Kol Bogrei Rambam January 2009 ~ Tevet/Shvat 5769 Page 1 of 3 CONNECTING MAIMONIDES ALUMNI WORLDWIDE Kol Bogrei Rambam is the Alumni Council’s monthly e-newsletter for and about Maimonides School graduates. Each month we share information on individual graduates’ ventures and accomplishments, as well as general news notes, all reflecting the school’s mission of preparing educated, obser- vant Jews to be contributing members of society. We invite your information, ideas and feedback—educational, professional or personal achieve- ments, new business ventures, interesting or unusual experiences, insights on Jewish living and learning, or just greetings. Please contact us at [email protected]. Maimonides Well-Represented on Several YU Chesed Missions A contingent of Maimonides School building on a farm the winter mission alumni was among teams of under- and saw first-hand to Israel, Project graduates dispatched on chesed the poverty that Connect. “We were missions to various parts of the world envelops the at Kibbutz Galuyot, by Yeshiva University during the countryside. He looking at the recent winter break. added that the different challenges delegation also that the Russian and Yehuda Leeder ’05 spent a week in learned that there Ethiopian Nicaragua as part of a 20-student are ways to battle immigrants face on humanitarian trip arranged through that poverty. their aliyah,”Mo American Jewish World Service.The said.“We met with group’s primary mission was to help Janna Login and various community build a bridge for a rural community, Maya Krohn, both leaders and ran but Yehuda said the students realized 2006 graduates, different service that the “bridge” was a metaphor as were part of a Coast to Coast to Texas with Janna Login ’06 programs to learn about well – to a better life. delegation called (back row, center) and the backgrounds of Coast to Coast to The bridge will connect the village’s Maya Krohn ’06 (back these people.” Texas.“We gutted row, right) road to the site of a new adult houses destroyed by “The trip was education center. Increased literacy Hurricane Ike in unbelievably insightful will mean not only better job oppor- Galveston, volunteered at a homeless and stimulating. There is nothing tunities but also a reduction in shelter and a food bank in Dallas, and better that I could have done on my disease,Yehuda said. The students worked in Jewish day schools in winter vacation,” Moshe declared.“I slept on the floor of a cement Houston and Dallas,” Maya reported. learned a ton, and will always look at members of these various groups “The trip was to learn about the with a meaning of community and to help different out the different populations there,” perspective. Maya said.“We were also able to When I walk meet with rabbis and other religious by them in leaders from Yavneh Academy and Israel I just Akiba, as well as Beren Academy and want to hear the shuls of those communities.We their stories did group projects with the students and do every- of those schools, and we spent thing I can to Shabbat in Dallas and had a tisch help them with the high school students in the out.” area.” Yehuda Leeder ’05 Beth Japhet and Moshe Klausner, Mo Klausner ’06 also of the Class of 2006, took part in with a new friend Kol Bogrei Rambam January 2009 ~ Tevet/Shvat 5769 Page 2 of 3 CONNECTING MAIMONIDES ALUMNI WORLDWIDE Alumni Report on Their Lives During Hostilities in Gaza Maimonides School asked alumni in the kibbutz come to the children’s Hebrew or simple English) would be Israel to share personal accounts of houses (batei yeladim, not their family appreciated.”The school website their lives and experiences during houses) to give lessons. They also address is http://shafir.go.cet the recent hostilities in Gaza. The have special programs and events to .ac.il/go index.asp. Letters may be following responses were among occupy their time and minds. I am sent to the class forums. those shared with students and willing to answer any questions or “These are very hard times for us in teachers: comments from anyone who wants Israel, and especially for families to contact me at mandm@ “As a member of Kvutzat Yavne, whose members are directly involved kv-yavne.co.il.” which is in the firing range of the in the current war,” said Ariel missiles sent by the Hamas, I would “Our son Kovi is a tank commander in Hurwich Braun ’77. “My son Yoni is a like to share with you what’s going Gaza,” reported Daniella (Peyser) commander in the Golani Brigade on here,” wrote Marly Wolf Rein ‘63. Teutsch ’74. “We spoke to him and has been fighting in Gaza. We “I have two boys currently called up yesterday for about five minutes haven’t seen him since he was