Maimonides Community

BH Kislev

5, 5774 / November 8, 2013

Community Newsletter of the Maimonides Hebrew Day School of the Capital District Candle-Lighting: 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 www.maimonidesschool.org 4:22 Shabbos Ends: produced by Rabbi Mendel & students in the TNT (Torah ‘n Technology) Program 5:23 Maimonides is accredited by the NYS Board of Regents & is a beneficiary of UJF-NENY

maimonidesschool@gmail.com

ALBANY TO ALBANY SHIDDUCH Mazal Tov to Sholom Ber Kudan & the Kudan family on his engagement to Chana Luchins (daughter of R’ Yossi and Ruthie Luchins) of Scranton PA. The Luchins family has deep roots in Albany, for Drs. Abraham & Edith Luchins (late grandparents of the Kallah) were long time Albanians, professors at UAlbany (psychology) & RPI (mathematics) respectively. FORMER D.A. AT MAIMONIDES Dr. Edith Luchins was for many years a board Sol Greenberg, Albany’s long-time District member of Maimonides. The L’chaim was this Attorney spoke to several grades on Thursday. past Motzai Shabbos at the Rayim-Ahuvim He recalled learning Shul in Crown Heights, with quite a few Hebrew fluently at MHDS alums in attendance. Mazal Tov! Albany’s Hebrew

ONLY PAPER & CARDBOARD!!!!

Thanks to all who have been recycling paper and cardboard with our school. It’s a Mitzvah, it helps the environment and our school earns some money, too. But please note: ONLY Paper and Cardboard. NO plastics or other items. Even plastic bags filled with paper can mess up the mix. Please be sure to remove any plastic or anything that is not cardboard or paper before putting it in or near the recycling bins. Thank you!

AUCTION NOW ONLINE, TOO! Www.maimonidesschool.org/auction is the link for online purchases. Please share this link with friends and family! You can also call the school with a credit card during office hours, or use the PDF form available via email for mail-in purchases. Thanks for supporting this important annual school fundraiser!

SKIRT SALE RAISED OVER $300 Thanks to all who came out to Shabbos House for the skirt sale that raised over $300 for Maimonides. $3 per skirt or 5 skirts for $10.

Remaining skirts will be available only a short while longer. Call 438-4227 for appointment.

Educational Institute headed by Dr. Joseph Hershberg, his BarMitzvah Parshas LechLecha (how his BarMitzvah teacher left town two weeks before his Bar-Mitzvah), his teaching Hebrew classes in this same building (former Tifereth Israel now Maimonides), and how his dream of attending Harvard Law didn’t work out because Pearl Harbor was attacked 6 weeks after his acceptance letter.

After WWII he attended Albany Law instead.

Ka”h, Mr. Greenberg recently celebrated his 92nd birthday and he & his wife live in the same Albany house since 1965! He explained that NY State had 2500 prison cells when he took office in 1975, and by the time he retired there were 70,000 cells at full capacity! He explained the discretion and understanding a DA can use for certain types of crime in certain situations. He shared a story of a Navy boy on leave who did something foolish and for whom

MAIMONIDES 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208

This newsletter is sponsored by the Dovbear Family in honor of Nesya's third birthday a felony charge would ruin his Naval academic career, so after consultation with the Naval school and the presiding judge he charged him with a misdemeanor instead. He spoke about young people who sometimes make foolish choices that they carry their whole life. During his long tenure as DA, 350 murders were committed in Albany County alone, such crimes he did not consider interesting, as they were horrific and sad. Mr. Greenberg was a Naval Commander, and proudly wore his Retired Navy cap, which was just in time for Veterans Day this coming Monday. Thanks for coming to Maimonides and speaking to us!

CONDOLENCES TO THE SCHERS Our condolences to Mrs. Barbara Scher, Dr. Michael Scher and family on the passing of her aunt, Mrs. Gloria Simson.

THE ANNUAL LENTIL SOUP Last week’s newsletter went to print on Thursday, so we didn’t get this in on time.

