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Click here to make your donation to the 2012 Annual Campaign.
VIDEO: MS Zimriah: “A Singing School”
Yesterday, the 2012 MS Zimriah featured a special video presentation (created by Elena Neuman Lefkowitz) on the illustrious history of our Zimriah and its importance to the culture of Ramaz.
For recordings of the actual performances, please see the archive on the Zimriah 2012 Ustream channel: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6
Shabbat shalom!
“Aspirations” for Yom Ha’Atzmaut
We are proud to share the fifth annual Ramaz Upper School Yom Ha’Atzmaut Torah journal, Aspirations 2012.
The beautifully written, insightful, and thought-provoking collection of essays that fill this journal provide much food for thought as we mark the 64th anniversary of our state. Written by Upper School students and faculty members, these articles in Aspirations offer personal reflections, essays, and divrei Torah that help us appreciate Yom Ha’Atzmaut as a day of “giving thanks, of celebration, of hope, and … of song.”
This wonderful project once again was coordinated by Rabbi Kenny Schiowitz, Rosh Beit Midrash in the Upper School, and produced with the help of Editors Erica Kiderman ’12 and Noam Kornsgold ’13, as well as Art Editor Zahava Presser ’12. We congratulate them and all the contributors for their work on this wonderful publication.
This publication is sponsored in memory of Joey Vogel ’98 z”l by the members of his class.
Please click here for a copy of Aspirations. We hope you will share this post or forward this link to your family and friends here and in Israel so that they, too, may enjoy the Ramaz reflections on our homeland.
Ramaz Brings the Arts to Baltimore
I. Performing Arts
The Ramaz Upper School Choir will be traveling to Maryland/Washington D.C. this weekend. Choir Director Daniel Henkin ’85 and Kenny Rochlin ’86 will accompany the group. Please join us at any or all of their performances – we would love to see our alumni there!
Baltimore Performance in Honor of Yom Ha’atzmaut:
- Thursday, April 26 at 7:00 pm
Chizuk Amuno Congregation (8100 Stevenson Road, Pikesville)
Rockville/Silver Spring Performances:
- Friday, April 27 at 2:00 pm
Ring House Senior Center (1801 East Jefferson St., Rockville) - Saturday, April 28 at 6:30 pm
Kemp Mill Synagogue (11910 Kemp Mill Road, Silver Spring)
Ramaz thanks Rabbi Jack Bieler (a former Ramaz faculty member) for his assistance and the Kemp Mill Synagogue community, especially its Ramaz alumni, for hosting our choir students.
II. Fine Arts
Beginning this week through the end of June, Ramaz alumnus Uzi Silber ’82 will show his innovative artworks, ‘Mann Makht und Gott Lakht’: Man Makes, God Laughs, at the Norman and Sarah Brown Art Gallery in Baltimore’s Weinberg Park Heights JCC (5700 Park Heights Avenue). Contact 410.654.2265 for more information.
Uzi seeks out the relics, images, symbols, scripts and patterns that have made us what we are today. He resuscitates and integrates them in a new, yet timeless context as whimsical as it is serious. Amidst his artworks you will find Canaanite deities perched along New Jersey’s Pulaski Skyway; pop cameos on Marginal Street; and tattered maps, medieval etchings, Vegas go-go matchbooks and Depression era posters all reborn.
Mazal tov to Uzi on this accomplishment.
Shakespeare at Ramaz: Much Ado About Nothing, Thurs May 3
In honor of Shakespeare’s birthday, we present this guest post by DAVID SCHWERDT ’13. For more student news, see the full April 2012 issue of RAMBYTES, the Upper School Newsletter.
“All the world’s a stage,” declares a character from William Shakespeare’s play As You Like It. While this statement has become somewhat of a cliché throughout the years, it still holds true in the Ramaz Drama Department.
Every year, the Drama Department puts on two plays: a fall semester musical and a spring drama. After performing the musical Pippin, giving it a “Modern Orthodox” twist, the Ramaz drama crew was faced with the always-challenging decision of picking a play for the spring. Following an intense debate, Ms. Caroll Goldberg, the director of the troupe, informed eager students that it would be the Yiddish-based play A Shayna Maidel. Rehearsals began immediately. Suddenly, in a dramatic and frantic turn of events, the rights to this piece became unavailable, and Ms. Goldberg and her team had to find a new play. This time, Ms. Goldberg turned to Shakespeare and announced her choice. The actors were to perform the comedy Much Ado About Nothing. While the choice was great, it also came with a set of challenges.
First, there were the actors’ concerns. Expecting an exuberant reaction from all of her thespians, Ms. Goldberg instead faced anxious questions. How would they handle a play written in an English far-removed from their own? Ms. Goldberg remained unfazed. She promised the actors a thorough analysis and explanation of the text, along with lessons on how to modernize Shakespeare’s plot and language before beginning serious staging and memorization. The thespians’ minds were thus quickly put to rest and soon they enthusiastically welcomed the project.
