Messages from the Head of School

Before we go off for Winter Vacation, I wanted to wish the entire Akiva community a restful break and a happy Chanukah.  We are wrapping up this secular year with energy and inspiration courtesy of the Akiva Players amazing production of the original musical, Cyber...

During the Chanukah season it is traditional to reflect upon the relationship between Jewish and Greek civilization.  The story of Chanukah celebrates the literal and figurative victory of Judaism over Greek cultural and military forces in the battle between Jews and...

Cast me not off when I am old; forsake me not when my usefulness fails. Psalm 71:9 Mr. Stein would not sell you a book unless he thought you worthy of reading it.  His books were located on the ancient shelves of his store—behind the counter and out of reach of...

Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Eighth of an Ongoing Series When I moved to Massachusetts many years ago, one of my first stops was the Granary Burial Ground, located in downtown Boston. Tourists and residents alike make pilgrimages to this cemetery to pay...

Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Seventh in an Ongoing Series As a child, neither my friends nor I were afraid of monsters or vampires, and I know whom to thank.  When children of a previous generation imagined monsters or Gothic villains they would think...

Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Sixth of an Ongoing Series My decision to pursue a career in education was solidified in 1989 when I saw Peter Weir’s Oscar-winning film, Dead Poets Society.  As far as I can remember, I wanted to become a teacher from the...

Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Fifth of an Ongoing Series The great mysteries of the human condition are the topics of the first eleven chapters of the Torah.  In Genesis 1-6, which we read in last week’s Torah portion, Scripture addresses the origins of...

Chidushim B’Chinuch—Insights into Education Fourth of an Ongoing Series The reading of Kohelet, the book of Ecclesiastes, on the holiday of Sukkot remains one of the great mysteries of the Jewish liturgical year.  The just-completed Festival of Booths is the most...

Yom Kippur is a day of judgment, but it is also a day of love.  In the time of the Mishna (c. 200 C.E.), Yom Kippur was a day of courtship, when the young maidens of Jerusalem would dance in white robes in the vineyards, looking for a young man with whom to fall in...