November 5, 2021
Dear Families of the United Jewish School,
We are delighted to be moving into Week Eight of the United Jewish School
this school year. I’m seeing smiles, involvement, and important learning
taking place! We are truly feeling like a family. I am thrilled!
Some highlights from this past week are:
-The first grade students looked at a map of Israel, identified the major
cities and what they would find in each major city, picked a book about
Israel and had a nice discussion on if they were to move to Israel, where
they would like to live.
-The second grade students learned about the story of Joseph and discussed
the concept of jealousy.
-The sixth grade students had a powerful conversation about the nature of
prayer with Cantor David.
-The seventh grade students discussed the previous week’s parsha, Chayei
Sarah, covering the death of Sarah, Abraham’s marriage to Keturah, and
Isaac’s marriage to Rebecca.
-The 9th and 10th grade discussed Jewish views and practices of death and
mourning as compared to other religions.
This Sunday will be our first fire drill.
Coming soon! We are very excited to welcome Elana Arian to Grand Rapids as our Artist-in-Residence for this Chanukah season. Elana is one of the leading voices in contemporary Jewish music. She is a composer, a multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, and prayer leader. Elana will teach and sing with students from the United Jewish School on December 5th. Elana will join with Cantor David Fair and Rabbi Michael Schadick on December 3 at 6pm Temple Emanuel for Kabbalat Shabbat . Elana will join with Cantor David Fair and Rabbi David Krishef leading Shabbat Morning Services on December 4 at 9:30am at Ahavas Israel. In addition, Elana will lead the community, joined by Cantor David Fair, in Havdalah and headline an amazing Holiday Concert for all ages December 4 at 7pm at Temple Emanuel.
The entire community is encouraged to attend for this wonderful weekend of events. You can RSVP for the Friday and Saturday evening programs
here: https://grtemple.org/elana-arian-rsvp/
A reminder that Rabbi Krishef teaches a wonderful class for adults on Sunday
morning during religious school hours called “”Thoughtful Judaism: Jewish
Education for Parents.” Here is information about that class.
We love to have visitors and volunteers in the classrooms, and or in the
sanctuary for T’filah. If you have any questions or concerns, please let me
know by sending me an email at <mailto:cantor@unitedjewishschool.org>
cantor@unitedjewishschool.org or our administrative assistant, Kreenah
Dunsmore, at <mailto:kreenah@unitedjewishschool.org>
kreenah@unitedjewishschool.org.
L’shalom,
Cantor David Fair