March 16, 2012 22 Adar 5772 Click here for a pdf ... - SAR Academy

Purim PicsThere is nothing quite like Purim at SAR. The costumes! The megillah reading! The treats! The entireschool gets into the spirit of the chag and it is a true time of simcha. Check out these photos from lastweek’s celebration:By: Aliza Meller 5YCome visit the NYC Projects right outside of Rabbi Krauss’s office. They were a blast to do and somuch fun to see. For the NYC project we had to either make a children’s book or find a landmark,

uilding or bridge and try to build it. You can see the Guggenheim Museum, the Freedom Tower, theNike Store, the Empire State Building, and many, many others. Most people built buildings andbridges. Most kids took a shoe box or a container and put pictures on it or colored it or decorated it insome way. Some of the Empire State Buildings were so tall they almost touched the ceiling! I think thatthe NYC project was one of the most fun projects I have ever done! Please come visit them.Congratulations to all of the winners of the New York Mathematics LeagueCompetition that was given last week. This competition is given each year to thesixth, seventh and eighth grade students. The top student scores in each gradecomprise the team score for that grade. The Math League is dedicated to bringingchallenging mathematics materials to students. Contest problems are designed tocover a range of mathematical knowledge for each grade level and the problemsare designed to stimulate interest and confidence in mathematics. 6th GradeMath Team: Yonatan Sturm, Miriam Liberman, Efraim Herstic, Max Berger & HilaKarol. Honorable Mention: Joe Block, Jonah Burian, Jonathan Cappell, TamarCohen, Shmuel Crisafi,Josh Dorfman, Yonatan Fine, Ariel Greenwald, Davida Krauss, JonathanMukama, Avi Roth, Adin Tropper,Eitan Turok & Eva Yarsky.7th Grade Math Team: Nate Katz, Nati Marcus, Hank Stein, Jacob Wasserman, Yonatan Wasserman& Gila Weinrib. Honorable Mention: Daniel Aranoff, Deena Danishefsy, Lauren Freudenstein, SarahFrankel, Jennie Kleinman, Arielle Landes, Akiva Listman, Erez Major, Aviva Michaeli, Noah Nordlicht,Drew Nuchims, Tamar Peterman, Dena Rosman, Avidan Sytner, Joshua Wax, Leo Weiner, AtiraZeitchik.8th Grade Math Team: Ariel Benillouche, Shuey Boniuk, Ben Kahn, Yedidya Naiman & AvrahamPenso.Honorable Mention: Laurel Dobkin, Rachel Gouldner, Eitan Hain, Coby Horowitz, EmunahKorenblit, Manny Kuflik, Doria Leibowitz, Adina Noble, Avigayil Shapiro, Jessica Sherman & BenjaminWeiser.

We are (extended) Family!On the Monday before Purim, 7 th graders and their guests spent themorning together in study and in celebration. The day began withtefilah, the bar mitzvah of Leo Wiener, a D’var Torah by RabbiKrauss, and followed by a delicious breakfast. Afterwards, thestudents and their guests were invited to participate in two differentshiurim. The first was on nutrition and how to make a nutritious, yetproper, Purim seudah. They were given a Purim seudah menu fromthe 1960’s and were asked to update it to today’s standards. Thesecond class had the students and their guests learning Gemara—specifically Masechet Megillah and the nine mishtot described in Megillat Esther. The morning came toa close with a festive chagiga in the gym. From the smiles and laughter heard around the building, weare certain it was a meaningful and fun experience for all!Preparing for Pesach in the ELCOur Nursery children began preparing for pesach, hands on! They startedwith "cleaning" for Pesach. The kids had a blast mopping, scrubbing andmaking grape juice by squeezing grapes. Once the classroom was sparklingclean, the children tried to imagine what their ancestors felt like working sohard In Mizrayim. How hard did the slaves work? The children started with anempty sack and one at a time each child approached the Block Center puttingin a "brick" until they couldn't lift it anymore. They did this all while using theirmath and prediction skills- how many bricks in the bag? How many more cango in? And how many can they carry? Our hard working children of bneiyisrael never gave up and built some pretty big pyramids with the blocks theycollected for King Pharoah!

