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| HEADMASTER'S MESSAGE | |
 This week we read parshat Terumah. It discusses the construction of the Mishkan, which was a portable Temple and the precursor to the Beit Hamikdash. The Torah tells us that the materials used in building the Mishkan and fabricating its components were donated by the people. In this context the Torah states, "Speak to the children of Israel and they will take for me donations." The word "take" appears to be a misnomer; it should say "give," because the people were giving their donations to the Mishkan-builders. The Torah is teaching us a profound lesson here. When we support charities and worthy causes we are not only giving, we are also taking. We are acquiring for ourselves the merit of having used our wealth for something loftier than mere personal gain or pleasure. At the end of life, people rarely remember the money they spent on themselves, but they often do recall with pride the resources they used to help others.
Shabbat Shalom!
Rabbi Kahn
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SHAKESPEARE 2014
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Another amazing Shakespeare Festival was capped off by a fantastic performance by the 7th graders. Standout scenes from Romeo and Juliet, Taming of the Shrew, MacBeth, Hamlet and A Midsummer Night's Dream gave the students an opportunity to shine in their Shakespearean costumes and roles.
New this year are several scenes that have never been done before at CTA which come from As You Like It, Much Ado about Nothing and The Tempest.
The students' interest in learning about Shakespeare is transcended by their enthusiasm to participate in the play.
The musical component of the performance was a special "Pirate Rap" and "What does the Bard Say?" (to the gone-viral "What does the Fox Say" song off YouTube). The Shakespeare experience has been a part of the 7th grade Language Arts curriculum for many years and scores of 7th grade classes have fond memories of their Shakespeare run at CTA. The experience also provides exposure to the theater experience and what it takes to act, produce, direct, costume and prop a complete play.
Special thank you to Artist in Residence, Angela Barch, 7th grade Teacher, Sage Moreno, and a host of parents and other helpers. The experience for 7th grade students is bonding as much as confidence building. Many of them have had no acting experience and for the boys, it is their first opportunity to wear tights as part of their costumes.
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Sunday, February 2: Singers & Songwriters - CANCELLED
Monday, February 3: Ravioli-Volunteer: Y. Levi
Tuesday, February 4: Hamburgers-Volunteer: L. Hoffman
Executive Board Meeting, 7:30pm
Wednesday, February 5: Lasagna-Volunteer: A. Kohn
PLAN Test, Grade 10
Thursday, February 6: Breaded Chicken-Volunteer: O. Gerberg
Friday, February 7: Fish Sticks-Volunteer: C. Wolt
Grandparents & Special Person's Day, Grades K-6, 12:30-2pm
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February 12-17: Varsity Girls Basketball Tournament, Miami, FL
Friday, February 14: Professional Development for all Faculty-NO SCHOOL
Monday, February 17: President's Day - NO SCHOOL
Wednesday, February 19: Mid 3rd Quarter
Friday, February 21: PSAS Financial Assistance Forms Due
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It's Basketball Season!
Middle School Girls, 5:00 pm
HOME Games vs. New Hope Christian
Middle School Girls, 5:00 pm
Middle Boys, 6:15 pm
Thursday, February 6
HOME Game vs. Genoa Christian
Varsity Girls, 5:30 pm
AWAY Games vs. Oakstone Academy
Middle School Boys, 5:00 pm
Varsity Boys, 6:30 pm
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SCRIP UPDATE - PLACES TO PURCHASE SCRIP
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CTA Scrip Office, 864-0299 ext. 112
Monday-Thursday- 7:30am-4pm
Friday-7:30am-2pm
The Scrip Office keeps a variety of available scrip on hand. Special order scrip from hundreds of stores is available by sending your request to scrip@torahacademy.org. To see a complete selection of all of the Scrip choices, go to www.glscrip.com. To benefit CTA with online purchases, register at www.iGive.com.
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Remember: Target Take Charge of Education Program; Box Tops for Education; Giant Eagle Apples for Students, Kroger card, and empty inkjet cartridges into the box at the front office. To view the vendors participating in the Scrip Program go to www.glscrip.com.
Call & Deliver Program for Scrip: email scrip@torahacademy.org or call 864-0299 to order scrip and have it delivered to your home!
If you would like to volunteer, contact Volunteer Coordinator, Kim Abelman, at 855-5195 or kimabel3@gmail.com. Volunteer time is worth $25 per hour towards Give & Get.
Featured Fundraisers: Fun Factory collection of Ink Jet cartridges, and iGive.com.
 Don't forget to take advantage of the Target RED Card Take Charge of Education program. Cut and paste to link your RED Card with CTA. https://www-secure.target.com/redcard/tcoe/school-details-2014?schoolId=14319&enroll=enroll. You will need to have your RED Card number with you when designating. This past quarter, CTA earned $785 thanks to your purchases.
