January 27, 2016 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

In this week’s parasha, Yitro, Moshe’s father-in-law, suggests a system for establishing lower courts to settle disputes; Hashem articulates the Aseret HaDibrot (Ten Commandments) to the Bnei Yisrael amidst fire, smoke, and sounds of the shofar. The author of the book of Kohelet (Ecclesiastes), traditionally regarded to have been Shlomo HaMelech (King Solomon), wrote “ein kol chadash tachat hashemesh – there is nothing new […]

• Parent-Child Learning

January 21, 2016 by Naomi Reem (Faculty and Staff)

This week, we received in the mail the Board of Zoning Adjustment (BZA) letter stating that JPDS-NC has been granted all the special exceptions and variances needed to move ahead with the expansion and renovation plans for our North Campus. The letter officially confirms the decision made by the BZA at a hearing last week. […]

• #DCJewishMiddleSchool
• Board of Trustees
• Washington D.C.

January 21, 2016 by Mira E (’20) (Students) Willa R (’20) (Students)

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 […]

• Student Stories
• Tikkun Olam

January 20, 2016 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

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 […]

• Parent-Child Learning

January 14, 2016 by Kinney Zalesne (Community)

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 […]

• Board of Trustees

January 13, 2016 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

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 […]

• Parent-Child Learning

January 12, 2016 by Coby M (’21) (Students)

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 […]

• Project Based Learning
• Student Stories

January 7, 2016 by Janet Collier (Faculty and Staff)

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 […]

• Adult Learning
• Creative Writing

January 6, 2016 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

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 […]

• #MiltonAdvantage

January 6, 2016 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

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 […]

• Parent-Child Learning