Once during breakfast in High School I realized I had lost my retainer. I looked everywhere for it but couldn’t find it and then it dawned on me that it was probably thrown out with the leftover food and garbage. I went to find Alex apprehensively, afraid that he was going to be mad because he had this gruff exterior. A bit annoyed, he told me to go outside and look through the garbage cans. So there I was, outside, sifting through the garbage together with Stephanie Assouline who was kind enough to help me, and suddenly Alex showed up and began to help us with the search - and he actually found it! It was so sweet of him to come out and help even though he for sure had so much other work to do. He was really a softie. -Dvora (Igel) Brandstatter. ‘94 Our favourite memory with Elaine Druker is when we were reading The Merchant of Venice and we made clay versions of our favorite character. Another project we really enjoyed was when she allowed us to make magazines; she does this with all her Grade 9 classes. It was an extremely fun project that allowed us to express our creativity and personal opinions. We are beyond privileged to have had her as part of our Hebrew Academy family. -Girls’ Class of 2019 During our Grade 10 Chemistry lab class with Ms. Fewkes, a few of us noticed an interesting experiment at the end of the Chemistry textbook that we wanted to try. It involved mixing sulfuric acid and sugar. Ms. Fewkes, at first did not let us, but eventually relented allowing us to do it after class. We mixed the two ingredients in a large beaker, but nothing happened. We must have gotten the proportions wrong or we were just too impatient, so many left the lab. A few of us stayed behind and watched as our mixture eventually started to bubble over and produce smoke only to be left with a large black rock in the beaker and a horrible stench that stank up the whole top floor of the high school building on Ducharme. -Alain Mamane, ‘85 Mrs. Pauline Gertler was the coolest librarian. She totally didn't fit into the HA mold. She was smart. Hip. Outspoken. And the girls loved her. -Valerie Teroux, ‘78 One of my best academic memories at HA was the time Grade 9 Biology teacher Evelyn Cohen, zichrona l’vracha, taught us about the lungs and respiratory system in her inimitable, hands-on way. She walked into class, clad, as she usually was, in a white lab coat, proudly carrying a pair of (cow’s) lungs! She proceeded to take a big breath and blow into the trachea, still attached, to teach us how the lungs inflated! Mrs. Cohen, with her animated way of teaching (despite the sometimes tedious time spent copying the notes she wrote, in cursive, on the blackboard) really made the subject matter come alive and helped spark my, and I’m sure many other students’, interest in the Health Sciences. -Aviva (Aspler) Drazin, ‘88 Editor’s note: Dr. Aviva Aspler Drazin kindled that spark and became a respected Montreal GP. 21