Organized CrimeIn the last few years, organized crime has become a large problem in Bulgaria. Not onlyhave organized crime syndicates been involved with spreading violence in the political arena,they also contribute to the large amount of corruption that is currently happening in the judiciary.This corruption by the Bulgarian organized crime syndicates in the judiciary has made Bulgaria’sacceptance into the Schengen Agreement very difficult. As for political opposition, organizedcrime has both threatened the supporters of opposing political parties as well as independentmedia which casts the current political regime in a negative tone (Tsolova 2012).Organized crime figures have not only gained celebrity-type status in Bulgaria, they arealso becoming highly influential in Bulgarian politics. On July 26 th , 2012, Prime Minister BoikoBorisov was faced with a no-confidence vote because the opposition stated that there has notbeen a clamp down on organized crime, which they say has led to both judicial corruption aswell as threats to national security. The opposition, which was led by the Bulgarian SocialistParty with the support of the minority Turkish MRF Party, stated that the suicide bombing inBurgas in the week prior to the no-confidence vote was a result of a lack of security policy due tothe high level of corruption within both the government and judiciary of Bulgaria due to theinfluence of organized crime. Also in their argument, the Socialists claimed that “organizedcrime still exercises substantial influence over the emerging economy, stifling marketcompetition and deterring much needed foreign investment to spur growth”. The vote of noconfidencefailed by 39 votes (Tsolova 2012).Even with the defeat of the vote of no-confidence, the Socialists do have strong reason tofeel that organized crime is plaguing Bulgaria. There have been a number of cases in whichorganized crime figures have either had charges dropped or reduced against them or have not

Librarian Joyce Levine gave an extensive presentation about anti-Israel propaganda and how we guidestudents and faculty in researching on Israel. Many attendees were first time visitors to SAR and theyenjoyed experiencing the warm atmosphere of our school.This Week in SportsCongratulations to the 6 th grade boy’s basketball team on their Championship win! Click here to watchthe final moments of the game and the celebratory parade.Congratulations to the girls 7 th & 8 th grade basketball team on reaching the championship. The LadySting had back to back impressive road games against the favorites HAFTR and RPRY. SAR was ledby the stellar all around play of Dahlia Fischer, the shooting of Talia Kupferman and Rebecca Kann andthe defense of Rebecca Hyman and Lauren Kann. The Lady Sting play against MDS in thechampionship game on Monday, March 19 at Westchester Day School at 6:15. Come root for the Sting!The SAR 6 th garde girl’s basketball team defeted Yavneh on Monday, by a score of 29-11. High scorerswere Davida Krauss with 8 points, Eva Ingber and Sara Gabay with 6 each. Thursday night the girlsplayed Noam and won 26-11. Sara Gabay scored 12 points, Michal White had 5 and Elly Schanzer had4. This game was the last game of the regular season . SAR goes into the playoffs with a 5-1 record!GO STING!Remembering Elisha z''lOn the 12 of Adar, all of our students gathered to remember Elisha Goldscheider z"l, whose firstyahrzeit last week. Our 5th-8th graders prepared sources related to לרעך כמוך ‏,ואהבת a Mitzvah thatmeant a lot to Elisha, and then learned those sources with our 1st-4th graders. We then gathered onthe steps to hear from some of Elisha's teachers, and to join in a communal tefilla. Click here to viewthe video of the program. The Goldscheider family has undertaken the mitzvah of writing a sefer Torahin Elisha's memory. Click here to be a part of this mitzvah.יהי זכרו ברוך

"Eat dinner outside before it’s too late and enjoy the light with the whole family."-Ariella Gentin 8ZPicture of the Week"I'd go swimming when it gets warm." - Aurelie Fand 1ZIt's That "Kind" of Week