called for duty, one of whom lives in when he came out of Gaza for a few up in the middle of lunch on Shabbat Kibbutz Alumim, which is only a few hours before going back in. He Chanukah, and haven’t heard from miles from Gaza. He emailed me sounded upbeat and strong. him in a week.” some photos he took of the chicken Interestingly, he knew nothing about Miriam Aczel ‘08, who is spending coops where he works that suffered a the war casualties, the gains that we this year in the Shalem study and direct hit.” hope Tsahal is making, whether the volunteer program in Israel, heard Kassamim were continuing, as he and “Our kibbutz, like all the other settle- from a friend and former his tank staff are focused only on ments in the area, is well-organized, Maimonides student, Eldad what is happening in the area in with day-to-day instructions and Neumeier, now part of Sayeret which they are assigned.” updates on where to go at the sound Givati, an elite combat unit.“He asked of a siren. Every building has a big Adele Reichert Karlin ’69 wrote us if we can do anything to help send sign instructing where the safest from Merkaz Shapira, also in the 30 winter gear and other necessary place is to be,” she continued.“We km. zone, where she teaches English equipment for the war,” she reported. have about 45 seconds from the time in a regional religious elementary “As 18-year-olds, we feel especially the alert is sounded to get to school. The students gain basic obligated to help our brothers and shelter… The children in all of literacy by Grade 4, and she sisters. More than ever before, we feel southern Israel have not been to encourages letters from children. a connection to the Jewish school for weeks. Here, teachers from “Support of any kind (notes in homeland.” Dan Langermann '69, left, listens to a recollection by his third grade Chumash teacher, Rabbi Abraham Shonfeld. Both served on a panel, along with Rabbi Reuven Cohn '65 and Charles Weinstein, that followed a Jan. 17 screening at Maimonides of Lonely Man of Faith, a documentary film on the life of Rabbi Joseph B. Soloveitchik, zt"l. Kol Bogrei Rambam January 2009 ~ Tevet/Shvat 5769 Page 3 of 3 CONNECTING MAIMONIDES ALUMNI WORLDWIDE An Assortment of Maimonides Alumni Happenings… Several graduates attended the perfect solution for those who want different piece of my father's life, so Jan. 25 screening of Lonely Man of to send gifts to their friends and his grandchildren can learn more Faith at the Lower Merion Synagogue family in Israel who are celebrating about who and what he was.” In in Bala Cynwyd, PA. They included weddings, bar/bat mitzvahs, new February, the family will observe the Gary Cantor ’70, Janet (Bernstein) babies or any other simcha,” sixth yahrzeit of Rabbi Steven Eisenberg ’86, Cheryl (Rabinovici) according to Emily. Dworken '62, z"l, by learning about Epstein ’72, Miriam (Melber) his Maimonides School career. Dr. Eli Kazhdan ’86, chief executive Perman ’58, Judith (Rosenkranz) Frohlich is contacting classmates and officer of CityBook Services, chaired Siderer ’62 and Yael (Miller) friends to discover “what life was like the recent sixth annual Jerusalem Stieglitz ’88. Also on hand were two growing up in Maimonides and what Conference at the Regency Hotel. former teachers, Cheryl’s mother Mrs. his school days were like. His grand- The event showcases leaders in the Suri Rabinovici and Rabbi Mordechai children never heard about those political, economic, academic, Wecker, now head of Stern Hebrew days.” She hopes the interviews will communal, security, military, and High School in Philadelphia. reveal “what kind of a person my rabbinic spheres from Israel and father was, what made him special. I throughout the world. The theme Emily (Gyenes) Kirschenbaum also hope they will share some this year was “New Leadership and ‘95 recently completed her MBA at anecdotes about what he was like as New Direction” that will emerge this Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, a student.” Rabbi Dworken was year in Israel and the United States Israel. Emily, her husband David and executive vice president of the following their national elections. their two children have been living in Rabbinical Council of America for Among the speakers was Dr. Ra’anana for the past year and a half. nine years and also served as director Mordechai Kedar of Bar Ilan She is working for a start-up website of rabbinic services for the Rabbi University, husband of Ryna called Hope I Get (www.hopeiget Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary (Gindsberg) Kedar ‘71. .com), which she says is Israel’s first at Yeshiva University. English-language online gift and Every year, Dr.