Picking vegetables can be a Mitzvah!!

Donna Klein Jewish Academy goes gleaning this Sunday morning.

Gleaning is a Biblical Mitzvah that is rarely available for us today.  

It is based on a verse in Leviticus :

"When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest" - Va-yikrah 19,9

This Mitzvah is as relevant today as it was in biblical times.

Despite the fact that there is a surplus of food in America there are still people who suffer hunger and rely on soup kitchens for their sustenance.

This is an opportunity to participate in saving fresh vegetables from going bad and making them available for a local soup kitchen.

It is also an opportunity to educate ourselves about the origin of food and spend quality time outdoors picking vegetables with our school community as part of our Mitzvah month.

We will  pick vegetables near Atlantic and Lyons Avenue.

Directions are in the attached document.

Every participant needs to have a signed waiver.

Students who are interested in community service hours,  please bring the form.

For more information about gleaning and the organization who organizes this gleaning event go here

Directions to the field in Delray

Waiver form please print sign and bring with you on sunday morning

Shabbaton

SHABBATON

The best thing about memories is making them. Over the weekend, a group of RHS students, primarily from the senior class, spent their second Shabbaton of the year at Gold Coast Camp in Lake Worth. On the trip, everyone was able to get in touch with not only themselves but, more importantly, one another during meaningful bonding activities. Specifically, the students completed the site's challenge course on Friday afternoon, participated in various partnership minyanim, and were able to relax in the cabins and kayaks over Shabbat. To finish it all off, the group gathered beside the bonfire on Saturday night to reflect on all their new memories. 

- Hannah Wolf 

Dr. Edwin Black

New York Times Reporter and Bestselling Author visits Rosenblatt High School 

On Monday, February 06, 2017, Rosenblatt High School students had the opportunity to hear a lecture from Dr. Edwin Black.  Dr. Black is an award-winning, New York Times bestselling international investigative reporter, with more than a million books in print.  His work focuses on human rights, genocide and hate, corporate criminality and corruption, governmental misconduct, academic fraud, philanthropic abuse, oil addiction, alternative energy and historical investigation.

  

His lecture focused on IBM and the Holocaust, weaving a stunning story of IBM's strategic alliance with Nazi Germany -- beginning in 1933 in the first weeks that Hitler came to power and continuing well into World War II.  As the Third Reich embarked upon its plan of conquest and genocide, IBM and its subsidiaries helped create enabling technologies, step-by-step, from the identification and cataloging programs of the 1930s to the selections of the 1940s.  His lecture took the students through IBM’s carefully crafted corporate collusion with the Third Reich, as well as the structured deniability of oral agreements, undated letters, and the Geneva intermediaries -- all undertaken as the newspapers blazed with accounts of persecution and destruction.




-- 

Rabbi Baruch Plotkin, MJEd. 

Rabbi in Residence, Donna Klein Jewish Academy

Science Happenings

What's Happening in Science

All Science classes are very active with hands on, experiential learning.  In AP Physics, students performed a stress test to determine the breaking force of wooden dowels. The students hung weights from the dowel placed over the edge of a table until the dowel snapped. They repeated the experiment at different distances from the table's edge and demonstrated that the torque required to break the dowel was roughly constant no matter where the weights were hung. They had a blast breaking stuff, even though it was under controlled conditions.  

 In AP Chemistry, students worked on collecting data from a colorimeter

Vernier Colorimeter

in order to determine concentration of a certain dye in sports drink.  Chemistry students are getting their hands on chemical reactions. Chemistry classes conducted their Green Chemistry Reaction Lab, which tied together the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 12 Principles of Green Chemistry and the fundamental chemical reactions students studied. Students were required to select between two procedures, at four different stations. with various lab apparatus. 

Biology students evaluated their pulse rate, rates of respiration and carbon dioxide production as it relates to physical exercise. - Lauren Jordan

Torah Yoga

TORAH - YOGA with Morah Miriam

At Donna Klein we find many ways to connect with

God on a daily basis. One special way is to attend our Torah Yoga class. This class is based on the teachings from the book by the same name, written by Diane Bloomfield.

Torah Yoga is both a unique way of learning Torah (from the Pentateuch and other sacred Jewish texts) and a practical guide that teaches many yoga postures. Students experience Jewish wisdom through classical yoga postures and meditation, discovering that their own bodies are expressions of Torah wisdom. In this life-enhancing practice they also learn to  integrate mind, body, and soul to find their inner self.

