Volume 32 Issue 1

The Lion’s Tale

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Volume 32 Issue 1

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August 26, 2014

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CESJDS

it’s all

new ... ch n u g l s. on day l e ur ho som n o

schedule page 03

policies

page 03

you' new ve got kehil lahs

res no d

es! ang h c de s co

administration pages 04-05

With a new school year come new changes.

say

hi!

teachers page 08

year 2014-201 5

welcome back.

02

the lion’s tale

opinion

Staff editorial

the

lion’s tale editors editors-in-chief

jeremy kaplan, nina simpkins managing editor, copy

dina rabinovitz managing editors, design

malka himelhoch, david kulp managing editor, web

matt litman copy

cole cooper, yonatan greenberg news

uri schwartz, jonah shrock & mark reichel chadashot

mijal altmann, margalit zimand & michael berkowitz features

emma hofman, alysse weinberg & hannah nechin entertainment

sj hyman, shira ungar & hannah wexler in depth

maddie dworkin, carol silber & josh paretzky sports

evan kravitz, brian schonfeld & gaby pilarski

A new approach As the front page of The Lion’s Tale proclaims, we are entering a school year filled with changes: new administrators, new schedule changes, new policies and, as always, new teachers.

Despite the fact that we as students have already lamented many of this year’s upcoming changes, The Lion’s Tale aims to approach the new school year as just that: something new. Though we as a paper have previously used this editorial space to criticize some of the administration’s decisions, we hope to maintain an open mind regarding these changes.

We recognize that many of our classmates approach these modifi-

yosi vogel graphic

r’ay fodor photo

ariella kulp, dahlia lehman social media

jeremy schooler business

senior reporters robbie belson, danny waksman

reporters isaac dubrawsky, jonathan foldi, jacob gross, talia horowitz, yonah hyman, ethan kane, danielle katz, miriam minsk, abigail mintz, aaron schonfeld, brian shorr, gabi swagel, joel vardon, elizabeth warrick & arielle weinstein

staff adviser claire burke

adviser emerita susan zuckerman The Lion’s Tale Editorial and Ethics Policy As the student newspaper of the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, The Lion’s Tale is a forum for student opinion and expression. All content is determined by students. Its purpose is to inform the CESJDS community and to express the views of its staff and readers. The staff has made every effort to ensure the accuracy and objectivity of its news.

Signed columns reflect the opinion of the writer; staff editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of The Lion’s Tale editorial board. The Lion’s Tale staff welcomes letters to the editor and guest columns, all of which must be signed. The staff reserves the right to refuse any material and may edit letters or columns for length, clarity, libel, obscenity and/or disruptiveness.

And though students often use The Lion’s Tale as a forum to voice concerns, we should remember that our first impressions of these changes are not always correct. Two years ago, we reported students’ skepticism regarding the new Israel trip program, yet when the Class of 2014 returned, we reported students’ surprise at how much they enjoyed the trip.

That is not to say that The Lion’s Tale does not encourage students to voice their opinions; we want to hear what students have to say about this year’s new policies.

We would just like you to encourage to approach the new year with an open mind. Maybe you’ll come to

appreciate the changes. Or perhaps you’ll find that your concerns really were founded, and in that case, you should voice your concerns to either The Lion’s Tale or to the administration.

We are fortunate to attend a school where our voices matter. We are lucky that our criticism really is heard. But we shouldn’t abuse that privilege. So as you prepare for the upcoming year, we ask you to approach it with an open mind.

-The Lion’s Tale

Fluent in communication

multimedia

alec schrager, allie wiener

cations with hesitancy, especially those who voiced their concerns about them in the past. But while we are quick to recognize the changes we wish the school would not make, we should also acknowledge the changes the school has made. Many of the changes the school has made are because of opinions students have voiced. We asked the administration to consider a revised club schedule, and not only did the school reconsider, but it also asked students for feedback regarding a trial period. And last year, we voiced students’ concerns regarding the current book club program; this year, the format is different.

by yonatan greenberg copy editor I spent three and a half weeks this summer learning Spanish. No, I was not in a Spanish speaking country, interacting with the culture, food and local heritage. I was in a college in the U.S. with a bunch of American kids. We were all English speakers, but for a little less than a month, we spoke Spanish At the beginning of the program, we all took a pledge to speak only Spanish for the duration of our time there. We had some class time, but we mostly did typical camp activities: playing sports, doing arts and crafts, dancing, eating and hanging out. And no matter what we were doing, no matter how little what we were doing had to do with

Latin America or Spain, we spoke Spanish.