Every year our younger grades make a delicious lentil soup for Parshas Toldos when Yaakov made that soup, and Esav bought it off him.

The whole school enjoyed the soup!

SIYUM DEDICATED IN MEMORY OF ROSENBERG & ANISFELD The Daf Yomi Study Group is dedicating their Siyum this Sunday to the memory of Mrs. Eleanor Rosenberg (born 1921), mother of Paul and Daf Yomi regular Stan Rosenberg soon nearing the completion of 11 months of Kaddish in her memory (yartzeit 2nd candle of Chanukah). It’s also dedicated for Shloshim (30 days since the passing) of Dr. Moshe Anisfeld of Boston (late father of Dr. Rachel Anisfeld). Born in Cracow 1934, Moshe survived labor camps in Siberia as a child during World War II and was in DP camps in Germany until 1949, when he immigrated to Israel with his mother and 2 sisters. He went to Yishuv HaHadash High School in Israel, followed by the celebrated Ponovitch Yeshiva.

TEAM EFFORT TO MAKE SOUP He attended Bar Ilan University, serving as the It took peeling and cutting and grating by a university’s first librarian and graduating with few grades to put that delicious lentil soup a bachelor’s degree in psychology. He earned together, and was a great experience for all his PhD in experimental psychology at McGill involved, University in Montreal, where he met and especially when married his classmate and wife of fifty years, they get to enjoy Dr. Elizabeth Anisfeld. Dr. Moshe Anisfeld the fruits of their taught at Yeshiva University Ferkauf Graduate labor and share it School for 38 years and was renown as an with others! expert on early language development. He Thanks to Morah loved Rashi, and felt that it was his interest Leyee for doing “Soup-of-the-Week” this week, and work on Rashi which kept him alive these following the students’ Lentil-Soup last week. past few years. He had some favorite Hebrew Parents can sign up for their week by being in & Yiddish sayings, two of which we shared touch with Mrs. Wildman. with our students at school: ‫תפסת מרובה לא‬ ‫( תפסת‬Don’t try to “grab” do too much, or A WILD SHEKALIM STORY you will get nothing accomplished); '‫ישועת ה‬ Rabbi Rubin studied with the Girls HS an ‫( כהרף עין‬Hashem’s salvation can come in the interesting story from Mesechta Shekalim blink of an eye - everything can change in an (chapter 6, halacha 1) that is now being instant). These two phrases are especially completed by the Daf Yomi Talmud study meaningful considering his personal life story group about a Kohain who was working in the & his major academic accomplishments.

Wood-Chamber of the Beis HaMikdash and noticed one floor tile different than others.

Unfortunately, this Kohain passed away soon afterward, but it was assumed that the Ark of the Covenant was buried underneath.

MUMMIES AT THE ALBANY INSTITUTE & CHUMASH TOO Mrs. Sanda took 6th graders to the Egyptian mummy exhibit at the Albany Institute of History & Art. No photography was allowed inside the exhibit itself, the photo above is from the Art Room (which our kids all like).

They learned how modern technology like an MRI scanner at Albany Med was used to find out more about these ancient mummies.

Rabbi Rubin went along as a chaperone, and to give a Jewish perspective. He reminded the students of the end of Parshas Vayechi (which they learned last year) how Yaakov Avinu was embalmed (based on local Egyptian custom, obviously w/o the Avodah Zara aspects) using a mixture of spices (Rashi). Rabbi Rubin showed them Aryeh Kaplan’s “Living Torah” commentary which says that they used balsam or cedar oil and natrum (a natural form of sodium carbonate found in a Lybian lake according the Zohar & Abarbanel). According to R’ Shmuel br’ Chofni (one of the last of the Gaonim) this means Yaakov Avinu’s body was (partially) mummified, even though this is not Jewish practice. The usual time was 70 days, but Yaakov was only for 40 (as the pasuk says).

