REFLECTIONS FROM THE HEAD OF SCHOOL

Text Talk - Lech Lecha
It was a privilege for me to learn about Parshat Lech Lecha with Allison Waskow, ’10, this week.  Allie and I go way back – all the way to the beginning of “our” freshman year at Cardin!   This week, we read about the trials of Abram and Sarai when, at the respective ages of 75 and 65, G-d commands them to move to the land of Canaan.  Shortly after settling into their new land, there was a famine and Abram brought his household to Egypt, where the famine was not so severe.  At this part of the narration, Abram tells Sarai, “So now, I have known that you are a woman of beautiful appearance.  And it shall occur, when the Egyptians will see you, they will say – this is his wife! – and they will kill me, but you they will let live.  Please say that you are my sister, that it may go well with me for your sake, and that I may live on account of you.” (pasukim 11 – 13)  What?  Allie can’t believe it – Abram wants to lie and wants Sarai to back him up!  How can this liar be the founder of the Jewish people – the Patriarch Avraham avinu? Needless to say, we had found the section of the parsha to discuss!

It is explained in Midrash Hagadol that a man often refers to his relative as his sister and we know from perek 11, pasuk 29 that Sarai is not only Abram’s wife but his niece as well. Allie and I thought that was stretching it a bit so we looked further into why Abram would lie. Knowing the propensity of the Egyptians to be immoral, Abram decided to tell them that Sarai was his sister so that they would not kill him in order to “get” her.  Now, as her brother, in Abram’s mind, the Egyptians would give him gifts, consistent with the customs of the day, in order to gain the right to win his sister’s hand.  Allie didn’t buy that, either.  Abram clearly says that he is lying to save his own life – isn’t that pretty selfish?  We read a bit further and saw that Pharaoh, thinking that Sarai was Abram’s sister, tried to add her to his collection of wives or concubines, so G-d made Pharaoh and his entire household ill with a disease to prevent Pharaoh from consummating a relationship with Sarai. 

So, was Abram justified in lying? Nachmanides condemns Abram’s lie, but Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch wrote that Abram was justified.

What do you think?

Shabbat Shalom,
Barbie Prince

GOOD & WELFARE
The Cardin School hosted two very successful open houses so far this year.  In early September, 25% of the Krieger Schechter 8th grade families joined us for an open house evening geared specifically toward them.  On Sunday, October 26th prospective students from independent, Jewish and public middle schools, along with their families, attended our traditional open house.  Faculty, parents, alumni and current students were on hand to inform families about our multifaceted Cardin education.  We are encouraged by the positive feedback from prospective families.  Fourteen prospective students have shadowed in the past several weeks. Daily, new prospective families call looking to set a shadow date. Thank you to everyone who helped at the open house programs, and, thank you for helping to get the word out!

JUDAICS.COMMUNICATIONS
Tribute to Bernie and Irene Siegel Delivered by Rabbi Stuart Seltzer At Cardin’s Torah Completion and Dedication Ceremony
It wasn’t long ago that Bernie and Irene Siegel approached Shoshana Cardin and said, “Because you have been such a special friend and leader, we would like to make a significant gift, in the name of our loving parents, Dora and Joseph Siegel and Etta and David Fishman, to the new high school.” This is why we are all here today, to dedicate the Siegel’s generous gift:  The Shoshana S. Cardin High School’s first Torah Scroll.

Bernie and Irene are connected to the mission of Cardin in many personal and profound ways. First of all, they have always been groundbreakers, literally and figuratively. Irene was President of the Chizuk Amuno P.T.A. when they initiated the groundbreaking and building of the new Religious School.  In her acceptance speech as President, Irene said, “I hope to bring the PTA to a new era – down to Earth.  By that I mean, breaking ground for our new school building.  Together, parents and teachers, we shall be the builders – we shall build the future of our children by emphasizing the “E” in their lives – Education!” 
Irene and Bernie live a life guided by Torah, so it is very appropriate, that they, with their generous gift, guide us to our very first Torah. Torah means “instruction.”  One of the ways that the Siegels manifest their Torah-guided life is to serve the mission of Jewish education. They have provided money and support for scholarships to send students to Israel and to Camp Ramah.  According to the Siegels, solidarity with Israel is a 365 day commitment. They have served on many boards and worked tirelessly to improve Jewish life and education in our community.

Sharing with Cardin, a vision of pluralism, they have been strong supporters of Hadassah, the Masoriti movement in Israel, and Yemin Orde which respects the dignity of its individual students by preserving their distinctive ethnic and religious backgrounds. Sharing with Cardin, the importance of Hebrew, they encourage everyone to learn the language.

Bernie and Irene, your gift is so generous and profound, we can’t thank you enough, but let us give you some things by which to remember this moment.  First, here is a photo album which we will fill with pictures from today’s beautiful ceremony. And to express our gratitude for your efforts in breaking new ground in the Jewish community, please accept this shovel, to symbolize the ground that will be broken for our new school building, and its ark, which will house this beautiful Torah. 

