This week, I was filled with gratitude for our community. As the government shutdown continued, many of you shared concerns about how our school might support those around us – in our own midst, in our neighborhood and beyond it – whose SNAP benefits are expected to run out. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is a federal program that provides monthly benefits to low-income households to help them buy food. If the shutdown continues, SNAP benefits for Novemb

This week, I am honored to share an article I wrote for the Distinctions Journal published by JIMENA (Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa). For those of you who may not be familiar with the organization, I am also delighted to acquaint you with JIMENA, which I wish had been in existence when I was growing up in the Orthodox Jewish community in Los Angeles as a child of a Tunisian mother and an Iraqi father. Here's how Jimena describes its mission: "We remain d

Hoshana Rabba is a holiday within a holiday that falls on the sixth day of Sukkot. On Hoshana Rabba we pray for rain throughout a very, very, very long service—like three hours long. Every year during winter, when we draft the calendar for the following fall, our calendar team debates whether to have school on Hoshana Rabba, which is also Erev Shemini Atzeret and would therefore only be a half day of school. Most Jewish day schools are closed on this day for the many aforemen

Moadim L’Simcha! This greeting, meaning “Joyous Festivals!” only comes out twice during the Jewish calendar year- on the middle days of Pesach and Sukkot. The traditional response to this festive greeting is " Chagim u'zmanim l'sasson, " which means "Joyous holidays and seasons!" Here’s a fun video to illustrate the usage, featuring our students getting off the ferry at Governor’s Island yesterday . The Torah famously commands us in the book of Devarim to "rejoice in our hol