From the Co-Presidents...by Meredith Cymerman

Wrapping up a Terrific School Year

Friends, another school year has come and gone, leaving us gazing in wonder at our growing children. Take time to reflect on the highlights of the year, and compare artwork your children did at the beginning of the year with what their tote bags have yielded recently – pretty cool development. Enjoy the weather, plan for summer, and hopefully relax into a more leisurely schedule…..Let’s also highlight the springtime happenings around the Gan.

Our first-ever Moms’ Night Out on April 8 was a real treat. We got our nails polished, bought jewelry and gifts, snacked, drank some wine, and socialized. It was so fabulous to be together, and we had such fun. Many, many thanks go to Debbie Forrest (Abby and Ben), Jill Rider (Jesse), and Jess Rosenbaum (Grady and Jake) for making the evening possible and enjoyable, and to the many volunteers who came to set up and clean up.

Truck Day 2008 rocked the Parking Lot! We appreciate the cooperation of all the Gan and Adas Israel staff who found street parking the morning of May 13th so that we could welcome trucks, motorcycles and fancy cars to our school. Our coordinating heroes were Steve Neufeld (Shira), Benjamin Herzberg (Anya), and Jeff Knishkowy (Noah). Thank you for organizing our children’s true harbinger of springtime. Even the weather was perfect, a sunny moment in a rainy month.

Another highlight of the year, for grownups this time, was the Staff Appreciation Luncheon on May 19th. Jen Klein (Benjamin) and Karin Freedman (Noah) spent a lot of time and energy making sure all the details were thought through, ensuring another truly lovely and meaningful program. Thanks are also due to Robin Goelman (Maya) for coordinating babysitters for us all – this task is always both challenging and necessary, and easy to take for granted. This luncheon is a highlight because it gives us an opportunity to formally express appreciation for all that our Staff does for our children and for us, while enjoying each-other’s company in a beautiful, relaxed setting. We are all truly fortunate to be part of such a special extended "family."

May 16th was our last Family Shabbat Service and Dinner, and continued thanks to Robin Goelman (Maya) for making sure the details were worked out before her family’s trip to Israel. As always, we enjoyed our Shawarma feast and the family-style service led by Rabbi Wohlberg and Robyn Helzner.

May 22nd marked our 3rd annual Lag B’Omer Bonfire, and we thank Jessica Tomback and Peter Fraize (Leo) for their hard work on this event. It’s such a nice way of rounding out the school year! Something about children running around outside and singing beside a bonfire yields a perfect time; perhaps the pizza and ice cream truck guarantee that the evening is a hit also. Thank you.

If you have a graduating Gan student (and even if you don’t), please do plan on attending the Gan Shabbat Service (and optional graduation dinner) on June 13th. Felice Roggen (Annie) and Amanda Alter (Abby and Adam) have been working on this evening, and it is guaranteed to be fun, meaningful, and unavoidably a bit emotional. Thank you in advance to them and any other parents who help make this last Gan program for our graduating students a success.

Please plan on attending our Volunteer Appreciation Breakfast in Funger Hall on June 2nd, after drop-off. You have all contributed to another great Gan school year, through your efforts on different programs beginning last fall and continuing through the next couple weeks. Your children certainly appreciate it (even if they don’t always show it), and so does the Gan community – we have all reaped the rewards of each other’s hard work. Hooray for us, hooray for the Gan!

Looking ahead, save the date for the Gan Summer Picnic on July 20th—a chance to catch up with your Gan friends during the smmer—and the GPA planning meeting on July 23rd, where we will discuss plans for next year and opportunities to get involved. As always, please let us know if you are interested in volunteering.

We also want to welcome Robin Goelman who will be the new GPA co-president with Beth. Robin has been an active, hard-working, and gracious volunteer since she began at the Gan and we look forward to her continued involvement.

One last item worthy of mention: Beth and I have been receiving such heartfelt notes of thanks throughout the year from our Teaching Staff for some of the nice "extras" the GPA does, like birthday gifts and the monthly staff lunches. We want you all to know that our Staff has been so appreciative of all that we’ve done! Best wishes for happy, safe, relaxing summers for all of you.

