Kitah Vav Assignments, Week of January 30 , 2007 (due February 6)

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Hebrew - Rabbi Weber

On Tuesday we plugged on in our books a bit. Both students had obviously done a little practice reading the phrases for the Ma'ariv Aravim prayer.

We got side-tracked (but I call it a "teachable moment") when the question came up about what is the difference between the Torah and the Bible. I took out a Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) and we did a little exploring. We got into a discussion about why no one knows where Moses is buried. (So that Jews would not turn Moses or his remains into an idol.)

We learned the words "yesh" and "ain," using the material on page 37. We started the Language Enrichment on page 38, which centers on our calendar and the names of the months of the year. Students are to complete the written work on pages 38 and 39.

Page 39 may be a challenge. At the bottom of the page are names of Jewish holidays. Your child is likely not to know them all. One of them, (the one next to the icon of the birthday cake) is "yom huledet sheli" which means "my birthday." Students are to write the names in the appropriate boxes, one for each season of the year.

Next week, using my perpetual Hebrew calendar, we will look up both students' Hebrew birthdays.

Friday night is our Tu BiShvat Seder and pot-luck dinner. It will be fun, especially if everyone comes. Call the office on Wednesday if you want to attend.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi DW

History/Philosophy - Nancy Garfinkel

Hi Everyone,

This week we began discussion of chapter 5 in Let Freedom Ring. A couple of the concepts that were introduced in the beginning of the chapter were the pogroms and violence at the end of the 19th and start of the 20th century against the Jews in Russia. To help show how real this was to our students, I brought in a photo from the archives of the village my grandfather grew up in before he came to the US. It shows Russian soldiers holding guns and rifles pointed at Jews who are kneeling in the middle of the woods on the outside of town (a short way from what is now Kiev in the Ukraine) the people in the photo were murdered by the soldiers shortly after the photo was taken. I wanted to show the kids that even though these events happened a long time ago in a far away place, they still have relevance to today, to things that are happening now, not just to us but to people around the world.

We then went on to discuss the mass migration of Jews from eastern Europe to America. I introduced a discussion about Ellis Island, which is where the majority of eastern European Jews came through to be sorted and inspected by immigration officials before being allowed official entry into the US.

For homework:
I would like you to look online at: http://www.teacher.scholastic.com/immigrat/ellis/index.htm for an interactive tour of Ellis Island. Then go to the following two Ellis Island websites: ellisiland.org and ellisisland.com for the immigration museum.

While viewing these websites, I want you to be able to answer the following questions in a brief essay:

1) How many people came through Ellis Island?
2) How long might it take to pass through the lines to gain entry into the US?
3) What kind of inspections did people have to pass in order to enter?
4) How long could they be held at Ellis Island before being allowed to enter the country or to be deported back to their country of origin?
5) How did people pay for their passage to America?
6) What things would people bring with them from their home country to help them feel more at home in their new country?
7) How would people pay for their passage back home if they were denied entry into the US?
8) Did you need money to be able to enter the US?
9) Who would supply you with that money?
10) What if someone other than your family paid for you to come to America, would you be allowed in?
11) Where would people go if they were not allowed to enter the US? Would they go home, or would they go to another country?

Many of the answers to these questions can be found on the different websites. If you have any questions, please feel free to email me.

See you next Tuesday ,
Mrs. Garfinkel

Enrichment:
Parents: Direct students to www.behrmanhouse.com where they can practice their Hebrew decoding with “Click and Read Hebrew at Home” (the orange button) and drill prayer reading with “Click and Learn Prayer at Home” (the hot pink button). It’s also an ideal way for parents to practice along with their children.

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