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NEWS FROM THE LOWER SCHOOL JUDAIC STUDIES DEPARTMENT
By Dror Karavani, Lower School Judaic Studies Coordinator |
 Chag HaChumash
Rabbi Hauser's Second Grade Chag HaChumash celebration took place this past Thursday. The learning of the parshiot in order of the Torah begins in second grade. During the first half of the year, the students start to develop basic skills, using a Chumash workbook and a Chumashone from the Tal Am program. This combines an understanding of the pesukim in Hebrew in a simple and friendly way. The last part of the year, the students will start to use their actual Chumash and study from the text in order to accomplish these goals.In their festive costumes and crowns, singing and dancing was part of their special production called, "The Dispute of the Mountains", which was about the reasons that Hashem chose the humble Har Sinai for the giving of the Torah. The children even memorized all of the 54 names of the parashiot!  Kol HaKavod! Special gifts in honor of this occasion were sent to each of the students from their friends at the Shiloh school in Israel.The students also decorated the covers of their Chumash with their parents and concluded their celebration with delicious, personalized treats. May the sweetness from these festivities remain with the students throughout their further learning experiences in their lives.Special thanks go to Rabbi Hauser for his dedication to and love of teaching our students on a daily basis. Mazel tov!!
Rosh Chodesh Adar Alef (1)
The spirit of Judaism is a very important part of our curriculum. At every opportunity, we try to strengthen the connection to our Jewish tradition from the academic side as well as the experiential side. Chodesh Adar is definitely a wonderful time to do this. On Friday, smiles were seen everywhere, as each one marveled at seeing hats worn in honor of Silly Hat Day. Of course, the traditional treat sent to us by our friends in the Shiloh School in Israel brought additional happiness to the celebration. Our students will not forget this Rosh Chodesh! Imagine Rosh Chodesh Adar Bet (2) which is coming up...
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ON THE UP & UP:
NEWS FROM THE UPPER SCHOOL JUDAIC STUDIES DEPT.
By Rabbi Zecharia Weitz |
Carpe Diem! The advent of the "Cold Day" has raised all types of new challenges and opportunities. "What degree is officially too cold?", "What do we do all day if there's snow to play with?", "Are we allowed to admit that we are sick of being home all day and kind of miss school?" etc.
Rabbi's Drandoff and Frankiel, however, had other concerns: "Our students can't go 2 days without learning Torah" Rabbi Drandoff voiced. With a few swift text messages and 5 pies of Krogers pizza, Rabbis Drandoff and Frankiel organized a lunch-&-learn for the H.S. students, hosted at Beth Jacob. After 45 minutes of engaging topics, we all benched, davened mincha with a minyan and left feeling like we did something fun and worthwhile with our polar vortex.
An Omission: Somehow I neglected to include one awesome alumni from last week's article: Sarah Miriam Ginsburg, who was among the all-star panel of alumni who came to address our senior class two weeks ago. Thank you all again!!
Table Topic: Gold is currently $1,240.70 an ounce. I don't know what it went for in the 2448 (the Jew's 1st year in the desert) but it was the most precious metal than as well (platinum was not yet discovered). Can you imagine what 24K gold covered walls - 2 measuring approximately 45 feet and 1 measuring 15 feet, would cost! And yet, after constructing this holy area, we are instructed to cover these walls with layers of fabric and hides! Why?!
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SAY IT IN HEBREW
By Galit Golan, Hebrew Language Coordinator |
 This year the Migdalor curriculum was added to the lower school Hebrew program of studies, in addition to the Tal Am curriculum. The Migdalor 5th grade curriculum focuses on different feelings. Fifth grade students learn feeling-related stories and poems. As part of the learning process, the students read the poems and wrote poems and stories of their own. The next step was for the students to type their poems in Hebrew, add vowels, and videotape  themselves reading their poems. To achieve that the students had to master computer skills such as using a Hebrew typing software, using an online dictionary and using an online vowels tool. For the recording part, the students learned how to use "Windows Movie
Maker" and record themselves independently. This process teaches the students how to manage and execute their project independently, check their own work, listen to themselves read, and correct if necessary. See Moshe Metz's poem below.