What's Cooking?By: Hannah Siegel 8XLast week, as part of the eighth grade Cook It Up elective, the kids,accompanied by Ruthie Stavsky, went to the Atria Retirement Center.They had made hamantaschen dough the week before, and theybrought the dough to the Atria. They were greeted by a room ofsmiling residents, sitting at a table brimming full with jelly and cookiecutters. All of the kids sat down with a resident partner or two, andbegan to work. Despite someimpatience, the hamataschenturned out beautifully. They madeapricot and prune, two of theresidents favorite flavors. As the hamantaschen came out of thekitchen, an amazing aroma drifted through the air. Once they cooleddown, we tried them. They were delicious! After that, the kids handedout Mishloach Manot that they had made. The residents were sohappy, their smiles grew and grew. The leftover hamantaschen arebeing given to home bound seniors as a purim gift. This experiencewas incredibly fun! Learning about the residents, while baking delicious goodies... What could bebetter?!Coming SoonYou are invited to join us as SAR presentsNAMES, NOT NUMBERS ©Wednesday, March 21, 2012 at 7:00PMPlease join us at SAR Academy as we view the film and speak with the filmmakers andsurvivors/liberator.Names, Not Numbers is an oral history film project, which presents a segment of the history of WorldWar II and its aftermath. The documentary, made by our 8th grade students, has been accepted by theJewish National & University Library in Jerusalem for providing valuable information to researchers andscholars of the Shoah.The students interviewed and documented the lives of five survivors and one liberator, includingMr. LeoDreyfuss, Mr. Hector Goldman, Mrs. Jeanette Ackerman Merrill, Mr. Leon Reif, Dr. Bernard

Schanzer and Mrs. Renee Kurz Wiener. Meet the students-filmmakers and survivors/liberator as thelegacy of the Shoah is passed on to the next generation.Film created by Jewish educator, Tova Fish-Rosenberg. Instructors of videography and directors,Michael Puro and Eliana Martinez Alvarez. Project coordinator, faculty advisor and instructor, StefaHasson. Eighth Grade Student-filmmakers, Talia Askowitz, Rebecca Gorodischer, Allison Herstic, BenKahn, Yaira Kobrin, Rafi Kubersky, Jonathan Lederman, Elisheva May, Nadav Mor, Rachel Ordan,Danielle Plaue, Abigail Shay and Benny Weiser.RSVP to Stefa Hasson at hassos@saracademy.org or call 917-821-8229If you would like to honor this wonderful occasion with a sponsorship, please click here - under the"Donation and Payment" section, please choose "Names, Not Numbers 8th Gr. Holocaust Project" orsend your donation directly to the SAR Academy Business Office.דבר תורהParshat Vayakhel-PekudeiBy: Duly Rosenberg 5WThis week we read a double parsha:V’yakhel -Pikudei. I am writing a D’var Torah on something that wasespecially interesting to me in Parshat V’yakhel. Moshe Rabbeinu was collecting donations of gold,silver, copper, material, etc. from B’nai Yisrael so they could build the Mishkan. People kept bringingmore and more and more and more donations, until there was more than enough. This shows how B’naiYisrael really wanted to do teshuva so much, in order to make up for the chet ha’egal. When theycommitted chet ha’egalthey brought tons of materials that could be used to make it, such as gold andsilver. Now for the Mishkan, B’nai Yisrael wanted to make up for it so they brought even more silver andgold jewelry than they had brought for chet ha’egal. B’nai Yisrael brought so many donations to helpbuild the mishkan that Moshe Rabbeinu had to ask people to stop donating!! Wouldn’t it be great ifS/A/R would send out an email saying, ―STOP! We don’t need anymore donations - we have enough!!‖??"I'd do my homework outside." -Nina Siegel 7ZMark Your Calendars!

