Solomon Schechter Day School of Essex and Union

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	Arts in Action Night - 6/17/10 A celebration of the Arts at SSDSEU; a showcase of all the artistic endeavors of our Middle School and High School students.
	Car Smash 6-2-10 NHS and K4K sponsored a ''Car Smash'' to ''smash out cancer.'' Students and faculty paid for the opportunity to hit a car that was donated for this purpose with a sledgehammer. The students raised $800 in one hour to help in the fight against cancer.
	6th Grade Tallit Presentation 5-18-2010 Our 6th graders recently celebrated the completion of their Tallit project with student-led learning, sharing of the tallitot they created and a bagel breakfast. Their proud parents and teachers were very impressed!
	Kolot HaYam Choir Festival SSDSEU hosted the inaugural Kolot HaYam Choral Festival at the Berkeley Oceanfront Hotel in Asbury Park, NJ from May 14th to 16th. We hosted choirs from the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy (Bryn Mawr, PA) and Ramaz (New York, NY). The festival began on Friday afternoon as the choirs performing for each other. The weekend included elective workshops offered by both the Festival judges and Schechter's arts faculty on jazz harmony, vocal percussion, musical meditation and art-music fusion. The music continued throughout Shabbat. After a Saturday night out of bowling and pizza, the weekend concluded with a presentation of trophies to the winners of the awards for best male and female soloists. Jesse Nagelberg won the award for best male soloist and Rachel Wener tied with a student from Ramaz for best female soloist. We are already planning for the 2nd Annual Kolot HaYam Choral Festival in May of 2011.
	Middle School/Lower School Math Fair, 5-11-10 The first joint Middle School/Lower School Math Fair was held on Tuesday, May 11th. Our Middle School students created fun, educational math games for our 3rd, 4th and 5th graders. According to the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, such games ''fuel the students' curiosity and encourage them to talk and think about mathematics.'' The Middle School students had to use their creativity to prepare the games. The games required that all the students collaborate with one another as they played. Everyone enjoyed this memorable day at the Middle School.
	6th Grade Law Fair Program On Monday, April 20, 2010, Mrs. Himmelstein's 6th grade class had their day in court when they when they performed their winning mock trial case before New Jersey judges and attorneys in the New Jersey Bar Foundation’s annual Law Fair Competition for grades 3 through 6. The students travelled to the New Jersey Law Center in New Brunswick to present their case, The Case of the Missing Seals which dealt with racial profiling in a high school. The students were proud to bring home a 2nd place award and a plaque “in recognition of excellence in promoting understanding of the law and our justice system.”
	7th Grade Invitational Science Symposium The halls were filled with excited future scientists and mathematicians on March 18, 2010 as SSDSEU hosted its second annual Math and Science Symposium. Our 7th graders were joined by students from Solomon Schechter Day School of Bergen County, Gerrard Berman Day School and the Solomon Schechter Day School of Raritan Valley for a morning of enrichment activities led by our math and science faculty. In groups, the students rotated through a series of demonstrations and hands-on explorations. They manipulated toothpicks to make specific two-dimensional figures, observed chemical reactions with dramatic results, built simulated cells to demonstrate the movement of materials through cell membranes, competed to re-create graphs using motion sensors and computers and learned to solve equations using visualizations on the smartboard. The students shared in a pizza lunch before the visitors returned to their home schools.
	Israel Club - IDF Col. Bentzi Gruber A lethal combination of ignorance, misconceptions and outright lies has led communities and governments around the world to vilify the State of Israel and its armed forces. “Ethics in the Field” is Col. Bentzi Gruber’s personal initiative to dispel the fiction and present the facts that are missing in today’s Middle East dialogue. Gruber gave an engaging, exciting, and eye-opening presentation to the Israel Club on March 11, 2010. Gruber offered a behind the scenes look at the IDF’s daily battle to both ensure the country's security and uphold one of the most rigorous military Codes of Ethics in the world today. Combining classified IDF footage and well-organized statistics with riveting, sometimes humorous, but always enlightening personal narration, Col. Gruber explored the dilemmas constantly facing IDF commanders in locating terrorists within a civilian population, the IDF's unique ethical code, and the effectiveness of the IDF's preventative efforts against terrorist attacks.
