In The News

See our article in Washington Jewish Week.

Ana Mendelson, currently a sophomore at Woodson High School was profiled in a feature article in a Washington Jewish Week article

'Happiness in simplicity' 
Bat mitzvah project leads to Kenya trip
by Adam Kredo
Wednesday, July 15, 2009 Click here to read the entire article

Good afternoon

I am pleased to extend my congratulations on being selected as one of the Virginia Naturally Schools for the 2008-2009 school year. The goal of the school recognition program is to recognize the efforts undertaken by Virginia schools that increase the environmental awareness and stewardship of its students.  Your efforts toward environmental stewardship are to be commended and we genuinely appreciate your hard work.  

Fifty two schools are being recognized this year; five schools have been recognized for 10 years since the start of the program.    I have attached a list of all the schools and the number of years they have participated.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will be mailing the recognition packet that will include a plaque for the first year schools, a pennant for schools participating in their 2^nd through 9^th year and a sign for the front of the 10^th year schools along with a recognition plaque.  We will also send a press release to local papers so your community will be aware of the great things you are doing.

Again congratulations and I am looking forward to working with you this year

Suzie

Suzie Gilley

Wildlife Education Coordinator/

Project WILD Coordinator

VA Dept. of Game & Inland Fisheries

P O Box 11104--

Richmond, VA 23230-1104

804-367-0188

Suzie.gilley@dgif.virginia.gov   

for more information on Virginia wildlife visit:  www.dgif.virginia.gov

for environmental education information visit: www.vanaturally.com

2009 Virginia Naturally Schools

School Recognition List

The schools listed below have been recognized for their efforts in supporting environmental conservation and stewardship.  The years the schools have been recognized for continued effort is noted below the name.  Schools must submit a plan for the following year and carry it through in addition to meeting additional criteria in order to be recognized in additional years.

1.      Atlee High School – Hanover County Schools – 3 years

2.      Bayside Elementary School – VA Beach City Schools – 1 year

3.      Bettie W Weaver Elementary – Chesterfield County Schools – 2 years

4.      Blue Ridge Middle School – Loudoun County Schools – 3 years

5.      C.C. Wells Elementary School – Chesterfield Co – 1 year

6.      Central Elementary School – Rockbridge County – 1 year

7.      Central High School – Shenandoah County Schools – 2 years

8.      Chesapeake Bay Governor’s School – Essex County – 3 years

9.      Clover Hill High School – Chesterfield County Schools – 2 years

10.  Colonial Trail Elementary School – Henrico County Schools – 2 years

11.  Cooper Elementary School – Hampton City Schools – 8 years

12.  Coventry Elementary School – York County Schools – 5 years

13.  Crestwood Elementary School - Chesterfield County Schools – 10 years

14.  D.J. Montague Elementary School – Williamsburg-James City County Schools – 2 years

15.  Daniels Run Elementary School – Fairfax County Schools – 3 years

16.  Dickenson County Career Center – Dickenson County Schools – 2 years

17.  Dominion High School – Loudoun County Schools – 5 years  

18.  Eureka Elementary – Charlotte County Schools – 2 years  

19.  Fairfield Elementary School – Rockbridge County Schools – 3 years

20.  Gesher Jewish Day School – Independent School – 1 year

21.  Glenvar High School – Roanoke County Schools – 3 years 

22.  Glenvar Middle School – Roanoke County Schools – 4 years

23.  Grafton Middle School – York County Schools – 3 years

24.  Greenbrier Intermediate School – Chesapeake City Schools - 5 years

25.  James River High School – Chesterfield County Schools – 1 year

26.  John Wayland Elementary School - Rockingham County Schools – 10 years

27.  Kecoughtan High School – Hampton City Schools – 3 years 

28.  Kemps Landing Middle School – VA Beach City Schools – 1 year

29.  Kersey Creek Elementary  School – Hanover County Schools – 3 years

30.  Lebanon Primary School – Russell County schools – 1 year

31.  Lee Davis High School – Hanover County 1 year

32.  Lucketts Elementary School – Loudoun County Schools – 3 years

33.  Mount Vernon Elementary School – York County Schools – 5 years

34.  Mountain View Elementary School – Rockbridge County – 1 year

35.  Mountain View Elementary School – Rockingham County Schools – 6 years

36.  North Branch School - Independent School, Afton - 10 years

37.  Parry McCluer Middle School – Buena Vista City Schools  - 1 year

38.  Patrick Copeland Elementary School – Hopewell City Schools – 3 years

39.  Pearson’s Corner Elementary – Hanover County Schools – 7 years

40.  Peasley Middle School – Gloucester County Schools – 10 years

41.  Pleasant View Elementary School – Amherst County Schools – 4 years

42.  Riverheads Elementary School – Augusta County Schools – 3 years

43.  Rivers Edge Elementary School – Henrico County Schools – 2 years 

44.  Seaford Elementary School – York County Schools – 1 year

45.  St Paul High School - Wise County Schools – 10 years

46.  Stafford Elementary School – Stafford County Schools – 3 years

47.  Stonewall Jackson Middle School - Hanover County Schools – 2 years 

48.  Temperance Elementary  School – Amherst County Schools – 2 years

49.  The Howard Gardner School – Independent School, Fairfax – 3 years  

50.  Tuckahoe Elementary School – Arlington County Schools – 3 years

51.  Western Branch Middle School – Chesapeake City Schools – 3 years

52.  Wolftrap Elementary School – Fairfax County Schools –3 years

For more information about Virginia Naturally School Recognition Program contact:

Suzie Gilley

Virginia Naturally Schools Chairperson

VA Dept. Of Game and Inland Fisheries

P O Box 11104

Richmond, VA 23230-1104

Suzie.gilley@dgif.virginia.gov

804-367-0188

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/education/school-recognition/

www.washingtonjewishweek.com

Gesher Jewish Day School’s 6^th grade recently competed in the annual Virginia Mathematics League Contest this spring and achieved some impressive results. The top 5 scores from each school are combined to comprise the team school in the competition. Gesher’s combined score was 139 which placed Gesher 15^th in the state among the 73 schools that competed. This is even more impressive when you consider we only had twelve 6^th graders who competed vs. up to 400 students from other schools. One of our students placed 25^th in the individual results out of more than 5000 students.  Mazel Tov!

Yasher Koach to Morah Melanie Eisen and Morah Maya Rose for leading a national webinar (web-based seminar) for Torah teachers on behalf of the Matok Bible Curriculum!  Melanie and Maya demonstrated how to apply the principles of differentiated instruction to teaching the Matok Torah materials.  (Differentiated instruction is about simultaneously reaching all kinds of learners in class by providing students with those tasks that are most appropriate and engaging for them.)   Applying differentiated instruction is the next dimension being developed by the Matok program, and we are very proud that two Gesher teachers were selected to lead this effort.

Associate Editor

“This is a moment we’ve long been waiting for,” declared Zvi Schoenburg, head of school at Gesher Jewish Day School. “This is our new home.”

Without much delay, some 300 onlookers burst into cheers. The cheering section was composed of students, parents and teachers who gathered Monday morning at the school’s brand-new site, the first permanent home in Gesher’s 26-year history.

The occasion was the opening day of classes at the $14 million facility, which is located on Shirley Gate Road in Fairfax. It is Gesher’s fourth site of operations, and surely its most celebrated one.

“It’s a dream come true,” said Sherri Kohr, Gesher’s science coordinator, using a phrase that got a vigorous workout Monday.

“We’ve been hearing about this for years,” said Esther Uscher, who has taught at Gesher for 18 years. “After a while, it seemed like just an idea; that maybe it would never actually happen. It’s not real yet ‹ a home of our own. We can finally put down roots.”

That home ‹ whose official opening was delayed by four days due to some glitches in getting final occupancy approval ‹ is a 47,000-square-foot facility situated on a 28-acre expanse that includes a heavily forested nature preserve. An additional adjacent 19-acre parcel is reserved for future expansion. The school now has an enrollment of 175 students, but in its current configuration can accommodate 350.

The low-slung structure is dominated by a cylindrical, two-story beit midrash (study hall-synagogue) that was a particular favorite of Ellie Mandell, a fifth-grader from Fairfax. “I really like the shape,” she said.

Second-grader Jonathan Schwartz of Vienna was partial to the gym. “It’s big,” he said.

The gym, which will also serve as a multipurpose room, has a scuff-resistant rubberized floor and the word Gesher imprinted in purple at midcourt in both English and Hebrew.

“We’ve never had our own gym before,” said Yaira Kalendar, a fifth-grader from Fairfax. “And seeing the name of our school there was really cool.”

The new facility also features science and computer labs, performing arts space, a library and sports fields, not all of which have been completed. Finishing touches are expected to be in place by mid-October.

With few exceptions, the interior of the building is open, airy and infused with sunlight. A utilitarian-style network of exposed pipes and ductwork hangs from the ceiling throughout the building, and faux Jerusalem-stone walls frame the lobby.

“It has that new-building smell,” said Frank Lanham of Vienna, the father of a seventh-grade Gesher student. “I like that smell.”

Founded in 1982, Gesher had been housed since 1993 at the Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia; since 1996, a portion of the program had operated at a satellite campus of Chabad Lubavitch of Northern Virginia.

“This is a great facility, and it’s giving the school a character unto itself,” said Bob Watts, the father of two Gesher students. “It doesn’t have to be a stepchild of the JCC.”

“This is a turning point in the history of the school,” said Ann Bennett of Fairfax, who has two children in the school. “We’ve never had a home of our own before.” She termed the opening “a real Shehecheyanu moment,” referring to the Hebrew blessing of thanksgiving.

