Dear Friends,

I hope everyone enjoyed a relaxing and rejuvenating winter break. It was wonderful to welcome our students back to school this week.

We truly appreciate your commitment to ensuring a safe and healthy return to school and your cooperation in the testing following vacation. Many thanks to Debra May and to our many volunteers who helped ensure a smooth and efficient experience.

We gathered as a school community on Thursday via Zoom for a brief tefilla and a program to address the events that took place this past week in Washington. We pray for those who have lost life and been injured, for שלומה של מלכות, and for wisdom to be granted to our leaders.

If you have not yet done so, I encourage you to join our Celebration of Heroes campaign as we honor nine incredible individuals in our community for their leadership, service, and dedication. Please make your reservations for next week's virtual event and join us to pay tribute to our honorees.

Shabbat Shalom,

RABBI BINYAMIN KRAUSS (AC '84)
Principal

MAZAL TOV to the following students on the occasion of their bar/bat mitzvah:

Oliver Fishman (Gr. 7)

MAZAL TOV to:

Nava (AC Faculty) and Aryeh Buchen on the birth of a baby boy.

If you would like a "Mazal Tov" listed in Chadashot for a new baby that is

born in your family, please click here.

Click here to sponsor a Day of Learning at SAR to commemorate a yahrzeit; learn in the merit of a loved one's refuah shlemah; honor a parent, teacher, leader, or friend; or celebrate a simcha. It is a wonderful way to model by example the value we place in learning and give meaning to our acts of tzedakah. If you have any questions, please contact Sara Hasson at sara.hasson@saracademy.org or at x1300.

It was great to welcome everyone back to school this week after what we hope was a wonderful and relaxing winter break! Students enjoyed greeting their friends and teachers and settling back into the rhythm of school. From nature walks and parsha murals to changing the calendar to reflect the new year and even meeting Rashi "himself", our students had an enjoyable and productive week of learning.

Every year, SAR hosts our Anniversary Dinner, where we gather as a community in celebration of the many achievements of the SAR community and launch our largest fundraising campaign of the year. This year, we are launching our campaign online and will gather virtually in a live event on January 14, 2021 to celebrate SAR Community Heroes.

We celebrate those who have selflessly cared for the broader community with leadership, service and compassion. We celebrate the collaboration and resourcefulness of a community full of heroes. We celebrate the students who have embraced the changes and have discovered a new appreciation for their education.

We are deeply honored to celebrate our honorees for inspiring acts of service of school and community.

Esther Bacharach, RN | Russi Bohm, RN | Tal Bouskila | Teena Lerner, PhD

Gita Lisker, MD | Maggie Listhaus, FNP, RN | Joshua Rocker, MD

Esther Sperber | Hila Stern

Please join the campaign!

Each week in Chadashot you will find a column called "Bring it to the Table," with prompts and questions to discuss אחריות, responsibility, around your Shabbat table. In school each month, we will highlight another aspect of אחריות, broadening students' conception of what responsibility is and the many ways we can express responsibility and be a community that continues to "step it up." We are looking forward to deepening our understanding about ways in which we can act responsibly in the world and be proactive in caring for ourselves and for others.

This week in Gan Rimon, as we began learning Parshat Shemot, we focused on our own shemot. We searched magazines for the letters in our names, finding them and cutting them out. We also used loose parts to create our names. Using these pictures we created a name collage. The finishing touch to our collages was an explanation of why our names were given to us. We learned that some people in our class are named after special people in their family and others have names that are from the Torah or have a meaning behind them.

"I had a good vacation even though I was at home a lot of the time because of Covid - 19." This is just one of the many ways the kids in 4th grade expressed their feelings about this past winter vacation. Whether they traveled or spent time with family at home, your children had so much to say! Using transition words is one of our goals in 4th grade. Therefore, you may notice how the children's sentences are more sophisticated and detailed using words like however, after, fortunately, and for example.

This vacation felt extremely short, but I did a lot of fun activities. For example, I went ice skating and saw Jurassic Park.
I finished Harry Potter 7. Although I am happy that I finished, I am sad that it is over.
Over winter break, I went to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.
I went snow tubing. However, it was a bit crowded for my liking.
After we came home from snow tubing, we had a socially distanced fire pit with our friends in our backyard.
Fortunately, I had a fun socially distanced playdate with a friend.
Overall, even though I didn't go away on vacation, my 'coronacation' was pretty good.

Many children also rose to our "Vacation Challenges" which included a multitude of challenges like finishing an entire book, davening each day, calling a grandparent to wish them a good Shabbos and creating a Lego structure to depict a scene from the Chumash! We loved receiving the emails with photos documenting the children's many and varied feats!

The first graders have finished their second Ariot book! They have learned א-י and ש. To celebrate, we enjoyed a special activity for each letter. For ו we learned the word בלון and we learned a story about balloons changing shapes. We then took Twizzlers and reshaped them and used phrases we had learned such as זה לא בלון, זה דב (it's not a balloon, it's a bear). We also enjoyed eating the Twizzlers at the end, of course! For ז we tried our hands at origami and made an אוזון (a duckling). We learned about משפחה (family) in ח and we incorporated pictures of our family into a piece of artwork. For ט we made טוסט based on a story about a טבח (chef) who makes טוסט (toast). We spread various spreads on our טוסט. The overwhelming majority of first graders enjoyed ממרח שוקולד (chocolate spread) on their toast. Finally, we received a יויו to culminate our study of י. We had so much fun participating in these activities based on each letter and we are so proud of our accomplishments! The first graders now know almost every vowel. We are so excited to continue in Ariot 3!