	Badminton Tournament The first Badminton Tournament sponsored by the High School Student Council took place on Wed. Mar. 17, 2010 in the gym. Everyone exuded excitement. The teams of 2, composed of students, teachers and teacher/student pairs, had to come dressed to represent their team name. This was no competition for the weary!!!!! Our winners were Ari Smolyar and David Newman. The money raised will be donated to a charity of the winners’ choice. We look forward to another tournament in the future. Thanks to the Student Council Executive Board who organized the tournament: Dani Wolberger, Jake Glickman, Sam Rubinstein and Dani Gorshein.
	Grandparents Middle School Math and Science Program -- 3/15/2010
	Neshama 18 For pictures from Neshama 18, Click Here.
	Annual Choir Concert a Huge Success! Yasher Koach to our High School and Middle School Choirs and Choir Director Josh Ehrlich for a fabulous Annual Choir Concert on Feb. 8th! The program included performances by our Middle and High School Choirs, and a guest performance by the Yale University Society of Orpheus and Bacchus.
	Middle School Tzedakah Fair
	Senior Send-Off
	Community Service Day, Jan. 20, 2010 The entire High School community boarded buses after t'fillah and spent the morning at a variety of schools, social service angencies and other non-profits. Students did everything from working in a food pantry and sorting donated clothing to reading stories to pre-schoolers and clearing a hillside at an arboretum.
	Chilean Exchange Program 2010 We are very excited to once again welcome our Chilean friends from the Instituto Hebreo in Santiago, Chile. This year eleven 10th grade Chilean students and their chaperone, Perla Stermann, are enjoying home hospitality and various daytrips as they learn about our community and neighboring cities. Some of the experiences they enjoy during their stay include a visit to the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, the Liberty Science Center, the Museum of Jewish Heritage in lower Manhattan, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and a day in Central Park. All of the participating students will be enjoying an afternoon and evening together in NYC which includes a visit to the Empire State Building, dinner and a show. The SSDS students will be hosted by their buddies this summer in Chile from July 29th until August 19th. In the six years of the program’s existence, we have discovered that the bonds made during this program exceed all expectations.
	Schechter College Alumni Basketball Game and Open House On Wednesday, December 23, 2009, over 80 alumni from the Classes of 2009, 2008, 2007, and 2006 gathered at the Eric F. Ross Campus for lunch and basketball game with faculty and classmates. It was a great afternoon of sharing and reminiscing!
	Transformation of E. Coli Bacteria Sharon Calka's senior Biology class recently conducted an experiment - The Transformation of E. Coli Bacteria with a Green Floursecent Protein Gene. Students took a gene from a jellyfish, which causes the jellyfish to glow flourescent green in the dark, and inserted it into the chromosome of a bacteria so that the bacterial colonies would glow like the jellyfish! The students were amazed to see bacterial colonies flourescing green in their petri dishes under uv light.
	High School Production of 'Once on this Island' January 2010
	Alumni Authors Speak to 8th Grade “Just sit down and write!” With these words, Micol Ostow, SSDSEU class of 1994, and author of nine books of teen fiction, revealed her writing secret to the 8th graders gathered to hear her speak on December 21st. Together with her brother, David Ostow, SSDSEU class of 1997, who illustrated their recently published graphic novel ''So Punk Rock (And Other Ways to Disappoint Your Mother),'' Micol explored the writer’s life and her latest fiction with 8th grade English classes. Peppered with phrases unique to our population - Camp Ramah, Tel Yehuda, and ska covers of “Hava Nagila” - the two read excerpts from ''So Punk Rock'' which fictionalized David’s attempts to establish a band while a student at Schechter. The excitement was palpable as budding writers, musicians and fans had all their questions about the writer’s life answered. Schechter alums returning to school to share their success? It doesn’t get better than this!
	Dreidel Spinoff For Tzedakah Our 6th Annual Dreidel Spinoff For Tzedakah was once again a great success. The rules for this year were the same as they have always been, $3 to enter and the winner of the tournament gets to give the money to the charity of their choice. All told we raised around $150 between the 3 lunch periods. The winners, with the charities in parentheses, were: 6th grade - Jacob G. (Shomrei Torah), 7/8th grade – Emma G. (Kilometers 4 Karyn) and High School – Stephanie A. (Foundation Fighting Blindness).
	SSDSEU Students Return to New Orleans Four years after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the New Orleans community is still grateful for the commitment of our school to assist in the rebuilding efforts. To read about this year’s trip, Click Here.
