June 20, 2025 by
From May 1-11, Grade 8 students completed their capstone trip to Israel. Their days were action packed, with opportunities for meaningful learning and reflection in nature, museums and monuments, neighborhoods and towns, cultural sites, archaeological digs, and more. Each student connected with the content of this trip in their own way, and the group received […]
June 17, 2025 by
“Throughout my experience in Colombia with Cadena I learned how to be a better team player and how to make the best of hard situations. Additionally, I learned that no matter what, it is always possible to communicate and relate to the people and places around you.” – Shira S-E, Class of 2025 “Cadena provided […]
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:
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 […]
November 5, 2015 by
It was a sunny Shabbat afternoon in Miami twenty years ago when I first heard the unimaginable news that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin had been shot. I was spending the afternoon with a group of friends, young couples with babies or, like me, expecting our first ones. We were studying Pirkei Avot, the Ethics of […]
November 5, 2015 by
In this parasha, following the death of Sarah, Avraham purchases a burial plot and sends his servant, Eliezer, to identify a wife for Yitzchak. Eliezer finds Rivka and brings her to Yitzchak to become his wife. The very end of the parasha recounts Avraham’s death, followed by a listing of the descendants of Yishmael and […]
November 4, 2015 by
We went on the field trip to Audubon Naturalist Society because we wanted to see nature. We’ve been learning about fall in science, and we wanted to look for fall things like seeds. Before we went, we learned about who John Audubon was. He was an important person because he was a bird expert. When […]
October 29, 2015 by
This week’s parasha continues with Avraham’s journey through life. It begins with the news that Avraham and Sarah will together have a child; takes us through Avraham’s unsuccessful discussion with God, trying to get Hashem to spare the people of S’dom and Amorrah; follows Avraham and Sarah on their sojourn in Gerar; witnesses the birth […]
October 28, 2015 by
At the beginning of the year, all the second graders at JPDS-NC worked on a special math project. We came up with creative ways to help us learn skip count patterns. The students were divided into small groups. Each groups was assigned a number to skip count by. Each group had a different number from 2 to 12. We […]
October 22, 2015 by
In this parasha, Avram and Sarai follow Hashem’s call to journey to Cana’an, where the covenant between Hashem and Avraham is affirmed. Avram, renamed Avraham, has a son with Hagar, Sarai’s maid, and Hashem promises that Sarai, renamed Sarah, will bear a son as well. One of the remarkable things about the Torah is that […]
