Above: 

Mitch Salzstein, executive director of The Charity Stripe, receives donation for families of deployed U.S. soldiers from CJHS basketball team members.  CJHS teamed with Hinsdale Adventist Academy in the "Free Throws for Heroes" program to raise over $1,500.

 

Youth Philanthropy Initiative 

 

This year, Chicagoland Jewish High School's Youth Philanthropy Initiative (YPI), an interactive club that is committed to engaging
the CJHS community in conscientious philanthropy, will be raising money for Teen Living Programs (TLP), a Chicago center for homeless teenagers. Teen Living Programs serves youth ages 12 to 24 who have become homeless because of serious family issues, including substance abuse, and physical or sexual abuse. Many are ostracized due to their sexual orientation. While escaping these situations and leaving their homes may provide temporary relief, life on the street carries the serious threat of increased suffering from predators, disease, and greater physical deprivation. This past year TLP helped more than 500 teenagers throughout Chicago. Visit TLP's website, www.teenliving.org, for more information.
 
YPI has created a month-long fundraising initiative for the month of Adar, called Adarama. One of our initiatives is a silent online auction in order to raise money for TLP. Prizes will range from tickets to sporting events to gift cards to homework-passes. Both parents and students will find great items to bid on! We encourage all students, faculty, and community members to participate in this auction! You can find the silent auction at http://cjhsypi.blogspot.com/.

STAND Together: A Week of Darfur Programming 

Friday February 6th marked the first day in CJHS' first Darfur Awareness and Activism Week.  The week, organized by students from the school's STAND chapter (student-led division of the Genocide-Intervention Network) along with various faculty members, combined a showing of the documentary The Devil Came on Horseback, class integration of genocide and humanitarian conflict education, many discussions about human responsibility to work for social justice, and the start of a letter-writing and phone call campaign.
 
On Friday the 6th, afternoon classes were cancelled and students gathered in the sanctuary to watch The Devil Came on Horseback; Nina Kiken introduced the movie and talked about the upcoming week and future rally in April.  This documentary tells the story of U.S Marine Captain Brian Steidle who went to Darfur in 2004 as an official military observer.  He was allowed to see everything from Janjaweed attacks to dead bodies, but was not allowed to report anything or carry arms.  The movie tells his story as he chose to expose all of his photographs and came back to the U.S. to talk about what he has seen.  His story is extremely powerful and emotionally wrenching.
 
Students discussed Brian's motivation and how in the film Brian says, "If people in America saw these photos, this war would end next week," and why the American people have not reacted in this way. If you would like to borrow a copy of the movie, please talk to Noa Fleischacker at noadaphne@yahoo.com.  The movie can also be rented from Netflix or Facets Multimedia.
 
Noah Weinberg read Darfur testimonies during tefillah and Jordy Shapiro and Aliza Shapiro gave a news update on Darfur and led a Wednesday discussion.  The discussion focused on looking at the big picture outside of just Darfur.  Students talked about what they think they should sacrifice to change the world, whether they would die for a cause, and what responsibility they have to other nations.  On Thursday, students received already typed letters to President Obama, and added on their own personal messages and signed their names to begin the letter writing campaign.
 
Class Integration

Throughout the week, teachers integrated Darfur, student activism, and past genocides and humanitarian conflicts into their curriculum. In Mr. Marchenko's freshmen class, students learned about the history of the genocide in Darfur. They discussed why they thought it was taking place, the groups involved, and what they might do to help stop it. Afterwards they looked at maps of Sudan and Darfur to get a better feeling about the borders there. Eliana Fisher said that, "personally, I learned a lot about the conflict and now I have a better understanding of what is going on in Sudan and Darfur. I am now more motivated than ever to help the people in Sudan and Darfur."  In Ms. Friedman's freshmen English class, they read poems such as "A Child's Epitaph" by Michael R. Burch and "Djembe Drum Beat" by Debbie Amirault Camelin. After reading the poems, they had discussion about their interpretations and then wrote letters to Senator Durbin thanking him for all of his actions in the Senate towards helping Darfur, asking him to continue his work, and urging him to support the International Criminal Court.
 