	SCHECHTER STUDENTS RAISE MONEY FOR GIFT OF LIFE BONE MARROW FOUNDATION Each year, before Thanksgiving, SSDSEU Lower and Upper School students take the time to give thanks. They demonstrate their gratitude for life and health by raising money to fund bone marrow donor drives and by raising awareness about bond marrow donations. The first Walk for Life was held in 1991, when then 11th grader, Miriam Stern organized the fundraiser to help save the life of Jay Feinberg who had leukemia and needed a bone marrow transplant. Feinberg was fortunate to find a donor match and 17 years later is cancer free. He is the founder and executive director of the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation which has been a leader in the world of donor registries. Each year since 1991, SSDSEU students have continued the tradition of the Walk for Life. This year’s walk was held on Wednesday, November 25, 2009. This year, the students raised almost $3,000 for the Gift of Life Bone Marrow Foundation.
	6th Grade Elections 6th graders presented their gubernatorial candidates to their classmates recently.
	L'Mad Inducts New Members On Tuesday, Nov. 17 L'Mad, our school's local chapter of the National Honor Society, held its annual induction ceremony. This year the chapter inducted a record number of students: 17 from the class of 2010 and 21 from the class of 2011. As in previous years, High School students, faculty and proud families of the inductees were treated to a thought-provoking speech from a speaker from a broader community. This year, our guest speaker was Daniel Polisar, founding member of the Shalem Center in Jersualem, who spoke about the challenges of teenagers growing up in Israel. Outgoing President, Andrew W., spoke about the successes of the past year and of the importance of next week's Walk For Life fundraiser. Mrs. Gail Shapiro, L'Mad faculty advisor, concluded the ceremony by inducting the new and returning members. Yasher Koach to the outgoing board: Andrew W. (President), Shayna S. (Vice President), Jessica B. (Secretary) and Yotam T. (Treasurer). Congratulations to incoming board members: Justin W. (President), Carly R. (Vice President), Amanda N. (Secretary) and Daniel L. (Treasurer).
	Singing in Hebrew 10th grade students perform an original song they composed in Hebrew
	6th Grade Science Our 6th graders did a fascinating lab on the food sources of owls by examining pellets and analyzing their contents.
	Advanced Biology This past summer, Mrs. Calka attended a week long graduate course at the AP Summer Institute at Goucher College. The course emphasized experiments in molecular biology including the use of restriction enzymes to cleave DNA in order to identify and map the segments; the introduction of jelly fish DNA into bacteria which then fluoresce green; and the quantitative study of enzyme function using titration assays. Mrs. Calka has successfully introduced these cutting edge techniques to students in our new senior biology course: Advanced Topics in Biology. With its focus on molecular and cellular biology this new course gives students the needed background and skills for college level biology.
	National Day on Writing at Upper School On October 20th at 11:10 a.m. the entire Upper School came to an abrupt halt. Students, teachers, staff, administration, and guests all stopped what they were doing—and reached for the nearest pen, pencil, or keyboard. What was going on? The SSDS Upper School had found a way to celebrate the day that Congress had recognized as “The National Day on Writing”—a day created to “draw attention to the remarkable variety of writing we engage in, and to help writers from all walks of life become aware of their craft” (NCTE). To the strains of John Mayer’s “Say What You Need to Say” over the P.A. system, the Schechter community was asked to write notes to someone in their lives who deserved to be thanked. For ten minutes, letters were written (in several languages!) to loved ones, to pets, to hot dog vendors…Participants were then asked to mail their notes, even if they were long overdue (“Yes, you can READ it to the dog,” said Mrs. Loewenthal to one sixth grader). By 11:25, classes were back in session. Andy was admitting visitors, Ms. Leaderman was talking to a group of students, and guidance was bustling with energy. Yet somehow, almost imperceptibly…something had changed. If you read some of the yet-to-be mailed notes posted on the wall in the Ulam, you may begin to understand the phenomenon.
	6th Grade Teva Program
	Na'ale Na'ale is our 9th grade Israel program, during which our students spend 10 days doing an amazing range of activities, including celebrating Simchat Torah this year. This year marks a milestone, as our current seniors were the first Na'ale group--so we can proudly say that our entire high school had had a 9th grade Israel opportunity! For Na'ale 2009 pictures, click here. Click Here.
	Freedom in Iran Rally Seventy two SSDSEU High School students joined thousands at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza at the UN on Thursday, September 24th in support of freedom and human rights in Iran as Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, addressed the UN General Assembly.
