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SKAppenings |
Purim
Parshat Tzav
13 Adar II 5768
March 20, 2008 |
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QUICK LINKS |
ATTENTION
ALUMNAE
Please keep us informed of important
happenings in your personal and professional lives. It will be our pleasure
to post your news in our next SKAPPENINGS! Please email us at
hspirn@skahalb.org
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A Purim Message from Mrs. Spirn
Hear Ye, Hear Ye!!
Calling all SKA students, faculty, graduates and other members of the SKA family
To the Royal Spirn Castle, to partake in Purim Cheer
With Kugel & Homemade Hamentashen
Throughout Friday, Purim Day
(But Not between the hours of 12:00- 1:30)
We look forward to sharing in Simchat Purim!
Wishing you all a Freilichan Purim
Mrs. Spirn & Royal Family
162 Lakeside Drive S.
Lawrence, NY
239-3368
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Dear SKA Families,
The following is a letter about a program that the Orthodox Union, the One
Family Fund, and many other sponsoring organizations are coordinating for this
coming Thursday, Taanit Esther, March 20th, at 5pm. There will be a
live webcast in support of the people of Sderot, who, as you know, have been
under fire for the past number of years, living in constant fear of Kassam
Rocket attacks. A number of prominent speakers will address the webcast at
the event.
We urge each of
our parents and our students to join in this webcast, this Thursday at 5pm.
May we merit seeing peace this Purim for all of our brothers and sisters in
Sderot, in all of Eretz Yisrael, and throughout the world.
Sincerely,
Rabbi Shmuel
Klammer, Principal, HALB
Mrs.
Helen Spirn, Principal, SKA
Rabbi
Yisroel Kaminetsky, Menahel, DRS
This March 20th, the eve of Purim, help us make history in solidarity with
Israel. Show up no matter where you are. All you need to do is go to
http://www.together4israel.org <http://www.together4israel.org/>
.
Seven
solidarity rallies ... on four continents ... live on the web ... one million
people coming TOGETHER.
Feel free to join us in person, but our primary goal is to get 1,000,000 people
online at one time, so please make sure to log on to
http://www.together4israel.org <http://www.together4israel.org/>
on March 20th at 11 p.m. Israel Time, or 5 p.m. EST. Times for the rest of the
world are listed on the web site.
Join us for this historic occasion. Jews from all over the world will come
TOGETHER for the largest ever online rally. Show you support for our brothers
and sisters living under the constant threat of terror.
Alan Dershowitz, the renowned American international lawyer and author of, "The
Case for Israel," and Irwin Cotler, the former Canadian Minister of Justice,
will kick off the event broadcasting live from Sderot, Israel at 11 p.m. local
time, 5 p.m. EST.
From
Sderot we will jump to live webcasts of rallies in Jerusalem, South Africa,
London, New York, Los Angeles and Australia. Be there in person or online.
Everyone will be counted.
Invited speakers include Yisroel Meir Lau, Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv; Israel's
Chief Rabbi Yonah Metzger; Natan Sharansky, former Knesset member and Soviet
Refusenik; David Trimble, former First Minister of Ireland; the Chief Rabbi of
the United Kingdom, Sir Jonathan Sacks; and Marvin Hier, Director of the Simon
Wiesenthal Center.
Don't
miss this historic opportunity to come TOGETHER for Israel. On Purim
night, March 20th, 11 p.m. Israel time, log on to
http://www.together4israel.org <http://www.together4israel.org/>
and be counted. Give courage and strength to our brothers and sisters who
live under fire.
Make a
difference today. Click here now to spread the word about our online rally at
http://www.together4israel.org <http://www.together4israel.org/>
and to watch a short promotional video about the event-but remember to return to
the site on March 20th! Times and details for participants around the world are
available at
http://www.together4israel.org <http://www.together4israel.org/>
.
A list of sponsoring
organizations can be found on the Website.
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Senior Adar!!
Starting from
Rosh Chodesh Adar II, the Seniors as a group dressed up every day. Each day was
a different theme and all the Seniors had different costumes. One day the
Seniors' theme was sports; another day everyone wore pajamas. One day each girl
dressed up as a post Israel girl, and one day the theme was the fifties,
sixties, and seventies. There was also a day for clashing and a day to dress
preppy. Each day was a new fun and exciting theme. It was a great way to begin
Adar and lead into Purim!! Way to go, Seniors!
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Mother-Daughter Brunch Honoring Rabbi Eisenbach and Mrs.
