What it's all about!

I know, another message. No messages for weeks, and now they can't stop. But I wanted to share this with everyone, it's from our Head of School:

I wanted to share some highlights from my *last hour* here at Kadima with you. It can be easy to get caught up in the "numbers and business" of Kadima, but here's one great reason to continue to do "what we do".

At 9:15am, I heard the voices of students singing "Hallelujah" all the way in my office, from the Beit Knesset. At 9:00am each thursday, the 2nd-5th grades join together for a schacharit service. So, I stopped doing the "business" of the school, and went to investigate. And, what did I find....a group of more than sixty students, and their teachers singing and "davening" vibrantly, spiritedly, and with a joy and love of both what they were doing, and their surroundings that you could touch. Rabbi Bluman and Justin Stein (music leader) did a commendable job of moving the service at a great pace, and explaining each of the tefillot with short "kavvanot". Toward the end of the tefillah, the entire group did the AMIDAH using the "weekday nusach". This is exactly as it should be in a Solomon Schechter School, where we distinguish between weekday (chol) and Shabbat tunes. We need to teach them both. Really, I was quite moved by the experience. It helped to remember WHY we struggle with the business of the school until 10:30pm. Hopefully, you can feel it too..

Then, 25 minutes later, I was blessed to join the 1st grade class at their "50s day celebration" (honoring the 50th day of school). The students are all dressed in jeans, t shirts, jackets, poodle skirts, slicked back hair etc...and they danced and swayed and had a great time celebrating the 50s, all topped off by ice cream floats (yes, I know, weird before nutritious and delicious lunch), but a joy for all.

It strikes me, our school is charged with the task of balancing a meaningful Jewish education, with a rigorous program of general studies (language arts, math, science, social studies)* and * to create an environment where our students learn to be great citizens.

It is a quite a task, but KADIMA IS UP FOR IT!

Well said.