their Lulav and Etrog, and students caring for each other through the Buddy Program. I see Chesed club members posting flyers for a honey drive, and Buddies making New Years cards for hospital patients.
Our school's Sukkah, too, is the physical manifestation of this concept. Ron and Jefferson, our school superheros, built the structure for the Sukkah. Students helped decorate the Sukkah and cover it with Schach. Our neighbors at Congregation Rodfei Zedek will use it on the holidays when we're not in session, and preschool students will come together with 7th/8th graders to learn about the holiday. The Sukkah, like the school, is the physical institution that builds community.
May we continue to strengthen this community for many years to come. Shabbat Shalom and Chag Sameach!
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| | Picking out face paint designs at the All-School Picnic last Sunday. |
Thank You to All Who Made the All-School Picnic Possible
by Kelli Harris
Event and Volunteer Coordinator
It was all blue skies and warm weather for the Akiba-Schechter All School Picnic this year. As I looked around the park, I saw families that were brand new to our school chatting with people who have been with us for over a decade, 7th and 8th graders painting the faces of our littlest students, and parents from the elementary school working with preschool parents to make sure that everyone was well fed and thoroughly entertained.
To me, community is all about coming together and making connections. The Akiba-Schechter community did just that, as they shared in the joy of a beautiful day together! The picnic wouldn't have been possible without the help of the many parents who volunteered their time to serve their community. I'd like to extend my sincere thanks to all of those parents, as well as to Jeff Vernon and Ron Lisak, who did all of the heavy lifting. Thank you to everyone who came, for showing the children the importance of community through your example.
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Preschool
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| | Shana tova from the Lime Room! |
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| | Rabbi Holman visited the Purple Room again, this time to share the Lulav and Etrog with the children in time for Sukkot. |
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| | The Purple Room visited Mrs. Rapp's 1st/2nd grade class to learn about their study of the Whooping Cranes' migration. And they got to pose with the great big crane in the hallway. |
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| | The Blue Room has been buzzing with bees! Matthew and Daniel work on their anatomy of a bee drawings. |
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| | The Kindergarten had a fun trip to the County Line Apple Orchard on Thursday. |
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Grades 1-8
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| | Yonatan and classmates in Mrs. Rapp's 1st/2nd grade work on the wings for the cranes they are creating out of styrofoam, sticks and paper. |
First/Second Graders Study Migration
Mrs. Rapp's 1st/2nd grade is studying the seasons to help them understand migration. From their conversation the question arose: Why do the leaves change color? So on Tuesday they walked around the block observing changes in people's clothing, the trees, the ground, what are people doing. On Thursday and Friday they were busy making Whooping Cranes and they are also sending butterflies to Mexico.
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| | Ezra, Benny, Jed and Nina work with Pentominoes in Mrs. Basa's 4th grade Math class. |
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| | On Erev Yom Kippur (Tuesday), the middle schoolers held a Tashlich ceremony (symbolic casting away for sinds) by the lake. |
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| | 7/8th graders in Mrs. Kahana's class play Hebrew Scrabble for fun. |
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| | The Yearbook Club met for the first time this week. |
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| | Morah Ahuva's Kitah Gimmel (3rd grade) plays a game to review terms for good and bad deeds. |
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| | Mrs. Wiesenfeld's 5/6th grade class makes Sukkah decorations. |
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| | Mrs. Gold and Mrs. Brackman's 7/8th grade Jewish Thought classes prepare a collage on the holiday of Sukkot. |
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Art with Dara
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| | Middle Schoolers (here Ava) studied line, shape, and shade in the mirror and used drawing pencils to carefully draw self-portraits which are now on view in the grade school main hallway. |
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