Save $500 off your child's first year tuition by submitting an application by the December 15 Early Decision Deadline. Contact Rachel Spiro, Director of Admissions, rspiro@chicagojhs.com, if you would like to receive an application and schedule a tour of the school.

Thank you to Mark and Sandy Levin for hosting a parlor meeting at their home on Sept. 29. Juniors Leore Avidar and Lindsay Seidenberg presented to the parents. The next parlor meeting is Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m. at the home of Linda Forst and Stuart Kiken in West Rogers Park. RSVP to Rachel Spiro, rspiro@chicagojhs.com.

An Open House for Prospective Families will be held at CJHS on Sunday, Oct. 30 from 10:00 a.m. until noon. This is a great opportunity to meet with faculty and students and to tour the school. RSVP to Rachel Spiro, rspiro@chicagojhs.com.

Surprises Abound for Students

An initiative for class spirit and celebrating our students has begun at CJHS. A few weeks ago, the faculty surprised seniors with an ice cream party to celebrate the beginning of the school year. While enjoying sundaes, students played Faculty Bingo, a game in which students guessed which teacher corresponded to various pieces of trivia. (For example, Mrs. Eliaser traveled to Antarctica, and Rabbi Dickman took a snowshoeing course in college.)

This week, freshmen and sophomores were surprised with an ice cream party and the opportunity to get to know students from the other class during lunch. Juniors, your surprise is just around the corner! These class spirit activities will continue throughout the year.

CJHS Welcomes New Basketball Coach

The 2005-2006 women's basketball team will be coached by Rob Davis, a veteran in the coaching field. Coach Davis's experience extends from his work with the Skokie and Glenview Park Districts to coaching at St. Peter's School and St. Ignatius. Coach Davis received his undergraduate degree in psychology and communications from St. Joseph's College in Indiana. He was a four-year letterman varsity football player. To complement Rob's athletic background, he is an accomplished percussionist and plays in a blues band that has toured nationally. Basketball season for both men and women started this week.

Save the Date for Annual Sukkah Hop

The CJHS Va'ad HaStudentim will sponsor the annual Sukkah Hop on Thursday evening, October 20, from 5:15-7:30 p.m. When scheduling holiday meals in your sukkah, try to keep this evening free so your students can attend.

Students Read Freely at CJHS

We celebrated Banned Books Week and the freedom to read—not only to choose what we read, but also to select from a full array of possibilities. From English class to Bible class, the students discussed the issues of banned books. Congratulations to Renana Fox and David Weltman, who won the TRC's banned books contest. Also, we had a great Reading Freely Read-In at lunch, where students and faculty read passages from their favorite banned books, including excerpts from Beloved, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, To Kill a Mockingbird, and the Talmud.

Creating a Necklace of Their Own

Students in the Anatomy & Physiology class extracted their own DNA and bottled it into a one-of-a-kind necklace. Photos will be available soon.

Student Activities Update

Rachel Karp, Maya Hobscheid, and Vicky Neiman, Interfaith Youth Core leaders from CJHS, joined with student leaders from Loyola Academy and the Muslim Educational Center on Sept. 27 to continue planning the year's events. At the next meeting, each religious group will present textual sources that express the value of human life and stand up against genocide.

Yasher Koach to Rachel Braun, Rachel Garfinkel, Avra Shapiro, Hannah Rosenbaum, and Rabbi Barkan for volunteering at the ARK after school on Sept. 28.

Thirteen CJHS Students Attend CHUSY LTI

Thirteen CJHS students attended CHUSY Region's Leadership Training Institute. The shabbaton is designed to build and enhance leadership skills among our local USY leaders. CHUSY's Regional Executive Board planned and led the Shabbaton; over half the board attends CJHS, including Executive/Israel Affairs Vice President Jacob Shapiro, Religion/Education Vice President Eli Miller, and Social Action/Tikun Olam Vice President Daniel Peaceman.

The following students also went to LTI in their roles as chapter officers and/or general board members: Nicole Wiznitzer, Avi Coven, Ari Frankel, Ari Glasser, Richard Kahn, Josh Warshawsky, Hannah Berkowicz, Daniel Bier, Jimmy Casen, and Renana Fox.

We look forward to an amazing year of USY!

Hillels of Illinois Hosts College Fair

The Biennial FACETS College Conference and Fair will be held on Sunday, Nov. 6 from noon to 5:00 p.m. at The Crown Center at Loyola University. Workshops will include selections such as Financing Your Education, Jewish Journeys, Israel Experiences, and To Rush or Not to Rush: Should You Go Greek. The college fair will begin at 3:00 p.m. in the Centennial Forum Student Union and is free to all CJHS students. For more information about this outstanding experience for sophomores and juniors, either contact our College Counseling Office at CJHS at 847-324-3708 or email facets@juf.org.

