Shalom!

Before I move forward with what some of my summer projects are, let me first give thanks to a few more people (check last month’s article for the others who helped out this year). On April 18th, we held our first annual TBA Religious School Israel celebration. I hope you attended – it got rave reviews from all who did! We took EL AL flight 2250 from the Sanctuary and the tourists got to enjoy a taste of Israel. Some of the places we visited included: Jerusalem, the Negev desert, Tel Aviv, the Dead Sea, and Haifa. We finished the trip with an authentic Israeli snack! These types of programs require LOTS of help and the following folks came through!

Leading the posse was Ruti Lifshitz. She actually was the force behind the whole scheme, wanting to repay the community for the support we got when we attended a 2 year Israel Master Teachers program, ran through the CJE, in which Ruti, Paula, Rhea and I took part.

Moshe Lifshitz, along with helpers Gideon & Irena Kroyter, Gali Levkovitz, and Bob Feller took care of the food, and it was t’im m’od (very yummy!) Gideon even trekked down to Aventura to pick up the Israeli candy! Ronit & David Chia provided the kids with an authentic Israeli army boot camp experience (and this was a real, last minute, saving grace since the rain cancelled our Masada climbing wall).

Someone else whom I forgot to mention last month is Audrey Ades. Some of you may know Audrey through her work with our FNL Social Action projects. What you may not know is that Audrey came in to work with our students this year, enhancing their knowledge and participation with our social action initiatives. We all want to give Audrey a “yasher coach” for all of her efforts, and for making social action so accessible for our children.

And, speaking of efforts: I am proud to announce that, once again, our teachers earned the Lilmod U’Lelamed award from the Commission for Jewish Education. In addition to recognition for a staff that continually keeps on the cutting edge of excellence in Jewish Education practices, the CJE awarded the Religious School and the Preschool cash awards, each over $2,500. In fact, more of our teachers than ever before took part in the ongoing professional development offerings and earned for themselves cash incentive awards.

Lastly, but far from least, I want to mention our 6th graders. Led by their dedicated teachers Ruti Lifshitz and Enid Kaufman, these students took part in the Veterans’ Day and Yom Hashoah programs, both sponsored by the Men’s Club and, on April 25th took a field trip to the Miami Jewish Museum and the Holocaust Memorial. Both the Museum and Memorial staffs could not compliment our children enough. In fact, while they were reciting some prayers and singing some songs at the Memorial, a group of adults gathered around to join in with them!

I will be around most of the summer- please give me a call, send me an email, and/or stop by if there is anything that you would like to discuss about our Religious School in general or your child in specific. We are still working on next year’s calendar, which will be mailed to you later in the summer. In the meantime, please mark down these dates:

August 22nd: Temple Open House

August 29th: First Day of Religious School Classes

Thanks for entrusting your children’s Jewish learning and spirituality with us ~ we hope that we will continue to merit this