Chanukah House Photos!

Ezra, Eliyahu, and the Yitzhaks.  What a team!  

Kulam b'yachad.  My favorite class. 

Yehudit showed huge talent in cookie house design.

Eliyahu found the food coloring...

A Chanukah Sukkah!

Lili and Shmoosh got creative with some extra special ingredients. 

The Kitah Zayin B'nai Mitzvah Gift

Shalom Kitah Zayin Parents! 

Happy Chanukah to all! I hope your winter break has been relaxing and regenerative!  

Now that the holidays have passed and there is a minute to breath, I want to send an email updating everyone on the status and details of our class B'nai Mitzvah project.  

As you know, we have been spending our Wednesdays critically examining the Jewish value of tzedakah.  To do this, we have been following the American Jewish World Service's "Where Do You Give? A Tzedakah Curriculum".  "Where Do You Give?" provides the class the tools to think about giving tzedakah in a thoughtful, responsible, and impactful way.  It has been my goal to inspire this year's 7th grade class to make life-long commitments to giving in the pursuit of social justice.

As the culmination of our tzedakah unit, Kitah Zayin has chosen to make a class donation to Special Olympics Maryland (http://www.somd.org/).  

In addition to the money that the kids are raising in our class tzedakah box, we are offering an additional and optional tzedakah project for your families.  If you would like to take part, instead of giving an individual B'nai Mitzvah gift at each class Bat or Bar Mitzvah, send a "lump sum" check to Oseh Shalom. These checks will be put into our class tzedakah account and the money will be presented to Special Olympics Maryland as a group gift from all the 7th grade families.

Please give according to how much you are comfortable.  Giving tzedakah is a very personal act and one that should be made from the heart and with joy.  I strongly encourage you to include your 7th graders when deciding how much to give. The giving will be confidential.

Here is how it will work:

1) Please send in a check made out to Oseh Shalom in whatever amount you choose. This "lump sum" will take the place of giving individual Bat/Bar Mitzvah gifts to each student.

2) Every time your student attends a classmate's Bar or Bat Mitzvah, please have your student create a special card for that classmate that states that "a gift as been given in honor of your Bar/Bat Mitzvah to Special Olympics Maryland as part of the 7th grade B'nai Mitzvah gift."

3) The deadline for checks will be Sunday, March 29th. This will give the class enough time to prepare and present our gift before the end of the year.

As always, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to email me!

B’Shalom,

Morah Mikey

Happy Chanukah Kitah Zayin!

Happy Chanukah to all!  May this holiday of lights be warm and bright, and may you find peace in family and latkes. 

Be on the lookout for photos from our evening of Chanukah House decorating!

B'Shalom,

Mikey

הודו וחג ההודייה - Turkey Day Hebrew to Impress Your Guests!

The secular holiday of Thanksgiving is one celebrated by all sects of American Jewry. This holiday, based on the expression of gratitude, resonates strongly with the Jewish emphasis on acknowledging our blessings.

As Rabbi Shavit Artson says in the article Expanding Circles of Thanks (see article below), "The term Jew comes from the Hebrew word Yehuda meaning thanks, joy, and gratitude. At the core of the Jewish way is a resilient joy that directs our attention toward the blessings we already have, those we need to work toward to realize, and the need to share those blessings in community."

So, in recognition and celebration of Thanksgiving, we learned some Hebrew vocabulary to help us celebrate. Most important for this day is the Hebrew word for gratitude (הַכָּרַת טוֹבָה). The class also especially loved the words for sweet potato (בָּטָטָה) and cranberry (חֲמוּצִית).

הוֹדָיָה or חַג הָהוֹדָיָה - Thanksgiving (non-vocalized spelling: הודייה)

Surprisingly, the word "turkey" in Hebrew looks similar.

