Dear SHA Community,

It’s great to be back at school!

The week began by welcoming our students to school. By the end of the week, everyone was settling into routines. On Tuesday, we welcomed our new parents onto campus for a Coffee Social and on Thursday, our K-8 parents visited campus for Back to School Night. Please read below about some of the goings-on this week at SHA.

Mazal Tov to Zelik Clayman and his family on the occasion of his Bar Mitzvah!

Dear SHA Community,

Today is the last day of classes for School Year 2022-23/5783!

Visit from YU President Rabbi Ari Berman and Dean Rabbi Ari Rockoff!
End-of-Year Presentation in Fourth Grade Navi!
All School Talent Show!
End-of-Year Celebrations of Learning in the Eagles, Kindergarten and Fifth Grade!

This week was the culmination of an incredible year!!

Dear SHA Community,

Congratulations to our Eighth Grade Class! We recognized the students’ accomplishments last night at the Graduation Program which was held at SHA in front of over 200 people. Highlights of the evening included: presentations from each student, Athletic Director Jed Davis’ presentation reflecting on over 20 years of coaching girls basketball at SHA and NYHS and the Yearbook Dedication to Morah Katie Regala (K) and Ms. Jamie Kahana (MS). Mazal Tov to each of the graduates and their families. Thank you to Mrs. Kerri Stern, Susan Matalon, Mrs. Sara Weiss and the SHA maintenance department for all of their work to prepare this wonderful program. Please look at pictures below to get a better sense of last night’s festivities.

Dear SHA Community,

Our Eighth Grade class returned to Seattle yesterday from our 10-day experience in Israel.
Emulating Avraham, our patriarch, we saw the length and breadth of the land - from the Golan to the Negev and from Yerushalayim to Tel Aviv. The trip was remarkable! I will resume writing a Torah thought for the newsletter next Shabbat.

I wish you a Chag Shavuot Sameach and Moadim LeSimha!

Yours truly,
Rabbi Benjy Owen

Dear SHA Community,

I am writing from Jerusalem - Yerushalayim ir hakodesh. I am chaperoning the Eighth Grade Israel Trip together with MS Dean of Students Mrs. Sara Weiss and we will be in our people’s capital for Shabbat.

Dear SHA Community,

Between Lag BaOmer on Tuesday, Grandparents and Grandfriends Day this morning, and Teacher Appreciation Week, this week at Seattle Hebrew Academy was huge!

We celebrated Lag BaOmer earlier in the week at Aubrey Davis Park on Mercer Island together with other local Jewish Day Schools. This program was the first of its kind in Seattle and the day was incredible! Thank you to Mrs. Chaya Elishevitz, MMSC Head of School, for her leadership in creating this program and to the Samis Foundation for its support of the program.

Dear SHA Community,

Every year, these days after Pesach are so busy! Each week has a commemoration, special day or celebratory occasion. In recent weeks, we marked Yom HaShoah, Yom HaZikaron and Yom HaAtzmaut. This coming week will be Lag B’Omer - a special day that we will celebrate with a Field Day together with the other Jewish schools in the Seattle area. Later this month, we will commemorate Yom Yerushalayim - Jerusalem Day. Furthermore, we now have the end of school in view. We realize that there are only a precious handful of days left of this school year.

Dear SHA Community,

At each Passover seder, we say: In every generation, each one is obligated to see himself as if he, personally, left Egypt (bechol dor vador chayav adam lir’ot et atzmo k’ilu yatzanu mimitzrayim)

We fulfill this obligation by retelling the engaging story of the Exodus and by introducing changes to the normal practice in order to elicit questions from the children. We lean and we drink wine in the way of free people. We spontaneously praise G-d.

Dear SHA Community,

This week, we commemorated shavua ma'asim tovim - Good Deeds Week. Teachers and students prepared and distributed notes of appreciation to colleagues and friends. Our Kindergarten visited Kline Galland Home and played music for the residents. One thoughtful young student won last week’s Hershey Kiss bonanza at the STEM Fair and, without any prompting, shared his winnings with his classmates and teachers.

In honor of Good Deeds Week, I will share a Torah thought about righteousness:

Dear SHA Community,

With Purim in the rearview mirror, we now look forward to Pesach! Today our eighth grade students visited the United States Federal Courthouse and had a wonderful time.

This week will be our Annual SHA STEM Fair in which our students engage guests in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math activities and in which the Middle School students present the STEM projects that they have been creating over the past weeks.