Meredith Cymerman

From the Director...by Shelley Remer

GAN Teacher Appreciation Luncheon

I begin today with a short midrash, a story about a story in the Torah.

Before there was anything, there was God, a few angels and a huge swirling glob of rocks and water with no place to go. The angels asked God, "Why don’t you clean up this mess?"

So God collected the rocks from the huge swirling glob and put them together in chumps and said,"Some of these clumps of rocks will be planets, and some will be stars, and some of these rocks will be…just rocks."

Then God collected the water from the huge swirling glob and put it together in pools of water and said, "Some of these pools of water will be oceans, and some will be clouds, and some of this water will be…just water."

Then the angels said, "Well God, it’s neater now, but is it finished?"

And God answered, "Not yet!"

On some of the rocks God placed growing things, and creeping things and things that only God knows what they are, and when God had done all this, the angels asked God, "Is the world finished now?" And God answered, "Not yet."

God made a man and a woman from some of the water and dust and said to them, "I am tired now. Please finish up the world for me…really it’s almost done." But the man and woman said, "We can’t finish the world alone! You have the plans and we are too little."

"You are big enough," God answered them. "But I agree to this. If you keep trying to finish the world I will be your partner."

The man and woman said "What’s a partner?" God answered, "A partner is someone you work with on a big thing that neither of you can do alone. If you have a partner, it means that you can never give up, because your partner is depending on you. On the days you think I am not doing enough and on the days I think you are not doing enough, even on those days we are still partners and we must not stop trying to finish the world. That’s the deal." And they all agreed.

Then the angels asked God, "Is the world finished yet?" and God answered, "Not yet, but now I have partners!"

Today we are here together as partners…….partners in the development and education not only of your children but also of ourselves, both parents and staff. We learn so much from each other but probably even more from our children. As we listen to them they truly open our eyes to the world around us and help us to see the excitement, the beauty and the wonder. Today I truly thank you for allowing me to be your partner and to be part of such a community!

To the GPA, we are so thankful for your partnership. The incredible energy and enthusiasm that you bring is truly overwhelming. Your support and commitment to the Gan and to the values of Judaism is so appreciated. From the various tikkun olam, repairing the world, projects such as Sandwich Brigade, Zingo, and our Friday morning tzedakah collection for the Hope for Henry Foundation, the JWI National Library Initiativ,. the Youth Renewal Fund in Israel and the Brandon Heschel Leach Fund, United Mitochondrial Research Foundation, plus donations from our monthly Shabbat dinners to Mazon, the Jewish Response to Hunger, our families help others inside and out of our Gan community

Funds from projects such as the challah and flower sales to the Winter Carnival and the very successful Silent Auction help us to continue to provide a variety of support and resource programs. Of course, our weekly Shabbat Sing, our every growing monthly Shabbat dinners and services, the Rabbi/Parent/Child programs, our annual Lag B’Omer campfire, the Friday morning Melton class, which is a model for the entire country, feed us spirituality and bring us together as a Jewish community.

Through the leadership of Meredith Cymerman and Beth Taubman, each and every event has been successful beyond comprehension. Meredith, as you finish your second year as co-president please know with your effervescent smile, your willingness to help out whenever necessary, especially putting up our weekly Shabbat Sing class signs, you are always so upbeat and positive. It has truly been such a pleasure to work with you. Of course, Beth, who brings us the weekly Ma Hadash is so organized, so efficient and just so delightful all at the same time! Thank you both! I also look forward to continuing to work with Beth next year along with Robin Goelman, our incoming GPA co-president.

