The Shoshana S. Cardin Awards Ceremony took place on Tuesday, June 8th. Many students were recognized for their accomplishments and achievements over the course of this school year. Below are a selection of pictures from the ceremony.
Mazal Tov!!
Kehillat Kodesh- Community of Sacredness
Adin Reisner, presented by Rabbi Yaakov Chaitovsky
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Kehillat Kodesh- Community of Sacredness
Zevi Lowenberg, presented by Rabbi Yaakov Chaitovsky
Chesed- Service & Action
Bobby Weinstein, presented by Ms. Jacqueline Villet
Female Athlete of the Year
Mollye Lipton, presented by Coach Foye Minton
Keter Shem Tov- Crown of a Good Name
Kayla Reisman and Mollye Lipton, presented by Mrs. Barbie Prince
For some family fun while you wait for your food I offer the following demonstration:
Set the Stage:
1. Place an ice cube from your drink on the table.
2. Offer the following challenge to your loved ones: “Can you pick up this ice cube with only this string (cotton works best)?”
3. Watch with glee as they struggle.
The Solution:
1. Soak the string in your water glass.
2. Lay the wet string across the top of the ice cube.
3. Poor salt liberally over the top of the ice cube covering the string completely.
4. Wait 20-30 seconds.
5. Lift the ice cube by pulling up on both ends of the string.
6. Be sure to ask the following question: “What’s happening here?”
The Learning:
Salt and many other compounds have the ability to lower the freezing point of water. This is called Freezing Point Depression. We add salt to road ways, anti freeze to cars, and rock salt to ice cream makers all to lower the freezing point of water. The water in the string actually freezes to the ice cube because you have lowered the temperature of the now salty, water slush, on the top of the cube.
With just a few days remaining before the end of the year the Latin III class at Cardin elected to get a taste of ancient Epic poetry, as a prelude to next year’s study of Vergil’s Aeneid. The students, with a little coaxing from their teacher, decided to go with two selections from Ovid’s Metamorphoses: the stories of Pygmalion and Daedalus. We began with the tale of Pygmalion, the mythical sculptor who falls in love with his own creation, later brought to life by the goddess Venus after the artist's many prayers. This story holds particular interest to this class since it was the inspiration for George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion and thus the Lerner and Lowe musical My Fair Lady, this year’s theatrical performance. With little time to focus on the intricacies of style and language, we are looking at the broader theme of an artist relationship to his work and the way in which a poet can reflect on the process of writing while telling such a story. In other words we are taking a metapoetic look at Ovid’s Pygmalion. The students recognize the worry with which Pygmalion retouches his statue, fearing that a “bruise/blemish” might appear similar to the results a writer might experience from over editing. They appreciate Pygmalion’s dressing and decorating of the statue, as one might embellish a piece of writing, while he also sees that his work is no less beautiful bare, exemplary of the concise and straight forward narrative. In the end the creation, whether it be a sculpture, painting, essay, or poem, is no less alive to the artist, than Pygmalion’s statue come to life. It is something that its creator must accept and cherish, regardless of any perceived flaws, as representation and part of him/herself. And just as Pygmalion spends the rest of his days with his statue turned wife, so to an artist must live with his work.
The word development is a noun. In checking out the thesaurus, I was not at all surprised to find that synonyms include evolution, making progress, boost, buildup, spreading, maturing and growth. During this academic year, the development office at Cardin has indeed taken steps forward. Our initial goal was, in fact to boost and build up the image of the school. In conjunction with our marketing professionals, we have moved in that direction. Joining the Pikesville Chamber of Commerce certainly enhanced our visibility and engagement in the community. The Cardin school is clearly evolving. Advancing from the early disappointment at the loss of the Rosewood property to the wonderful news that we will build a permanent home at Oheb Shalom was indeed an example of progression and growth.
In many institutions the development office is called the office of advancement. Advance is defined as “steady progress”. What a perfect description of our school! In the past seven years, Cardin has grown, improved and gained in stature, all synonyms for advancing. Advancement suggests progression that is bigger, more or beyond expectations. At this juncture in our history, The Shoshana S. Cardin School is on the cusp of moving beyond our greatest dreams and expectations.