By Jonah Kermaier, 6Z

In response to the disturbing events at the US Capitol on Wednesday, we had a school wide Zoom program the next day to gather as a community. At the program, Rabbi Krauss addressed the school, sending a message of concern and prayer for hope. There also were students selected to lead prayers including the prayer for the US Government and a prayer of tehillim for the people injured during the attack. Rabbi Krauss condemned the acts of violence perpetrated by the protesters. As part of the program, an excerpt from Vice President Mike Pence's speech to the Senate was played, in which he echoed these sentiments. Later in the day, my class along with other classes, discussed the events in further detail and had conversations to ensure we understood and were able to grapple with this tragic event. Hopefully, there will be a smooth, peaceful transition of power from here on.

Click here to view the program.

On Monday our first Master of the Arts workshop with artist Tobi Kahn concluded and on Tuesday a new series of workshops began with Master Artist Hanoch Piven. Tobi's work with our students on collage laid the foundation for Piven's work with our students on portraiture and creative use of materials to design 3D collage representing themselves.

Hanoch is an author and illustrator many times over. He was born in Uruguay and moved to Israel with his family at the age of eleven. He grew up in Ramat Gan. He studied at the School of Visual Arts in New York, graduating in 1992. When he returned to Israel in 1995, he began to work for Haaretz newspaper. Piven's illustrated compositions are assembled from common objects and scraps of materials, including items which might be associated with the subject. His caricatures appear in Time, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, The Atlantic Monthly, The Times, and Entertainment Weekly, among other publications. He is the author and illustrator of many books. Piven conducts workshops around the world where he teaches his own collage technique and encourages children and adults to use common day-to-day objects to create works of art and communicate non-verbally through them.

Our students are already excited to work with Hanoch and we are very lucky to have him join our Master of Arts program.

You can learn more about Hanoch Piven here: https://www.pivenworld.com/

Our 8th grade engineers have been busy studying the properties of different classes of materials: metals, ceramics, polymers, and composites. Presented with the benefits of using each type in different situations, the students were also challenged with the drawbacks of each. Through the "Plastic is Fantastic...or is it?" project, the students are developing solutions to help the world with the problems that plastic causes for our environment. Stay tuned...

Knowing that we were limited in what we could do over break, Ben Kahan (1X), thought it would be a good time to go through his toys and books, so he could donate the ones that he was done using to those in need. Another idea was making cards for nursing home residents. His mom then thought, why not suggest this to the RJC youth department? They were enthused about the idea and Rami Pinchot, RJC's youth director, helped make the arrangements. Ben then went with his mom after school to deliver the beautiful Happy New Year cards made by the children of the RJC to the Atria and enjoyed riding to and from school in a car packed with toys and books! It took his family's car and Rami's SUV to drive all toys and books that were donated to a gemach in Passaic yesterday!

One of our seventh grade students, Nina Bellows, is coordinating a project called Tales for Tots. Please read Nina's message below:

My name is Nina Bellows. I am 12 years old and am in 7th grade at SAR Middle School. This year is my Bat Mitzvah and I wanted to do a chesed project. I very much enjoy reading. I also thought that due to Covid-19, many parents are pressed for time on Fridays, as Shabbat enters earlier. So I thought, what about reading children's books online to children roughly ages 3-7 for about 30 minutes? Perhaps parents could get a little break, children would be read to and we can all have a great time! I read every Friday from 2:30-3:00 PM. Please see this flyer for all the details and feel free to tell your friends. I can't wait to meet you online!

--Nina Bellows, SAR '26

By Eytam Blau, 4W

In the beginning of this week's parsha, if you would read this specific pasuk from Parshat Shemot, Perek Alef, Pasuk Chet, you might not realize that there is something strange in the wording of the pasuk, it says:

וַיָּ֥קָם מֶֽלֶךְ־חָדָ֖שׁ עַל־מִצְרָ֑יִם אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹֽא־יָדַ֖ע אֶת־יוֹסֵֽף

How could it be that this new king didn't know who Yosef was? Yosef was the one who saved Mitzrayim in a famine and he was second in command!

Could it be that this new Pharaoh didn't hear about him? Did this new Pharaoh's father not share stories about Yosef? How is it possible that this new king actually doesn't know Yosef?

If you look in Rashi, it says that this new king just "pretended that he didn't know Yosef". How could that actually be true? It may be possible that he didn't like Yosef, but why would he pretend that he didn't know Yosef? When I read this answer, I wasn't satisfied with it.

I looked in Sforno's commentary and he says that the new king DID know who Yosef was, but he didn't know that Yosef was Jewish. Therefore, this new Pharaoh didn't understand that the current Jewish population is related to Yosef from years before and should be treated kindly.

MLK Day of Service 2021

Join the team changing the world as the Riverdale Y, in partnership with the RJCP and UJA Federation, hosts our annual MLK Day of Service on Monday, January 18. The year may be wildly different, but the need still exists. Find out how you can be an influencer for good at www.RiverdaleY.org/mlk.

Camp 2021 at the Riverdale Y

We're so excited to get back to camp for Summer 2021! Save up to $600 when you register before January 31 for Camp Kulanu (ages 2 to 5), Summer Stage (ages 6 to 16), or Camp Twelve Trails (ages 5 to 16). For more information, please visit www.RiverdaleY.org/camp.

Enrichment Activities

Join us for fun enrichment programs to get moving and active. Sign up for activities like swim, basketball, theater, dance, or music at www.RiverdaleY.org/enrichment.

Senior Meals

Our community's seniors need your support! The Riverdale Y is preparing and delivering free, hot, kosher meals to seniors in our community! Please visit www.RiverdaleY.org/seniormeals and donate generously. If you'd like to donate your time, you can help volunteer by reaching out to volunteers@riverdaley.org.

!שבת שלום