Grades 5 and 6 commemorated Kristallnacht on November 10 with meaningful assemblies. School Rabbi Rabbi Eddie Shostak spoke about the day’s significance and showed a brief film, and High School Judaic Studies teacher Dror Yechieli recounted a fascinating story about his relatives who rescued Jewish artefacts from a burning shul and brought them to Israel. Bnot sherut Shaked Azulay and Shira Kolodny then encouraged the students to brainstorm areas that could be improved – in themselves, the community and at HA. The activity centered on Rabbi Nachman’s saying: “If you believe that it’s possible to destroy, believe that it’s possible to repair.”
The following day, High School marked Remembrance Day with moving assemblies led by Grade 11 Student Council presidents Shlomo Freundlich and Ben Safran, director of Jewish Life Naomi Abenhaim, and Grade 10 student Emma Israel. Classes learned about the disastrous Dieppe Raid which accounted for Canada’s worst single-day war casualties, and the heroism of decorated Jewish veteran Col. David Lloyd Hart, who took cover that infamous day on a crippled ship offshore. Grades 10 and 11 also heard an interesting shiur on Citizenship in Halacha and Hashkafa by Adath Israel’s Rabbi Michael Whitman.