The experience was undoubtedly a challenge. Approximately once a week we were granted an hour to speak English and in those precious and liberating moments, I felt myself become, ever so slightly, more myself. I am not a native Spanish speaker and I am certainly not fluent. As a result, when speaking in Spanish, my personality was subtly altered, constricted. I was not able to make jokes that I would have made had we been speaking in English, with my full arsenal of vocabulary ready to be deployed.

It took more effort to express my feelings, and sometimes, when it was too hard, I simply gave up.

But in addition to all the Spanish that I learned while there, I gained a new perspective on the purpose and nature of language.

The Spanish my friends and I spoke was rarely correct, and often far from it. But I realized, that doesn’t really matter.

Cavemen did not invent language so that grammar textbooks

could be written or so that CESJDS students could have another class to stress about. There is only one reason that language exists: so that people can communicate. Though at times it was exceedingly difficult, and though our sentences were often quite garbled, ultimately, we were able take what was happening in our minds and project it to the world. Regardless of the grammatical structures, we were able to express our feelings, thoughts and beliefs, and that’s what counts.

Too often in language classes, students hesitate, or even outright refuse, to speak in their target language for fear of making some inconsequential grammatical mistake. In these cases, by focusing so intently on getting language right, students get language dead wrong.

Maybe the ultimate goal of learning a language is to be able to speak it, write it and read it like a native. But for me at least, that goal is a pretty long way off. While it would be cool to be able to go to the grocery store, or even have a job in a Spanish speaking country, with-

out anybody knowing that English is my first language, it seems likely that my American accent will stay with me forever.

A much more attainable goal, one that would still be a huge accomplishment, is just being able to function in a world that would be entirely hidden from me if I only spoke English. To be able to spend a year or semester in a village in Peru, learning that the world is bigger than the suburbs of Potomac, without needing an tour guide to tell me so.

Language is the key to truly understanding, feeling these occult worlds. However, the lock does not require one perfect key, one with all the grooves, ridges and bumps in exactly the right places. The verbs do not need to be perfectly conjugated followed by nouns with the proper pronouns, gender and diction. The key is interacting, communicating, and ultimately, living. If you can do that, you might as well be fluent.

Editors’ Note: This issue was reprinted after original publication due to oversights in editing and printing. There were several copy modifications, as well as design corrections, in order to ensure that all information was portrayed as clearly as possible. The Lion’s Tale regrets these errors.

Submissions may be emailed to jdslionstale@gmail.com, mailed to The Lion’s Tale, or brought to room 328.

The Lion’s Tale is funded by The Simon Hirshman Endowment for the Upper School Newspaper and The Kuttner-Levenson Endowment for the Upper School Cultural Arts and Student Publications, and community advertisement. The Lion’s Tale reserves the right to refuse advertisement for any reason.

The staff will adhere to the ethics policies of The Society of Professional Journalists and the National Scholastic Press Association. The adviser will be held to the Journalism Education Association’s Adviser Code of Ethics.

For more tales from the lion’s den, visit:

lionstale.org

fb.com/jdslionstale

@jdslionstale

@jdslionstale

the lion’s tale

policy changes

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Brace yourselves . . . changes are coming Your guide to the 2014-2015 school year

Minyan This year, minyan will take place after first period in an effort to reduce tardiness.

“If you’re late to school now, [you’re late] to your first, fourth or seventh period class, and there’s an academic consequence for that,” Dean of Students Roslyn Landy said. “There were some days when there were 90 kids late to school. If we’re not teaching you that being prompt, being on time to your job or your school or whatever, is important, then we aren’t doing our job.”

Academic honesty The Academic Honesty policy will be slightly different this year, with the punishments for academic dishonesty and plagiarism altered.

This year, each nondeliberate minor mistake when citing sources will be punished with a 10 percent reduction in the final grade. Last year, all policy violations were punished with a zero on the assignment in question.