That blessing would soon be recited during opening-day ceremonies held in the school’s cafeteria, which was jammed with students, teachers and parents. Following Schoenburg’s opening remarks, a shofar was sounded to signify the moment, a mezuzah was affixed to a door frame and the Shehecheyanu was then sung en masse. A trio of Torah scrolls were ceremonially welcomed and installed in an ark that had been transplanted from the JCCNV. A round of spirited dancing followed.

“This is very emotional,” Alexandria’s Paul Frommer, 71, an original Gesher parent, said as he looked on. His four children, who are now grown, all attended the school. “This is a great life accomplishment. A lot of people put their blood, sweat and wallets into it.”

As the ceremonies wound down, the new school day started to unfold. The students were divided by grades and were herded to their classrooms. Sharon Rosenblatt, who has taught at Gesher for 24 years, presides over one of those classrooms.

For Gesher Jewish Day School, Finally, a Place to Call Home
By Jacqueline L. Salmon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, September 27, 2007;

After 25 years of cramped classrooms, a computer room that doubled as prayer space and meager outdoor recess facilities, Gesher Jewish Day School has room to breathe.

Earlier this month, after six years of fundraising and construction, the 175-student school moved into a $14 million facility that has plenty of space.

Shari Schwartz, who has two sons at Gesher, compares the school's move to Shirley Gate Road, to that of a potted plant transplanted from a cramped container to a garden.

“This is a place where we can really put down our roots,” Schwartz said.

The 46,000-square-foot facility is illustrative of the rapid growth in full-time Jewish education throughout the country. Jewish day schools (so named to differentiate them from synagogue-based part-time education) have proliferated as parents have embraced them as a way of fostering a committed and literate generation of Jews at a time when intermarriage and other factors are pulling some away from congregation membership.

The schools grew mostly in the later half of the 20th century as ethnic neighborhoods disappeared, Jews and non-Jews intermarried and families began to play less of a role in educating and rearing their children in the Jewish religion and culture.

Until recently, most day schools were affiliated with either the Conservative or Orthodox branches of Judaism. But in the past 20 years, Jewish “community” day schools such as Gesher, aimed at any Jewish child, no matter what the family's religious adherence or affiliation, have proliferated.

In the past seven years, the number of Jewish community day schools that are members of the Jewish Community Day School Network has grown 70 percent to about 120 from 70 in 2000, said Marc Kramer, executive director of the network. He said that mirrors the growth in the number of schools.“It has been growing at lightening speed,” he said.

As with other religions, Jews are increasingly less inclined to align themselves with one particular branch of the faith, so a community day school -- generally not affiliated with any of the four major branches of Judaism in the United States -- is more appealing, Kramer said.

In the Washington area, other community day schools include Aleph Bet Jewish Day School in Annapolis, the Hebrew Day School in Silver Spring, the Jewish Primary Day School in the District and the Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School in Rockville, which added a high school in 1999.

For 25 years, Gesher was housed in temporary spaces and was moved four times. Most recently, the school was jammed into two locations -- the bottom floor of the Jewish Community Center on Little River Turnpike and down the road in a building housing another Jewish organization, the Chabad Lubavitch of Northern Virginia. Gesher's new facility will allow it to double its population and, with a few expansions, triple its enrollment in coming years.

Demographic studies of the number of Jewish households in Northern Virginia show there is plenty of room for that kind of growth, according to school officials, particularly since Gesher is the only Jewish day school in Northern Virginia. In the past two decades, the Jewish population in Northern Virginia has doubled, according to a 2003 study by the Jewish Outreach Institute, the fastest rate in the Washington area. The number of synagogues has more than tripled, to 20.

At Gesher, 40 percent of the curriculum is devoted to the study of Jewish religion and history. Students study Hebrew and learn the holidays and prayers. In the middle school, students study rabbinic texts and all four major branches' prayer books.

The new school's sunny interior has plenty of details emblematic of Jewish heritage. The golden-hued wall along the front of the school is designed to look like Jerusalem stone, a limestone quarried in Israel. A glass-roofed beit midrash, or study hall, serves as the architectural centerpiece of the school and will soon house the ark (where Torah scrolls will be stored) and serve as a worship space.

At the daily prayer service last Thursday morning, younger students recited prayers and wriggled in their seats as older students and teachers clustered around one of the school's two Torah scrolls in the front of the community room at the rear of the building. Wearing prayer shawls and tefillin -- small boxes containing Scripture attached to the head and arm by thin leather straps -- they chanted a portion of the Torah.

The morning prayer ritual is not very different from the service the school held each day in its previous space in the basement of the Jewish Community Center in Fairfax. But, said Head of School Zvi Schoenburg, “It just feels good to do the same thing in this nice space.”

For eighth-grader Rachel Cotton, the new school has meant a separate wing for her and her middle school peers, her own locker and less effort to keep the noise down so they don't disturb others. “It’s a lot easier because before we just kind of had to share classrooms, and the space was really cramped.” The new building, she said, is “really cool.”