To the synagogue lay leadership and professional staff I thank you for your involvement and support. From various meetings to programs to just being around …..special thanks to Ed Kopf, our synagogue president, and Amy Schwartz, Education and Youth VP and more importantly former Gan parent. Special recognition goes to the entire Gan Steering Committee, some of you who have been on the committee for years and now "graduating" and to those of you who are continuing. To each of you and especially Laurie Aladjem, our very dedicated chair, I thank you for your commitment, your good counsel and for always lending an ear. To Rabbi Feinberg, Cantor Webber, and Hazzan Greenberg for teaching us and joining us for various holiday celebrations…..even eating some of the food prepared by the children ….. we say today robah. To Josh Bender, Director of Education, and Elie Greenberg, Youth and Informal Programming, both true professionals AND talented "rock stars" I thank you for being a valued colleague and friend. Thank you to the maintenance staff Calvin, Willie, Phil, Butch Charles, and Steve, and the security guards under the guidance of Officer Reece, who greet the children everyday, we could not do it without all of you!!! The administrative and accounting staff including Henry and Lesley and especially Glenn, Adas Israel executive director, you help to hold the whole place together, smoothly and efficiently, todah robah!

Today I also want to highlight the contributions of Rabbi Wohlberg and Rabbi Miller both who will be retiring this June. Although neither could be with us today as they are attending Grandparents’ Day in the grandchildren’s Jewish day school (believe it or not, at the same day school!), I and the entire Gan community can not thank them enough for their leadership, their guidance and their contributions to the Gan and to Adas Israel. From their presence in so many ways, to the educational programs they have initiated to the personal counseling, they both have always been available to each and every Gan family and staff member. We thank them and wish them the very best.

To Becki in the office ----we all say thank you for everything that you do…answering the phones, answering the many questions and requests from children, parents and staff, from lunch bunch to supply requests, from rosters to flyers and for always (or almost always) answering yes..we say thank you! And where would we be without Liz who kept each of you on target with those immunizations?

Obviously, today is the day we set aside to honor our teaching staff. Rabbi Bradley Artson said "Every individual person, like the glistening thread, makes the cloth that much more shimmering and durable." We have over 40 incredible individual "threads" between our classroom staff and specialists. How fortunate we are to have such a multitalented and gifted staff. They care for each and every individual, each child, each of you and each other. We thank them for the love of learning they bring daily, for their commitment to bringing the newest and best theories of early childhood education into their classrooms. They make it look so easy as they bring developmentally appropriate hands on learning along with our Jewish traditions and connection to Israel each and every day. Today we say thank you Gan staff for being a staff that is truly above the rest.

We are just about to finish counting the omer, the 7 weeks (49 days) beginning at Pesach with our liberation as slaves in Egypt to Shavuot the receiving of the Torah. In biblical times this was also the time for counting the days until the spring harvest of the wheat. And so today we count and continue to count the immeasurable blessings that we have here right in this room for the partnership we have created and for the good that together, as partners with God, we can bring into this world.,

Israel at 60...

ISRAEL AT SIXTY ON THE MALL
JUNE 1ST – VOLUNTEERS NEEDED

Coming June 1st to the National Mall in DC is Israel at Sixty, a Capital Celebration, and Adas Israel is a supporting organization. This milestone event will be the premier community event celebrating the 60th anniversary of the State of Israel. Hosted by The Jewish Federation of Greater Washington, this event, which is free and open to the public, will take place on Sunday, June 1st from noon to 5:00 p.m., rain or shine, on the National Mall. Our Religious School will be distributing metro cards to families that wish to participate.

The festival will feature hands-on activities, events and venues for all ages. Internationally acclaimed singer / songwriter Regina Spektor, a Jewish Russian émigré, whose music has been featured on Grey’s Anatomy and CSI and Tony and Emmy-Award-Winning Actor Mandy Patinkin will perform. Israeli rock band Mashina and two beloved Sesame Street Muppets, Oscar the Grouch, and his Israeli cousin Moishe Oofnik (from Israel’s "Rechov Sumsum") will also participate.

There are plenty of volunteer opportunities available—and since Adas Israel is a sponsoring organization, we need you to sign up as volunteers. If you can volunteer for a two-hour shift, please email adas.office@adasisrael.org. Free metro passes to all volunteers. Questions? http://shalomdc.org

Israel Update: THIS YEAR IN JERUSALEM

8 Reasons to Take Your Children to Israel

By Sharon Duke Estroff

I actually did it. I finished the laundry. Five days and twenty-two hours after returning from Israel with my family I've managed to wash, dry, and fold every last sand-ridden bathing suit and falafel-stained t-shirt. And now I can reflect on our experience - a two-week, whirlwind journey through the Jewish homeland during which we celebrated my son's bar mitzvah.