Some commentaries say that Yosef went through the motions of having his father appear mummified, but was not actually mummified. Going to this exhibit allowed us to understand the times and local customs of the Egyptian culture that directly intersects with the history of our people.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIMI

Simi & family did something really special for her birthday. They “E” IS FOR EGG, brought a new book & ELEPHANT... into her Kindergarten Nursery is learning the classroom in honor of letter E. They made their her birthday. What a own “eggs” in cartons beautiful way to celebrate! and “E”s in frying pans, and even E’s dressed as Elephants!

TRIP TO G.E. CHEMISTRY SHOW YERUSHALMI KUGEL Grades 4/5 are learning about mixtures in TWO BIG GEMORAH TESTS Interestingly, tractate Shekalim (in Gemorah science so Mrs. Maher took them on a trip to form) is only found in the Jerusalem Talmud, 8/9 had a test on a series of “Ee Boyis Ameias” a GE Chemistry Show on Thursday this week. so 6th graders tried to make Yerushalmi Kugel in tractate Shabbos, and 7th grade will have a They are eager to report on it in TNT/MC for in honor of the Daf Yomi Siyum. It’s probably test this Monday on a knotty Talmud Sukkah next week’s MC. Thanks to Jeff LeMonds, a the most challenging type of Kugel to make!

(3a) Sugya which they finally mastered. friend of MHDS for helping arrange this.

BEING SENSITIVE TO LIGHT Mrs. Sahay gave 6th grade students special blue paper that is sensitive to light. They went outside and collected random objects and placed them on the paper in the sunlight underneath a transparency sheet. After just a few minutes they removed the objects and saw the shadow effect on the paper. When they came inside they rinsed the paper in water, which darkened the blue and made it look really cool. Spiritually, we want to be receptive to the light of Torah and holiness, and have it leave an visible imprint on our lives.

JACOB’S LADDER IN KINDERGARTEN These kids made Yaakov’s Ladder (from the start of this week’s Parsha) using popsicle sticks, and also made a little Yaakov at the bottom of the ladder surrounded by rocks (around his head).

WHAT WAS CREATED ON THE 4TH DAY These kids know! They are now learning Parsha Breishis in Chumash.

NOTE TO PARENTS:  Please sign up for a shift at Federation’s

“Super Sunday” on January 26th.  Please sign-up for Soup-of-the-Week with

Mrs. Wildman. Kids love it!  Please try to share the Raffle-Auction (via

THE PUMPKIN CYCLE Mrs. Carroll’s students learned about the stages in pumpkin growth from seed to sprout, plant to flower, green (unripe) to orange. And there’s also preparing the ground before the seed can be planted…

5 REASONS TO RESPECT

SCHOOL PROPERTY

print, email PDF, or weblink) with friends and family. The prizes are in, let’s try to maximize the money raised for the school.

SEEING H20 SEPARATE Another experiment 6th graders did with Dr. Sahay was seeing the hydrogen and oxygen gases that are the ingredients of water separate right in front of their eyes. They put a small piece of lead in between clips of “alligator wire” and placed that end in water, and the other end of the wire hooked up to a battery.

This process is called electrolysis, and they were able to visually see the gases bubble up separately, with more hydrogen than oxygen!

1 CHANUKAH ART & STUDY Less than 3 weeks away now, our students are learning Hebrew terms of Chanukah, the laws and customs, Gemorah background, as well as Chanukah art projects.

ARCHIMEDES PRINCIPLE 7th graders with Dr. Sahay learned about Archimedes Principle about the displacement of water, buoyancy and weight and density of objects.

It was interesting for the kids to learn that Archimedes discovered this while taking a bath.

They recreated it in a measured form in the Science Lab.

2 3

BUILDING BRIDGES These students in Science Enrichment class with Mrs. Ballard-Hubble learned about different types of bridges, and experimented in trying them out on paper, testing their support with penny-weights, improving their designs, and documenting the results.

4 5

MAMON HEKDESH: “Holy Money” because the school is supported by Tzedakah.

The Rambam says its difficult to do Teshuvah when stealing communal funds, because so many gave towards it. We have to take special care of that which belongs to community.

IT’S THERE FOR US: If we want to enjoy a pretty space to learn and useful functioning equipment, we have to make sure to take good care of it. Carelessness, neglect, and worse destructive behavior makes it less likely we will be able to enjoy it ourselves, and even less likely that future students will have it.