Thank you to all those who volunteered their time to join our packing party! Our Mishloach Manot werepacked beautifully and in record time: Toby Smith, Simone Semer, Paulette Morris, Shani Reich, AmyMichelman, Bella Weintraub, Dasi Schwalbe, Robin Reich, Rebekah Saltzman, Amelia Besseches,Elana Minkove, Margaret Danishefsky, Shoshi Talesnick, Adam Mukamal, Sophia Hershman, ValerieAltmann, Judith Block, Deborah Shapira, Hila Stern, Stephanie Bellin, Esther Symonds, Lilach Bar, andMairav Rothstein.Thank you also to parents Lynda Vidomlanski, Nina Bruder, Judith Block, and to Chana Sommer and thejunior high students and Michelle Hoch and the high school students who helped us to deliver theMishloach Manot and warmly wish the recipients a Purim Sameach!Thank you to the many families who joined in sending Mishloach Manot. Your generosity was verymeaningful to our staff and will help to support future PTC initiatives for our students and their families.Please Save the Date-- Upcoming Events!Thursday March 22nd -- SAR Spirit Day! Please send your child to school wearing black and yellow.Saturday, March 24 at 9pm, Join parents from the ELC, Academy & HS as we meet the director fromthe Israeli hit series ―Srugim‖ and watch an as yet to be released episode from next season. RSVPtohsptc@sarhighschool.orgThursday, April 26th -- Our highly anticipated Yom Ha'Atzmaut evening celebration for all students andtheir families! Details to follow. To join the committee, please email ptc@saracademy.orgSunday, April 29th, 6:30pm -- Annual Parenting Symposium for Academy and High School Parents --viewing of the highly acclaimed film ―Race to No Where‖, followed by an interactive panel discussion withexperts in the field of education. Dinner will be served. RSVP to ptc@saracademy.orgSunday, May 20th -- SAR's own mini-marathon and health and fitness fair! All students and theirfamilies are welcome! More details to follow. If you are interested in joining the committee for thisexciting new event, please email ptc@saracademy.org.“Go to a fair.” -Jonah Glassberg N7

Community EventsThird Annual Support-Our-Troops Day, Sunday, March 18th, 1-4Want to fill your afternoon with mitzvot? Bring your kids of all ages to MSAWI's Support-Our-TroopsDay. Pack care packages for U.S. troops overseas, march through our Mini-Boot Camp, open your mindin our Military University. Congregation Ramath Orah, 550 West 110th Street in Manhattan. Cost is$36/family and $18/individual. To RSVP, go to http://www.msawi.org/Support-Our-Troops_Day.php Clickhere for event flyer .You don't want to miss out on this opportunity to show our Troops that we care.YCT End of Life Medical Ethics ConferenceA community wide conference which runs from Tuesday March 20 to Friday March 23. The Tuesdayevening program, March 20, is open to the general community and we will be looking at these issuesfrom multi-faith points of view. See flyer for more information.Registration for "League of Our Own"Tryouts this Sunday, March 18th, 12:00-2:00 at the RJC. Girls in grades 3-8 are invitedto play. Please fill out attached registration form and mail check to address on form.For more info email:ranlee40@aol.com. Click here for online application.AR Adult ED - Upcoming Judaic Studies Series"Shir Ha-Shirim" with Ms. Karen Goldscheider(*Note: The number of sessions and start date are different than the ones in the original brochure)Thursdays 2:00pm-3:00pm- March 22, March 29לעלוי נשמת אלישע חנינא בן הרב אהרן אברהם וחנה מינדל ז ‏"ללעילוי נשמת אילן יחזקאל בן אהרון זאב ושרה רבקה ז ‏"ל"...The whole world is not as worthy as the day on which the Song of Songs was given to Israel; for allthe Writings are holy but the Song of Songs is the Holy of Holies." (Rabbi Akiva, Mishna Yadayim 3:5) Inthis course we will explore the multilayered beauty of the Song of Songs. We will delve into the literal,historical and metaphorical layers of the text in order to gain understanding of this deep and complexsefer which analyzes like no other the relationship between Hashem and Bnei Yisrael.This course will be dedicated l'ilui nishmat Elisha Goldscheider z"l and Ilan Tokayer z"l. It will be taught during the weeks that encompasstheir respective yahrzeits. May each special neshama forever be blessed.Bnei Akiva Riverdale EventsCandyland -Join us for a Monopoly game that revolves around Israel, candy and fun!!!What: Dinner and Monopoly Who: 1st-5th graders When: Thursday, March 22ndTime: 6:00pm- 7:30pm Where: RJC Shul, 3700 Independence Ave. Cost: 5$For more details please contact us at: BAriverdale@gmail.com