I'm not going to make a Pollyannaish claim that taking four kids to the Middle East was a smooth, simple, and stress-free undertaking. It was incredibly trying at times and (thanks to the ever weakening dollar and our decision to travel over the peak season of Passover) prohibitively expensive. But it was also indescribably beautiful and perfectly life-changing.

Toward ensuring the eternal bright future of the now 60 year-old Jewish state, here are eight good reasons for Jewish parents to take their children to Israel.

1) Hebrew, Hebrew, Everywhere! Studying Hebrew is at the core of the Judaic childhood. From Jewish preschool to day school to Hebrew school to bar/bat mitzvah tutoring, our kids spend much of their early years immersed in this ancient lexicon, yet they rarely have an opportunity to apply it outside the classroom or synagogue. In Israel, Hebrew is a living, breathing language. From the moment we arrived at Ben Gurion, my children's familiar moaning and groaning over Hebrew homework became a distant memory as they moved seamlessly into linguistic expert mode - translating menus for their grandparents, asking for directions, and ordering their weight in "glida" (i.e. ice cream) with confidence and pride.

2) Jewish Like Me. No matter where we live in the United States, no matter how Jewish our children's daily world may feel, the reality remains - Jews compose but 1% of the US population. While this truth can do wonders for building our kids' Jewish identity, it also serves as a daily reminder that they are fundamentally different from the vast majority of Americans. So my children sure were excited about being the same for once! Rather than dodging bread at every turn this Passover, we ate it (the kosher for Passover kind that is). Every supermarket we entered had its chametz quarantined, every restaurant we dined in had swapped out its ingredients in keeping with the holiday. (Although I remain dubious about those suspiciously chametz-like buns at the Burger Ranch.)

3) A Great Miracle Happened HERE. Every year at Hanukkah, our children hear the story of the brave Maccabees who reclaimed the Temple from the Syrians - and the day's worth of oil in the Ner Tamid (eternal light) that miraculously burned for eight. Nes Gadol Haya Sham, the Hebrew letters on our dreidels remind us, " A Great Miracle Happened There". But in Israel, the dreidels are different. The Shin for "Sham" is replaced with a Peh for "Po" meaning "here". As my kids stood wide-eyed and speechless at the foot of the steps to the ancient Temple in the new Jerusalem Archaeological Park - feeling the presence of the Macabbees from their Atlanta Braves hats to their Air Jordan sneakers - it was clear that they'd never spin their dreidels quite the same way again.

4) The Soldiers. The first time my family saw a gun toting Israeli soldier we were admittedly taken aback. Not only was this 18-year old girl carrying a gun - she was carrying a gigantic gun that was easily taller than my five-year old. But our initial discomfort was quickly replaced with a sense of security and awe at these young Israelis who - completely devoid of the self-centeredness and air of entitlement characterizing so many American teenagers - exuded wisdom and maturity beyond their years, tangible love for their country, and a personal responsibility for the greater good.

5) Back to Nature. In his book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder. Author Richard Louv argues that kids are so plugged into television and video games that they've lost their connection to the natural world. In Israel, my children left behind all NDD tendencies, as they witnessed a connection and respect for the land that they rarely have an opportunity to experience on our side of the planet. Our Israeli tour guide - a rugged, former tank commander - spoke endlessly about the beauty the trees. The bountiful Israeli breakfast at our hotel was piled high with fresh fruits and vegetables without an artificial color or flavor in sight. Even the flowers seemed bigger, brighter and more fragrant than those we have at home. And the best part of all is that my kids noticed.