Students will also be able to redo and earn up to 50 percent credit for the first assignment in their high school career in which they are caught breaking the academic honesty policy. All following incidents will be punished with a grade of zero.

Clubs and lunch The clubs at lunch schedule that the school tested last year has been adopted, with a few small changes.

Clubs will now take place on Tuesdays and Wednesdays from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m., instead of the previous meetings at the end of the day.

In order to prevent excessively long lunch lines, middle school students are encouraged to eat at the beginning of lunch while high school students are in clubs. High school students are encouraged to eat at the end of lunch.

Additionally, high school students will not be obligated to sign up for clubs.

“If it doesn’t go well we probably will cancel clubs, period,” Landy said. “It’s too much of a balagan [mess].”

Furniture

Tardiness Five tardies, compared with three last year, will result in a one percent grade reduction that quarter.

Kehillah Kehillahs will be shuffled after two years without change. There will be fewer Kehillahs, causing each Kehillah to have a greater number of students and preventing them from becoming small and inactive after the seniors graduate.

“There’s some Kehillahs that just didn’t work well,” Landy said. “And that’s just not fair for kids. If you were in a Kehillah that didn’t work well, why would you have to do that for four years?”

Every high school Kehillah will be matched with a middle school Kehillah with which it will meet with once a month.

The junior and senior classes will get new furniture for their alcoves.

Stein to Admissions Former Director of Jewish Life Miriam Stein will now be the Director of Upper School Admissions. Her old job will be split up among many other faculty members.

History teacher Eytan Apter will now be in charge of minyan, while Director of Arts Education David Solomon will be in charge of Kabbalat Shabbat and Rosh Chodesh assemblies.

The duties of organizing different shabbatons will be split up among teachers, with different teachers taking on different grades’ shabbatons.

Test/quiz makeup The test/quiz make-up policy will be more strict this year. Students who do not not take a test on the day it is assigned will get a letter home telling them they have three days to make it up. compiled by mark reichel, uri schwartz and jonah shrock

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the lion’s tale

new admins

Getting to know our Dr. Paul Schneider Interim High School Principal Position: “In the past there’s been an Upper School principal and a middle school coordinator. This is a new idea: having a middle school principal, and not coordinator. We’re [Rebecca Weisman and I] both at the same level. She doesn’t work for me; I don’t work for her.... I see her as a partner in working together.”

Relationship with his colleagues: “I would say [Aileen Goldstein, Rebecca Weisman and Roz Landy] are the people I’m going to meet with, probably daily, to talk about the classes, programs, assemblies and issues — everything that is involved in running a successful Upper School. I don’t know any of these people really well; I’ve only been here for two weeks, but my first impression is that they’re top-notch folks.”

photo by maddie dworkin

Background: “I worked for 29 years as the headmaster of the Schechter School in Baltimore. That’s a Jewish day school that’s K-8. Following that, I

Position: “The Academic Dean is responsible for direct oversight of curriculum and instruction throughout the

worked for two years as a pulpit rabbi. Prior to that, I did some teaching at a high school in Los Angeles and I’ve worked at other educational positions. I’ve done religious school, I’ve done lower grades day school, [and] I’ve done pastoral work. The one thing I really have never done is served as principal of a high school, so this is very neat. I’ve come with great enthusiasm and I’m looking forward to working here.”

Interest in Jewish education: “I decided that I wanted to work with younger folks. I began with religious school positions while I was at the seminary, but as soon as I was able to, I transferred to day school education because I really think this is the most exciting arena in terms of doing the kind of work we need to see that we are prepared for the future. We need young people who have the background to make decisions based on our tradition and our values.”

Finding this job: “I retired from my position as

look at a lot of different areas in the school, and part of that is also tied into our accreditation process, which will be priority number one.”

Ms. Aileen Goldstein Academic Dean school, as well as working with faculty in terms of professional development, and really looking at what are the standards in this school and how do we achieve those on a K-12 continuum and also across departments within the same grade level. It’s ... about what makes the most sense for the school in terms of growth and direction, and a lot of that’s going to be dictated by the strategic plan that we’re setting in place across the school. We’ll be taking a really hard compiled by maddie dworkin, carol silber and jeremy kaplan

Connection with the Jewish History Department: “The Jewish History Department has shrunk a little bit, which means that every teacher will be taking a little more under their wing in terms of curriculum and teaching. We have a new department chair, Dr. Coxe.