	Mini-E Field Trial Michelle Kortenaar, our Mathematics and Science Departments Chair, and her family are participating in the field trial for the 100% electric, zero-emission Mini-E. If you have been in our parking lot lately, you may have noticed an unusual grey car with yellow decals. An extensive application process identified 500 drivers for the year-long research program. Ms. Kortenaar was chosen on the basis of her answers to questions about important inventions, lifestyle and, of course, physics.
	Family Fun Day a Great Success Thanks to our Parents' Association, Family Fun Day on Sunday, Sept. 13th was a great success. Our Lower and Upper School students and their families enjoyed food, games, crafts, inflatables and music. One of the many highlights of the day was a 9th grade Car Wash, which raised more than $1,000 for our annual Na'ale Israel program. For pictures, click here. Click Here.
	Car Wash Supports Na’ale The Upper School Israel Club held its annual car wash during Family Fun Day on Sept. 13th. More than $1000 was raised to benefit the Na’ale 9th grade Israel trip. Many students participated and gave their time and energy. We thank the parents who helped: Joan Bronspiegel Dickman, Stuart Dickman, Joanne Bramnick and Mindy Goldman as well as all the parents who brought their cars to be washed.
	Alumni Society “Back to School” Benefit The Alumni Society “Back to School Benefit” held on Thursday evening, September 10, at the Canal Room in NYC, was a wonderful success, raising over $10,000 for scholarship at Schechter, bringing our Alumni Scholarship Campaign total raised to over $60,000. We would like to thank the over 120 alumni and friends who either attended the event, made a donation or volunteered their time. You are all so amazing and inspiring! A special thanks to all of you on the Alumni Scholarship Committee who recruited your friends and classmates. Thanks to our “Back to School” Benefit event committee - Lissy Carr, Lawrence Elbaum Julie Kopel, Evan Majzner, Debbie Edell, Dave Pantirer, Ariel Fixler and Jocelyn Klar. Thanks to the alumni who sponsored the refreshments or donated raffle prizes. Special thanks to our two anonymous sponsors. Yasher Koach to all!
	Remembering Sept. 11 Our High School students join together in t'fillah to remember September 11th.
	President’s Speech Seniors watch President Obama's speech on Tuesday, Sept. 8th.
	Chilean Exchange 2009 For updates from our students in Chile for Chilean Exchange 2009 (Aug. 2-24, 2009), go to Schechter Abroad.
	First Day of School
	Barnes and Noble Day Thanks to all who volunteered and participated in our Grandparents Society-sponsored Barnes and Noble Book Day! It was great to see so many grandparents, grandchildren, and parents coming out to support our school. The story hours with Mrs. Kron and Ms. Leaderman were terrific. Special thank you to our Grandparents Society Program chairs, Barbara Zinbarg and Marion Jacobson, for their tremendous energy and enthusiasm and to volunteers, Millie and Gerry Feig, Alicia Zucker, Elsie Lederman, Adele and Paul Nagelberg, Ruth Barber, and Arielle Kramer. Thanks to all who brought their children and grandchildren and made purchases in support of our school.
	Tallit Ceremony The 6th grade had its tallit ceremony on Wednesday, May 27. With the help of their teachers, the students had chosen verses to put on the atarot and decorated the tallitot as they wished. At the ceremony, the students prayed together and taught texts connected to tallit to each other and to their parents. Then they displayed their beautiful tallitot.
	High School Sports Awards Banquet This year's High School Sports Awards Banquet took place on Monday, June 8.
	6th Grade Courthouse Visit On June 2nd, the sixth graders attended the Union County Courthouse. This trip is a culmination of the law unit - an interdisciplinary approach to learning. At the courthouse, Judge Lisa Chrystal Herzberg, a Schechter parent (mother of Ariella and Ilana grade 12 and SSDSEU graduate Ben) introduced the basics of the legal system. In addition, the students visited a member of the canine unit, the main security room of the courthouse, and a science laboratory (fingerprinting).
	Salute to Israel Parade On Sunday, May 31, members of the Schechter family joined the community and marched down 5th Avenue in New York City in celebration of Israel and the 100th birthday of the city of Tel Aviv.
	SSDSEU Students Attend AIPAC Conference SSDSEU students Seffi K. and Oren F. participated in AIPAC’s Annual Policy Conference, May 3-5. They were among the hundreds of students and campus professionals who heard from leading Members of Congress, White House officials, and dignitaries from the Israeli government. Students also participated in sessions focusing on campus activism. The conference culminated in a trip to Capitol Hill, where delegates meet with their Members of Congress to advocate for a strong U.S.-Israel relationship.
