Mindy's Musings
February 2022
Dear Friends,
A belated Happy New Year and all warm wishes of the holiday season!
We had a busy December and January: latke-making with the Chesed Committee, a fun Chanukah Party, a wonderful MLK weekend, and some ongoing religious school programming.
Thank you to Sharyn Russell and Andi Hannula who spearheaded the latke arrangements and decorations, respectively, together with Kim Callan who led the decorating charge with our high schoolers. As always, a big shout out to all our religious school teachers who contributed creative activities and merrymaking and to all our students who participated.
January also brought a Torah Together program led by Trudy Zakin, Ándrea Pentabona, and Cantor Vera. We believe that education is a collaboration between students and parents, and we’re committed to providing ongoing opportunities for parents to learn alongside their children.
It has been such a pleasure to be back at Temple Emanu-El. I am still getting my feet wet and keeping up with our rich collection of educational programs and activities. A huge ongoing thank you to Cantor Vera Broekhuysen for being an incredible mentor and colleague, for helping me get adjusted, and for all her ongoing wisdom; to Trudy Zakin who has been a de facto mentor and close friend and has been holding down the fort in much of our school planning and teacher advocacy; to Andi Hannula, our Religious School Committee chair, who has been driving much of our family engagement and programming these past few years; and to Jenn Lampron, who is an amazing force of energy and tackles a million things every week. A friendly shout-out to our new executive administrator, Lisa Anthony, for your kind and collaborative spirit—I am really enjoying working with you! Thank you all for helping me. I feel privileged to work with you.
Please join me in welcoming some new families this year to our religious school!
- Tanya Aharonov and Kevin Sadler (Exeter, New Hampshire), parents of Naomi Sadler (pre-K)
- Carrie Rainen and Kyle Rys (North Andover), parents of Lilah Rys (3rd grade)
- Allison Geary and Matt Shwom (West Newbury), parents of Sophia Geary (4th grade), Rocco Shwom (2nd grade), and Rosie Shwom (K)
We have some exciting events coming up including our Tu biShvat seder on February 5 at 11:30 am, a whole family learning opportunity open to all members of our community. (Register here!) I hope you’ll join me in celebrating the earth and her gifts to us. Please check the temple calendar to remind yourselves of all the great family opportunities.
If you need to connect, please feel free to email me at RSDirector@TempleEmanu-El.org, or pop your head in on Sundays to say hi.
See you in Haverhill!
Warmly,
Mindy Harris
Religious School Director