High School Retreat to Hope Springs May 1-3

In the wilderness your possessions cannot surround you.

Your preconceptions cannot protect you.

Your logic cannot promise you the future.

Your guilt can no longer place you safely in the past.

You are left alone each day with an immediacy
that astonishes, chastens,and exults.

You see the world as if for the first time.

- Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

The fire burned brightly in the meditation structure known as “Spirit House.” Each student sat on a pillow and faced the havdalah candle. The weekend had brought them close to each other, their Judaism and to themselves. Unplugged from text messages, cell calls, Facebook, IM and email, the world had opened to them. Relaxed and well fed, our prayers reached to the heavens.

On May 1-3, 8 high school students and 3 adults went on on a Shabbat retreat to Hope Springs Institute in the Hocking Hills. It was a moving and amazing experience. We ate, studied, slept, prayed, meditated and hiked ravines and forests. It will become a yearly event -- a place for our teenagers to escape and check in with nature, God and themselves.

Many thanks to Hope Springs and the Cohen family whose fund helped make this trip a reality.

- Rabbi David Burstein

 

Spotlight on Grade 7

During this year, 7th grade has talked about how sympathetic non-Jewish men helped the Jews during the Holocaust (i.e. Schindler’s List) but at no time have we specifically explored how any women helped during the war.

Last Sunday was focused on Irena Sendler. Irena Sendler, who died last year at 98, was responsible for saving the lives of 2,500 Jewish children during World War II, smuggling them out of the Warsaw ghetto and delivering them to Polish Catholic families who reared them until they could be reunited with their parents after the war. In 2007 she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize but lost to Al Gore.

We watched “The Courageous Heart of Irena Sendler” which recounts her story with none of the zeal, passion, terror and chaos that her mission involved. Irena Sendler has been called the female Oskar Schindler, and the movie proves that yes, indeed, she possessed a courageous heart.

- Eric Rubinoff, 7th grade instructor

Grade 4 American Jew Project

The fourth grade used the American Girl model to create the American Jew project, creating different characters from the American Jewish experience, both past and present. This last Sunday the students culminated their project with a storytelling hour at the Temple, sharing their character's stories with classmates, relatives and friends.

The project stimulated questions and discussions with not only teachers and classmates, but parents, relatives, rabbis and many more. The students looked into elements of Jewish life they haven't experienced, and were eager to share their information and new found knowledge. The experience was fun and very enlightening.

- Jay Weiss, 4th grade instructor

Thank you to our Staff Appreciation Dinner Volunteers!

Thanks to the following volunteers, who helped prepare a wonderful dinner for our Staff Appreciation Shabbat on May 9:

Volunteers Needed to Help on May 17

Next Sunday, May 17, is our last day of religious school until September.

At 12:00 noon, we'll be serving pizza and a sundae bar to the students along with outside play.

Parent volunteers are needed to serve pizza and help with the topping of ice cream for our students. Can you lend a hand?

Please reply to me at education@templebethor.com if you are able to help serve our students on Sunday 5/17 at noon.

Thanks so much for your help!

Care to order photos from the fourth grade mock wedding?

If you'd like to order photographs, taken by Mike Brown, of the fourth grade mock wedding, please send an email to Amy Siegel-Brown at amy@loxwoodlane.com and she will share the album and images with you!