הוֹדוּ - turkey 

הוֹדוּ מְמוּלָא - stuffed turkey
(and speaking of stuffing, the same word ממולא is used for the gefilte fish: דַג ממולא)

Other words to know for Thanksgiving:

Gratitude: הַכָּרַת טוֹבָה

Pilgrim:  צַלְיָן

Pie: פַּשְׁטִידָה

Sweet Potato: בָּטָטָה

Cornucopia: קֶרֶן הַשֶּׁפַע

Harvest: אָסִיף

Corn: תִּירָס

Pumpkin: דְּלַעַת

Gravy: צִיר

Pecan: אֱגוֹז פֶּקָן

Meal: אֲרוּחָה

Food: אֹכֶל, מָזוֹן

Full (satisfied): שָׂבֵעַ

Delicious: טָעִים

Hungry: רָעֵב

November: נוֹבֶמְבֶּר

Autumn: סְתָו

Squash: קִשּׁוּא

Thankful: אֲסִיר תּוֹדָה

Family: מִשְׁפָּחָה

Cranberry:חֲמוּצִית

Expanding Circles of Thanks - A Reading for Thanksgiving

Expanding Circles of Thanks

Rabbi Bradley Shavit Artson

Click here for full article

It is common among Jews to assume that Thanksgiving is really a Jewish holiday. Quoting nameless "historians," the inspiration for the Pilgrim's thanksgiving feast was the Biblical Festival of Sukkot -- a fall festival that expresses gratitude for the harvest, for the land, and is celebrated in booths adorned with fall bounty and color, complete with feasting on seasonally appropriate fare. At the core of the Sukkot observance is the recitation of Hallel (psalms sung as expressions of exultant thanks), and the shaking of the lulav and etrog (a bundle of plants symbolizing life, abundance and thanks).

Puritans were deeply immersed in the Hebrew Bible. They saw themselves as the new Israelites -- hence many took Hebrew names, gave their new settlements names from the Land of Israel, saw themselves on a new exodus journey to a new promised land. Their knowledge of Scripture was deep and personal -- they would have resonated to a celebration of autumnal bounty conducted by a people journeying from oppression to freedom.

The Sukkot theory of Thanksgiving is really great. And it could even be true. The only challenge is that I couldn't find any colonial Puritan authors who made that claim. What is charming about it, nonetheless, is the resonance that so many Jews feel toward Thanksgiving. It is a very "Jewish" holiday, even if it wasn't a Jewish holiday to begin with: Great meal, great company, celebrating life and joy and resilience and freedom in community. All values embedded deeply in Jewish tradition.

The term "Jew" comes from the Hebrew word Yehudah meaning thanks, joy, gratitude. At the core of the Jewish way is a resilient joy that directs our attention toward the blessings we already have, those we need to work toward to realize, and the need to share those blessings in community.

...

Rabbi Dr. Bradley Shavit Artson holds the Abner and Roslyn Goldstine Dean's Chair of the Ziegler School of Rabbinic Studies and is Vice President of American Jewish University in Los Angeles. A member of the Philosophy Department, he is particularly interested in theology, ethics and the integration of science and religion, as an advocate of Process Thought. He supervises the Miller Introduction to Judaism Program and mentors Camp Ramah in California. He is the author of 10 books and over 250 articles.

HOMEWORK!! Sunday, November 16, 2014

Parents!

Your kids have homework this week!  Here is the link to the GoogleDoc worksheet!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B30gfYBvbYfGbUwyRzhZRE1zWFk/view?usp=sharing

As we move toward choosing a charity for our class tzedakah gift, I want to emphasize to the kids the importance of researching organizations to learn if they spend thier money wisely and to evaluate whether thier programs respond to the articulated needs of the communities they seek to help.  

The website,  Charity Navigator (http://www.charitynavigator.org/), evaluates charitable organizations and is a helpful resource for learning about organizations before donating. I want the students to visit the website, choose an organization that interests them, and then answer the questions on the worksheet.  They will be presenting thier findings to the class on Wednesday.

Thank you for all your help!  I appreciate you guys so much!  

Morah Mikey

Classroom Update!

To all you wonderful parents!

I want to update you on our curriculum and keep you up to date with what is happening in the classroom!

Our current curriculum is two-fold - divided into Wednesdays and Sundays.