"Matzah & Miracles, A Passover Musical" at the Riverdale YM-YWHA NeuwirthTheater!HIR Clothing DriveTickets for this one-hour family musical written and directed by January M. Akselradare on sale for Sunday, March 18th at 1:30 PM and 4:00 PM. On Tuesday, March 20th,children and their families can participate in a special dinner and theater event thatbegins at 6:00 with a Middle Eastern Buffet followed by Matzah & Miracles at 7:00.Directly after the show, local rabbis and Jewish educators will hold a child-friendly ―talkback‖for the audience. For tickets and info, (718) 548-8200 or www.riverdaley.orgSunday March 25, 2012- 9:30 am to 12:30 pm . Please sort and bag separately men's, women's andchildren's clothing in sturdy garbage bags. Deposit clothing in the truck that will be stationed outside theHIR. Volunteers are needed so please call Steve Pretsfelder or Barbara Gochberg at 718-601-3586 oremailspretsfelder@vanwagner.comUSED STUFFED TOYS FOR ISRAELPLEASE - Help us reach our goal of 1,000. Ask your friends and neighbors. Going to Israel for Pesach?Not using your baggage allowance to Israel? If you are and are willing to take a pre-delivered duffel bagof toys, you will be met at Ben Gurion by Betty and Ed Wolfe - the angels who wash and mend them anddistribute them for us. Or you can send them in to K3 ELC now and all year. Children in Israeli hospitalsare waiting for them! Please contact Morah Rita-Rivka at ritalewy@gmail.comMishnah Study Program in Memory of Matt Fenster z"lMatt was committed to an inclusive vision of Jewish learning and worked to promote Jewish textualliteracy. As an adult, he worked hard to acquire the skills necessary to study Mishnah and otherJewish texts independently and in Chavruta (with a study partner). To honor his memory, the SARAcademy, Conservative Synagogue Adath Israel of Riverdale, and Young Israel Ohab Zedekcommunities will join together to complete the study of the entire Mishnah in time for Matt's first Yahrzeiton August 6, 2012 (18th of Av).Consistent with Matt's inclusive vision, we encourage widespread participation from learners at alllevels. Please sign up on the linked google-doc -- on your own or with a group of others -- to takeresponsibility for learning a tractate of Mishnah in time for the Yahrzeit. If you need help withyour learning, please indicate on the spreadsheet, and we'll connect you with someone who canhelp. Along the way to the Yahrzeit, there will be classes and other learning programs connected to thisproject. The focus of the communal learning programs will be the tractate of Brakhot. So, if you haveno prior experience studying Mishnah, you should still feel welcome to sign up to study Brakhot, as therewill be opportunities to study this tractate at community-wide programs. Thank you for your commitmentto this project. We look forward to strengthening the bonds of our community through this learningproject dedicated to Matt's memory. If you have any questions, please feel free to email Eric Fisherat fishere@dicksteinshapiro.comNote: All Submissions to the Community Events section are due to Chadashot@saracademy.org theTuesday prior to publication in copy ready format. The Chadashot reserves the right to further editsubmissions due to space constraints.SAR Academy655 West 254SAR HighSchool

StreetRiverdale, NY10476503 West 259StreetRiverdale, NY10476