Autobiographies

Students in Academy write autobiographies throughout the year, 'becoming' Jewish heroes from generations passed.  Here are two of the most outstanding autobiographies from the fall!

"Avraham" by Sarah Burnick

            I am Avraham. I have a family of my wife Sarah, and my son, Isaac. We now live in Canaan after my journey from my home in Mesopotamia. It is around 2,000 B.C.E. in my tent. I have had a very special time in my life about a connection of God and me. When I still lived in Mesopotamia, God and I made an agreement-if I moved to Canaan, God would bless me. Sarai and I packed up to make to Canaan. God blessed me by saying: “They who praise you, will be praised. They who cursed you will be cursed.” God told me “I will change your and Sarai’s names. You will now be Avraham, and your wife will be Sarah.” God also told me that He was giving me a son, and I was going to name him Isaac. I did not think Sarah could give birth to a son. She was 99 years old! But sure enough, we had a son, and we named him Isaac, “child of laughter”. My role model is God. He taught me to believe in myself because when God told me he would give Sarah and I a child, at first I didn’t believe it. I now do not disagree with God. My journey from Mesopotamia to Canaan taught me that I could do anything. Now I believe in One and only One God. In addition, God told me to believe in myself. I want the future people to learn that to be hospitable makes your guests comfortable and happy.

"Isaac" by Elliot Sasson

            My name is Itzhak. My name means son of laughter. I live in the land of Canaan, but my parents are from Mesopotamia. Avraham and Sarah are my parents. When they were almost 100 years old, God said they were going to have a baby in one year. Avraham and Sarah didn’t believe this. They laughed. That is why they named me “the child of laughter”.

         When I was an older child, my father was ordered by God to take his favorite son, me, to the land of Moriah, to a mountain to burn me as a sacrifice. Avraham made an altar there and was about to burn me, but suddenly an angel came and said “Avraham, Avraham, do not hurt the boy. For now I know that you love God. You have passed the terrible test. You would even give God your son, your favorite son.” This was a huge event in my life.

        Later I married Rebecca and had a child named Jacob. Having Jacob was very special to us. I lived for very long.

          My role model is my dad, Avraham, because he has taught me throughout my life. I would like future generations to learn to give their children tests, but   not the kind I was given. I really enjoyed my life. It has been a long journey for me both physically and mentally.

Academy Update & Parent Help

Dear Academy Parents,

For the past month your children have been introduced to several
subjects, which they have started mastering on a weekly basis.
One of them is Modern Hebrew, the students have discovered the
miracle of understanding and speaking a foreign language by using a limited
amount of words and then building up the vocabulary step-by-step. Each
Sunday I count the number of words each of them uses for their “short
stories”. Thus we have been having a little competition going on in class
where every student goes against his/her own score during our
conversational Hebrew. The students are always encouraged to go up and
present their stories. So far each of them can tell a little bit about themselves
and their families in Hebrew.

In parallel, we have been looking closely at the first Jewish Biblical
Family that consisted of Avraham, Sarah, and Isaac. We have read about
them from the Torah, and then analyzed the most significant events of their
lives, and finally, as a result of our class discussions, the Academy students
are to write autobiographies by using “I” statements and by
imagining themselves being Avraham, Sarah or their son Isaac.

Please have a discussion with your child about one of the most significant
events in the life of your family.

Sincerely,
Genia Ruzer

Torah Scroll Club

The Torah Scroll Club was conceived in order to create a dialogue between students and parents. The idea is to analyze stories from the Torah in class and bring questions home for the parents.

In class we will learn how to think out loud, listen to others, and compare ideas about Torah stories.  Every time we have a discussion about Biblical characters, we will try to make connections between past and present, remote and personal by comparing our emotions and feelings with those of Adam, Eve, Avraham, Moses, and others.

In order to make our discussions more rich and thought-provoking, we would be thrilled if the Academy Parents joined us in the process of unrolling our Torah Scroll and making great discoveries together.  We will try to help the dialogue happen by updating you via blog on the discussions we have in class... that way parents can continue the conversation at home, and continue to add to the "Torah scroll" that we are creating through dialogue this year!

Biblical creation story - your thoughts?

A Big Idea for the Academy curriculum is to go back in time as far as possible in order to search for wisdom and inspiration from the past and apply it to our own modern lives.

As we approach Rosh HaShana, we get acquainted with the primary source of both wisdom and inspiration in Jewish tradition by examining the Torah. Throughout the year, we are going to read from the Book of Genesis in the hope that it could shed some light on how things started and when, and how we should think about the world we live in.

Please discuss with your child the Biblical story of the Creation of the World. What is your opinion of this story? Do you have another version of the same story which you feel more comfortable with? Please share your thoughts with your child - I look forward to hearing their thoughts in class!

Welcome to "Academy"!

Shalom Academy Families!

This is Rabbi Greninger, posting for Genia for the Academy Program, a brand new program for 5th & 6th graders at Isaiah.  We hope you'll find this blog helpful!  Here's the first message from Genia:

On Sunday Sept 18th we read from the first chapter of the Book of Genesis and came up with the following questions for parents and students to think about together. Please email Genia or Rabbi Greninger with your answers.  Thank you!

1. What was the point of making Earth, Light? (Tali and Claire)
2. When people started discovering other planets, where they thinking about science or God creating them? (Adam)
3. Did God create our world because there are more "mystic" beings like Him that had been created by competitive gods? (Jack)
4. How did God come to existence? (Sarah)
5. Did God make some of the laws of physics? (Jack)
6. What gender is God? (Adam)
7. Did God create the Torah or did the Torah create God? (Josh)
8. Why did God create darkness and light in one day instead of separating them? (Sam)
9. What does "firmament" mean? (Mia)