I’m sad to leave the team, but I’ll still be working with them closely. I’ll be teaching one course in the spring, Contemporary Issues in Israeli Society.”

the head of the day school. I was invited to work two years as a rabbi in the congregation. But I wasn’t finished. I didn’t want to retire. I’m too young; I have too much energy.

While I was in Baltimore, whenever people would talk about ... Jewish day schools, Charles E. Smith was always mentioned, and always at the highest level. Your school has a phenomenal reputation of really being one of the leading day schools in the country, so for me it’s really a wonderful honor and privilege to be able to come.”

Anticipated challenges: “I think that every Jewish day school has challenges. The challenge is to offer at least as good an education as one can receive for free from the public system, and because Montgomery County’s public schools are the top in the country, we have to offer at least as good an education as one can get for free. Add to that a dual program, and the expectation that graduates of this school will be leaders of the Jewish community.

There are a lot of challenges that go

with it, and I’m looking forward to joining the other administrators and faculty as we try to provide that kind of education.”

Goals: “I hope that in addition to helping maintain the quality of the high school, that perhaps I’ll make a unique contribution. I’m not sure exactly what direction that will take, but that will be my goal.”

Relationship with the student body: “All of the years that I’ve been head of a Jewish day school, I’ve rarely been in my office. I spend most of my time in classes, in the lunchroom or in minyan. I love kids.

I love to spend time with kids. So I’m looking forward to spending maximum time with students. I’m not teaching a class this year, but I will be doing a minyan and I’ll be out in the hall and I’ll be doing lunch duty, and I think there will be many opportunities for interactions with students.”

Anticipated challenges: “I think that the school is in a really interesting spot, positively so, in terms of transition. There’s a lot of growth and change happening here right now and I think it gives us a lot of opportunity to rethink a lot of what we do. I think that the middle school redesign process is going to be one of our biggest challenges, but also one the most exciting things that all of us are working on, and that will definitely have an impact on the way we approach teaching, and the way we approach curriculum and instruction. I think that there’s such an opportunity for us to be thinking forward two, three, four years and so this will be a year of asking the big questions.”

photo by jeremy kaplan

the lion’s tale

new admins

administrators

05

Ms. Rebecca Weisman Middle School Principal Position: “The middle school principal is responsible for making sure that all of the students, teachers and families in the middle school have the best experience in the learning community. We want all of our students to be their own personal bests, and our teachers and our community are the ones that make that happen. My job is to make sure that I’m supporting everyone to be able to ensure that our kids are getting what they need to thrive and shine, and just make the middle school experience awesome.”

photo by jeremy kaplan

How she’ll improve the middle school program: “We have an extraordinary school, and our graduates go on to be incredible adults doing amazing things in the world and we’re so proud of that. The way I think that we will be able to continue to see

Position: “My position is the Director of Admissions for the Upper School.

That person is responsible to help any families who are interested in applying to the Upper School. I help them through the process. There’s a lot of steps that go into it, so [I help with] navigating the application process. Once they are interested in the school and apply, we work with teachers to make sure students get placed properly ... and make sure all their learning needs are met. It’s really nice to see how every single student in the school gets attention to make sure this is the absolute best fit for them.”

What she’ll miss about teaching: “I’m definitely going to miss time in the classroom because

those ultimate ends is by focusing on what middle school students really need in the building blocks of moving up to that part of life.

We have a great middle school right now, but we also recognize that there are other elements of the growing and developing process that happen in the middle school age bracket that we could be bringing forward a little bit more.

I don’t just mean writing skills or close reading skills. It might mean communication skills; it might mean helping with their spiritual development. It’s our opportunity to take a step back and think about what do students need, what are the experiences they need to be participating in, because so much learning happens outside of just sitting in a formal classroom setting.

We need to be thinking about how we create those settings to be able to make the middle school experi-

that’s when you get to know students the most, because you’re spending such a concentrated amounts of time with them. I really hope that I’ll still be able to keep up relationships and still have close relationships with the students in the school because that is definitely the best part of being here. But you have to live and learn. This was a new and exciting challenge that was right here, and I was lucky enough the school thought I could do it, so I’m going to try it.”

