Senesh 8th Graders Featured in “The Times of Israel”
Brooklyn 8th-graders find connection on ‘super powerful’ solidarity trip to Israel Students from New York’s Hannah Senesh Community Day School spend a week in the Holy Land in a modified graduation visit, in perhaps the first day school trip since October 7 By Gavriel Fiske April 1, 2024 | The Times of Israel At the back tables of Sima restaurant, a well-known establishment in Jerusalem’s Machane Yehuda shuk area, a group of American eighth graders were eating their final meal in the country after a week-long visit. The teens were boisterously expressive as they discussed and processed their experiences over a... Read More
Reflections on my Recent Trip to Israel
Dear Senesh Community, Usually I dread the 12-hour flight home from Israel, but this time was different. I needed the uninterrupted time to process and reflect on the week I spent there. How was it? Incredibly special and meaningful, deeply sad and painful, restorative and joyful, filled with despair and hope. It’s complicated to hold so many conflicting emotions, but that is Israel. It is a very difficult time—life is moving forward for many, but the impact and trauma of October 7th are ever-present. Before the 8th graders arrived, I spent time in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Cafes, parks, and... Read More
Jewish Education Innovation Challenge: Nicole Nash and Melissa Kushner—From Openness to Belonging
From Openness to Belonging: The Possibilities of Professional and Lay Leader Partnership By Head of School Nicole Nash and Board Chair Melissa Kushner Appeared on the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge Blog on October 25,2023 Like many nonprofits, Jewish day schools rely on both professional staff and lay leadership in order to run. Throughout the lifecycle of schools, the reliance on these groups of individuals changes and evolves. This has been our experience at Hannah Senesh Community Day School, the K-8 progressive Jewish day school in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn, where Melissa Kushner serves as Board Chair and Nicole Nash serves as... Read More
Head of School Nicole Nash Receives Covenant Award
We’re delighted to share that Hannah Senesh Community Day School’s Head of School Nicole Nash is a recipient of this year’s Covenant Award. This prestigious award, given annually by the Covenant Foundation, includes national recognition for both Nicole and for our school. Each year, The Covenant Foundation honors three exceptional Jewish educators who have made an impact on Jewish life through innovative educational practices and models. We are honored for Nicole to stand amongst such an incredible group of educators from this year and years prior. The Covenant Foundation will honor the 2023 Award recipients at a celebration in the fall. Read the Press... Read More
June 9 – What a Year!
Congratulations to our second graders on finishing the school year! It was a bittersweet last few weeks of school and we soaked up our joyful time together before summer break. The students reflected on their growth academically, socially and emotionally since the school year started. It’s hard to believe that that was ten months ago! As cliche as it sounds, time does fly when you are having fun. The kids spent thoughtful time looking back at work and sharing how they have changed as readers, writers, scientists, mathematicians, artists – the list goes on and on! They revisited their hopes... Read More
2nd Grade Blog 5/25
Writing During Writer’s Workshop the kids wrote special I Am poems. They also drew self portraits that shows their uniqueness to accompany the writing. We hope that you enjoyed reading them at the Chumash ceremony! Reading In reading our groups have been busy doing different activities. One group wrote and is performing a student written play based on Junie B. Jones. Another group is learning to summarize a text and put it into writing. Math In math class we wrapped up the unit on time and money. The students practiced solving some more sophisticated multi-step problems that used skills that... Read More
5/12 – Second Grade Blog
Writing We launched our spring poetry unit this week! The students are learning how to see through a poet’s lense while making observations about objects in their everyday lives. They are working both inside and outside of the classroom in order to notice all different types of things – pencils, flowers, and even objects like the gate around the yard! Reading The second graders are reviewing long vowel sounds and their spelling rules. They are compiling and sorting long a words as they can be spelled in a variety of ways including: vowel consonant vowel a-e, vowel team ai, ending... Read More
Saying Goodbye to Israel
We woke up at the crack of dawn fully packed and ready to leave our last hotel. After tefillah and breakfast we headed to kayak. This was one of our final exciting group activities. We split up into sections and got into the water. For about a half an hour we were laughing, working, competing, and getting splashed by freezing cold water. Most importantly, we did this together as one. Everyone raced to the finish line in the Jordan River. We rested and ate fresh pizza lunch out in the sun. Then we headed on a two and a half... Read More
AAAAH!
Today we woke up bright and early in the morning at 6:20. We then went to Tefila on the kibbutz that we’re staying at, and after that went to eat breakfast alongside a Christian Dutch tourist group. Following that, some of us befriended cats while others got ready to ride some bikes. After napping on the bus, we arrived at Hula Valley for some bike riding and bird watching! The staff at Hula Valley promptly informed us that due to rain there would be no bike riding. We overcame our initial disappointment once we learned that we would instead be... Read More
Pre-Shabbat in the North
Today we woke up and took a drive to Rosh Hanikra. We saw the grottoes of the most northwestern spot of Israel. We also took a look at the border with Lebanon. After, we got to have time for pizur for an hour on the boardwalk in Tiberius. Most people bought falafel and ice cream. Then we drove to Aquakef, an obstacle course on the Kinneret. We had so much fun in aquakef and everyone was very sad to leave. We drove up into the Golan Heights where we saw the border with Syria and an amazing view and took... Read More