Clearly, the goals of this office include procurement of funds and to that end our Annual Fund Drive for the Shoshana S. Cardin School continues to solicit gifts to boost our general operating budget. We have been diligent about building a culture of philanthropy.
It has been a defining year at Cardin. As we move into the summer and construction plans begin to develop, we are proud of our advancement and look forward to continued positive forward movement. Let all of us who are committed to the distinctive mission of this school, continue to spread the word about our unique identity.
~Marjorie R. Hoffman
Director of Development and Marketing
Adina Shanholtz, Deena Lucas and Morah Zohara Chaban.
The Cardin Israeli Dance group recently performed at the end of the Amazing UnRace program sponsored by the CJE. In a thank you letter to Cardin, Amien Frost Kelemer from the CJE writes:
“Dear Cardin students.
Thank you so much for the special touch you added at the finish line of the Amazing UnRace. It was great to see you all decked out in your purple t-shirts inspiring others to dance and creating an “Israeli Avirah”!
You worked really well together as a troop... It was clear that each of you has special talents that I hope you will treasure and use often throughout your life! The treasures are not only the skill of dance, but the appreciation for a unique Israeli experience as well as the poise, self-confidence and leadership each of you exhibited.
Thank you for your efforts to get to the JCC on a Sunday and hope you enjoyed it as well."
It used to be that Shavuot, which we will celebrate on May 19-20, was the Rodney Dangerfield of Jewish holy days…it got no respect! That always bothered me because when you really think about it, Shavuot is IT! It’s the holiday of holidays marking the event of events – the revelation of God and the giving and receiving of Torah at Mt.Sinai. In essence, Shavuot is the most important of all our chagim and it is one deserving of our utmost respect.
Fortunately, Shavuot is getting more respect lately. Each year, it seems that more and more Jews across and beyond Judaism’s denominational spectrum celebrate the chag with tefillah/worship, family (dairy) meals and Torah study, often in the form of an all night Torah-thon called Tikkun Lel Shavuot. For those who participate, staying up into the wee hours to study Torah says that Torah is meaningful and indicates a desire and an openness/readiness to receive the Torah once again. One popular legend has it that the Israelites overslept on the morning that the Torah was to be given and that our staying up all night is a corrective to that original mishap.
Still, there is a way to go. Shavuot is not as popular as the other two Biblical pilgrimage and harvest festivals, Pesach and Sukkot, nor does it have the appeal of a Chanukah or Purim. Something is missing.
Perhaps seeing Shavuot in relation to the holiday which precedes it on the calendar may help. There is no escaping the connection between Shavuot and Pesach. The Torah has us actually count the days between the two holidays. It may not seem like the most significant ritual but it is both significant – and fundamental.
The Exodus is great story. It tells of how a crushed and afflicted group of slaves could triumph over tyranny and oppression. It elevated human dignity and freedom into ultimate values cherished by all who would consider themselves civilized. We then count the omer, because the freedom story, at least for us, does not end there. It culminates seven weeks later, on Shavuot, when we stood at Sinai in covenant with God.
Shavuot transforms the Exodus from a great story into OUR story.
Allow me to quote these words from Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the British Commonwealth, and one of our time’s most erudite and eloquent spokesmen. In discussing the relationship between Pesach and Shavuot, he writes,
Freedom...is not just the overthrow of a regime, the end of a period of persecution. It is the long slow process of building a society that respects the human person, built on the foundations of law and righteousness, justice and compassion. No people, no faith, have had a more exalted vision of law as the architecture of freedom - law as the word of God, the defence of liberty, and the guarantor of the equal dignity of rich and poor, strong and weak. Without law and the ethics it embodies, freedom becomes the possession of the few, not the many, the manipulative but not the vulnerable.
That was the towering insight of the Torah. It was as if God had said, "By bringing you out of Egypt, I have given you the possibility of freedom, but now you must make it a reality. I cannot do it for you, but I can show you how it is to be done. Here are My laws, My statutes and commands. Live by them and you will create a great society. Abandon them and you will become like every other nation in history. You have only one thing that makes you different - My Torah, your constitution as a people."
This is the deeper significance of Shavuot. The message of Shavuot is the essence of Judaism. This is indeed a holiday that deserves our utmost respect.
