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Hadashot Hinuch- Education Newsletter |
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UPCOMING DATES |
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 MAY CALENDAR
May 1,2
Weekday Religious School Classes,
4pm-5:30pm
May 4
Family Shabbat Service and Pizza Dinner:
5:30 dinner for members and invited guests;
6:30 service with Grades K/1 students participating
May 6
Sunday Religious School
classes,
9:30am-12:00pm;
HEBREW BOOT CAMP, 12:15-1:15PM
May 8,9
Weekday Religious School Classes,
4pm-5:30pm
May 13
Sunday Religious School
classes,
9:30am-12:00pm
HEBREW BOOT CAMP
12:15-1:15PM
May 15
Weekday Religious School Classes,
4pm-5:30pm
MAY 16
NO CLASS FOR 7TH GRADERS; PLEASE COME ON TUESDAY MAY 15 AT 4:45PM FOR PICTURES
May 20
LAST DAY OF
Religious School
classes and end-of-year BBQ,
9:30am-12:00pm;
CBT ANNUAL MEETING, 9:45AM;
NO HEBREW BOOT CAMP
May 27
7th Grade Commencement ceremony
10am at Lafayette Reservoir
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| Time to "LIKE" CBT |
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 CBT's Facebook page is Live
I encourage all of you FB'ers to "Like" the CBT Facebook Page. I will begin posting more info on that page, including updates, current thoughts, pictures in "real time", and much more. This is just another way to stay connected to the synagogue and what is happening at the Religious School. But you will not know if you do not "Like" the page. Even if you are not a FB'er, you can use this a test to see if you can manage it. Just sign up, do not friend anyone at the moment, and just go to the CBT page and hit "Like". You will then get updates as they happen regarding the synagogue and the Religious School. Then if you begin to see the benefits you can try branching out and updating your own profile, friending others, and so on...
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May day, May Day!! School ends on May 20. Yes, we have made it to the end of another successful school year. Many things have been accomplished but there still is more work to be done. The process of educational growth is a life-long endeavor. The evolution of an educational program is not quite that long but it does take time to tweak, refine and massage details and curricular aspects.
I will be ending my second year as congregational educator at CBT and my time here has been one of warmth and great optimism. This community has embraced me openly and have shown faith in my abilities to lead and inspire both students and parents. It is my hope that in the next few years the religious school program will be thriving even more than it is now and that we will be bursting at the seams with students. I also envision the program producing students who have strong ties to their Jewish roots and will be leaders in the Jewish community for many years to come.
One way you could help with fulfilling my aspirations is to join our Education Committee. It is one of the most important committees within the synagogue leadership structure and one that has a direct result that can be seen and measured. The time commitment is not very huge (attending one 1.5 hour meeting per month) but the impact can be felt throughout the institution. So if you are approached by one of our existing members, or by myself, to see if you might be interested in joining the committee for the next school year, please consider volunteering for this important role. Conversely, if you see yourself as a leader and someone who wants to get more involved in synagogue leadership, please contact myself or the chairperson of the committee, Todd Young, to express your interest.
Sincerely,
Phil Hankin, MAJE
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| Midrasha Open House |
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Contra Costa Midrasha's annual OPEN HOUSE!
Wednesday, May 2nd 2012
...get a taste and feel for Midrasha by experiencing it yourself!
Who: 7th Grade teens (and their parents)
When: Wednesday, May 2, 2012 -- 6:30 - 9:15pm
Pizza Dinner at 6:30pm -- Midrasha from 7:15 - 9:15pm
(Parents will have a separate information session during this time.)
Where: Contra Costa Midrasha - 74 Eckley Lane - Walnut Creek
Please RSVP by April 30th at www.ccmidrasha.com, click on the "Open House RSVP" link.
Questions? 925/944-4701 or office@ccmidrasha.com
From Midrasha graduates - what they appreciate about Midrasha...
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"Midrasha made me more open and trusting of others and I would want that for my kids."
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Havdalah is always really special - 'cool feeling to be in the community' and closer.
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"Midrasha has been an important part of my life - especially junior & senior year - a great place to chill"
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"People here [at CCM] are really great and totally worth coming out here for."
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[You can] "be more yourself here, 'go all out.'"
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"Midrasha made me accept myself more."
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"People here (at CCM) are more chilled out and open than at regular school."
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"Midrasha lets me experiment with who I am, I can be myself; don't have to keep up 'image' like I do at school."
