As we near the 4^th of July, our celebration of 236 years of our country's independence, I feel humbled by the amazing opportunities and freedoms we have and continue to experience in America. We learn about and comfortably identify with Israel. We do so daily in our tefilot, celebrations and oftentimes in certain acts of protest, as well. May God bless America on the anniversary of its independence, and may we, as proud Americans, continue to employ our energies to keep our ties to Eretz Yisraelstrong and work to secure our democratic partnership with Medinat Yisrael.

We have uploaded a few clips from this year's
Yom Ha'Atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day program, for you to enjoy. The short film features the IDF band that followed our Tefilah Chagigit and also includes an insightful and passionate presentation by Ms. Miriam Krupka of the Tanakh Department. 

Please enjoy the spirited IDF performance!

The Upper School graduation was a memorable and glorious evening of celebration and pride. We have uploaded excerpts of the program: the students' presentations, the tenth year anniversarian's speech and the cantata. Simchaand joy filled the room and watching the program will surely be a pleasurable and nachat filled experience for you. Please visit "Take Me Higher!" and enjoy.

Two of our most recent school wide programs, Yom Hashoah and Yom HaZikaron are also posted. Rabbi Goldmintz, senior student Jason Abramson,'12, Ms. Judith Fagin, Rabbi Stechler and his Grandma Helen made a difficult day extraordinary through their riveting presentations on Yom Hashoah. By sharing their personal experiences with us, these important days became all the more meaningful and relevant to our school community.

On Yom HaZikaron, senior student David Cohen, '12, Lieutenant Shai Dvir and Kollel Fellow Joshua Rosenfeld, each in his own remarkable way, helped us to visualize, appreciate and feel very much in awe of  the never ending and uncompromising commitment of our IDF soldiers.

Stay tuned, there's more to come.

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Mr. Daniel Edelman, Shoshana’s father (’14), together with Nathan and Alyza Lewin, distinguished civil rights lawyers, spoke to our students in a program titled, “ Lessons From Beren’s Legal Challenge.”

Beren Academy is a modern orthodox school in Houston, Texas and their basketball team had a successful season and made it to the playoff in a Texas state league comprising 250 schools. The championship games were scheduled for Shabbat. The team and the school were confronted with having to decide whether to forfeit participation or to seek an accommodation through a challenge. Three of the players and their parents sought the Lewins’ assistance, and a complaint was drafted.  Enjoy, as our students did, listening to the phenomenally interesting and inspiring presentations of our three prestigious guests (link). The behavior of the team and the actions taken by the Lewins were a Kiddush Hashem.

We encourage you to visit the Jewish Week website to read the article by Mr. Edelman. 

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Representing the Human Rights Club Presidents Felice Oltuski and Jason Abramson addressed the entire school about the need to support the efforts of the organization, Invisible Children which dedicates itself to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s rebel war and restore LRA (The Lord’s Resistance Army) affected communities in Central Africa to peace and prosperity. Invisible Children uses media to inspire people and to help end the longest running armed conflict in Africa.

By producing documentaries, touring around the world, and lobbying the nation’s leaders to make ending this conflict a priority, Invisible Children succeeds in raising awareness about Joseph Kony’s actions. Invisible Children’s development professionals from Central Africa partner with local communities to implement and maintain education programs and economic initiatives in the war affected region.

The program was triggered by two short video clips that give a brief window into the brutal situation in Africa. We encourage you to watch them and become a part of our students’ efforts to support Invisible Children http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpogG8F6VMY and . http://www2.invisiblechildren.com/videos/25163061. Throughout the lunch periods a longer video will be shown and you may want to view this one as well http://vimeo.com/invisible/kony2012.

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“History tells us what happened – fiction tells us how it felt.”

Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, a semi-autobiographical novel written by Dai Sijie about the “cultural re-education” of two teenage boys during the early 1970’s, our book selection for Book Day, will do just that: let us feel what communist Chinese policy inflicted on it’s so-called bourgeois population in order to cleanse them from anti-government ideas and pursuits, i.e. cultural and intellectual freedom.

In a witty and winsome story of how the illiterate peasant population in the remote area where the boys were sent was transformed by the young men’s entertaining them with stories based on films and literature, by hearing classical music for the first time, the book will help us understand the recent history of China and the continuing challenge of understanding the Chinese heritage and China’s central role in today’s world. Enjoy viewing a short clip from the film by clicking here.

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