For the past two years, the school committee has held a public school teacher institute to teach teachers about various aspects of Judaism that we feel will help them to be sensitive to the needs of their Jewish students. At the workshop, we give out a five-year calendar of Jewish holidays that can be used in planning special school events so there are no conflicts with our major celebrations.

This is the time of year when most school districts are putting together their calendars for 2008-2009. If you would like a copy of the 5-year Jewish holiday calendar, you can click here or stop in the office for a hard copy. Giving one to your child’s principal now can certainly assist him/her in planning open houses and other special events. Passing the calendar along to the superintendent in your district is also a good idea. We will be holding our workshop again in the fall, but I want your child to have as few conflicts as possible. So, please pass along the calendars to anyone you think can make a difference.

In this writing I would like to highlight the fifth-grade teachers. Lena Benson is in her fourth year of teaching. Lena is also one of our JYG advisors. She was born in Sweden, came to the US when she was 18, and now lives in Elmhurst and has two sons, one of who recently became a bar mitzvah. Marla Friedman is in her seventh year teaching Hebrew, but this is her first with fifth grade. Marla and I first met when she was at Washington University in St. Louis and she taught Hebrew for me back in 1989. Since then we have worked together at a synagogue in Skokie, at the JCC, and here at Etz Chaim. Marla has three daughters, one who is presently in our preschool and the other two in religious school. Gail Farr has been teaching on Sundays for ten years. Most of that time she worked with Marla, and this year moved up to fifth grade so they could stay together as a team. During the week, Gail is a performance technologist at Alcatel Lucent. Zach Mindel is a senior at Naperville Central. Zach went all the way through the OSRUI camp system and will be a Machon this summer. Last spring he went on EIE, the high school in Israel program for a semester. It is wonderful to share his love of Israel and Hebrew with the students. Sarah Chaney helps out on Wednesdays with the class. She is a sophomore at Wheaton Warrenville North. Sarah has also gone through the OSRUI system, having completed Chalutzim this past summer. In her spare time, she loves anything musical. She is a very accomplished pianist.