The sophomore class was treated to a diverse curriculum concerning the genocide in Darfur. The students participated in letter writing campaigns in both Bible and English classes. They viewed a video in science courses that connected chemistry and engineering to creating better conditions for refugees. Additionally, the students interpreted poetry and shared in engaging discussions in both English and Talmud class along with other activities that varied from class to class.
 
The juniors also had many integrated classes.  In Senora Linda's Spanish III class, students were assigned to look up topics relating to Argentina's "dirty war."  They then spent Monday and Tuesday discussing the "dirty war," what it meant to be "disappeared," and the way Jews were treated in Argentina.  Students in Ms. Novak's junior Bible class read texts about met mitzvah and Rabbi Goldberg's Talmud class read texts about Jewish responsibility to save other peoples' lives when they are in danger and to prevent their neighbors from sinning.  After spending Wednesday discussing our responsibility to prevent and stop genocide, students in the Talmud class spent Thursday reading over a paper from STAND called "What We're Asking For," and then composed their own letters to Obama. Geveret Cohen's junior and senior Hebrew class read an article about Sudanese refugees in Israel from an Israeli newspaper and then discussed whether  Israel should take in more refugees.  Students in Mr. Marchenko's junior class were given "quizzes" on what they know about Darfur with questions such as, "What does the word genocide mean?" and, "Why has the conflict been declared a genocide?"  Mr. Marchenko then showed them a presentationabout how Africa was created and the history of the genocide.  Lastly, Mr. Griffith's class read Thoreau's Civil Disobedience, discussed governmental roles in ending the conflict, and composed lists of who they would contact in the U.S., besides government officials, if they wanted to get something done.

We would like to thank all of our teachers for implementing this crucial topic into our everyday schedules and taking time out of their curriculum to focus on genocide, activism, and social justice.
 
This whirlwind of a week concluded with three of the Lost Boys of Sudan coming to speak Friday morning during tefillah. Rena Forester introduced the three men, Peter Magai Bul, John Deng, and Deng Akoi each spoke about their own journey in Sudan, the violence they witnessed, and how they continue to help now. They were extremely poised and were very powerful speakers.  Peter said afterwards, "We were amazed by how actively you are involved with our country's crisis and other problems around the world. Your leadership and initiative to be an agent for changing is very promising and I encourage you to keep it up."   He also sent the following link about his recent mission: http://www.aycda.org/home.html
 
Where do we go from here? 

Although the week has concluded, students can now no longer claim ignorance, and the STAND chapter has therefore provided many things for students to continue to do.  You can sign online postcards, write your own letter to President Obama, make calls at 1-800-GENOCIDE (1.800.436.6243), and educate yourself at websites like http://www.enoughproject.org/, www.stand.org, http://www.savedarfur.org/content, and donate to the ENOUGH Sister Schools Program.  Ask Noa Fleischacker at noadaphne@yahoo.com for details. 

 

Students should also consider joining the CJHS chapter of STAND that meets every Monday during lunch, and attending the April 19th Youth United for Darfur Rally, in the Federal Plaza in Downtown  Chicago.  The rally is planned by high school students and will include speakers, musicians, and video-streaming to refugee camps in Darfur.  The rally hopes to attract hundreds of students from the Chicago area and is also a fundraising event for the Sister Schools Program.
 
Thank you to all of the kids in STAND who put so much effort into Darfur Awareness and Activism Week.  Also thanks to all of the teachers, especially Dr. Schorsch (the STAND advisor) who helped shift the focus for a week, and to everyone who actively participated.  If you have any questions or responses, please contact Noa Fleischacker at noadaphne@yahoo.com.

 

AP Exams 

 

 

Purim is coming soon! This year, CJHS's Youth Philanthrophy Initiative is sponsoring the annual Mishloach Manot drive for the school community. Students, faculty, and staff can purchase Purim baskets for friends and colleagues. Every CJHS family will receive a basket of delicious treats.
 