Wagner
We were excited to honor Mrs. Terri Wagner, Production
Director, and Rabbi Danny Eisenbach, Mashgiach
Ruchani, at our Mother Daughter Brunch last Sunday,
sponsored by our Parent Council. There was a great
turnout of moms, daughters, faculty and graduates, all
there to support SKA and to offer their hakarat hatov to
our honorees. A beautiful tribute was put together
by our students for both honorees who have impacted on
the lives of many SKA students and graduates. We
look forward to their being part of the SKA family for
many years to come! The breakfast concluded with a
fantastic Powerpoint presentation of the SKA student
body.
Special thanks to Parent
Council Chairpersons Esther Weinstein and Jan Wernick and their amazing
committee for a great morning of fun, tribute and mother-daughter bonding! |
Seniors Visit Gymnasia
The Seniors took
their second trip to the Gymnasia Kiruv School in Queens
last week where they celebrate Purim with the students. A few of the girls
prepared a short skit which told the Purim story; the students were so
interested and they laughed the whole way through. There was also a contest that
was played, to see who could best dress 2 students as Queen Esther and King
Achashverosh. After the game, everyone enjoyed a fun chagiga with singing,
dancing, and a lot of Purim prizes.
The girls loved to see how much happiness was brought to the Gymnasia school and
they had a blast celebrating Purim there. Thank you to Mrs. Yudin for organizing
the trip and thanks to those girls who helped put together the skit and the
game.
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Letter Writing to the Families of the Victims of the Mercaz Harav Massacre
In response to the terrorist attack at Yeshivat Mercaz Harav, all our girls
wrote one or two letters in Ivrit - one to a family that unfortunately lost
their son in the shooting and one to a family whose son is critically injured
and in the hospital. It really meant a lot to the girls to be able to express
their personal feelings about the tragedy that occurred to out brothers in
Israel and to be able to be Minachem Avel through the letters or to wish the
boys in the hospital a Refuah Shelma. We want to thank Mr. Phil Rosen for
delivering our letters to the families. May all the wounded have a Refuah Shelma
and may all the boys who were unfortunately killed, have an Aliya Neshama. |
Latte and Learn
This past Wednesday was SKA's second "Latte and Learn" program. Run by Ms. Adina
Borg, students gathered together informally and learned about
Purim. The shiur component focused on how Purim, specifically
because it was a hidden miracle outside of Eretz Yisrael, represents the
Jewish people's voluntary acceptance of the Torah and a consummation of
Matan Torah. Around ten students gathered together during their lunch
period to learn and sip iced coffee, and everyone had a great time.
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Mr. Fiedler's Class Dinner
This past
Tuesday night, Mr. Fiedler's 11th Grade Economics class joined him
for a delicious dinner at Ruthie's. The class had won the dinner at the SKA
Chanukah Auction. The whole class met after school at Ruthie's along with Mr.
Fiedler. It was really fun and delicious!! Thank you so much Mr. Fiedler, for
being such a sport and inviting us all to share dinner with you!
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This past
Shabbos, the AP Calculus AB and BC classes had the amazing opportunity to have
Shabbos lunch at Dr. Klahr's house. We all had an amazing time enjoying a great
meal prepared by Dr. Klahr and her family. Over Shabbos, we looked at different
pictures that corresponded to different ideas in calculus.
Thank you so much Dr. Klahr for your hachnasat orchim!
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Mock Trial Season Comes to an End
The SKA Mock
Trial team really stepped up to the plate this year. Our team
managed to win more trials this year than had been won in the previous year and
we were in the top 16 schools of the district. Along the way we
played some tough teams, yet we managed to direct and cross our way to a
ruling in our favor most of the time. Even in our last trial, the judge told us
that he would have ruled in our favor if it were a real trial, but sadly our
points just didn't add up high enough to move on.
A HUGE thank you to our coach Mr. Zucker and to our captains Leora Hefter and
Lauren Bayer for all their hard work and dedication and for a very fun and
successful season. Until next year in Albany!
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College Bowl Competition
On
Thursday March 13th
the College Bowl teams competed. The competition was hosted by HAFTR and
took place at Temple Beth El. The teams played against HANC, Central, NSHA, and
HAFTR. The girls tried really hard and had a lot of fun. The Varsity
team went 2 and 2 and the JV team went 0 and 4. We are really proud of our
girls! Special thanks to Mr. Fiedler, our Coach!
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COLLABORATIVE LEARNING
IN THE 10TH GRADE
This year, in Mrs. Mirsky's English class, the 10th grade read Alice
Hoffman's Incantation, a novel that tells the story of a Converso
teenager during the Spanish Inquisition. For her research paper, each student
had to discuss whether or not the novel is historically accurate.
Our computer
teacher, Mrs. Bryk, has used that assignment as an
opportunity to teach the 10th graders how to create and set up a
website using Microsoft Frontpage. This program allows the creation of webpages
without having to master the HTML language. Each student will create and set up
an original website with connecting pages, a summary of Hoffman's
Incantation,
hyperlinks to internet sources for historical accuracy, a table of contents
that will allow users to jump to different sections on the page, and in text
citation links.