 

The Torah teaches: “Greet everyone you meet with a pleasant face.” When you meet your inner self in a yoga posture, you learn to welcome your whole self and others with  kindness.

Torah Yoga is offered every day during Tefillah for students who choose to join and explore who they are.

Four Great Learning Experiences in a Single Day

Four Great Learning Experiences in a Single Day

JNF Winter Connection Brunch

Rosenblatt High School students joined with students from Katz Yeshiva High School to serve as volunteer  ambassadors at the JNF Winter Connection Brunch.

This program was attended by 1000 people as our students helped to raise awareness and support for JNF.

As an added bonus, students heard Ambassador Danny Ayalon speak and then, in a private lunch meeting just for students, had the opportunity to listen to the Ambassador and ask him questions about Israel and its relationship with the United States

Mock Trial Competition

On February 3, 2017, the DKJA team participated in the Palm Beach County Mock Trial Competition at the 15^th Judicial Courthouse, which was founded by the Florida Law Related Education Association.DKJA students role played attorneys and witnesses in a fictional criminal trial. Students competed against other school teams located in our county. This was a wonderful opportunity for the students to learn about justice, the court system, and its process. Our team is in the final three of this academic competition and the winner will be announced in one month. I am very proud of Abe Wasserstein, Naomi Fills, Ari Holzhauer, Hadassah Richman, Alex Starr, Rebecca Wirtschafter, Aaron Fills, Sam Bernstein, Megan Sharp, Moshe Gad, who did a wonderful job representing our school.

In addition, the students also had an opportunity to tour the court house and meet with court personnel. Chief Judge Jeffrey Colbath and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Coordinator Walter Colbath of Palm Beach County privately met and spoke with the students regarding their responsibilities and the role they play in our legal system.

I also wanted to thank parents Greggory Starr, Hava Holzhauer, Miriam Klein, Deena Sturm and Judge Levenson who volunteered their time and legal acumen to the team during the Mock Trial Minimester.

Caryn Siperstein Klein, Esq.

Director of the Legal Studies Program

Boca Museum of Art

On February 2, 2017 a group of Rosenblatt High School students attended the Boca Raton Museum of Art to learn about landscapes. The day started with a drawing lesson where we learned about one point and two point perspective followed by an art activity where students created their own landscapes. 

We then had a docent led tour through the museum to observe landscape paintings that are in the museum's permanent collection as well as other interesting works of art. 

After having lunch in the lovely sculpture garden, we toured Glasstress, an exhibition that features 25-30 glass installations created by contemporary artists from around the world. We all had a great time and  returned feeling inspired and ready to create more art!

Anita Schwartz

This is Hunger

The 10th grade students had a unique opportunity to visit The Hunger on Wheels exhibit that came to our campus today. It was created by the LA-based Jewish organization,  Mazon, -Jewish Response to Hunger. ​

They had a first-hand experience of trying to purchase a healthy meal on $1.40, which is the amount of money available to people on food stamps.

We heard surprising statistics about the prevalence of hunger in America and the diverse personal circumstances that lead people to go hungry.

The exhibit uses Cutting Edge technology (see the picture below of the virtual person at the table)  in bringing to life the personal stories of fellow Americans who are struggling to feed themselves and their family in a way that supports their health and is affordable.

We learned about to the significance of the federal food stamps program and were encouraged to advocate for the preservation of this program. Students were also encouraged to get involved in local action to provide food for people in need in Palm Beach County.

Anyone interested in getting involved with vegetable gleaning in our area that goes to food bank and soup kitchens in our County are welcome to visit this website.

Mr. Carmi

Performance of Ancient Greek Play

9th Graders Re-Enact Oedipus Rex

Ms. Restivo’s Honors Freshmen English class got a taste of what it was like to perform 

in an Ancient Greek play during their study of Sophocles’ famous tragedy, Oedipus Rex.  Taking advantage of the beautiful outside prayer space, The Labyrinth, the class recreated scenes from the play, in an environment similar to the Greek amphitheaters.  

9th graders Ben Zeuner, Danielle Chaham, Rennie Alvarez-Smith, and Shaina Goodis 

got to flex their acting muscles and give their best dramatic readings of the challenging 

and compelling material. Next on the 9th grade honors reading list is the post-apocalyptic novel, Lord of the Flies.