REFLECTIONS FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Baruchim Habaim! Welcome to the 2008-2009 school year! I am overjoyed to be able to welcome the entire Cardin community to our sixth school year. I am going to write a bit of a different column this year. I am starting “text talk,” a column written in conjunction with the students. Each week, I will sit with a different student to learn the parsha/haftorah or whatever the student wishes to learn. We will then write collaboratively about our ideas. I am thrilled that this week, Shira Glushakow-Smith volunteered to learn Shoftim with me.  

TEXT TALK –Shoftim
Shira and I looked at Shoftim and focused on the following areas:

1. How do we understand the idolatrous tree today? Shoftim begins with the establishment of courts and then quickly moves to a verse stating that “you shall not plant for yourself an idolatrous tree near the Alter of Hashem.” Ramban comments that this means that you can’t landscape the Temple grounds as this is what idolaters did to attract worshippers. So, Shira and I wondered if this prohibition holds true today.  Shira brilliantly responded, “Nobody wants to go to a shul that looks like nobody cares about it,” and therefore, we landscape our shuls today.
2. Cities of Refuge – of course, the ideal is for there to be no murders. However, that is never the reality.  So, Shira and I discussed how these cities of refuge might have worked. We had to look back into parshat Masei in Bamidbar in order to get the full picture of the set up and see that the cities have two purposes – both as a punishment (exile) for the accidental murderers and as a safe haven for these same individuals from the “avenger of the blood.” The avenger of the blood was a close relative of the murder victim who had the right and perhaps the obligation to kill the murderer. However, once the murderer entered a designated city of refuge, he was safe from the avenger until he was removed to the court for a hearing. Shira and I have a larger question, which we would love help in answering: If the avenger of the blood succeeds in killing the murderer, do the original murderer’s family now become avengers of the blood?

Shabbat Shalom,
Barbie Prince & Shira Glushakow-Smith ‘11

GOOD & WELFARE
Welcome New Students!
We wish a hardy welcome to all the new students and their families!

Welcome New Faculty and Administrators!
The Cardin Faculty and Administration welcomes six new members –

• Huppit Bartov (Hebrew) – Morah Bartov recently completed a month-long NETA training seminar in Boston and is excited to be teaching full-time here at Cardin. Teaching at Cardin is not the only thrilling change in Morah Bartov’s life as she is getting married in November!
• Anne Tanoff Greenspoon (Admissions and Marketing) – Ms. Greenspoon and her family moved to Baltimore this summer. Her husband, David, will be working at Beth El and their two sons are attending Krieger Schechter Day School. 
• Joel Neft  (Language Arts) – Mr. Neft most recently taught in Baltimore City and will be teaching full-time at Cardin. He will be joining the elite resident educators in Cardin West.
• Hayejin Paik (Music) – Ms. Paik is currently pursuing an advanced degree at the Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University. We are very fortunate that she has made time in her busy academic schedule to work part-time with our students.
• Courtney Sims (Science) – Ms. Sims moved to Baltimore this past winter from Virginia while continuing to teach in Alexandria. This year, Ms. Sims decided that she would rather teach in Baltimore and has quickly settled into the Cardin science lab.
• Kerry Sipe (Mathematics) – Ms. Sipe will be teaching full-time and most recently taught in New York City. While Ms. Sipe is happy to be back in the Baltimore area, the commute from her family’s home in Mount Airy might have her changing her mind pretty quickly! 

JUDAICS.COMMUNICATIONS
As we celebrate the first days of school, I find myself thinking back to our last minyan in June. I asked the students to choose from among the birchot hashachar (the morning blessings), one blessing which characterized their year at Cardin. I was impressed with the honesty of the students and how this ancient prayer seemed so relevant to us today.

One student, who corrected a mistake, chose “who guides us on our path.”

Another student, whose negative attitude changed to a positive one over the course of the year, chose “who gives sight to the blind.”

An 11th grader, tired from long days and long nights of study, picked “who gives strength to the weary.”

A first year faculty member, grateful for all the support from her follow teachers, picked “who guides us on our path.”

Another faculty member, coming to a profound respect for the pluralistic nature of the school, chose “who enables His creatures to distinguish between night and day,” because he could now see more clearly the importance of the different Jewish paths.

A student from Russia who previously knew she was a Jew, but had no Jewish identity, had no trouble choosing the blessing, “who made me a Jew.”

As we usher in the Hebrew month of Elul, and begin a new school year, I choose to recite the sheheheyanu blessing:  “Praised are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, for granting us life, for sustaining us, and for helping us to reach this day.”

God has brought us to these days, the opening days of school, in a land of freedom and in a Jewish community which holds the education of its young people to be of great importance and to be of the highest priority.
 
We thank God for the blessings we have been given.

And we pray that we will use these gifts to our fullest.

I know brachot (blessings) are in store for us this year. I just wait to see what they will be!

Rabbi Stuart Seltzer
Dean of Judaic Studies

BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Eats for the Streets……
On Friday, August 1, an enthusiastic group gathered in the Moadon to pack bag suppers for people in Baltimore city who live on the streets. The project is part of "Eats for the Streets," which was started in Baltimore several years ago and has spread to cities like Boston and San Francisco.  While lunch is available through organizations such as "Our Daily Bread," people living on the streets have few places to turn to at dinner time. We packed 120 bag meals altogether. The next event will be planned for after the holidays and we're hoping for a huge turn-out from the Cardin community.
Bobby Weinstein ‘11

CAPTS Back-to-School BBQ……
Indoors or out, the school BBQ is certainly the highlight of the back-to-school season. An overwhelming crowd filled the auditorium and gym at the Park Heights JCC as Randy Gartner, Adva Goldberg, and CAPTS welcomed families, faculty, and board members to the 2008-2009 school year. Thank you to Adva, who spent the day making sure that everything planned for the Owings Mills venue made a smooth transition to Park Heights!

