Laurie & Joe Brofsky - Hewlett E. Rockaway Jewish Center

Encampment ‘11
at Camp Ramah
in the
Berkshires
METNY REGION’S
BEST PROGRAM!
Open to all current
5th to 11th graders.
Separate programs for
5th–7th graders (Kadima)
and 8th–11th
graders (USY).
ACTIVITIES
Each teen gets to
choose a variety of
activi ties such as
Drama, Music,
Sports Clinics,
Arts & Crafts,
Teenage Dilemmas,
and much more!
EVERYONE
PARTICIPATES IN
Talent Show and
Maccabia, Campfires
and Hiking, and the
Final Banquet
For an application,
contact the Youth Office
or call 212-533-7800
ext. 2155.
religious school
DAVID WOOLFE
With Passover behind us, we really are on the “home stretch” of this
school year. We have enjoyed many remarkable successes since last
September. Our Building Block program has been an incredible success,
bringing many new, young families into our congregational
family. Our Zusia program has allowed a small, but important, number
of students to be part of our Religious School family. Our Parent
Association generously subsidized a field trip for our 5th and 6th
graders to the Eldridge Street Synagogue and a walking tour of the
Lower East Side. By all accounts, it was a great trip. The pickles, in
particular, earned high praise!
The Akiva Shabbat. The Building Blocks Shabbat. Kabbalat Hasiddur. Family projects.
The list goes on and on and this is all good.
But we do not like to rest on our laurels. We
are always striving to improve and expand!
“. . . a field trip
for our 5th and 6th
graders to the Eldridge
Street Synagogue and
a walking tour of the
Lower East Side . . . was
a great trip!
”
Hazzan Sislen’s regular participation in the
school program has opened up new areas of
enjoyment and learning and Rabbi Warmflash’s
insights will be put into play as we go forward.
Perhaps no anticipated improvement in our
program is as noteworthy as our new post-
Bar/Bat Mitzvah program. As our first Akiva
cohort enters the 8th grade, we are ready to welcome
them with a great curriculum designed by
Etgar that is powerful, meaningful, content-rich, and fully engaging. I am looking forward
to teaching the class and to finally figuring out the penguin soup riddle with my
students!
So while 2010-11 has been a great year, we look forward to 2011-12 being even better.
Enjoy the warmer weather that has finally arrived. Enjoy the summer. I look forward
to enthusiastically shaloming all of you once again in the fall!
post bar/Bat mitzvah Program
SOMETHING NEW!
The philosophy behind Etgar curriculums is that every student deserves to be taught
to his or her strength, that we have to begin our teaching “where our students are” and
that every lesson must be engaging and worthwhile.
Our new Post-Bar/Bar Mitzvah program is based on this philosophy and features a
weekly, one-hour session on Thursday evenings from 7–8 pm, topped off by dessert!
The year will be divided into two primary units: the Shoah and Israel. Multimedia, discussion,
and engaging materials will make these important topics come to life for the
students.
Mr. Woolfe will be teaching the class and is hoping that his students feel as he does
—that the “third time’s the charm” and are looking forward to being with him one
more time.
page 20 MAY/JUNE 2011 www.herjc.org HAKOL