Until we part for winter break, our Wednesdays are being spent discussing tzedakah.  We are following a curriculum developed by the American Jewish World Service called "Where Do You Give".  I chose this curriculum because 7th grade is an extremely transformative year during which your kids are transitioning into a life of Jewish adulthood and, thus, Jewish responsibility. I want the class to understand that very few people are born with the privilege that we enjoy.  With this privilege comes a great deal of responsibility and an obligation to fight for those people who are less equipped to fight for themselves.  At the root of tzedakah is tzedek - or justice - and I want the kids to be thinking about how their actions create a more just community and, thus, a more just world. Our tzedakah curriculum will culminate with a class-wide B'nai Mitzvah tzedakah gift. In addition, the kids will be making personal tzedakah boxes that will represent their own individual ideas of giving.  Once we are finished with our tzedakah curriculum we will begin our class Parsha Project.

Now to Sundays...on Sundays we have been talking about our Jewish history.  By the end of the semester we will be reaching the Holocaust and the entirety of next semester will be focused on studying WWII.  So far we have covered the Russian Jewish shtetl, the pogroms in Eastern Europe, and the resulting wave of Jewish immigration to the US.  Next week we begin talking about Zionism! Am yisrael chai!

In Hebrew we are plugging away at the prayers that begin our Torah service.  So far we have learned Ein Kamocha and Av HaRachamim.  By Thanksgiving we will be embarking on Brachot HaTorah - the blessings before and after the Torah reading . This is a big deal for our B'nai Mitzvah!

I have the pleasure of teaching your kids twice a week and I wish I could teach them more often.  Since I can't, in order for them to fully absorb the material, I rely on you, parents, to reinforce concepts and ideas at home.  Please dig.  Ask the kids what they are learning.  How does it relate to their everyday lives?  I want them to be thinking about this material as they walk through the rest of the week.  We are Jewish ALWAYS, not just in Hebrew school, and I want these kids to leave 7th grade and proceed forward with a Jewish identity that sticks and continues to shape their lives forever.

Have a happy week.  Shavuah Tov!
Mikey

Shakshuka

Shakshuka!

  

This is what we made with Chef Elliot during our cooking special on Sunday.  If you haven't had the pleasure of experiencing Jerusalem's dietary staple...here is the recipe just for you!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium brown or white onion, peeled and diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 medium green or red bell pepper, chopped
• 4 cups ripe diced tomatoes, or 2 cans (14 oz. each) diced tomatoes
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp chili powder (mild)
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp paprika
• Pinch of cayenne pepper (or more to taste-- spicy!)
• Pinch of sugar (optional, to taste)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 5-6 eggs
• 1/2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (optional, for garnish)

Prep Time: 10 Minutes

Total Time: 30 - 40 Minutes

Servings: 5-6

DIRECTIONS:

• Heat a deep, large skillet or sauté pan on medium. Slowly warm olive oil in the pan. Add chopped onion, sauté for a few minutes until the onion begins to soften. Add garlic and continue to sauté till mixture is fragrant.
• 
  

• 

  Add the bell pepper, sauté for 5-7 minutes over medium until softened.
  



Add tomatoes and tomato paste to pan, stir till blended. Add spices and sugar, stir well, and allow mixture to simmer over medium heat for 5-7 minutes till it starts to reduce. At this point, you can taste the mixture and spice it according to your preferences. Add salt and pepper to taste, more sugar for a sweeter sauce, or more cayenne pepper for a spicier shakshuka (be careful with the cayenne...).

Crack the eggs, one at a time, directly over the tomato mixture, making sure to space them evenly over the sauce. I usually place 4-5 eggs around the outer edge and 1 in the center. The eggs will cook "over easy" style on top of the tomato sauce.

 

• Cover the pan. Allow mixture to simmer for 10-15 minutes, or until the eggs are cooked and the sauce has slightly reduced. Keep an eye on the skillet to make sure that the sauce doesn't reduce too much, which can lead to burning.
• Some people prefer their shakshuka eggs more runny. If this is your preference, let the sauce reduce for a few minutes before cracking the eggs on top-- then, cover the pan and cook the eggs to taste.

• Garnish with the chopped parsley, if desired. Shakshuka can be eaten for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. For breakfast, serve with warm crusty bread or pita that can be dipped into the sauce (if you’re gluten-intolerant or celebrating Passover, skip the bread). For dinner, serve with a green side salad for a light, easy meal.

