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:
December 3, 2015 by
In this parasha, Yosef’s dreams anger his brothers and they sell him into slavery in Egypt, where he eventually ends up in prison, still interpreting others’ dreams. The circumstances in which the brothers and Yosef were alone, allowing them to sell him into slavery, are outlined in chapter 37, verses 11-17, a passage which raises a […]
November 24, 2015 by
In the Jewish tradition, the first thing we do every morning is to give thanks for being alive, just as our students do at the start of tefilah at school, literally thanking God for giving us our soul back after the night’s sleep. Gratitude is firmly entrenched in Jewish life; we give thanks for our […]
November 24, 2015 by
In this parasha, Yaakov confronts Eisav, wrestles with a “man” who blesses him by changing his name to Yisrael, loses his wife Rachel in childbirth, and experiences the trauma of the incident with his daughter Deena. Yaakov takes several steps as he prepares to meet Eisav for the first time since the “birthright and blessing […]
November 23, 2015 by
Sometimes it feels really good to talk over difficult subjects with a group of people to whom you feel connected. For some, this is family in the traditional sense, for others its colleagues or close friends. Last week, it was our JPDS-NC community. The annual Ari Zymelman Parenting Lecture Series event gave us the opportunity […]
November 20, 2015 by
The integration of the arts into other academic disciplines provides to children important windows into the world and important languages for exploring, finding, and expressing the meaning they make of the world. True arts integration results in all students learning the skills, habits of mind, and real-world purposes of the arts while at the same […]
November 19, 2015 by
Every year, JPDS-NC has a Veterans Day program where all the students perform songs to honor and thank our veterans and service members. We asked pre-K students about their thoughts and feelings before the big show. Yael J. said, “I feel happy because I want to be on stage.” Sam S. said, “I am a […]
November 19, 2015 by
In this parasha, Yaakov flees to his uncle Lavan’s household and lives there for several years, marrying Lavan’s daughters, Leah and Rachel, and establishing a large family. The parasha begins and ends with malachim. Yaakov, on his way to his Uncle Lavan’s house, has a dream of malachim ascending and descending a ladder. He arrives […]
November 12, 2015 by
In one week, JPDS-NC will have the second annual Ari Zymelman Lecture on Parenting. As a rakezet (room parent/connector) and parent of a pre-Kindergarten student, I have heard that there were questions about who the lecture series was named after, the psychologist who will be our speaker that evening, and the topics of the lecture […]
November 12, 2015 by
In this parasha, we read about the births of Yaakov and Eisav, their growing up, Eisav selling his birthright to Yaakov, and Yitzchak’s blessings for his two sons. The parasha begins with an interesting scenario. Rivka is pregnant with her twins. The text says, “the children struggled within her, and she said ‘If this is […]
November 11, 2015 by
Rabbi David Lau, the Chief Ashkenazi Rabbi of Israel, came to the Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation’s Capital recently. He came to the U.S. to learn more about Jewish life in America, and while he was here, he visited JPDS-NC and spoke with the fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-graders about his role in the […]
