Our guest blogger this week is school president Patrick Essiminy who offered the following Dvar Torah at Akiva’s Annual General Meeting on Tuesday morning.   Parashat Toldot – Nurturing the individual. This week’s parasha is Toldot, which means the descendants....

I have a memory from when I was a child of playing outside my house when a woman came by.  I do not remember anything about this woman – what she looked like, what she may have said, or how she acted.  What I do remember is that my father brought this stranger, with...

This week we are fortunate to have as our guest blogger, Jessica Yaffe Balinsky, Akiva parent and board member. Shabbat Shalom.       In October of 2016, Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize for Literature. One of his best-loved songs, Highway 61 Revisited,...

The simple definition of the word journey is the act of travelling from one place to another, but I believe the word conveys a lot more than driving to the grocery store.  A journey implies a process in which you are changed or in which you learn something. If going...

My youngest daughter was discussing with her sisters possibilities for the catchphrase of kindness she would try and use more often this month as part of Akiva School’s Derekh Eretz program.  She had some good ideas – don’t give up, I’ll help, thank you – all phrases...

Over the many days of holiday in the last few weeks, my family has been playing the game Apples to Apples.  In each round, one player is the judge and must decide which among the cards the other players submit best represents the adjective revealed at the beginning of...

We packed a lot of Sukkot activities into our very short week.  Many of our classes were able to visit our school sukkah before the rain started.  They enjoyed a sweet treat of challah and honey, made the blessings on the lulav and etrog and had a little lesson...

The four-year-old wasn’t listening.  The husband was frustrated.  He removed the child’s TV privileges for the rest of the week.  And then he left for work. And the wife was left home with a four-year-old to entertain for the rest of the week without television. Who...

This Rosh Hashanah I loved sitting in synagogue with my daughters.  But I didn’t always. I always loved synagogue, but what I enjoyed was the quiet singular purpose of listening, following along in the prayer book, being alone with my thoughts while together with the...

As we are about to begin our month of holidays, the parashah we read this Shabbat – Parashat Nitzavim – has an important message to bear in mind. For this commandment that I command you today, it is not hidden from you and it is not distant.  It is not in the heavens,...