Kitah Zayin

Dear Kitah Zayin families,

Kitah Vav and Zayin met with Rabbi Pein and Cantor Lauren to sing Sanctuary, a beautiful song Cantor has been teaching us. We then wrote down the many gifts we can personally bring to the world to make it a sanctuary. At the end of the day, we gathered again, this time forming a huge circle around the physical sanctuary. We sang together and took turns reading aloud each others written ideas about the many ways we can make the world a sanctuary for all. It was a very nice community moment.

In Rabbi Pein's class tonight we continued our Jewish lens curriculum.

We viewed the Jewish Lens 2019 Gallery Photos and analyzed them in terms of framing, focal points, perspective and background/foreground.

We then had a chance to take our own photos around the synagogue (keeping these aspects of photo composition in mind) and we shared our favorite photo.

We are working on curating our individual favorite Jewish Lens photos as we hope to enter them into the 2019-2020 Jewish Lens exhibition!

In the meantime, we are creating our own Kitah Zayin Jewish Lens Instagram, #kzayinjlens (it will be a private account just for our students which I will administer). Stay tuned as we will upload our favorite photos from the curriculum!

In Morah Betsy's class we took some time to explore a special 'Talmud-style' immigration page. The page contained a postcard of Matron America c 1909 surrounded by biblical, historical and current day quotes related to immigration.

*A Jerusalem Talmud quote explained, "It is a joy to live in one's own house." We tried to decipher what the rabbis were saying with this declaration, what house they were talking about and what it had to do with immigration.

*The Holiness Code in Leviticus says, "When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not do them wrong...." Most agreed that the word 'stranger' holds a negative connotation, yet the Torah tells us that caring for the stranger is a responsibility. That led to many discussions about our role in the world and our responsibilities to each other.

*Finally, we explored the Emma Lazarus sonnet from 1883 which was selected in a contest to be engraved below Lady Liberty in the NY harbor, welcoming refugees and immigrants to America.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" A family trip to Ellis Island would be a fabulous companion to the lessons we have been exploring!

****Our MITZVAH PROJECT presentations will be at the end of April. If your 7th grader is still looking for a project, they should join me Monday, Presidents Day, as I drive to NYC to serve a hot meal to 100 homeless men and women. We will meet at TINW at 2:30 pm, take a bus to NYC and return around 8:00 pm. Please RSVP to bdeck75456@aol.com asap to join the mitzvah bus!

Have a wonderful February break,

l'shalom,

Morah Betsy and Rabbi Wendy Pein