The admission process: “When applications come in, there’s a lot of thorough reading to see who we want to accept. There’s an admission committee with a few faculty members, so it’s not just me making a decision. It’s talking

ence about helping students be at their personal bests for where they are in life, and that will set them up to be so much more confident, more capable, and more committed to what will happen in that next step of high school.”

Anticipated challenges: “I think time.... An expression we used to use at my previous employer is, ‘It takes a special talent to change the wheels on the bus while the bus is driving.’ Our bus is driving, we have middle school happening right now, and that’s a priority because these are real children, but we also need to make time to work on how we are going to change the wheels on the bus. I think that will be the biggest challenge.”

What she’ll miss about her old position: “One thing I loved about that job

is that people come into our school, exploring a new school, seeking something they are not experiencing somewhere else. They come here so amazed and in awe of our school. Not that anybody else takes advantage of our school, but it gave me this fresh perspective about how extraordinary this school is.”

What she’s looking forward to: “I’m excited to be working with students and teachers on a day-today basis. Since my background was in education, admissions was a little bit of a detour. There were days when I was doing some other kinds of work for the advancement of admissions where I wasn’t directly [interacting] with students, and I get a lot of energy out of [being with students], so I’m excited to be part of that on a daily basis again.”

to the faculty, and making sure every student we look at is the right person for the school. It’s a lot of events: reading through applications, greeting families and selling our school.”

Adjusting to her new position: “The beginning is definitely a lot of learning and understanding how the system works. Hopefully I’ll put my own spin on what we do here. But there are no new changes off the bat; I’m going to trust the system as it is.”

What she’s looking forward to: “I feel really lucky to be able to share this gem of a school that we have, and hopefully get more people to become a part of it.”

Ms. Miriam Stein Director of Upper School Admissions

photo by carol silber

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the lion’s tale

israeli conflict

Our summer under fire The Lion’s Tale’s editors share their experiences

spending the summer in Israel

michael berkowitz chadashot editor It took around half an hour for us to realize we had landed in a warzone.

I left the United States for what I thought would be a peaceful trip to Israel, but landed on July 8, the first day of the the current conflict in Gaza.

Five minutes after leaving the airport and getting on buses to Jerusalem, the first rocket was fired at Tel Aviv and Ben Gurion Airport. We evacuated the buses and ran to a shelter, where we waited for around 10 minutes. We then reboarded to the buses. We had survived our first red alert.

We were supposed to go to the Kotel directly, but that plan was quickly abandoned.

Instead, we headed to a more secure part of Jerusalem for the night.

That first night was difficult. I had never experienced rocket fire before. While rockets sailed overhead, the staff worked to revise the itinerary of our trip in response to the outbreak of war.

“Within minutes of arrival [the itinerary] all went out the window,” program director Dan Katz wrote in an email to parents. “I still remember standing outside Ben Gurion Airport on the first day as the sirens rang. The only thing I kept thinking to myself was, ‘I

can’t believe this is how we are starting our summer!’”

Since Tel Aviv, the Negev and parts of Jerusalem were primary targets of rockets and terror attacks, we spent the first half of the program in the North, mainly in the Golan and the Galil. Instead of visiting Jerusalem and going to the Kotel, we got an unexpected in-depth tour of the North.

The hardest moments of the trip may have come on the fast day of Tisha B’av. On erev Tisha B’av, we had planned to hear Eicha, the megillah traditionally read, on a plateau overlooking the old city of Jerusalem. Three terrorist attacks in the old city changed those plans. Instead we read Eicha in Gush Etzion, a settlement south of Jerusalem.

The morning after, I woke up to a siren. I jumped out of bed, put my hands on my head, and dropped to the floor. I got up after a few minutes, only to drop to the ground again upon hearing the low rumble of the crashing rocket. Two minutes later, when it was safe, I got up again. I grabbed my tefillin and went to pray. I had never been so terrified, but life had to go on. That is the way of life in Israel during a war.

While my summer was sometimes frightening, a little sad, and at times frustrating, it was still an incredible experience. I connected to the Jewish people and the land of Israel in a new, unexpected way. I feel lucky to have been a part of Israel in such a difficult time.

each siren.

