Happy secular New Year. Today we are back up and running with school. There are many special programs planned in January, beginning with a family program for kindergarten children and their parents. The families will learn about Tu B’Shevat this coming Sunday. The program will include a Tu B’Shevat seder as well as planting parsley seeds to (hopefully) grow parsley to be used at their Passover seder. On January 27th the sixth grade will go to Temple Chai for Chavayah, a program for sixth graders from all over the greater Chicagoland area. There will be about 300 students in attendance.

This month I want to highlight our seventh-grade teachers. Rob Honig is in his fifth year as our 7th grade Hebrew teacher. Rob went to OSRUI as a child and gained a love for Hebrew in Chalutzim. When he is not teaching, he is practicing law. Rob lives in Elmhurst and has two children, both in our school. Dina Kazatker helps Rob on Sunday mornings. Dina is a student at Midwestern University Chicago College of Osteopathic Medicine. She was born in Russia, moved to Israel at age 6 and to Des Moines, Iowa at age 12. Rabbi Cosnowsky is the Judaica teacher for these students. The word “rabbi” means teacher and this is one of the things she does best. In her years right out of college, Rabbi Cosnowsky’s dream was to be a country western singer. Some of you may have heard her original song “Red Neck Rabbi.”