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DonorsChoose.org: Teachers Ask. You Choose. Students Learn.

Channel surfing during the news hour, I noticed an ABC report about how much money teachers in public schools spend on their classrooms--amounting in the hundreds of dollars annually--because of cuts to education budgets. Most of us in the Etz community are unusually blessed to live in school districts that are blessed by higher tax income and parent organizations that are capable of assisting schools with activities and supplies.

Unfortunately, even just a few miles away, there are less fortunate families in suffering school districts.
Schools in several Bay Area school districts have been forced in the past 10 years to cut art, athletics, and even libraries due to the combination of lower home values (resulting in lower tax income) and families less capable of supporting school financial needs.

The ABC program talked about one way teachers are succeeding in getting their needs met: DonorsChange.org. Supported by major No. Cal. partners such as Bank of America, Yahoo, and the Koret Foundation, DonorsChange allows individuals to donate to specific classroom needs--everything from art supplies to new chairs.

During this season of giving, it is important for us to share whatever resources we have with the communities of which we are a part--and it is certainly worthwhile to support our local schools (including at the synagogue--where parents have thankfully been generous at recent fundraisers). I also would like to encourage your family to consider giving a gift to a class that is less fortunate this winter.

DonorsChoose.org: Teachers Ask. You Choose. Students Learn.

In 50 years, kibbutz movement has undergone many changes

During the past few weeks, the sixth graders and I have been studying about Kibbutzim, Jewish agricultural communes in Israel. The first kibbutz (Deganyah) was started at the time of the Second Aliyah, and the movement continued to grow, prosper, and diversify over the following several decades. Today, there are still kibbutzim, but most of them are extremely different from their predecessors.

For a primer on the Kibbutz Movement, check out the following links:

List of kibbutzim - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kibbutz - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Society_&_Culture/kibbutz.html (on how kibbutzim have changed over time)

In 50 years, kibbutz movement has undergone many changes (news article)

Maimonides and the Explusion from Spain

After studying about the Golden Age of Spain, when Jews and Muslims prospered in Moorish Spain, Jen and I introduced the seventh graders to one of the most important Jews of all time: Moses Maimonides, also known as Rambam (acronym for Rabbi Moshe ben Maimon). Rambam fled Spain with his family when the Almohades, a more radical Islamic party, took hold of Spain. Eventually, he settled in Egypt and became that kingdom's most important physician and rabbi. We spoke about Rambam's efforts to simplify Jewish beliefs into thirteen basic principles. My class focused in particular on a number of these beliefs that maintain their relevance in uniting Jews behind common values and practices.

This week, we started learning about the Expulsion from Spain, the 1492 mass exodus of the Jews of Spain (the Sephardim) to new homes in Europe, Asia, North Africa, and the New World. We shared an awesome book--The Cardinal's Snuffbox, a "choose your own adventure" type of book that traces the types of choices and experiences Sephardic Jews encountered in the 15th - 17th centuries. You may want to check it out from a library or purchase it from URJ press (here). The same author wrote several other similar books, set in different periods of Jewish history, that are also worthwhile.

Students may enjoy the following contemporary description of the plight of the Sephardim: First Hand Account of the 1492 Expulsion by an Italian Jew.

Behrman House: Family Education Game: Bubbie's Bubbles

Behrman House: Family Education Game: Bubbie's Bubbles