Four weeks into the war I joined over 70 other people in a small courtyard in Katamon to pack boxes for soldiers. The group was extremely diverse. There were people who supported the war and people who opposed it. There were men wearing kippot and some without. malka himelhoch managing editor, design Women with wigs, hats and bareheaded. There were people sporting My home was not destroyed crosses around their necks, others this summer. Soldiers did not patrol with stars and others with nothing the streets of my neighborhood. at all. As I folded underwear, socks, Yet I am familiar with the sound of candy bars and books of tehillim a siren and recall the subsequent inside of T-shirts, a Catholic man frantic minute until I reached the working next to me said, “This bomb shelter. Finding the smoke of is the least I can do. I just want the destroyed rockets in the sky is a the soldiers to know that they are game I played with my cousins after supported.” This sentiment was one that was shared by everyone in the courtyard. Everyone wanted to assist the soldiers in Gaza regardless of their feelings on the war. We packed over 2,000 packages for the soldiers. As I walked home, I felt powerful. Instead of standing by apathetically as a war raged around me, I had contributed to an effort to help the soldiers. I felt a great solidarity that morning. I felt connected to the other volunteers through our shared desire to help.

Another sense of community was palpable for me on the evening of Tisha B’av when my cousin and I walked a mile to the Tayelet, a terraced walking path overlooking the old city of Jerusalem and some of east Jerusalem. It was twilight, and all down the Tayelet were shadowy groups of people sitting in circles reading Eicha, the sounds of layning echoing everywhere. photo by malka himelhoch I joined the first group and followed the text in flickering The steps leading down into a bomb shelter candlelight. As we approached Bnei Atarot. The residents of the town had the end of Eicha, there was a one minute or less to get to these shelters sound of something explodafter hearing the sound of the siren. ing in the sky. The readings

stopped. The Tayelet was silent and still. Then there was another explosion. I threw myself down on the ground, grass in my mouth, hands clasped over my neck. After a minute, I heard a woman’s voice say, “Look, it’s only fireworks.” I couldn’t imagine why there would be fireworks on Tisha B’av in Jerusalem. Then I realized the fireworks must have been set off during the celebration of an Arab wedding. I got up and and looking around, saw I wasn’t the only one on the ground.

Gradually, the sounds of layning picked up again and soon it was as though nothing had happened.

But, at the conclusion of Eicha each group stood, until everyone on the Tayelet was facing the old city. And together, spontaneously, we sang Hatikvah.

goo.gl/hlzb7x Scan the code above, or browse to the link to view how alumni published their thoughts on recent events IN ISRAEL

the lion’s tale

summer sports

07

CESJDS students medal at Maccabi Games Eighth-grader Zev Katz Boys Basketball

Freshman Alex Arking Boys High Jump

Seventh-grader Hadara Bilsky

Junior Ilan Blask

Girls 50 Yard Backstroke

Boys Doubles Tennis

Sophomore Danielle Katz

Junior Elianna Bernstein

Girls Basketball

Girls Shotput, High Jump and Long Jump

Seventh-grader Hadara Bilsky Girls 50 Yard Breaststroke

Junior Brian Shorr

Junior Daphne Lerner

Boys Basketball

1

Girls Basketball

Freshman Alex Arking

Junior Elianna Bernstein Girls 100m Hurdles and 100m Relays

100m Sprint and 100m Hurdle

Junior Elianna Bernstein

3

2

Girls 100m, 200m, and 400m Sprint, 300m Hurdles and 400m Relays

Hole-in-one

compiled by robbie belson

Senior Benjamin Lieberman competes internationally in golf over summer by gabi swagel reporter Many students play sports over the summer, but few played as much or as competitively as senior Ben Lieberman, who played against top players in golf tournaments in the U.S. and Canada.

Lieberman placed in many tournaments and won the Frank Emmet Schoolboy Tournament, which took place at the beginning of the summer at the Montgomery Country Club in Laytonsville, Md. Winning first place qualified Lieberman for the Williamson Cup, a competition in Canada in which the top four players in the Washington Metropolitan Golf Association face off against the top four players from nine similar associations across

the United States and Canada.