	Lag B'Omer We celebrated Lag B’Omer on Tuesday, May 12, with a great deal of excitement and enthusiasm. In modern Israel and in our school, Lag B’ Omer is celebrated as field day of games and athletic events, perhaps evoking the valor of Bar Kochva. This year we experimented with a new format in which our campuses exchanged groups of students. Grades pre k -2 participated in field activities at the Lower School along with our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders from the Upper School. Grades 3-5 travelled to the Upper School to participate in field activities with our 9th, 10th, and 11th graders. Both campuses enjoyed tie dying t-shirts, just like their parents did back in the ‘70s. For our students, living their Judaism every day in our school, Lag B’Omer is a welcome and refreshing precursor of summer as well as an affirmation of our heritage. Todah Rabbah to our wonderful PA for a delicious hot dog picnic lunch.
	7th Grade Trip to the American Museum of Natural History On Wednesday, May 13, our 7th Grade took a field trip to the American Museum of Natural History in New York City. Highlights included, but were definitely not limited to, seeing the life sized Blue Whale model, the fossils and dinosaurs, the special exhibit ''Climate Change'', and the area focusing on the Jews of Asia.
	Poet-In-Residence Cat Doty, recipient of the Marjorie J. Wilson Award, the Academy of American Poets Award, and fellowships from the NY Foundation for the Arts, spent a day as Poet in Residence on May 13th, visiting both middle and high school classes.
	6th Grade Time Capsule How much do you remember from sixth grade? Do you remember what music you liked? What magazines you read? How about the outfits you wore? Students in Morah Besner’s sixth grade recently class completed a project that will enable them to remember the answers to all of these questions six years from now when they graduate. After the class completed a unit about time, Morah Besner invited each student to bring in some things which they felt summed up their first year in middle school. When each student brought in his or her contribution, the class as a whole put its artifacts into a large plastic box. They then travelled across the parking lot to the grass by the admissions building and, with the help of Gregory and Andy, buried their class time capsule. Morah Besner, who has a record of the exact measurements of where the box was buried, plans to have her students unearth the box in their senior year of high school. Morah Besner’s students seemed extremely enthusiastic about the project. “It was really fun making memories,” said Noa S. “But,” she adds, “we can’t wait to open them when we’re seniors!” The rest of the students agreed and expressed similar enjoyment of their Hebrew project. They found it to be an important part of their careers as Schechter students and they look forward to seeing, at 18, the things that interested them at age 12.
	All-Middle School Community Service Day This year, the middle school joined in the tikkun olam action and held their first All-Middle School Community Service Day on May 5. In the morning, students woodchipped a few hundred yards of pathway to protect and preserve the beautiful landscape at the Cora Hartshorn Arboretum, woodchipped and weeded at the Reeves-Reed Arboretum, packaged and sorted food at the Community Food Bank of New Jersey, spent time with senior residents at the Canterbury Village assisted living center, and worked with students at the Cerebral Palsy of North Jersey Horizon School. After returning to school, students packed sandwiches for the St. John’s Church Soup Kitchen in Newark. Dean of Students Adam Shapiro was very proud of the students and the success of the day. “They spent over 400 combined hours doing community service and had an awesome day helping others.”
	Moot Beit Din SSDSEU students Avi C., Jacob G., Phillip N., and Zach S. recently travelled to Denver, CO, with Rabbi Eugene Wernick to participate in a Moot Beit Din, a unique program that enables students from Jewish high schools to delve into issues of Jewish law through creative engagement with contemporary situations. It provides students with an opportunity to explore the relevance of Halakhah and to stretch their imagination in applying Jewish traditional resources to their lives and to the modern world. After intensive study of halakhic sources, students prepare written decisions to a case given to them. They then present and defend their decisions before judges during oral argument at the competition.
