January 25, 2017 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

In this parasha, God brings the first seven plagues upon the Egyptians through Moshe and Aharon, but Pharaoh repeatedly refuses to allow the Bnei Yisrael to leave. Twice in this parasha (6:12 and 30) Moshe says, “I am of uncircumcised lips.” In last week’s parasha, Moshe declared (4:10), “…for I am slow of speech and […]

• Parent-Child Learning

January 19, 2017 by Revital Finkel (Faculty and Staff)

Students in Pre-Kindergarten explored the concept of Identity over the course of the first semester. They began by defining identity as “who you really are.” While acknowledging that we are all constantly changing and growing, our study began by having the children look at the things that currently identify or represent them. We augmented our […]

• Parent-Child Learning
• Project Based Learning

January 18, 2017 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

This Shabbat, we begin reading the second of the five books of Moses: that of Shemot (Exodus). This book concentrates on the Jews’ enslavement in and freeing from Egypt and the beginnings of their wanderings in the wilderness, including the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. In this parasha, Bnei Yisrael become slaves to […]

• Parent-Child Learning

January 12, 2017 by Elana Cohen (Faculty and Staff)

The Design Lab has been full of exploration, experimentation and engineering this year! Read on to hear some Design Lab highlights from students on the North Campus: At the beginning of the year, Fourth Grade classes came to the Design Lab to collaborate on designing their “dream teacher.” Students worked with a partner to brainstorm […]

• Design Thinking
• Project Based Learning
• Visual Arts

January 10, 2017 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

The book of Bereshit (Genesis) ends with the deathbed blessings of Yaakov to his sons. At least, they are traditionally referred to as blessings. However, a close look at them reveals otherwise (49:3-7): “Reuven, you are my firstborn… unstable as water, you will not excel because you went up to your father’s bed… Shimon and Levi… cursed […]

• Parent-Child Learning

January 6, 2017 by Hannah Seidel (Faculty and Staff)

On Wednesday, nearly 250 students, parents, staff, alumni and friends came together for an evening of dancing at the 2017 Rokdim B’Yachad (Dancing Together) Dance-a-Thon. Together the JPDS-NC community raised over $3,100 for the Jewish Federation’s Israel Wildfire Emergency Fund. The evening included Israeli dances galore – even the JPDS-NC panda made it out onto […]

• Dance
• Israel
• Multimedia
• Performing Arts
• Tikkun Olam

January 4, 2017 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

In this parasha, Yosef reveals himself to his brothers, prompting the entire family to move to Egypt, where Yosef reunites with his father, Yaakov. The list of the people who went down to Egypt as part of Yaakov’s family mentions only the men by name, with two exceptions: Deena, Yaakov’s daughter by Leah, and Serach, […]

• Parent-Child Learning

December 28, 2016 by Sharon Freundel (Community)

In this parasha, Yosef interprets Pharaoh’s dreams and is appointed to implement Egypt’s anti-famine plan. This brings him into contact with his brothers again, as they come to Egypt to buy food. Yosef’s epithet is “HaTzaddik – the Righteous One.” This is an interesting appellation for a person who lorded his dreams over his brothers, […]

• Parent-Child Learning

December 23, 2016 by Joshua K (’17) (Students) Matan S (’17) (Students)

Sixth Grade students hosted an Odyssey-inspired game fair yesterday. Each Sixth Grader made their own board game or card game based on The Wanderings of Odysseus, the shortened version of The Odyssey that we studied. Once we finished reading the book, we started working on our games. We first needed to decide whether to develop […]

• Project Based Learning
• Student Stories

December 23, 2016 by Ronit Greenstein (Faculty and Staff) Sharon Freundel (Community)

This morning, we explored together the various meanings behind Chanukah and engaged in fun hands-on learning. Following a discussion of the nes nistar, the covert miracle of the Maccabean victory over the massive Greek forces and the nes nigleh, the overt miracle of the one day of oil burning for eight days, we lit the […]

• Holidays