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Varsity Volleyball Team Makes
It to the Semi-Finals
The SKA
Varsity Volleyball team played against Shulamith of Brooklyn last week as a
semi-final game. The winner of that game would continue on to play Magen David
in the championship. We played two very competitive games. Although we lost, we
all had a really fun time playing and our team became best friends! We really
had a great time all season! Thank you so much to Sheri Seidenfeld for being a
great coach throughout the whole season! We can't wait until our Six Flags Trip
in May!!
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SHAC YOM IYUN!!
This past week
SHAC (Shmiras Halashon Action Committee) had a Yom Iyun (a day of learning!) at
Central, where girls from over ten schools attended. We watched a cute video
about SHAC and heard from a few unbelievable speakers. Rabbi Ross, a Rebbe at
South Shore, spoke about how to speak positively and how to deal with people who
are speaking negatively to you. Each tip was very helpful and could be easily
applied to our every day lives. He included things like complimenting a certain
amount of people each day, avoiding sarcasm, and saying negative things in a
positive way.
We were also
privileged to hear from Rabbi Mezei who spoke about how our seemingly tiny
actions can have a HUGE affect! It is scientifically proven that when
butterflies flap their wings, they cause air movements that can bring about a
tornado. Just like this small creature can have such a huge affect, we too can
make a huge impact and change the world. We have to realize our strengths and
how great we are and how we can really make a difference. We may think that we
are so small and insignificant, but to HaShem... each individual is like a WHOLE
WORLD!!!!
Liron Eiger in
our 11th grade also spoke beautifully about the importance of keeping
our mouths clean and pure. Ours mouths are used to praise and thank HaShem, so
how could we just say these hurtful and impure words with the same mouth that we
use for good?!? We have to constantly remember that we must keep our mouths
clean and pure so that we can praise HaShem and show Him how much Kavod we have
for Him by keeping bad things out of our mouths! After the speakers, we were
broken up into groups to discuss the things we can do to improve our speech each
day and how the seemingly small things we do can really go a loooong way!
A reporter from
the New York Times came to interview some of our girls after the program. He
asked about how we put SHAC into our daily lives and what it means to each of
us. We told him about how we have an hour of day for no lashon hara and how we
really feel that it makes a difference in our school environment. The reason he
thought this topic was so important was because it really is a universal concept
and should not only be applied to the lives of Jews, but rather every type of
person or religion. Using our mouths for good is so important and really does
make a huge difference. Imagine how many fights and little arguments could be
prevented if everyone just tried to hold back a little and be dan lkaf zchus!
Imagine how happy everyone would be if they knew that no one was talking about
them behind their backs! We really can make a difference!!! It may be extremely
hard to stop speaking lashon hara completely, but don't be discouraged... HaShem
rewards even the smallest efforts that go into it! We hope we will be able to
work on our lashon hara and be zoche to see the coming of Mashiach b'mheira
byameinu!!!!!!
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PI Day!!
Last Friday,
the 11th Grade Pre-Calculus class celebrated PI Day. PI is a
mathematical symbol that equals around 3.14 so therefore PI day is celebrated on
March 14 (3/14). Dr. Klahr showed us how the most exact numerical value of PI is
derived from the Torah. She read the class a cute a story book about how PI was
discovered and we also watched a video of how PI was discovered. Girls brought
in delicious 'Pi'es and other snacks. It was really fun!! Yay- PI Day!!
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Sderot Program
Last Wednesday,
every grade had the privilege of attending a very special and informative
program about the situation of our brothers and sisters in Sderot. The program
was presented by Shoshana Cohen, who shared with us her personal
experiences with the people of Sderot. Shoshana told us that during her year in
Israel, a friend of hers invited her to spend some time with the children of
Sderot. She shared with us the different emotions that she felt on that day: joy
because she made the children happy and fear when the "Tzeva Adom" (Code Red)
alarm went off twice that day.
After the
presentation, we were able to write letters and decorate Mishloach Manot bags
for the people of Sderot. Shoshana's story was very touching and inspirational,
and thanks to her, our eyes have been opened to the true situation in Sderot.
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Lilmod Ule'Lamed for Mothers and Alumnae!
Our Lilmod Ule'lamed Program for HALB mothers and alumnae will continue at SKA
on Tuesday, March 25th, at 12:00 PM. Mrs. Rivka Yudin, beloved member of the SKA
Tanach faculty, will conclude her series focusing on "Purim & Pesach: Their
Relevance and Meaning."
The series is being sponsored by the Wittmann family with hakarat hatov to the
SKA faculty and
staff for all they do on behalf of our students.
We look forward to welcoming many of you once again for Torah, inspiration, and
coffee.
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