Cardin Welcomes Guest-Musician-In-Residence: Tom Meltzer
This past Wednesday, Tom Meltzer, professional musician, writer, and educator met with students and faculty to share his love of songwriting.  As our featured speaker in our Wednesday morning speaker series, Tom discussed the songwriting process and the challenges of writing to a specific subject, in this case the Book of Jonah. He played and reviewed popular songs that mention Jonah, discussed themes within the book that lend themselves well to song, and finally presented a number of songs about the book of Jonah written especially for this presentation.  During the day he led songwriting workshop that provided the students with an opportunity to compose a song based on Jonah's entreaty to G-d from within the belly of the big fish (Jonah 2:3-2:10).  He also met with interested students during lunch to discuss music as a career and as a hobby.  Since 2006, Tom has created the semi-monthly podcast, The Princeton Review Vocabulary Minute, a Schoolhouse Rock-like production that teaches vocabulary. These songs provide mnemonics for learning vocabulary words frequently tested on standardized examinations. Our 9th and 10th grade students attended a special performance featuring these songs. Hopefully, they picked up a few new strategies to increase their vocabulary.

Lincoln Center Update
On Wednesday, September 12th, Heidi Miller, our consultant from Lincoln Center Institute for the Arts in Education made her first of many trips to Baltimore to inaugurate our partnership program with LCI.  That night she met with school parents to discuss the program and how it will pave the way for arts education in our school.  The next day she visited classes and with faculty and was impressed by the spirit of inquiry and openness in our classrooms. She told the faculty, “that the Cardin school seemed like an excellent match for the programs of LCI.” In the afternoon, she met with the Cardin faculty who will be working on the first project centering on a performance by the Alexandria Kleztet. She led us in a brainstorming session where we experienced and responded to a recording of the music. We wrote down key ideas which she will bring back to New York to aid the teaching artists who will be visiting our school in December to create questions of inquiry. In addition, we met with Seth Kibel, the leader of the Alexandria Kleztet, who gave us an introductory lecture in Klezmer music.  According to LCI, “engagement with the arts is how we build imagination. Educational establishments whose responsibility it is to prepare the next generation of world citizens must provide an entirely new level of learning that has at its core three words:  Imagination, creativity, and innovation – essential skills no teaching organization can afford to ignore.”

We are all looking forward to the first week in December when Patrick McKearn, our LCI teaching artist will come to Cardin to work with our students and faculty. Patrick has been playing and teaching piano in New York since 1984.  Prior to that, he attended the University of Illinois where he studied composition with Salvatore Martiram, Herbert Brun, and Thomas Frederickson.  At the University of Illinois, he taught numerous workshops and summer jazz camps.  He also accompanied jazz and modern dance classes and composed music for various dance and theater performances.  In New York, Patrick performed with numerous groups at the Knitting Factory, Fez and the Village Gate, Tonic, and St. Peters Church. Most recently, he recorded his song settings of the poems of Robert Creeley, and composed music for Darshan Baghat’s Karma Local, a feature-length film which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival.  In the last year, he has produced the CD, Throw Out the Lifeline and is working on a new CD with the Teri Roiger Quartet.  LCI’s consultancy program is customized to Cardin’s needs and goals and we are grateful for the support of the Herbert Bearman Foundation, Inc. for making this partnership possible.

Rabbi Stuart Seltzer
Dean of Judaic Studies

CLASSES IN ACTION
Physics
Remember Fruminville, the village developed last year by the Spanish II class?  At Cardin, we are always looking for creative ways to recycle and this year’s honors physics class studied projectiles using Fruminville as their target! 
Mr. Whitfield

Studio Art
In Studio Art, students are working on two general projects simultaneously: visual/verbal sketchbooks, and in-class drawings from life.  Recent life drawings consisted of pencil drawings of teachers Mr. Whitfield and Ms. Villet. Our current life drawing project is a series of self portraits using one light color pastel on dark paper.  Dramatic light/dark or “chiarascuro” lighting is best for this type of work, and students have drawn outside in beautiful sunlight on two occasions.  With each successive drawing, students have been able to see – and therefore draw - what’s before them (i.e. themselves in the mirror) more deeply and with greater accuracy.  
Ms. Wittner 

Forensics
Students are engaging in fiber analysis in Forensics, another “who done it” lab.  Here students are checking fibers for burn patterns and burn behaviors. 
Ms. Kemery & Mr. Whitfield

BEYOND THE CLASSROOM
Get Out the Vote
For the last several weeks, Cardin students have been participating in an Election Simulation. For the simulation, students were divided into six teams and were required to answer a number of questions regarding election trivia. In addition, they filled out maps of the United States with state names, number of electoral votes, and their predictions for the electoral breakdown. Students also filled out a map of Cardin according to how they thought the students and teachers would vote. Cardin was divided into an electoral college based on H Block classes and teachers’ departments. The simulation culminated with Cardin students and teachers voting for president on Tuesday afternoon. The electorate contained 66 votes, and 34 were necessary for victory.  The winner was Barack Obama with 58 electoral votes to McCain’s 8 electoral votes. 