Purchase Mishloach Manot for individual families at $5 per family, or donate $120 to sponsor Mishloach Manot for the entire school (200 baskets). The proceeds from this drive will be divided evenly between Mazon: A Jewish Response to Hunger, to fulfill our obligation at Purim -- and throughout the year -- to feed those in need, and Teen Living Programs, the YPI-selected charity for this school year. Order forms have been placed in student mailboxes and have also been sent by e-mail. You can also download an order form here. (Please note that even with a high-speed connection, this document will take about a minute to load.)

Please make checks payable to CJHS, and return order forms and checks to the front office by February 27.  

Beach Party, Shushan-Style! 

 

Join your CJHS friends at the annual Purim Dance on Saturday night, March 7, 2009. The dance's theme will be "Beach Party, Shushan-Style." Watch your email for an invitation and more information.

Fear not, graduates... CJHS is preparing you to speak like a native!  The CJHS Hebrew curriculum's NETA Newsletter interviewed some Nativ members spending the year in Israel...  our very own Jacob Stoehr and Josh Warshawsky ('07)! 

 

Jacob reports, "We both interviewed to volunteer with Magen David Adom (Israeli Red Cross) [...] and the interviewer said "Oh, are your parents Israeli? Where did you learn Hebrew?" And I said, I went to Jewish day school and then I went to Jewish high school for two years."  Both the interviewer and the local bus passengers had mistaken them for true natives; Jacob and Josh had high praise for their Hebrew teacher Gvt. Moskovich and for the quality of their Hebrew enabling them to pass for Israelis.

 

This past Tuesday, CJHS celebrated the opening of its lunch Café, where students and faculty may choose daily from a broad range of delicious entrees and side dishes. The café features a number of standard items, such as pizza, fruit, or tuna sandwiches, in addition to a monthly menu of entrees.  Catered by the Council for Jewish Elderly's Gidwitz chefs, everything is either dairy or pareve, made with fresh ingredients, whole grains, and no preservatives.

 

If you wish to participate, please fill out a café deposit form and give it to Maria at the front desk. Once you have written a check for CJHS, funds for lunch will be deposited into your account, from which they will be deducted every time you dine at the café.  If you have any suggestions for entrees, please contact Inez Altman, Director of Building Services, at ialtman@cjhs.org. 

This spring's All-School Shabbaton will take place at Camp Chi's Perlstein Center on March 27-28, 2009. The Shabbaton Committee is already busy designing the schedule, organizing the programming, and taking care of all the details that make this one of the most anticipated programs of the year. In order to plan appropriately, we do need your registration form by next Friday, February 27. Download a copy at http://www.cjhs.org/pdf/shabbaton.pdf. Any questions? Please see a member of the Shabbaton Committee.

 

Scavenger Hunt Kicks Off 

 

And they're off!  21 teams of eager CJHS students are combing the building to find artifacts, names, dates, and people for the second annual All-School Scavenger Hunt.  Each team combines members of each grade to pit their wits against a series of clues: academic, social, and just plain cute. 

 

Where in the building would you look to find a cichlid?  Can you find an actual photo of the pep band playing at a basketball game--and if you can't, what can you do about it?  And just who penned the lyrics to the classic school cheer, "Hey All You Big Bad Tigers!"

 

The winning team, in addition to being treated to breakfast, will have the opportunity to take over the school for the day, switching places with the teachers and administrators of their choice; the teachers so deposed will spend the day filling the students' shoes--going to class, waiting in the lunch line, getting the chemistry homework--and generally experiencing life on the other side of the desk.

For the next two weeks, hidden hints will be popping up all around the school to speed students on their way.  This week's hidden hint:
Clue #5 - A goddess and Mentor... who is not on the faculty of this school

 

Five Questions For... 

 Or Tzedek Presents 

 

Baruch Dayan Emet 

 

 

 

 

 

Shabbat Shalom