Yet while it was now clear that the actors would be able to understand each word, we needed to make sure that our student audience followed suit. To this problem, too, there was an interesting solution. To familiarize students with Much Ado, the English department decided to incorporate the play into the curriculum of all classes in grades 9-11.
Cast size was another problem. Much Ado About Nothing calls for a large cast, and there were not enough actors to fill all the roles. The solution: this play will be the first to feature members of the faculty. Many students are looking forward to seeing their teachers on stage and out of the classroom. And teachers are looking forward to preaching what they teach, covering Shakespeare in an interesting, new way.
Finally, there was the issue of accessibility. To make the play more relatable to a modern audience, Ms. Goldberg has decided to modernize its setting. This will result in some changes in scenery, props, and actors’ accents, while staying true to the original language and dramatic intent.
Although this year’s drama selection is quite unusual, we all are excited to welcome William Shakespeare into the Ramaz community. Join us at 7:30PM on Thursday, May 3.
For the past three years, Ramaz Upper School has been running grade-wide interdisciplinary programs. These series embody the Ramaz mission in that they demonstrate both the integration of Judaic and General studies and a commitment to the pursuit of knowledge, intellectual rigor, scholarship, and a lifelong love of learning. Each program caters specifically to the curricular and developmental needs of a particular grade.
Programs for our juniors and freshmen took place earlier this winter. This week, as we approach Yom HaAzma’ut, Ramaz sophomores will engage in interdisciplinary study of “Zionism and Homeland.”
While most of the learning associated with this theme will occur in their regularly scheduled classes across departments, there will be three special related lectures:
- Monday, April 23, periods 9-10: Professor David Flatto, Assistant Professor of Law at Penn State (and former Ramaz faculty member), “From Darius to Balfour: Epic Moments in the Jewish Relationship to their Homeland”
- Wednesday, April 25, period 7: R. Yigal Sklarin, “What It Means to be a Zionist Today”
- Wednesday, April 25, period 10: R. Mayer Moskowitz, “From the Shoah to Yeshua (Salvation): My Personal Journey from Holocaust Rumania to Palestine”
Additional observances of “the Yoms” (which began with last week’s Yom HaShoah) will round out the week for our Upper School:
- Yom HaZikaron, Wednesday, April 25: We will follow an AM Assembly schedule to commemorate Israel’s Memorial Day in the morning.
- Yom HaAzma’ut, Thursday, April 26: Our celebration of Israel’s Independence Day will consist of special programming for the day and conclude with an early afternoon dismissal.
Parents Council’s Adult Ed Classes Start Tuesday Apr. 24
This spring, we invite you to participate in our adult learning opportunities, sponsored by the Ramaz Parents Council. Come back to school (this time, with no tests!) and sample the interchange of ideas and personal growth experienced by our Upper School students.
Classes are on four consecutive Tuesday nights and begin next week, April 24. Dr. Steven Milowitz of the English Department will examine short fiction of various time periods, cultures, and genres, while Ms. Rachel Rabhan of the Art Department will help participants discover and develop their artistic talents.
Brevity and Wit: Great Short Stories
Dr. Steven Milowitz (English Department, Ramaz Upper School)
7:00-8:30PM in the Upper School
Fee: $120This class will examine short fiction of various time periods, cultures, and genres. Divided into six units, we will first study the classic short works of Anton Chekhov, Henry James, Franz Kafka, and Edith Wharton. Next, we will explore the American modernist writers Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Virginia Woolf. We then will examine the unique work of the post-modernists, including Donald Barthelme, John Barth, Robert Coover, and David Foster Wallace. Our fourth area of study will be Jewish American short fiction and will focus on the works of Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, Saul Bellow, and Cynthia Ozick. For our final two units, we will look at two popular forms, Mystery/Horror fiction and Humor, featuring writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, Shirley Jackson, Stephen King, Mark Twain, and Kurt Vonnegut. Together, we will not only get a chance to read the work of some of the finest writers, but also will be able to uncover the particular qualities of the short form.
Conquering Your Fear of Drawing
Ms. Rachel Rabhan (Art Department, Upper School)
7:00-9:00PM in the Upper School
Fee: $120 plus $20 materials fee
Limited to 18 participantsEvery year, at least one student says to me anxiously: “I can’t draw!” But by the time parent-teacher conferences roll around, the same student’s parents are amazed. “This can’t be my kid!” they say. Do you think you can’t draw? Well, the time has come to meet your fears head-on and prove to yourself that you can draw, and probably better then you ever imagined. Utilizing a variety of drawing techniques and materials, each participant literally will learn to draw from one’s own true nature. Your mark is yours to discover and to develop. No prior drawing experience required.