Despite an illness that forced Lieberman to sit out the second round of the tournament, he still enjoyed the experience.

“It was awesome being in a team setting, especially in another country,” Lieberman wrote in an email.

Lieberman was the captain of the CESJDS Golf team this past spring and was named the Most Valuable Player for the PVAC. Lieberman is ranked 600th in the national Polo Golf Rankings and ranked 4th in the state of Maryland.

Lieberman’s abilities are even more remarkable considering he has only been golfing since he was 11.

“I started because my dad wanted me to try it, and I tried it once and I

liked it,” Lieberman said.

“So I played a few times with him and then I got really into it.”

Lieberman excels in many aspects of the game according to JDS Golf Team Coach Dominic Lee. “Someone who has played with him said that Ben is excellent off the tee and has a very solid short game,” Lee wrote in an email. “I would say that’s pretty accurate but would add he’s also streaky with his irons.”

Both Lee and Lieberman agree on the weakest part of Lieberman’s game, which is a good sign for his ability to improve in the future.

“What I need to work on the most is putting,” Lieberman said. “I can always be a better putter.”

To prepare for his tournaments Lieberman

usually goes out one or two days beforehand to practice.

“I go through every part of my game to make sure it is all ready for the tournament and to make sure that I am not lagging behind in one aspect,” Lieberman said.

Beyond the physical abilities, a large part of the game, especially beyond the high school level, is mental.

“To be really good in high school sports one can just have raw talent or superior athleticism,” Lee wrote. “Ben definitely has the talent to be a great player, but he also has the discipline and maturity to work on his weaknesses as well as his strengths....

All of those things will allow him to be great in photo provided by ben lieberman college and after college if he can continue that Lieberman (second from right) poses at the Williamson Cup in Quebec. drive.”

compiled by Hannah Nechin, Arielle Weinstein, Jeremy Kaplan, David Kulp and Dina Rabinovitz

new teachers

Katie garson Rabbi derek rosenbaum Department: jttp favorite band: the beatles favorite food: “Pizza. it’s been my answer to this question for as long as i can remember.” favorite book: “[the] tanach is my all time favorite.”

heidi zansler Department: history favorite food: “my dad’s stuffed artichoke!” favorite book: “frankenstein” favorite movie: “grease” celebrities she would like to meet: “too, too difficult.. .lord byron, robert browning, mary shelley.”

abbe luther Department: educational support services why cesjds? “after working in several independent schools, i was very excited to find an opportunity to work in a jewish community.” favorite movie: “east of eden” favorite food: “peanut butter is my go-to food.” favorite singer: jason mraz

osnat edlar

Dr. Aileen heinberg Department: jttp Favorite food: ice cream favorite tv show: “gilmore girls” disney character: “Belle, because she likes to read books all the time.”

Spirit animal: “I want to say kangaroo, but they have pouches and that’s gross.”

Favorite book: “cloud atlas” by david mitchell

Department: ESOL MOST EXCITED TO: “BECOME A PART OF THE CESJDS COMMUNITY AND HELP MY STUDENTS, AS WELL AS THEIR FAMILIES, BECOME A PART OF IT AS WELL.” fAVORITE AUTHOR: JANE AUSTEN FUN FACT: “I’VE BEEN A VEGETARIAN FOR 7 YEARS.”

natalie levitan Department: history Craziest thing she has ever done: skydiving why cesjds? “i actually worked at jds prior. i have actually worked here for about 13 years and then took time off to be home with my little ones.” disney character: rapunzel from “tangled”

Department: jttp Hometown: Ramot menashe, Israel Why cesjds? “i wanted to know how you are combining the cultures and your identities, the american one and the jewish identity.”

Favorite Food: Sushi Desert Island necessity: “i would bring my cookbook with recipes i like to put together.”

Hadas Ben-Yaacov* Department: hebrew Why cesjds? i wanted to bring a piece of israel to jds.

Spirit animal: dog favorite Disney character: Peter Pan Ideal superpower: to make peace. *Interview conducted in Hebrew and translated to English

08 ESOL Teacher Rebecca Silberman was not availible for interview at time of print. The Lion’s Tale welcomes her to the faculty

nice to meet you

the lion’s tale