Dear Het (8th-grade) Parents,
This week we celebrated Yom Ha’atzmaut together. My memories of Israel’s Independence Day in religious school always included a large cake with the Israeli flag on it. We would gather around to sing some Israeli songs, including Hatikvah, and everyone would get to have a piece of cake. I was able to find Bamba at Trader Joe’s--we opened the bag on Wednesday in our house to enjoy a taste of Israel as a family. If you are going to the store or ordering from Instacart this week, see if you can find some Bamba or Bissli to share with your family as a way of celebrating Yom Haatzmaut in your house. :)
On Wednesday, as part of our exploration of Yom Ha’atzmaut, we learned about and worked with Israeli artist Hanoch Piven (check out his work here:
https://www.pivenworld.com/. As a class, we discussed qualities of leadership, and saw what leaders all the members of the Kitah Het class decided to create portraits of.
Last week we commemorated Yom Hashoah as a class. We watched the community ceremony led by the Adath clergy and then gathered as a class to process together. We watched the video of Dora Zaidenweber’s compelling story as she recalled the day she was liberated. Listening to Dora share her memory was especially meaningful for us as class since we have spent time together learning in the Zaidenweber Holocaust Resource Room at the JCC. https://www.minndakjcrc.org/news/minnesota-and-the-dakotas-yom-hashoah-commemoration/ Rabbi Weininger was able to be a part of our debrief and he shared more of his personal memories, recalling his curiosity in 8th grade of his family’s story. I challenged everyone to write out one thing they could do as being a part of the Jewish community because we can and one thing they could do as part of their larger community during the week between Yom Hashoah and Yom Haatzmaut. I look forward to sharing those together as a family class project.
I hope you are staying well during this time,
Kara
P.S. As our school year ends, we ask family and friends to please hold the date of Wednesday evening, May 20th @ 7:00 PM for Kitah Het’s Virtual Graduation: A Celebration of Jewish Learning @ Talmud Torah!