Notes from Cantor Avima

Gift Presentation in appreciation of our Rishon, Noam Vashdy
Presented by David and Laila Dienna in memory of their great grandparents, Charles & Belle Kesselman.

This past Sunday, the Religious School held our closing day ceremony and Zayin Graduation. I prepared a slide show with some highlights of the past year. A whole year flashed by in about 3-4 minutes, but those few minutes reminded me of all the educational and sweet moments that were created in our brief 3 hours on Sunday mornings. Our Gan, Aleph and Bet students were introduced to Hebrew letters and the Bet students have even begun learning to combine consonants and vowels. Our Gimel students learned to read Hebrew, our Dalet and Hey students engaged in new project based curricula as well as our Bet students. Our Vav and Zayin students learned about the tallit and tefillin. Rabbi Rudin launched a new partnership for our Zayin students and students of the Amirim school in Ofakim. Our Rishon, Vashdy made a lasting connection with our students and there were tearful farewells. We had not ONE, but two mitzvah days this year, the second one being part of our celebration of Rabbi Rudin. We enjoyed class shabbat dinners and a Vav and Zayin class trip to the Lower East Side. We had a fantastic Chanukah Zimriyah on the 8th night of Chanukah in which our students filled our sanctuary with song. The list goes on and on.

2024 Zaying Graduates

I want to thank the Religious School Committee Co Chairs, Miriam Benovitz and Jessica Jacobs and the committee members, Ilyssa Tepperman, Lisa Beck, Claire Beslow, Steve Fineman, Erica Miller, Liz Walker, Ben Werner and Jessica Wolff. Also, without our teachers we have no school... Rebecca Diaz, Esther (Etti) Hahn, Tsipi Israel, Jonah (Yoni) Lefkofsky, Mitch Lefkofsky, Nurit Lev, Barbara Levinson, Fariba Mahgerefteh and Shari Weinerman. I would also like to thank our madrichim who defied the teen body clock to wake up on Sunday mornings:  Henry Cappello, Soren Gourvitz, Aaron Brodsky, Stephanie Rosenthal, Chloe Ross, Hayley Ross, Lily Rubinfeld, Brett Shuster, Jessie Weiman. As well, I would like to thank Kenneth Coates our Sunday building custodian and not least, Pam Jorlett our Religious School office administrator.

School resumes on Sunday, September 8, 2024!!