Geography and Meteorology

Learning has come to life in all sorts of different ways for our elementary school over the past few days. Late last week, the grade level winners of National Geographic's National Geography Bee went head to head in order to determine the school winner.  While the competition was fierce and everyone gave it their best, 8th grader Shmuel Perl defended his title and will be moving on to the State qualifying test.  Students who score in the top 100 on the qualifying test are invited to Nashville in late March to compete in the state finals.

Today, everyone in third through 6th grade was a winner when Channel 3 Meteorologist Austen Onek visited Mrs. Triplett's science room to teach a lesson about weather.  With an array of recycled "junk" that he brought with him, Mr. Onek showed our students how they could build a fully functioning weather station out of materials they could find lying around their house.  He explained to them what each homemade instrument could measure and encouraged our kids to get actively involved in studying and reporting developments in the local weather.

Here are some more pictures from both the geography bee and the visit from Mr. Onek.

Images of our Mission

A little over a year ago, and following a grueling process that stretched over several months, our Board of Trustees voted to adopt a new mission statement; one that was felt to better capture the essence of who our school is what it strives to be.  Above is that statement illustrated by images of the children who bring it to life each and every day.

Divrei Hesped for Rabbi Efraim Greenblatt, ztz"l

I remember walking into the Anshei Sphard Beth El Emeth Congregation for the first time and noticing the slender man with the long white beard and black kapota standing near the mechitzah a few rows up from the bimah on the left hand side.  It was clear from his seat and the way that he carried himself that he was intending to be inconspicuous.  His garb, though, set against the deep purple and metalic silver of Anshei's unique decor made doing so rather difficult.

My first instinct was that this must be a visitor.   A rabbi, perhaps, visiting the mid-South from New York or maybe from Yerushalayim.  After seeing him interact with the rest of those who had come to Anshei to daven that Shabbos - a wonderfully eclectic mix of Jews from all backgrounds and of all levels of observance - I realized how mistaken I had been.  I was the visitor.  This was his home.  This was Rav Efraim Greenblatt: famed sage, student of Rav Moshe Feinstein, and one of the greatest poskim of his generation.  This was Rav Efraim Greenblatt whose erudition and acclaim didn't prevent him from spending decades, alongside his wife, teaching Torah to Memphis's youngest children in the school I had then just come to run.

Last week, the Torah world lost one of its most brilliant minds and the Memphis community lost one of its most cherished teachers: Ha-Rav Ha-Gaon Rav Efraim Greenblatt, zecher tzaddik le-vrachah.

It is an honor and a privilege to share with you these divrei hesped, words of eulogy, written by Rav Efraim's son, Rabbi Menachem Greenblatt, rov of Agudas Israel of St. Louis.

Kosher Corky's is Back!

Back by overwhelming international demand, we are once again making Corky's world-famous southern hickory-smoked barbecue brisket, ribs, beans, and sauce available to kosher consumers across the globe.

Available only for a limited time under the strict supervision of the Va'ad HaKehillot of Memphis and intended to make your kosher Super Bowl party truly one-of-a-kind, orders can now be placed through our school's website.  For local Memphis orders click here and for delivery anywhere else click here.

If you have friends or family anywhere that love slow-cooked, hand-rubbed, authentic barbecue beef, be sure to let them know about this incredible opportunity.  They'll thank you for it later!

דער פֿאַרהער (the test)

In thinking the past summer about ways that we might further upgrade the rigor of our high school Gemara program, Rabbi Noam Stein, our Talmud Department Chair, had the following idea:  Given that almost all of our boys and girls spend a year learning in yeshiva or seminary following graduation, and given that through our Torah MiTzion program we are fortunate to have bachurei yeshiva here in school with us every day, why not try to create an experience more like a typical Israeli yeshiva than a typical American yeshiva high school while our students are still here with us for those students who want it and those students who are capable of it?

And so our new Beit Midrash program was born.  A select group of students who passed proficiency exams were exempted from our more standard Gemara classes and instead have been spending each morning preparing pieces of Gemara in our Beit Midrash together with one of the Torah MiTzion bachurim (2 students to one bachur).  Much like they do in traditional yeshivot, once the boys completed their preparation, they would gather together with the bachurim to hear a shiur, given completely in Hebrew, on the material they had prepared from Rabbi Maimon, our Rosh Kollel.


As midterms approached, Rabbis Stein and Maimon had another challenge: on the one hand, they wanted to preserve the "yeshiva feeling" of the program and yeshivot don't exactly give midterms.  On the other hand, it was important for us to assess the progress of our students over the first half of the year, especially in an experimental program such as this one.