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| PARKING PROTOCOL |
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 Sunday Afternoon pick-up procedure
Since the implementation of the new pick-up procedure, the flow of the parking lot has been much better.
Thank you to all who have followed the new procedure. Just as a reminder, here is what went into effect to help alleviate the congestion on the hill of Hillcroft Way:
- If there is an open parking spot, please take it and get out of your vehicle to walk over and greet your child/ren as they finish the morning.
- Once all spaces are filled, you may begin to line up in the coned-off "cue".
- NEW: ONLY A FEW CARS WILL BE ALLOWED TO LINE UP IN THE "CUE" UNTIL THEY HAVE REACHED THE SIGN. ONCE THIS HAS TAKEN PLACE, YOU WILL BE ASKED TO EXIT THE LOT AND FORM A NEW "CUE" AT THE TOP OF THE HILL FACING DOWNHILL NEXT TO THE ENTRANCE OF THE LOT. A PARENT PARKING LOT VOLUNTEER WILL BE THERE TO MONITOR THE FLOW AND ALLOW CARS TO ENTER THE PARKING LOT TO JOIN THE MAIN "CUE" OR TO TAKE AN EMPTY SPACE.
- The hope is to alleviate the dangerous back up on Hillcroft and to allow those of you who have parked in spaces a chance to get out freely and without much delay. We believe having more than just Phil out there to monitor the flow will expedite the flow process. All we need is your help to comply with the volunteer's instructions.
A big thanks to Solomon Ets-Hokin for spearheading this process.
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Camp Newman
Corner |
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Below is the notice that CBT has a specific invitation to attend a Shabbat dinner experience at URJ Camp Newman this summer. It will take place on Friday June 29. Since i will already be up there, I look forward to seeing many of you. All you need to do is RSVP with camp as
per the flyer below.
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Timing is Everything |
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I am writing to you during the middle of my travels in Italy with my wife. We are here celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary. The timing of the trip is during Spring Break because this Summer our son turns 13 and we have a Bar Mitzvah to manage. Looking back, if we had known that when we were going to have children our first born would have turned 13 the same year we had our 20th wedding anniversary, we probably would have not planned it that way. I will suggest to my children that they plan a bit better than we did. I do not suggest having two large life-celebrations in the same year if you can avoid it. Looking back, though, I would not trade it in for anything.
My wife and I knew that we wanted children, but we really did not realize that once having one meant our identity as couple would forever be changed. Dina and Phil very quickly became Mommy and Daddy. We now had very little time to ourselves. We began to make decisions that centered around our son. Looking for toy stores that had Thomas the Train displays so he could play with them, looking for playgrounds where he could swing and play in the sand, searching for open spaces so he could kick the soccer ball - all in a certain time period, of course, before he needed to be home to take a nap. This was our time quest. We were slaves to the clock. Then, as he got older, playdates turned into pre-school, which in turn became grade-school. Now we are in the midst of Middle School and Bar Mitzvah preparation. We needed time away so we took advantage of the timing of Spring Break to revisit our lives as a couple.
I equate this to the weekly, hectic lives we all live. School, work, after-school sports and other activities, religious school, homework, family time - when does it end? Each week we search for the time to end the hamster lives we live and take a break. Thank God (literally) that Judaism has taken care of this for us. It is called Shabbat. It is supposed to be that time each week where we take a break and reclaim our lives by taking a deep breath and enjoying the fact we are all alive and live a blessed life. For some of us, Friday evening and Saturday mornings are even more hectic than the rest of the week. I like to view Shabbat through the lens of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel. He believes that Shabbat should be viewed for its holiness of time. He believes that we all should take the aspect of sacred time and apply it to Shabbat. Find something to do on Shabbat that is different from the daily experiences of the week and make that a holy time. It can be small, like lighting candles each week or having a family meal TOGETHER, or something large, like trying to "unplug" for an entire 24 hour period. Whatever it is, look at Shabbat as a time to reclaim what was once yours - time.
By the time you read this article I will have returned from my trip and will have rejoined my hectic life. Bar Mitzvah plans will be well into the middle stages (ceremony is Sept. 1), Religious School will be ending on May 20 (7th Grade Commencement on May 27), and summer break will be around the corner. My trip to Italy and visits to Rome, Florence, and Venice will be a distant memory. I can only hold out hope that my family and I can continue to steal away special moments in time that remind us why we became a family, between the soccer and religious school carpools, the violin and acting classes, and the work that both my wife and I engage in. And just think, when we celebrate our 25th anniversary, our son will be graduating High School. Timing is everything!!
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