INSTEAD OF REPAIRS... If something is broken, like a door-handle or a bench, or a hole in the wall, it has to be fixed or replaced.

That costs money - that could have gone towards something new, useful or helpful, but has to be used instead to fix the old, broken for no good reason. What a waste!

AFFECTS OUR OWN CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: One of the main lessons of school is about character development what type of person we grow into and become.

Carelessness and destructiveness doesn't only break objects, it also might affect our nature.

MISTAKES HAPPEN: That’s true, it’s usually not intentional. But “Adam Mu’ad L’Olam” people still have to take (at least some) responsibility for their actions, especially as we get a little older and need to be more mindful and make better choices.

at Maimonides and in the Community 11/8: 2:15PM FRIDAY DISMISSAL

11/11: TWO EVENTS AT THE BACH

11/28: KOSHER THANKSGIVING

As we change the clocks, and Shabbat begins much earlier, Friday dismissal changes to 2:15pm.

The Bach Library is hosting these events in connection with Kristallnacht commemorations:  Retired US soldier Martin Becker will share his personal Kristallnacht and WWII memories along with an audio-visual presentation at 2pm.  At 6pm the Library will screen “PaperClips” (rated G) about middle school students from Tennessee who learned about the enormity of the Holocaust by collecting paper clips.

There is also an interactive Kristallnacht display at the Library from Oct 21st thru Nov 22nd.

Annual communal tradition at Saratoga Chabad this year coincides with Chanukah. Call 526-0773.

11/9: VAYEITZE-VAYISHLACH Rabbi Rubin is fond of sharing this letter each year at this time, ever fresh, with insight & experience each time. Kiddush after Musaf at Shomray Torah.

11/9: VETERANS SHABBOS SCHEN. Beth Israel of Schenectady is honoring Veterans of the Armed Services in the congregation. Veterans from different wars will be speaking about their experiences as Jews fighting in defense of United States. Kiddush after davening will be sponsored by the Jewish War Veterans Schenectady Post 106.

11/9: MOVIE NIGHT AT CBAJ “Fill the Void” (a 2012 Israeli film) will be shown 6:45pm at CBAJ, separate film shown for children.

Film viewers please note that this film, while being a powerful story, does not accurately portray a similar situation with a local family story.

11/10: SIYUM SHEKALIM and the start of tractate Yoma (about Yom-Kippur) with a Siyum breakfast after Shachris at Shomray Torah. As Shekalim is from Talmud Yerushalmi, look for a tasty (challenging to make) Yerushalmi Kugel made by 6th graders in “Nathan’s Kitchen”!

11/10: BAR/BAT MITZVAH EXPO Hosted at the SAAJCC (Albany) 12-2pm. Vendors display wares (not sure of Kashruth) but there might be some useful info, samples and giveaways.

11/11: VETERANS DAY PARADE Starts at Central Ave and Partridge Street 11am, down Central toward downtown Albany. One of the largest Veterans Day parades in the country.

11/12: KRISTALLNACHT FILM Jewish Federation & the Interfaith Kristallnacht commemoration are screening Simone LaGrange’s “As a Young Girl of Thirteen” memories of her life before the War, in Auschwitz and her role in bringing a Nazi war criminal to justice. 7pm at UAlbany’s Page Hall (downtown campus).

11/16: FIRST PIZZA NIGHT First pizza night of the season by Bnos Chaya HS. Come to Nathan’s Kitchen to enjoy medium-size homestyle pizza pies, French-fries and other treats.

11/17: PRE-CHANUKAH ACTIVITY

12/4: RAFFLE-AUCTION & DINNER 8th Night of Chanukah at Maimonides, 5-7pm.

