Dear SHA Community,

We will celebrate Purim this coming Monday night and Tuesday, be’ezrat Hashem, and we have been preparing for the holiday over the past days and weeks.

Our annual SHAlach Manot Campaign concluded this week. Thank you to our amazing parent volunteers for helping to pack and deliver over 600 SHAlach Manot Packages! Thank you to Benjamina Menashe and Peta Mehlman for coordinating this great program.

On Sunday night, I led a class for parents about Megilat Esther in the North End community at the home of Lesley and Mike Weichbrodt. Thank you to all who helped make this program a success!

Dear SHA Community,

Mishenichnas Adar, marbim besimcha - when Adar arrives, we increase our joy.

Rosh Chodesh Adar occurred this past Tuesday and Wednesday, we are now in the month of Purim! We are looking forward to dress up days and our annual Purim Carnival next week. There is much to look forward to!

SHA wishes mazal tov to Zahava Azous and the Azous Family on the occasion of her Bat Mitzvah.

Dear SHA Community,

An extended thought on Perashat Mishpatim for this short week of school:

Source in the Verses
Parashat Mishpatim emphasizes the importance of maintaining a judicial system rooted in integrity. The Torah records four necessary qualities of a judge: accomplished, G-d-fearing, committed to truth and money-despising.

Dear SHA Community,

This has been an incredible week at Seattle Hebrew Academy!

We returned to school on Monday still excited about last week’s inspiring Family Shabbat Dinner. What an event! Thank you to Sharon Mezistrano and her committee, and to Chef Dalia Amon and her team for all of their work in arranging this great program.

Dear SHA Community,

Before sharing some words of Torah below, I will share a few timely announcements.

SHA Family Shabbat Dinner
Tonight, Leil Shabbat, we will be hosting the SHA Family Shabbat Dinner at Congregation Ezra Bessaroth. The program is totally sold out (the room is full!) and I look forward to welcoming all of the families this evening. If you did not make reservations, we will miss you!

Dear SHA Community,

Before sharing some words of Torah on this week’s perasha, I want to recognize two huge events coming up next week.

ISLANDWOOD! Our Fifth Graders will be traveling to Islandwood Environmental Education Center on Bainbridge Island this coming Monday through Thursday. Our students will be accompanied by Ms. Julia Guard, Ms. Kim Hardman, Shinshinit Daniella Barnett, and Fifth Grade Parent Eitan Basseri. Ms. Kerri Stern, Morah Sara Weiss, Morah Tali Rothstein and I will also attend parts of the program.

Dear SHA Community,

The week began with the biennial Prizmah Conference. One thousand Jewish Day School professionals and lay leaders from around North America gathered in Denver to learn from each other and to learn from experts in school management and educational administration. I am proud to have represented our school together with five SHA representatives - K-8 Principal Kerri Stern, Dean of MS Sara Weiss, Development Director Benjamina Menashe, President Karen Naggar and Vice President Ben Lipman.

I want to give a huge acknowledgement to Ms. Stern and Morah Sara for being selected to deliver a presentation highlighting the strength of our Middle School and its culture.

Dear SHA Community,

We returned from Winter Break this week and school is in full swing!

This week, we were pleased to host Ms. Nili Auerbach from the Lookstein Center at Bar-Ilan University in Israel. Ms. Auerbach toured our school and also made a presentation about the Judaic Studies curriculum that the Lookstein Center offers North American Jewish Day Schools.

We were also pleased to host this month’s Seattle Jewish Day School Head of School meeting that is convened by Samis Foundation. We are proud of our partnership with Samis and with Seattle’s Jewish Day Schools.

Dear SHA Community,

We are looking forward to Sunday’s Maccabeats concerts and our SHA First Grade performance prior to the 1pm concert. Thank you to Benjamina Menashe and Morah Nomi Winderbaum for their work on arranging the concerts and the special performance.

Story from this week’s perasha - VaYetze

Our patriarch, Ya’akov, leaves Israel to find refuge from his brother, Esav, in Charan. He arrives at HaMakom – The Place – to sleep for the night – the place of his famous ladder dream. Morning comes. Yaakov takes the stone that he slept on, makes a monument to G-d with it and anoints it with oil. He renamed the place Beit E-l – House of Hashem.

Dear SHA Community,

Mazal Tov to the SHA Community on the success of the Light the Way Campaign! The campaign reflects the impact that our community can have when we work together in an orchestrated way.

Today, I want to recognize some of the conductors who orchestrated our successful campaign:

Our Development Director, Benjamina Menashe, and Development Assistant, Peta Mehlman, our lead conductors, organized the whole process and ensured that everything ran so smoothly!