And so the farher was (re)born.  Following the model quite common in the yeshivot of Europe, Rabbi Stein suggested that the boys get an oral exam on the material they learned but not with review sheets, or questions in advance, or even a test created by their own teacher.  A better assessment of whether they truly knew their stuff would come from bringing "outsiders" familiar with the material but unfamiliar with what exactly the boys had learned to fire questions at them and see how they could respond.  Therefore, a few weeks ago, Rabbi Stein reached out to me and to Rabbi Joel Finkelstein of the Anshei Sphard Beth El Emeth Congregation and asked us if we'd come in to farher the boys on the sections of Bava Metzia they had been learning.

Of course, we both jumped at the opportunity and for an hour and a half this past Wednesday we took turns asking the boys to read, translate, punctuate, tell us about Rashi, read us a Tosafos, explain the underlying concepts and the flow of arguments in the Gemara they had learned.

I'm thrilled to report they did an excellent job, that their enthusiasm for they way in which they are learning is incredible, and, as such, the program to date seems like a real success.

Mazal Tov Kitah Aleph!

It was a festive day in Kitah Aleph today as the children celebrated their completion of their first Ariot book.  To mark their accomplishment they ate foods whose Hebrew names contained letters that they had learned and they had a special visitor, dressed in full Ariot regalia, with a בלון אדום for each of them.

The occasion was particularly special because Morah Debbie, who is new to Kitah Alpeh this year, was celebrating her first time completing the Ariot book as well.  We wish her and the class הצלחה רבה as they continue their exciting journey into the world of Torah learning!

Hour of Code

Technology industry leaders launched a global initiative this week called the Hour of Code.  Its intent is to introduce people, young and old, across the world to the value that computer programming plays across all disciplines and in all fields by encouraging them to spend one hour this writing computer code of some sort.  

Under the direction of our Lower School Science teacher, Mrs. Cathleen Triplett, our 6th graders were the first of our students to take part.  You can read about their class and follow what our other classes will be doing as well, on Mrs. Triplett's Science Blog. 

Master of the Arts

10th grader Dovid Yehoshua Samuels is known to much of the community for his talent in playing the violin, which was on display to all at our recent Boys High School Steak Dinner.  Within the school, though, Dovid Yehoshua has also long been known for his way with words and his gift for creative writing.  It's this second artistic talent which was again recognized nationally this past week when a poem he wrote was published by The New York Jewish Week's Fresh Ink website.

Here is the poem he wrote, entitled The Light of Chanukah:

The sun sinks slowly beneath the trees
The leaves gain an eerie, but majestic edge
Masterfully casted from the liquid fire of that molten orb

Soon, darkness descends, and with it
gloom blankets the city in an all-encompassing shroud of silence.

All seems quiet, dead;
But no.

A whispered blessing can be heard,
and then — a mere pinprick of light penetrates the darkness
carrying with it more joy and happiness than seemingly possible.

A moment passes,
and as if by miracle,
Light, beautiful Light,
breaks through the barricade of darkness, emanating from the windows
of every Jewish home for miles around.

She spreads her wings, and with an almighty thrust,
bursts into the night – the joy, faith, and happiness
of every Jew mounted proudly astride her back.

She dances, leaps, soars throughout the city
proclaiming to God the hopes, sorrows, and unwavering love
of the Jewish people as a whole.

Finally, upon reaching the edge of the city
she slowly twirls to a stop,
gracefully landing before the window
of a small, but welcoming house.

Her essence flows forward, unhindered by any obstacle.
She rests on a knit rug and lovingly watches as an elderly man sinks
comfortably into a worn armchair before the menorah,
an enormous smile plastered across his face.

Slowly she approaches, her essence joining with that of the man
as he beckons his children and grandchildren closer.

“Come,” he says. “Come listen to the tale of the Maccabees, brave and bold;
of a miracle full of light and grandeur.”

“Come,” he says. “Come listen.”

Chanukah has begun.

author's bio: 

Dovid Yehoshua Samuels is a sopho

Raising Jewish Teens: Charlie Harary's Motzei Shabbos Talk

Thanks to Debbie Miller who videoed Charlie Harary's talk on the Challenges of Raising Jewish Teens at our Motzei Shabbos Melave Malka and posted it on Torahanytime.com, everyone can now enjoy his words of wisdom and inspiration.  Thanks again to Gary and Dena Wruble for opening their home for this talk and for making the entire weekend possible.

20th Anniversary Steak Dinner

For 20 years, under the direction of Rabbi Yonason Gersten, the boys in our high school have been marketing, purchasing, cooking, setting up, entertaining, serving, and cleaning up their famous four-course formal dinner fondly known as the Steak Dinner in an effort to raise funds for their activities account.  This year a record crowd of well over three hundred community members came to show their support, enjoy a fantastic meal, and schep a bit of nachas from the truly outstanding boys who make up the Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys.  As always, the boys chose a surprise honoree for the dinner for whom they made a moving - and entertaining - tribute video.  There could not have been a more fitting recipient for the 20th anniversary dinner than this year's honoree, Mrs. Teri Graber.

