Dear Grand Rapids Jewish Community,
We at the United Jewish School are continuing to have a year full of building Jewish pride, celebrating our Jewish holidays, and learning about our Jewish values.
HIGHLIGHTS FROM LAST WEEK
In the 1st grade: “We continued working on our family tree project. We also watched an episode of the program Shalom Sesame, which is an Israeli version of Sesame Street. In this episode we learned about the aleph bet and counting numbers in Hebrew.”
In the 5th grade: “We learned about Amos. Who are prophets? What is their role? Who was Amos? What was his message? When is it our responsibility to speak up for others?”
In the 7th grade: “We continued talking about our unit on Achrayut (responsibility). We expanded on our lesson about environmental stewardship that we started last week celebrating Tu Bishvat and focused on our responsibility to animals.”
In the 9th and 10th grade class: “We dove into the origins of Christianityn (0 CE-325 CE). We focused on what life was like for ancient Judeans and the impact of the Roman Empire’s conquest on Israel and Judea.”
We are delighted to continue to offer special programming outside of the general curriculum. On February 6th, Jack Moga and Deet Newman will be back again to teach Jewish Art, this time with our 1st, 2nd, and 8th graders. On February 13th, our 9th and 10th grade class will once again have Jewish Yoga, Mindfulness, and Meditation with certified teacher Corey Dane. On February 27th, Miriam Chrenka will be doing Traditional Israeli Folk Dancing with all of our students. She will also be sharing with us her incredible experience as a camper at Habonim Dror Camp Tavor.
COVID-19 PROTOCOLS
Students who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 should not be attending UJS. As far as when it is safe to return, UJS is following CDC guidelines. According to the CDC website: “People with COVID-19 should isolate for 5 days and if they are asymptomatic or their symptoms are resolving (without fever for 24 hours), follow that by 5 days of wearing a mask when around others to minimize the risk of infecting people they encounter.” In other words, if a child has not had any symptoms and feels completely recovered for five days, they are welcome to come back to UJS. What has not changed is the Temple’s policy that every individual wear a mask at all times while inside of the building.
SECURITY
Per my email yesterday, we have decided to hire a second armed security guard for every Sunday morning. Also, starting this Spring, we will be working on a project to give all parents, teachers, and staff a badge that must be presented to the security officer to enter the building on Sunday mornings.
PURIM SHPIEL
Ahavas Israel and Temple Emanuel are looking for actors of all ages for the Beauty and the Beast Purim Spiel. This will be performed on Wednesday evening, March 16th at 6:30 PM. If your student(s) want to get involved, please email me at Cantor@grtemple.org and let me know.
PLANTING TREES IN ISRAEL
We are still fundraising to hit our Tu Bishvat goal of $613 as a school to plant trees via the Jewish National Fund. Good news: we’re about halfway there! You can send your students to school with tzedakah on Sunday or donate directly to our school fundraising page here.
Kol tuv,
Cantor David Fair
Cantor David Fair
(He/him/his)
Cantor Educator of the United Jewish School of Grand Rapids
1715 Fulton St E, Grand Rapids, MI 49503
(616) 591-1007 (School office)
616-591-1010 (Cantor’s private line)
It’s never too late to enroll your children in our school! Please go to https://www.unitedjewishschool.org/ and click on “Registration 2021-2022.”
*Please note that my office hours are Sundays from 9-12, and Wednesday-Friday 9-3pm.