B'tai Avon!

Sunday, October 26th

Parents!  Another Sunday with your kids! Everyday I appreciate them more and more.  Last week we began to explore Jewish immigration to the US at the turn of the century.  As a follow-up to that lesson, today we had a special guest speaker! The synagogue's Executive Director, Barry Nove, came and spent an hour with us sharing his family's own immigration story.  Barry has researched the immigration process in depth and has even written a book about the Jewish Ellis Island experience.  He came loaded with photos, original documents and  anecdotes.  Ask your kids about the immigrants and bananas!

We left Barry to join Chef Elliot in the kitchen for cooking.  Today we made butternut squash and apple soup. It was warm and delicious.  Check out the pictures below! 

Here are some Hebrew words we learned today in case you want to follow-up at home: kitchen (mitbach), strength (oz), none (eyn) , like you (camocha), sovereignty (malchutecha),  generation (dor), forever and ever (l'olam v'ed).  

See you Wednesday!

L'hitraot,

Morah Mikey

 
 

 

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Shalom l'kulam!

I would first like to shout a hearty MAZEL TOV to Dylan Holzman!  His Bar Mitzvah was Saturday...marking the first in the class! Yasher Koach Dylan!

Now to this Sunday...a whirlwind!

Our day started with Hebrew.  The holidays are over and its time to start rolling with our Saturday Morning Service prayers.  This week's focus:  Ein Kamocha. We recite Ein Kamocha to mark the beginning of the Saturday morning Torah service.  This prayer is meant to build congregational anticipation for the Torah reading.  For the Bar/Bat Mitzvah the prayer is meant to prepare our hearts and our minds for the coming reading.  Much like we anticipate our B'nai Mitzvah with study and preparation, so we anticipate the Torah reading with Ein Kamocha.

We moved from tefillah into judaics as we began to explore the great migration of Eastern European Jews to the United States - the Land of Opportunity.  What was pushing us away from Europe and what was pulling us toward the US?  What challenges did we face? What was the journey like?  Once we arrived, where did we go and what did we do?  Next week our very own Barry Nove will come and present to the class about his family's immigration experience.  He has written a book about this story and it is a treat to hear his retelling of the story.  He even comes in costume!

I have sent the kids home with a mission.  I want your families to discuss your individual immigration stories. When did your family arrive?  From where did you come?  What drove your family to leave home for a far-away land?    

We closed our day in the kitchen with Chef Elliot.  We made caramel apples to celebrate the new year and the fall harvest!  The kids loved it!  The apples were delicious and the company sweet.

REMINDER! Our next TeenConnect event will be this Saturday, October 25th from 7-9pm.  The kids should meet at Monster Mini-Golf in Jessup, MD for pizza and putt putt!  Costumes are encouraged! $12 per attendee!

Have a wonderful week! Shavua Tov!
Morah Mikey

Sukkot!

Today was our sukkah party!  It was REALLY fun.  I may have over-sugared your children and, for that, I am so sorry. 

We began class by talking about Sukkot.  Why do we celebrate?  How do we celebrate?  We learned how to shake the lulav and etrog.  We learned the proper building dimensions and qualifications for the sukkah structure.   We learned the prayer that we recite when we sit in the sukkah and we talked about the tradition of ushpizin (the Aramaic word for "guests").  

Then the real fun began! Using graham crackers, pretzels, frosting, and LOTS of candy the kids each constructed their very own sukkah.  SO MUCH SUGAR.  It was so cool to see the finished projects. Everyone came at the project a little differently and everyone was really proud of their creations...even our madrichot participated. Just like a true sukkah, intended for impermanence, so were our little edible edifications.  As quickly as they went up...they came down...because we ate them. 

To close, we enjoyed a meal of falafel in the synagogue sukkah while we played Sukkot Jewpardy.  We had a blast!


Here is the evidence of what once was...

  

 

  

 

 

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B30gfYBvbYfGamNxTGtzY05EZXM&usp=sharing

For those of you whose kids attended our first TeenConnect event on Saturday...thank you! It was wonderful. It was great to spend quality time together outside of the classroom!  Our next event is October 25th! Monster Mini-Golf!