We’re off to see the Wizard……
This year’s annual theatre production is the classic musical, The Wizard of Oz. Auditions for Cardin students will be held at Cardin on Monday, September 15, from 4:15-6pm and Tuesday, September 16 from 4:15-5:30pm. Call-backs, if necessary, will be the following week. If you wish to audition for a singing role, please prepare a song with simple music. All roles will be announced by Friday, September 26.

Auditions for Non-Cardin students for “choral roles” are currently being scheduled by appointment only on Sunday, September 14 and Sunday, September 21 from 2–5pm.  Please call the school office at 410-585-1400 to schedule an audition time. Choral roles include:

• Munchkins (ages 4-7)
• Poppies / snowflakes (4-6)
• Flying Monkeys (elementary school age)
• Winkies (elementary/middle)
• Ozians (elementary/middle)
• Trees (tall students)
• Crows (elementary)

Priority will be given to non-Cardin students for choral roles as follows:

• Siblings of Cardin students
• Pre-school and kindergarten students from the JCC
• Krieger Schechter Day School & The Day School at Baltimore Hebrew

We are especially in need of Munchkins and Poppies as our own students are too big to qualify!!!!

Admissions
It is a pleasure to be a part of this wonderful Cardin community. I would love for prospective students and families to feel that same sense of welcome that I have received, when they visit our school. The Admissions season has begun (it actually never ended) and we are actively recruiting students for next year. Current Cardin students and families are Cardin’s best ambassadors. It is up to each of you to spread the word about Cardin—to your family, friends, neighbors, and colleagues—wherever you go let them know that your child is a student at Cardin. Cardin offers an extraordinary opportunity for Jewish teens, let’s all get the word out. If you know any prospective students that may not be on our radar-screen, please email me at agreenspoon@shoshanascardin.org or call me with the student’s name, family names, and contact information. I will follow-up with all of your leads.

Save the date for our annual Open House:  Sunday, October 26th from 3-5 pm.

I look forward to getting to know everyone as the year progresses. Stop in and say hello, give me a call, or send me an email.

Best wishes for a wonderful school year.

Anne Tanhoff Greenspoon
Director of Admissions

COLLEGE SCENE
Welcome back to a new school year! Seniors are already working hard on their college applications and essays while juniors are beginning their SAT/ACT prep course. The fall is a busy time, especially with the holidays making our school schedule hectic. Try to stay organized and plan ahead so that you won’t get bogged down as the year progresses. Here are a few things for seniors to keep in mind over the next two weeks:

• September 12 is the deadline to ask for a teacher recommendation.
• Seniors should continue to update their Family Connection account with prospective colleges, active applications, and submit transcript requests via the internet.
• September 19 is the deadline to register for the October 25/26 ACT.
• September 9 is the deadline to register for the October 4/5 SAT.

All families are invited to attend this year’s College Night on September 18 at 7pm. This informational meeting is aimed mostly towards juniors and seniors, but I highly advise all families to attend so that you can familiarize yourself with the college application process early. This year’s keynote speaker will be Aaron Basko, Director of Admissions Services at Franklin & Marshall College.

Finally, I advise all families to take a look at a great website resource at www.theadmissiongame.com. This is a great resource to both parents and students and is full of informative blogs, tips, and links (it is also a wonderful book!). Below are the “Five Tips to Organizing your College Application” as found on The Admission Game website:

1. Get organized – today!  Read the directions on each application. Know what is required of you and when it is required. Enter this information on a planning calendar and display it throughout your house.
2. Give yourself and others time to do a good job. Work back from the application deadlines by at least one week to establish your deadlines for sending in the materials.
3. Keep things simple. Focus your energies on the applications for schools you have researched thoroughly and about which you really care—they fit you best. Time and energy are of essence over the next three months. Invest in the applications for the schools that are truly important to you.
4. Establish a game plan Develop a theme that speaks to who you are and pulls together the sum of your parts. Keep that theme in mind as you prepare the different elements of each application.
5. Stay focused in the classroom. With all of the traditional senior year and college planning activities going on around you it will be easy to lose track of the work you need to be doing in the classroom. Believe it or not, thework you do in your senior year could turn out to be your most important credential. Make it count!

Please contact Hallie Schein, hschein@shoshanascardin.org with any college counseling questions.

COMMUNITY UPDATE
Baltimore Speaker Series
For a limited time, the Cardin community has an opportunity to purchase subscriptions to the 2008-2009 Baltimore Speaker Series at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. Speakers this year include Steve Forbes, Paul Rusesabagina, Garrision Keillor, Bob Woodward, Anna Quindlen, Jane Goodall and David McCullough.  The brochures for the series are available at the school office or at www.baltimorespeakerseries.org.  Please contact Jonathan Brader, jbrader@cambridgespeakers.org for more information.

Save the Date
Dr. Herm Davis, author of several financial aid guidebooks and nationally known authority on this topic, will be speaking about “paying for college” on Tuesday October 7 at The Cardin School beginning at 7pm.

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