Pre-registration is required. Please note that while there is a strict limit of 18 participants for the art class, there are no limits for the English class. All sessions will be held at 7pm in the Ramaz Upper School, 60 East 78th Street, New York 10075. Class dates are April 24, May 1, 8, and 15.
To register or for further information, contact Marina Manheimer at ManheimerM@ramaz.org or 212-774-8000, ext. 6215. Please send your check, made out to Ramaz Parents Council, to her c/o Ramaz Middle School, 114 East 85th Street, NY 10028. You may also register and pay by credit card over the phone.
We look forward to seeing you there!
Thoughts on Yom HaShoah from Rabbi Goldmintz
The latest Soul of Parenting column from Rabbi Dr. Jay Goldmintz, Ramaz Upper School Headmaster, was featured today on the AVI CHAI Foundation blog. The topic of today’s post is “The ‘Yoms’ Season”.
Rabbi Goldmintz, who recently returned from a 10-day tour of Poland and Israel with the Ramaz senior class of 2012, offers some thoughts on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, which is today:
“… Most of us have met survivors even if they are not our grandparents or great grandparents. But for our kids, Yom HaShoah is increasingly a day that we mark an event that happened a long time ago and, dare I say, to someone else. It’s not that they think it’s an irrelevant date, but rather that it’s hard (in the absence of survivors in the family) to connect to in a personal way. May all survivors live to be 120, but the day will one day come when we will no longer be able to invite them to speak at our commemorations. How will we convey the personal stories and the human dimension? How will we get students to truly understand and to feel the importance of these events? How will these days matter? One researcher recently suggested that the role that Holocaust Memorial Day plays in the American civil religion is on the wane and that it could well fade from the communal calendar one day. Even if that does not happen in our community, what will that day and the other “yom’s” mean to our kids?”
Video retrospectives from last year’s Ramaz Senior Poland Experience (Class of 2011) can be found here: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3
The monthly Soul of Parenting column is distributed via email to Ramaz parents.
Thank-You Breakfast for Ramaz Parents on Monday 4/23
Kenny Rochlin, Director of Institutional Advancement, and the Development Department Staff invite parents in all divisions to join us this Monday, April 23 (rain or shine!) for coffee and muffins as a sign of our appreciation. Please drop off your child at school and then stop by the Lower School, between 7:30-9:30AM, when volunteers will be standing outside distributing coffee and freshly baked muffins.
Ramaz parents have made history in Ramaz’s 75th anniversary milestone year. More parents have participated in the Ramaz Annual Campaign than ever before — a record 82% so far, up from 62% when the parent initiative began in February!
Ramaz parent participation in this year's Annual Campaign is already reaching milestone levels. Our goal is 100% -- every family counts. Are you on the list?
If you haven’t yet made your donation to the 2012 Campaign, please go to www.ramaz.org/campaign2012. This year’s Campaign runs through June 30, 2012.
Thank you to all of our parents for making this year a success. See you on Monday morning!
First “Nate’s Run for Smiles” to Commemorate Elie Rand ’08
On Sunday, April 29, the First Annual Nate’s Run for Smiles will be held at Cornell Plantations in Ithaca, NY. Proceeds from the event will support the Nathaniel L. Rand Fund of the Child Life Program of the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM).
The fund—named in loving memory of Nathaniel (Elie) Rand ’08, who drowned in a tragic swimming accident near Ithaca Falls in July 2011—will provide patients with age-appropriate activities, including play therapy, art therapy and music therapy, to assist in their treatments. The Rand family established the fund at CHAM as a way to honor Elie’s memory; Elie had spent a significant amount of time volunteering with the Child Life Program.
All are encouraged to participate — either by donating online or, if you’re in the Ithaca area, to run the race!
For more information about the First Annual Nate’s Run for Smiles, including a detailed schedule of the day’s activities, please see www.NatesRunForSmiles.org. Contact sbm66@cornell.edu with any additional questions.
Ramaz ECC Brings “Whole-Body” Approach to the ABCs
To complement the focus on introducing letters by ease of making the sound, the Ramaz Early Childhood Center has recently begun using a “whole body” approach to the alphabet so that children in Nursery, Pre-K, and Kindergarten “feel” the sounds they are learning. The Sounds in Motion program is a phonemic awareness and early literacy program that pairs kinesthetic gross motor movements with phonemes to teach articulation of sounds, phonemic awareness, and sound/symbol association. While the program was developed initially for children who needed help with articulation, research has proven that it improves skills in listening, phonemic awareness, articulation, discrimination of speech sounds, auditory processing, and vocabulary development in all students.
Key program features include:
- Whole body listening – It’s not only the ears that listen; it’s also the brain, eyes, and mouth that are involved. Teachers model what this means to help get the children in the right frame of mind.
- Motions – Every letter sound has an associated motion.
Faculty members were trained in the program as part of their January in-service professional development day. Sounds in Motion is now being integrated into the ECC program and will be incorporated more fully into the curriculum in the coming school year.