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| MAZAL TOV TO: |
Eugene Shats (Class of '99) on his engagement to Anna Krayter (Class of
'01)
Yuriy Shats (Class of '03) on his engagement to Vika Zalygayeva (Class of
'04)
Leonid Gorelik (Class of '02) on his engagement to Lena Sheludkova
(Class of '02)
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| CONDOLENCES TO: |
Betsey Lane on the passing of her uncle, Mike Pontelle
Elaine Shindel, grandmother to Sarah Shindel, on the passing of her
brother, Rabbi Avrohom Leib Hershoff
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| ALUMN BRADLEY ROSENSTEIN RUNNING 10K FOR YACHAD |
Hello everyone! I am running the Jerusalem 10k marathon this coming March to raise money for Yachad Israel. Yachad is a great organization which helps kids and adults who have special needs fulfill their potential in life. Please help sponsor my run by donating money to my page! All proceeds are tax deductable! Thanks for your time! http://jerusalem.teamyachad.com/runner/peanuts10/.
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| HOT LUNCH FORMS |
Hot lunch and high school breakfast forms were due on January 15. Is your form still sitting on your kitchen table with a pile of other forms that also need to be filled out? Please fill out your form and send it in with your check as soon as possible.
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PSAS FORMS DUE FEBRUARY 28
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Do not delay in completing your Tuition Assistance Forms for 2014-2015! New this year, forms received late will be assessed $30 from PSAS and $500 from CTA. That is a severe penalty!
Remember, there are two ways to fill out your forms. Download from www.torahacademy.org and mail your completed forms directly to PSAS or, new this year, go to www.psas.org/4944 and submit all of your data online. If you have your 2012 tax return submitted from last year, you will be able to recall those.
If you need any help or have any questions, contact Norm Leist at nleist@torahacademy.org.
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| GRANDPARENTS & SPECIAL PERSON'S DAY |
Don't Forget: Grandparents and Special Persons Day next Friday, February 7 from 12:30-2 pm. The program will feature a short presentation in the shul and then invitees will go to the classrooms to engage in learning activities with the students. Please share or forward the invitation to your child's special someone. Please do not plan to bring younger children. If you do not have a grandparent in town, help your child choose an adult (ie: babysitter, neighbor, rabbi, teacher) who will enjoy spending time with them at school. The children are excited to have a special someone and sad if they do not.
12:30-12:45 pm Presentation in Shul
12:40-2:00 pm Classroom Activities by grade level
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| SCHOOL'S OUT DAY |
Schools Out Day
February 17, 2014
9:00 am - 3:30 pm
Make and Take Day
Spend the day at the J making all your favorite projects to take home!
Lanyard, beading, pottery, trinket boxes, sand art and more!
Design your own projects and take everything home that day!
Bring your swimsuit, towel and favorite pool toy for
swimming in the indoor pool as well as
your muscles for indoor gym time!
Weather permitting we will go outside as well.
Cost: $50 for members and $70 for non-members
For more information and to register for the School's Out Day,
please contact Kim Moore at 559-6253 or kmoore@columbusjcc.org
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| BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION - INVITATION TO SHOP | |
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| BOX TOPS FOR EDUCATION CALENDAR | |
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1. How many types of items were the Jews to donate?
a. 13.
2. The donation of silver for the Mishkan differed from the donation of the other items. How?
a. No fixed amount of the other items was required. The silver was given as a fixed amount: a half-shekel.
3. What property do techelet and argaman share that orot eilim m'adamin do not share?
a. They are wool; orot eilim are not.
4. What property do the above three share that shesh and orot techashim do not share?
a. They are dyed; shesh and orot techashim are not.
5. Onkelos translates "tachash" as "sadgona." Why?
a. The tachash delights (sas) in its multi-colors (g'vanim).
6. What kind of trees did Yaakov plant in Egypt?
a. Arazim-cedars.
7. Describe two uses of: (a) oil; (b) spices; (c) jewels
a. The oil was lit in the menorah and used for anointing. The spices were used in the anointing of the oil and for incense. The precious stones were for the ephod and the choshen.
8. The aron was made with three boxes, one inside the other. Exactly how tall was the outer box?
a. The outer box was one and a half amot plus a tefach plus a little bit, because it rose a little bit above the kaporet. (The kaporet was a tefach thick.)
(Parsha Terumah Quiz appeared on the Ohr Somayach website)
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As part of our partnership with the Shiloh school in Israel, we will be receiving riddles each week relating to the Parasha. You will notice this each week on this back page. The goal is to have the parents and children discuss the parasha, while trying to figure out the connection between the picture and the parasha. All answered riddles should be given to the Judaic teacher on Monday. The names of the winners will be announced and sent to our friends in Israel.
What is the connection between the symbol of the Israeli paratroopers and one of the Kailim (vessels) of the Mishkan? Look in Chapter 25, Verse 20. You will find the answer there.
Moreh Dror Karavani will collect all of the submitted answers, put them in a box, and save them for the big raffle! You will hear more about this very soon. Keep your answers coming.
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I hope you enjoy the electronic version of our Dateline. Please check out our website at www.torahacademy.org.
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