6) L'Dor V'Dor. Many contemporary children are being raised to believe that the world revolves around them. And while being the center of the universe certainly has its perks, it can also put a little kid under a whole lot of pressure. The Jewish concept of l'dor v'dor - from generation to generation - is the antithesis to the dangerous "sun rises and sets for me" kiddie mentality. In other words, as my son stood before the Kotel, reading from the Torah in the footsteps of his parents, grandparents and hundreds of generations before, he received a priceless bar mitzvah gift: the stability, consistency and safety of knowing that he isn't the center of the universe after all, but a part of something far bigger and stronger than he could ever or would ever want to be.

7) Joy and Celebration. Perhaps the most striking aspects of Israel exist in its dichotomies: Contemporary shopping malls amidst ancient relics, lush forests amongst parched deserts, Palestinean/Israeli Tensions within a remarkable Old City of Jerusalem where Arabs, Christians and Jews peacefully coexist. And perhaps it is this understanding and acceptance of life's inherent fragility that has Israelis in a seeming constant state of celebration. Singing and Dancing; picnicking and partying; living today to it's fullest in the face of an uncertain tomorrow.

8) We got to stop at 7. It's always that 8th day of Passover that gets us. We can't look at another piece of matzah. We would give our right arm for a bona fide risen bagel. We are counting the seconds until we get to dive into that pizza at sundown. But in Israel, there is no 8th day of Passover,as the extra 24 hours of torture are strictly reserved for the Diaspora. Which is why my kids insisted on making one last stop on Ben Yehuda Street before heading home, where they would fill their bellies, souls, and laundry bags with drippy, gooey, gloriously Israeli falafel.

Sharon Duke Estroff is an internationally-syndicated Jewish parenting columnist, award-winning Jewish educator and mother of four. Her Jewish parenting book, "Can I Have a Cell Phone for Hanukkah?" (Broadway Books) is now available everywhere books are sold. www.sharonestroff.com

A Message from the President...

Welcome to Rabbi Steinlauf

by Edward Kopf, President of Adas Israel Congregation

This is an exciting time to be part of the Adas Israel family. On August 1st, Rabbi Gil Steinlauf will join us as our senior rabbi. His arrival will signal the beginning of a new era for our congregation. An era that will, appropriately, have a focus on you and your families.

We’ve had a history at Adas Israel of families growing up with their rabbis. Rabbi Stanley Rabinowitz and Rabbi Jeffrey Wohlberg provided leadership for the last two generations. I am confident that Rabbi Steinlauf will be here to share with your generation the growth of your children from the Gan, through religious or day school and – believe it or not – even to their marriage "huppahs". (He and his wife, Rabbi Batya Steinlauf, will literally be sharing the experience of raising a young Jewish family with you. (Two girls and a boy, if you were wondering.) From what I’ve seen, I think that his arrival will mark for you the beginning of a – long and – beautiful friendship.

Part of my confidence is based on Rabbi Steinlauf’s accomplishments to-date. If you would like to know more about his background and experience, you will find a very full vita on the Adas Israel website:

http://www.adasisrael.org/pdfs/VirtualFlyers/Resume-SteinlaufGil-posted0408.pdf

But even more important is what I believe I’ve learned about Rabbi Steinlauf’s character. I have been deeply impressed by his seriousness about shaping a deeply meaningful Jewish life for himself, his family and the congregants he serves. Over the decades, he will be sharing a passionate mission with you to find ways to make contemporary, urban Jewish life truly fulfilling and truly integrated into the spirit of the times. It won’t hurt any that he also is smart, warm and accessible.

Adas Israel will be a congregation in the coming years with a culture exceptionally welcoming and supportive of families in all their stages of maturation. I’m sure that there will continue to be great resources for those of us on the far side of sixty. But I envy you the special experience of being part of a community at the start of a new and exciting era. Enjoy it!

Mitzvah Moment...by Menuhah Peters

Lashon Ha-Ra: Wronging a Person through Speech

Mazel Tov to Neil & Kate Hare & big sisters sister Sophie and Elizabeth on the birth of Jack, April 8, 2008

Mazel Tov to Amie Perl & Evan Goldman & sister Zoe on the birth of Maya, April 16, 2008

Mazel Tov to Marina Feldman & Jorge Kotelanski, big sister Maia (Graduate) & big brother Danny on the birth of Ella, April 11, 2008