	Sala Elbaum Holocaust Memorial Lecture While Yom Ha'shoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, officially began on Monday evening, April 20, we began our school commemoration on Monday afternoon with our annual Sala Elbaum Holocaust Memorial Lecture. Through the generosity of Judy and Steven Elbaum, we were able to share important aspects of Holocaust Education while commemorating Sala Elbaum and David Urman, Steven’s mother and Judy’s father, respectively. Sala Elbaum, along with her husband Izak, and David Urman were Holocaust survivors. Their legacy has been visible in their children and in their children’s children. The Elbaum lecture series permits us all the opportunity to honor their memory as well. Though our program was not a lecture in the traditional sense, it did serve the Elbaum’s vision; it both reminded us of the importance of the day and sent the meaningful message that we as Jews have faced terrible adversity but continue to grow stronger as a people. We were privileged to have the Carolyn Dorfman Dance Company in school to perform a number of their pieces from their Legacy Project program. A child of Holocaust Survivors, choreographer Carolyn Dorfman revealed her inspiration for The Legacy Project, a celebrated body of work that honors Dorfman’s Eastern European roots and Jewish heritage. With depth, humor, and reverence, she drew on the rich Jewish legacy, its history, philosophy, traditions, gestures, music, and liturgy to create a work that is honestly personal yet powerfully universal.
	The Upper School Welcomes National Poetry Month National Poetry Month is being celebrated in the Upper School with activities including living poetry models, poetry in the parking lot, and a visit by poet B.J. Ward. What if Shakespeare were a waiter? What if he had to clear tables, balance dishes, and pacify a dissatisfied customer rather than write poetry? On Friday morning, April 3, BJ Ward, recipient of a Pushcart Prize for Poetry and two Distinguished Artist Fellowships from the NJ State Council on the Arts, opened the high school poetry assembly with a poem that suggested a wacky scenario for the Bard who found himself in just this situation. During his reading, BJ introduced students to a wide array of his poetry…we rode with him along Route 80 in Parsippany with Roy Orbison blaring on the radio, we shopped in a grocery story peopled with mythological figures, and we shared a crowded car with his family for a week, escaping personal tragedy. When a student asked about his own favorite poetry, without hesitation BJ spoke of Yehuda Amichai, an opinion shared by many of our students and faculty. “We have an imaginative essence,” BJ told us, one that he had discovered through the power of language—and one which he brought to us on that glorious April morning.
	7th Grade Math and Science Symposium The halls were filled with engaged future scientists and mathematicians as SSDSEU hosted our first annual Math and Science Symposium on April 1. 7th graders were joined by students from Gerrard Berman Day School in Oakland and the Solomon Schechter Day School of Raritan Valley, East Brunswick, for a morning of enrichment activities led by high school math and science faculty. Groups of students rotated through a series of demonstrations and hands-on explorations. They manipulated toothpicks to make specific two-dimensional figures; observed chemical reactions with dramatic results; built simulated cells to demonstrate the movement of materials through cell membranes; competed to re-create graphs using motion sensors and computers; and learned to solve equations using visualizations on the Smartboard.
	Derekh Yeruka – The Green Way: Ethical Implications of How We Live On April 1, Rabbi Lawrence Troster, program director of Green Faith, an interfaith environmental activist organization, and parent of two SSDSEU graduates, gave the keynote address during Derekh Yeruka, and shared his personal journey from pulpit rabbi to activist in environmental protection and advocacy. Rabbi Troster presented a film put out by GreenFaith which showed the process through which a New Jersey church greened itself: putting up solar panels, completing a garbage inventory, becoming recyclers, etc. After the keynote address, students moved into small group study sessions to discuss Jewish Perspectives on Sustainability and Repairing the Disconnect from Creation. Each study session was led by community rabbis including Rabbi Akiba Lubow of Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford, Rabbi Aaron Benson of East Brunswick Jewish Center, Rabbi Noach Shapiro of Congregation Shomrei Emunah in Montclair, Rabbi Robert Wolkoff of Congregation B’nai Tikvah in North Brunswick, Rabbi Mark Cooper of Oheb Shalom Congregation in South Orange, Rabbi Avi Friedman of Jewish Community Center of Summit, Rabbi Stanley Asekoff of B’nai Shalom in West Orange, Rabbi John Schechter of B’nai Israel in Basking Ridge, Rabbi Royi Shaffin of Temple Beth Or in Brick, Rabbi Randall Mark of Shomrei Torah in Wayne, Rabbi Troster, Rabbi Paula Drill, and Upper School Principal Nancy Leaderman.
	Internships 2009! Our 19 senior interns are working in the fields of elementary education; special education (here and in Israel); medicine (human and animal); film and TV production; marketing, research, and finance; government; the arts (a museum, a visual arts center, fashion, a violin maker and restorer); and organizations that draw on the students’ connection to Israel (JNF, USY, Friends of the IDF). For written updates about Internship 2009, go to The Senior Year.
	Neshama 17 For Neshama 17 Updates and Pictures, go to Schechter Abroad.