Cardin Races For The Cure
Parents, students, faculty and alumni came together with thousands of others on Sunday, October 19th to run or walk to raise money for The Susan G. Komen Foundation.  The weather was perfect and everyone had a great time participating in this worthwhile activity.  Thanks to everyone who came out and who donated to support breast cancer research.
Beth Zaleon

Message From Coach Minton
What a great start to the athletic year!!

Our cross country team completed another season having all runners improve their course best time in the Chesapeake Athletic Conference (CAC) Championship Meet under the incomparable guidance of Coaches Whitfield and Waskow.

Our boys’ soccer also performed at a higher level this year. Throughout the season, each member showed development as an individual sportsman and as a member of an effective team.  The boys showed a lot of heart going up against conference rivals as the underdog and putting forth enormous efforts.  We say farewell to the one senior, Sam Auerbach, who was the cornerstone of the team. Thank you Sam, for representing Cardin in such a special way with your hard work, dedication and leadership on and off the field. 

The girls’ soccer team had the best year in Cardin history.  Putting together a record number of wins, team goals scored, individual goals scored, and shutouts, the girls’ team excelled, once again winning the CAC Team Sportsmanship award. 

Lastly, thanks to all of our fall sports coaches – Dean Whitfield, Larry Waskow, Drew Walker, Dovin Adekanmbi, AJ Weiss and Michael Jaskulsky – for leading our teams in the right directions and being positive role models in the students’ lives. 

To all of the parents, faculty and Cardin fans, thank you for your support and dedication to our program.  I look forward to seeing you during the winter and spring seasons!

Foye C. Minton, Jr.
Dean of Students & Director of Athletics

COLLEGE SCENE
5th Annual JCC College Fair
Sunday, November 9, 2008 at the Owings Mills JCC
Free Workshops from 11 to 1
College reps and vendors from 1 to 3
This is a huge event for 11th and 12th graders but all students and families are invited.

MASA Israel Gap Year Fair at Cardin
Cardin will host an exciting college fair featuring Israel gap year programs on Wednesday, November 12 from 7-9pm in Cardin West.  The fair will include a talk on what Israel gap year programs have to offer as well as a chance to meet representatives from several programs such as Young Judaea, Nativ, and Hebrew University.  This event is open to all grades and to the public.  This program is graciously sponsored by the MASA organization.  For more information about MASA and long term Israel programs, please visit www.MasaIsrael.org.

Save the Date
Cardin 11th graders will have the chance to take a practice full SAT and ACT that will be scored by The Princeton Review.  The practice SAT will be on Sunday, February 8 from 1-4pm and the practice ACT will be on Sunday, February 15 from 1-4pm.  These tests will be free to students. More information will be sent home in January.

JEREMY’S JOURNAL
The Student Government continues to be hard at work as the year progresses.  Our next fundraiser is a silent auction!  We are the grateful recipients of 4 Ravens tickets (thank you Winner family!) for the December 28th game vs. the Jacksonville Jaguars.  The tickets are located in section 153, row 39 and have a face value of $110 each.  The following are details on how the auction will work:

1. Each bid is for one pair (2 tickets) of tickets. The top bidder will also receive a parking pass.
2. The bidding opens at 8:00am on December 8 and will close at noon on December 15. No bids accepted on Shabbat.    
3. Bidding is by email only to afink@shoshanascardin.org.  Daily emails will be sent to all bidders with the highest price of the day.  The last email will be sent to bidders by 8 am on December 15.
4. The starting price is $100 for two tickets. 
5. The top bidder will have the opportunity to purchase the second pair at the same price as the highest bid.  If refused, the second highest bidder will be awarded the second pair.

SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Champs Sports Scholarship Challenge
What is your inspiration?  Inspire Champs Sports and win one of 15 college scholarships.  For information and official rules, visit champssportslounge.com.

COMMUNITY UPDATE
You are invited to attend a free program featuring the renowned Dr. Edward Hallowell at Beth El Congregation on Thursday, November 13th at 8:00 p.m.  This program is a live satellite broadcast from the 92nd Street Y in New York City, and underwritten by the generosity of members of the Beth El Congregation. As a broadcast host site, we will be able to submit questions from our audience to Dr. Hallowell via e-mail.  It is open to the entire Baltimore community as a service of our congregation. 

Dr. Hallowell is likely best known for his groundbreaking work with ADD/ADHD among children and adolescents.  This particular program offers his insights on a much more general topic, "Too Busy To Play?  Why Children Need to Play In Order To Learn."  For more information, please see attached flyer.

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