Mazal tov to her on her much deserved award and yasher kochachem to Rabbi Gersten and all of the boys for reminding us all just how much teenage boys are capable of and just how special our little school is.

GMSG Play

Congratulations to the girls high school for a phenomenal evening of theater earlier this week.  Rather than one full-length drama production, this year the girls, under the direction of Mrs. Renee Brame, showed off their versatility in presenting several different types of theater.

The evening began with a staged reading of an original play collaboratively written by the girls themselves in their creative writing class.  It was a mystery set in a school and centered around a drama production which made it both suspenseful and entertaining.  Most of all, it gave them invaluable experience in an area of both drama and writing which is often neglected in high school curricula.

The next part of the production shifted from live theater to film as the students presented a documentary they had filmed and produced about the preparations they had made and efforts they expended leading up to this evening.

For the final and featured piece of the evening's entertainment, the girls performed Agatha Christie's The Patient. A suspenseful whodunit set in a hospital and centered on a woman left paralyzed by someone who pushed her out of her second story window, the girls did a masterful job of conveying the play's wit, surprise, and drama.  For more pictures from the play, click here.

The entirety of the evening shined a wonderful light on our girls, the High School English Department, and the GMSG as a whole.

An Inspiring Weekend

For months our school and community had been looking forward to what we were billing as a "Shabbat Experience" - a weekend in which various parts of our school community would come together in and around the school to draw inspiration and to inspire each other.  With the help of Dr. Gary and Dena Wruble, and the talents of the weekend's feature attraction, Mr. Charlie Harary, it didn't disappoint.

The weekend started with a talk that Charlie gave to both of our high schools at the end of the school day on Friday about what it means to be a "Yehudi" - a descendant of Yehudah.  On Friday night, in a first for our school, the entire community was invited to davening in our High School Beit Midrash followed by dinner and a talk from Charlie.  280 men, women, and children of all ages signed up and the atmosphere was nothing short of electric.  From a spirited davening to a wonderful meal replete with "parsha questions" for the kids and the much beloved "cup song," there was something very special about all parts of our diverse community coming out to enjoy Shabbos together.  It was capped off by a captivating talk by Charlie on the meaning of inspiration and how best to find it.

On Shabbos morning the weekend zeroed in our teens with a special davening in the High School in which Mr. Harary delivered a derasha about the lessons of Chanukah.  That was followed by a special kiddush and a teens-only Q&A session with Charlie.  One of the most inspiring sights of the weekend was seeing our Beit Midrash packed with kids on Shabbos morning after davening, when no one was forcing them to be there, just for the opportunity to glean some wisdom from our guest speaker.

Charlie turned his focus back to the adults with a short talk during Shalosh Seudos at Baron Hirsch and then capped off the weekend at a Melave Malka in which a crown packed Dena and Gary's beautiful home  to hear Charlie speak on the challenges of raising Jewish teens.

For many of the participants I spoke to, this was a weekend unlike any other in recent history in our community.  Our hope is that there will be many more like it in the future.

High School Open House

On Tuesday night we hosted 8th grade students and parents for annual High School Open House.  In case you missed it, below is the multimedia presentation we showed highlighting the endless "opportunities" available to students at the Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys and the Goldie Margolin High School for Girls.  Unfortunately, the best part of the presentation is missing: that was eight of our students who eloquently spoke about each set of "opportunities" and the way in which they have benefited from them.  Nonetheless, the presentation itself does give at least a glimpse into what may await your child at our high schools.

Lab Dedication

On Tuesday our radically upgraded high school science lab was officially rededicated as the Dr. Jerome and Shelley Kutliroff Advanced Science Lab.  To mark the occasion, Dr. Kutlirof, who served as our General Studies Principal for many years before returning to school to pursue his second PhD, and Mrs. Kutliroff, our master History teacher who also served as our upper school General Studies principal before returning full-time to the classroom, were invited along with Dr. and Mrs. Diane Wruble, the lab's donors, and Mr. Josh Kahane, the Board president, to join us in the lab for a demonstration of our new equipment.  There, they were able to circulate between stations in which students demonstrated our new microscopes, Vernier probeware, CO2 sensors, low friction Dynamics Track and motion detectors, and LEGO Mindstorms NXT Robotics systems, all of which are currently being integrated into our high school STEM curricula.

After the demonstration, the guest of honor were taken to the Beit Midrash where Dr. Wruble introduced Dr. Kutliroff who spoke to the students about the way in which science affords us "vision" we wouldn't otherwise have and where Mr. Kahane officially dedicated the lab by presenting the plaque which will be hung outside its door.

This infusion of high-tech cutting-edge equipment that spans the full range of STEM disciplines, resulted from careful research by our STEM department into what was necessary to create the very best high school science facility and visits to the laboratories of some of the leading high schools in the city.  Our faculty now believes that due to the generosity of the Wrubles and in honor of the Kutliroffs, we can offer our students an immersive STEM experience on par with that of high schools anywhere.

