Taking Care of the Whole Child at Akiva
Robyn Schreter and Jaimee Kravitz, Social Development Coordinators at Akiva, highlight some the great initiatives taking place in the school to help meet the social, emotional and developmental needs of all of our students.
Define the Legal Line: Youth Cyberbullying and Wellbeing
Last week, I attended a conference at McGill that was organized by “Define the Line”, a research program based at McGill University and directed by Dr. Shaheen Shariff, an international expert who has pioneered research on cyberbullying over the last...
Growing Pains of the Brain
Spring is in the air, the academic year is quickly coming to an end and everyone is getting ready for whatever is coming next; be it summer camp, the next grade level or high school. Over the past few weeks, we had puberty sessions for grade 5 &6 where we...
Do you know how your kids are using Social Media?
These days, the use of social media starting younger and more forms of social media are sprouting up fast. Facebook, Google+ and Instagram are just a few sites that are gaining popularity with elementary aged children. The big question is - How young is too young to...
What can we all do about bullying
At the last Parent Education Evening, the Akiva community took a closer look at bullying, the government Bill 56; an act to prevent and stop bullying and violence in schools, and how we, as a community, can stop bullying from happening at our school. Some of the key...
Kindness in a Jar; a Lunch Bunch Success Story
This year, we have started a new program called the “Lunch Bunch” to help deal with any social issues that our students may be having. With the Lunch Bunch Program, I have lunch with a group of students and play interactive activities that deal with emotions,...
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Rabbi Grossman’s Blog Corner
Rabbi Grossman's Corner
A knife to Canadian Jews – The Times of Israel Blog Post
(Post appearing in The Times of Israel Blog, March 11th, 2024) As an opening gambit in their war against the Jews, in the early 1930s the Nazis ended shechitah, Jewish ritual slaughter. At a time when antisemitic incidents reminiscent of pre-war Germany are exploding...
Morality from the Sewers
As appeared in The Times of Israel Blog... Visiting the Dachau concentration camp on a trip to Germany this summer, I was drawn to an exhibit on Nazi medical experimentation that illustrated the brutal procedures performed on inmates at Dachau and other camps during...
Rosh Hashanah Message from the Head of School 2023
Same Time, Next Year We are familiar with the story of Jews and Egyptian oppression: The suffering slaves flee their bondage and escape to the desert where God speaks to them and makes them a great nation. This story also appears in the Torah reading of Rosh...
Akiva High Holiday Message 2022
Not by Punishment For our annual Father’s Day outing this June I asked my sons if I could take them to the Kingston Penitentiary. They agreed, but only after my assurance that they would be returning with me to Montreal afterward, and that the prison has been...
Message from Rabbi Grossman – Long Live the Queen
In antiquity, the passing of years was numbered by the reign of the living monarch, thus we find in the Bible, “In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel (1 Kings 15:9),” or “In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia (Ezra 1:1).” The death of a sovereign meant...
Elijah and our Children: No Trouble at All
Any child who has been called a troublemaker can take comfort in being the victim of the same accusation that was hurled against Elijah the Prophet (Eliyahu HaNavi). Ahab, the wicked King of Israel, dubbed Elijah the “Troubler of Israel” for opposing his policies of...
Sanctuary and Sacrifice – Message from the Head of School
The Torah contains an odd number of books perhaps in order that one book be in the middle and thus allow us to say: here is the center of God’s message to us. That book is Leviticus, and its central message is Sanctuary and Sacrifice. Leviticus, which we begin to...
Chanukkah Message – A Small Glimmer of Light
The world seems to have become very dark. As we enter the winter months the darkness of night encroaches upon day, stealing increasing minutes of light each week. Were we not to understand the cycle of the sun, we would fear, like the ancients, that darkness would...
When They Call On Me, I Will Answer Them
There is much to celebrate this week. As Jews in Quebec, the past days have been filled with bounty and blessing. COVID cases are at record lows, and vaccination rates are high. The province and its businesses are opening up, and restrictions are down. We are...
The Tragedy in Meron – A Message from Rabbi Grossman
I have set before you today life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life. (Deuteronomy 30:19) When given the choice, the Torah tells us to choose life and blessing over death and curse. While this may seem obvious, the world of ancient Israel was filled with pagan...