CHANUKAH NIGHTS Wed 11/27: Bethlehem Chabad w/Our Towne Thurs 11/28: Kosher Thanksgiving & Chanukah Dinner at Saratoga Chabad RSVP: 526-0773 Sun 12/1: Celebration at Clifton Park Center -Mall Sunday 12/1: Chanukah in the Chocolate Factory w/ Gelt-Games, Golden Tickets, Oompa Latkes…

2-4pm at the East Greenbush Library Mon 12/2: Chanukah on Ice in Saratoga Mon 12/2: Afternoon Menorah Lighting at UA Mon 12/2: Chanukah Party at Beth Israel Tues 12/3: Clifton Park Chanukah Bowling Tues 12/3: 5pm w/Mayor of Troy at Atrium Wed 12/4: School Auction & Chanukah Dinner

More Chanukah events to be announced soon...

12/4: MHDS RAFFLE-AUCTION Annual Chanukah Dinner (this year with Greek dairy foods) & School Raffle-Auction

 Pre-Chanukah Menorah Making at Home 12/16: WOMENS BET MIDRASH Depot, call Rabbi Yossi 495-0772.

This month’s topic is the “Tenth of Tevet” and the  FC’s Sunday Circle with Chanukah theme, Call discussion will be led by Raizy Rubin, Monday Liba at FC 438-4220. night, 8pm at Maimonides.  1pm at Beth Tephilah, Reenactment of historical period before Chanukah Revolt. Ages 12+.

12/25-29: JGR WINTER RETREAT Turkey Luncheon 894-3491.

Find out more at www.JewishGirlsRetreat.net. This year its based out of the Best Western in Albany.

11/18: WOMENS BET MIDRASH

This month’s topic is Chanukah, and the presenter is Morah Dini Gordon. 8pm at Maimonides, open to all women in the community. No charge.

12/23-1/1/2014: END OF DECEMBER & NEW YEARS MHDS SCHEDULE

No school, but Parent-Teacher Conferences will be held, be sure to get your appointment schedule.

Conferences schedules were sent home. Please note 11/23: YUD-TES KISLEV SAT NIGHT there is a midday teacher development program & Communal Farbrengen Melava Malka, stay tuned! luncheon with a behavior specialist speaker.

Mon 12/23 thru Wed 12/25: Half-Day Hebrew Only 8-11:30am. HS Girls are offering to host (for small charge TBD) an after-school (until 1:30pm) activity day. Stay tuned for details, be in touch if interested.

Thurs 12/26 thru Mon 12/30: No School Tues 12/31 & Wed 1/1: Half-Day Hebrew Only Please note that there will be educational activities & experiences planned for some of these half-days.

11/11: PICKLE-MAKING IN C.P.

1/26: JFED’S SUPERSUNDAY

11/11: PARENT TEACHERS CONF.

4pm at Clifton Park Chabad. 495-0772/9.

11/11: GLOBAL FOUNDRIES

11/22: EARLY BIRD DEADLINE Get (some of) your raffle-auction entries submitted to school by this date to get a free $10 ticket.

11/27-12/1: THANKSGIVING AND CHANUKAH WEEKEND BREAK

11/27: Wednesday Erev Thanksgiving Half-Day AM Hebrew only until 11:30am. No School from Thurs 11/28 until Monday morning 12/2.

Open House for Community. 5pm.

MAIMONIDES SCHOOL & COMMUNITY (Nursery / Elementary / High School) 404 Partridge Street Albany NY 12208 (518) 453-9363/3434 maimonidesschool@gmail.com Founded in 1980, Maimonides is chartered by the NYS Board of Regents and is a JF-NENY Beneficiary “A Beautiful Blend: Torah &

Worldly Experience!”

Annual phone-a-thon raises funds for Federation’s allocations to local beneficiaries (including Maimonides) as well as overseas Jewish needs.

Parents, please volunteer for a shift!

Looking ahead… Save the Dates!

1/11: Chabad 40th Year Melava Malka @ SH (they’re looking for people to share 30 second to 1 minute video clips of what Chabad locally means to them, or a specific memory of an event, teaching, experience etc).

2/9: Annual Womens Spa for Body & Soul (contact Clara Simon, DL or Leyee Rubin to help plan/prepare).

5/28: Annual MHDS Scholarship Tribute Dinner