April 29, 2025 by
In early April, students from Pre-K to Middle School celebrated Pesach in creative and often interdisciplinary ways. Check out our roundup below:
January 21, 2016 by
Last Sunday, the JPDS-NC Chesed (Kindness) Committee and the Random Acts of Kindness Committee organized a special activity where parents and kids cook meals to help families in need. More than 20 people came and together we made eight full-size lasagnas and six batches of chocolate chip cookies. Then the food was frozen. When a […]
January 20, 2016 by
In this week’s parasha, after the Bnei Yisrael cross the Reed Sea in safety while Paro’s army drowns, they sing praises to Hashem; in response to their complaints about a lack of food and water, Hashem gives them manna; and they are then attacked by Amalek. There are actually two Songs of the Sea. The […]
January 14, 2016 by
I never thought I was the volunteer type. In my first year as a JPDS-NC parent, I went on a Kindergarten field trip, hoping to be an asset to the teachers, but I got completely exhausted by the presence of 35 five-year-olds. I figured that my volunteering days were over. But the next year, Adina […]
January 13, 2016 by
This week’s parasha tells the story of the last three plagues, the preparations that the Bnei Yisrael need to make in order to leave Mitzrayim, and the actual exodus itself. There is an unusual and unexpected verse right in the middle of the section when God relates to Moshe what will happen during the plague […]
January 12, 2016 by
The third grade classes made an American Indian Museum. All fifty-one students in the grade worked to research and make displays about different Native American tribes. We learned about the Sioux, the Cherokee, the Northwest Coast, and the Iroquois tribes. For our museum, the students made everything from tomahawks to tipis to feather headdresses. Students […]
January 7, 2016 by
What do an ancient Greek mathematician, little green people, and a karate-kicking 12-year-old girl have in common? They’re all in Hypatia Academy, a novel written and published by Esther Goldenberg, alumni JPDS-NC teacher and parent (mother of Ellie, class of 2014). The book is “the story of one girl’s unintended quest to find the source […]
January 6, 2016 by
I had a Bible Professor who often said about the Biblical text, “Everything else is around it or about it. This is it.” I feel that way about the various genres of Jewish texts, both biblical and Rabbinic. For our children to be educated Jews, it is not enough for them to learn around them […]
January 6, 2016 by
In this parasha, through Moshe and Aharon, Hashem brings plagues on the Mitzrim (Egyptians), and Paro repeatedly refuses to allow the Bnei Yisrael to leave. When Moshe goes to speak with Bnei Yisrael about redemption and the wonders that God will use to bring them into the Land of Israel, the Torah tells us [6:9]: “And they […]
December 29, 2015 by
In this parasha, Bnei Yisrael become slaves to Paro; Paro’s daughter saves Moshe from the Nile and, after killing an Egyptian taskmaster, Moshe flees to Midian where he marries and has children; Hashem instructs Moshe to liberate the people; Moshe returns to Egypt, and Moshe and Aharon approach Paro, who refuses their request for liberation. […]
December 23, 2015 by
In this parasha, Yaakov blesses his sons on his deathbed and asks them to bury him in Canaan. Many of us know the story of the blind patriarch who, ostensibly due to his lack of sight, gives the younger son the blessing of the firstborn and vice versa. Of course, this scenario describes Yitzchak’s blessings of […]