More Information About FACETS

Kol Hakavod on Laying an Outstanding E-News Foundation

CJHS is most grateful to Ms. Marcus for ushering us through CJHS E-News, week by week, over the last four years. We welcome our new E-News editor, Caroline Musin, our Student Activities Coordinator.

Faculty in the Community

Rabbi Barkan taught about King David as an exemplar of Teshuvah (repentance) at Selichot services at Northwest Suburban Jewish Congregation on Sept. 24.

Head of School Mrs. Stein and Student Activities Coordinator Ms. Musin attended a conference for Experiential Educators and Administrators sponsored by the North American Association of Jewish High Schools. This conference is made possible by a grant from the Avi Chai Foundation; this grant also funds our Shabbatonim. Our two annual Shabbatonim and other components of our informal program are designed to complement the formal academic program and are a critical part of CJHS's overall program.

Mrs. Stein has been invited to sit on an ISACS Visiting Team that will assess an independent school in Wisconsin for accreditation. The Visiting Team is intended to add the objective, professional view of people outside the school to the accreditation process, which reviews and validates the school's findings in its self-study. CJHS faculty and lay leadership are presently involved in the self-study reporting stage, in anticipation of the ISACS accreditation team we will host in October 2006. Marybeth Kravets and Sharon Chefitz are chairing our Self-Study Steering Committee.

Thank You!

Thank you to Moshe & Esther Calamaro and Randi & Bennett Israel who sponsored breakfast on Sept. 30 in honor of the 15th birthdays of their sons, Yaakov and David. The families also wish L'Shana Tova to the students and staff of CJHS.

Mazal Tov!

Mazal tov to P.E. teacher and women's tennis coach Barb Finfer and her family, on the birth of David Jordan Finfer on Sept. 28. David weighed 10 lb., 12 oz. at birth! The whole family is doing well.

Religious Life at School

Yael Derman, Matthew Silverman, Lilli Flink, Aaron Magid, Eli Miller, Jen Feldman, Benji Derman, Seth Berkman, Sandy Johnston, and Rabbi Fryer led davening this week. Richard Kahn and Nicole Wiznitzer read Torah. Throughout the week, Esther Lowe, Yael Derman, Avra Shapiro, Rachel Garfinkel, and Hannah Rosenbaum read divrei shofar just before Avi Coven, Geoff Levin, Avram Pachter, Adva Mir, and Rabbi Barkan blew the shofar. Aaron Magid spoke about this week's Torah reading.

Yasher Koach to Chazzan Steve Stoehr from Congregation Beth Shalom for giving a powerful D'var Torah on Selichot on Sept. 23. Yasher Koach to Hazzan Frank Lanzkron-Tamarazo from Beth Hillel Congregation B'nai Emunah for giving an equally powerful D'var Torah about proper nusach and Zichronot during the Aseret Y'mei Teshuvah, the ten days of repentance between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, on Sept. 30.

This week, the students experienced the last of the minyanim that will be featured in the Multiple Minyan Program. All of the minyanim follow the principles of the Conservative movement, fulfilling the halachic requirements of davening and are egalitarian. Each has a faculty sponsor.

Minyan A incorporates singing, musical instruments, and new melodies into Tefillah. (Rabbi Dickman)

Minyan B incorporates the fullest matbeah (structure) and a Dvar Torah into the davening experience. (Mrs. Eliaser)

Minyan C explores the structure and content of the service and individual tefillot. (Rabbi Fryer)

Minyan D reviews the choreography of tefillah and practices the skills of davening. (Jay Lewkowitz)

Minyan E explores relaxation and meditative techniques that enhance the davening experience. (Julie Rosenheim Moos)

Students will select the minyan they want to attend for the semester; they will be placed according to preference and space available. This program takes place on Tuesday mornings. For more information, please contact Rabbi Ruven Barkan.

Tzom Gedalyah at CJHS

This coming Thursday, Oct. 6 is Tzom Gedalyah. We fast on this day to remember the events that precipitated the destruction of the Judean kingdom and the first Temple in 586 BCE. Students Taking Action Now: Darfur (STAND) has proclaimed this very same day as an international fast for Darfur.

Sign your name on the list posted on the Va'ad Tikkun Olam board to declare your intention to fast on Oct. 6 to remember the loss our people experienced on Tzom Gedalyah and to direct our attention to the genocide taking place in Darfur today.

At school, neither breakfast nor lunch will be served on Tzom Gedalyah. Students and faculty may bring in their own food. Mincha will be held during the lunch period.

Learn More about the Fast for Darfur

Shabbat Shalom / L'Shana Tova Tikatevu

Candle lighting is at 6:16 p.m. tonight, and Shabbat ends tomorrow at 7:22 p.m. This week's parsha is Nitzavim.

On behalf of the students, faculty, staff, and board of directors, Chicagoland Jewish High School would like to wish you a sweet new year. May this be a year of health, wholeness, and joy, and may we all be inscribed in the Book of Life. L'shana tova tikatevu.