Our thanks go to our STEM faculty - Mr. Dave Lewellyn, Mr. Dana Vaughn, Mr. Daniel Wallace, and Ms. Nicole Kolenic - to the Kutliroffs and to the Wrubles for making this dream become a reality.

Rav Stav Visits the High Schools

Thanks to the generosity of the Baron Hirsch Congregation, our high schools had the privilege of hosting Rabbi David Stav a few weeks ago. Though he has long been one of Israel's most prominent Torah figures, Rav Stav was catapulted into the limelight this summer when he was one of three final candidates for Israel's Chief Rabbi position.

Rav Stav addressed our high schools on an issue which he knows better than most, and which is of particular interest and importance to our students: how to adopt an embracing and inclusive attitude toward others while simultaneously maintaining ones own firm and unwavering ideological principles.  Rav Stav shared anecdotes from his own personal struggles with this issue as well the perspective of Rav Kook and other great Torah minds all of which gave our students much to think about and reflect upon.

Tournament Pictures

I've gotten many requests for our pictures from this year's Cooper Tournament so here they are: Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, and a compilation of the best pictures from the tournament.

Congratulations to YULA on yet another championship victory and to all of the teams who gave everything they had out on the court.  Our thanks again to Josh, Eric, Jon, Melissa, Rabbi Lubetski and all of the other volunteers who made the weekend an unforgettable experience for all.

It's Tournament Time!

It's that time of year again!  Kroger on Mendenhall is crawling with six foot yarmulka-wearing high school boys, the Double Tree is hopping with 300 players, coaches and fans from across the country, homes across the community are getting ready to teach  a lesson in true Southern Hospitality as they prepare to host our guests for Friday night dinner, and in just a few hours all will descend on the Memphis Jewish Community Center to tip-off the seventh annual Cooper Invitational Basketball Tournament.

As in years past, every game of the tournament, which has become one of the most celebrated Jewish athletic events in the country, will be broadcast live on the tournament's website: www.cooperinvitational.com.  For our local fans, though, we urge you not to watch online but to head over to the MJCC and cheer on our boys in person.  Our first game starts at 5:30pm this evening as our #11 Cooper Macs take on the #6 HAFTR Hawks.

Once again, a heartfelt thank you is in order for Tournament Director Josh Kahane, Tournament IT Director Eric Schubert, and the legion of volunteers who make this incredible event such a success every year.

Go Macs!

Frum Football

When one thinks of Orthodox Jewish Day Schools and their athletic programs, football isn't exactly the sport that generally comes to mind.  Basketball is undoubtedly king, followed closely in the Northeast by floor hockey, with a smattering of softball, volleyball, and tennis thrown in as well.  Yet last week, on our freshly groomed and painted field, competitive football is exactly what our youngest students were playing.

After successfully adding cross-country to our small school's robust athletic program last year, Coach Nokes took on flag football for this Fall.  And, thanks to the dedication of volunteer coaches Noam Davidovics, Jonathan Wogan, and Eli Frieden, both our 1st and 2nd grade team and our 3rd and 4th grade teams are off to an incredible start.  So if you're looking for some real entertainment over the next few weeks, forget about the Titans or the Colts or the Chiefs.  The real action is happening on Macs Field with our surprisingly talented and undeniably adorable 1st through 4th grade flag football teams.

Mural Taking Shape

If you've walked down the elementary school hallway recently, you might have noticed some drawing on the wall.  No, it isn't vandalism or graffiti or anything of the sort.  Quite the contrary.  Under the direction of our art teacher Morah Chany Fleischhacker, our student-drawn IKaRR wall mural is beginning to take shape.  While the background went up last year, students are now filling in the mural with scenes depicting acts of IKaRR (Integrity, Kindness, Respect and Responsibility).

It's still in its infant stages so come visit us often to see how it continues to come to life over the coming months.

IKaRR Projects

What better way to teach our 6th graders about integrity than to have them design and implement a lesson on the topic for our lower elementary school students?  And what better way to ensure that our younger students learn about integrity than to be taught not by their teachers but by the "upper classmen" of our elementary school, our 6th grade?

That was the idea Morah Leora Klein had at in-service this summer as we discussed ways of taking our IKaRR Initiative to the next level this school year.  Last week she, or more accurately, her 6th grade class, implemented it for the first time.  Working in pairs, the 6th graders developed a lesson and activity for one particular elementary school class and then entered the class last week to put it into action.  Morah Leora intends to repeat the project every four to six weeks with students rotating through the different classes and with each project focusing on a different one of our four IKaRR values, Integrity, Kindness, Respect, and Responsibility.

Here are some more pictures of our 6th graders at work: