A Diversity Day Hebrew Reading

Golda Och Academy's own Yaffa Malashock, one of our Upper School teachers, will be representing our school at the West Orange Diversity Day this Sunday, May 22.

Morah Malashock will be reading stories in Hebrew -- including some Dr. Seuss favorites -- at the festival, which will be held at the Pleasantdale School in West Orange.

The event is 2 to 5 p.m., and Morah Malashock will be reading around 4:15 p.m. We hope you'll be there!

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From the West Orange Diversity Day website: In West Orange we have more than 50 different languages and countries represented. What a diversity and what a strength! Having a diverse population is an asset to any town and having multilingual individuals adds a lot of different dynamics. A lot of the multilingual and multicultural families in West Orange have moved here from their native countries. They have first hand knowledge of the world. What an asset! Let us take advantage of what they can offer our town and let's celebrate! The event is FREE to visit.

Sixth Graders Battle on Books!

We want to say "Congratulations!" to our sixth-grade Battle of the Books Competition team, which brought home the First Place trophy with a perfect score at the Essex & Union County Battle of the Books at Chatham Middle School on Thursday. The winning team included Lindsay B., Emma M., Kimberly R., Josh S., Nava W. and Isabel Y.

Battle of the Books is a literary quiz competition. Over the course of the year, students read from a list of 15 books selected by a committee of teachers and librarians. They then participated in battles, answering very specific questions about the plots, characters and themes of the books. Battle of the Books began in 1982 and was created by a librarian from Urbana, IL, and it has since spread across the country.

Golda Och Academy has been competing in the Essex & Union Interscholastic Battle of the Books for more than a decade.

Letters to Sala at Golda Och

Each year in observance of Yom Hashoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Golda Och Academy hosts a lecture sponsored by Judy and Steve Elbaum. This year, the annual Elbaum Lecture featured author Ann Kirschner whose book Letters to Sala tells the story of her mother’s survival during the Holocaust. In addition to publishing a book, the New York Public Library created an exhibit of the letters and  memorabilia that tell Kirschner’s mother’s story. Both Ann Kirschner and the NY Public Library’s curator of the Letters to Sala exhibit, Jill Vexler spoke to GOA students as part of the school’s Yom Hashoah observance.

Judy Elbaum, author Ann Kirschner, and curator Jill Vexler.

Kirschner shared with Golda Och Academy students the story of growing up with the knowledge that

her mother was a Holocaust survivor, but not knowing any details about her mother’s experiences during

the war. Sala Garncarz Kirschner ended her silence when, in preparation for triple by-pass surgery in

1991, she handed her daughter, Ann, a wallet full of letters. Sala Garncarz Kirschner, (who turned 87

in March 2011), survived the surgery and – finally - revealed her wartime experiences to her family.

Sala was taken from her home when she was 16 and survived five years in seven different Nazi forced-labor camps. Saving the letters she eventually passed on to her daughter Ann became inextricably

linked with saving her life. The letters were not mere pieces of paper: they were the people she loved,

friends and family waiting for her return. She risked her life to preserve the letters always managing

somehow to take them with her from camp to camp.

Sixth-graders Samuel Z. of Montclair and Joshua S. of West Orange peruse the Letters to Sala exhibit. 

Liberated in 1945, Sala came to the United States as a war bride, and hid her papers in a closet. Five

years of her life were also hidden until the day she revealed the existence of more than 300 letters,

photographs, and documents.

Sala’s story is, above all, a story of life and one young woman’s way of seeing beyond years of horror.

From her letters, we learn about friendship and love, Jewish life in occupied Poland, Nazi labor camps,

the intensely human need to rebuild life after the catastrophe of war, and the ability of words to give and

sustain life.

Through the Elbaum’s generosity, the exhibit, Letters to Sala, is on display in the lobby of Golda Och
Academy, (1418 Pleasant Valley Way, West Orange), through Friday, May 27. Exhibit hours are
Monday through Friday from 8:30am to 4:30 pm. To arrange for visits to the exhibition, please contact
Abby Finkel at afinkel@goldaochacademy.com or 973-602-3798. 

Tapping Into Environmental Good

Sixth graders in Mrs. Lowenthal's and Ms. Himmelstien's classes wrote their own lyrics for a water-conscious entry for a contest hosted by the New Jersey American Water and Scholastic. The "Tap for Tap" Song and Dance Contest seeks to encourage students to help the environment by opting for tap water. The lyrics also were written as part of National Poetry Month (April) activities and the Solomon Schechter Day School Association's Mekor Hayim project.





Three winning classrooms will receive a fun-filled Field Day from New Jersey American Water, brand-new Scholastic books, and a pizza party. We think our sixth graders did an amazing job, and we wish them bucket-loads of luck!

National Poetry Month Rocks GOA!

Contributed by English Department Chair Jane Freeman.


It was the first love poem the fire hose had ever received … not the first for the clock, however -- there were no fewer than seven love poems dedicated to the third-floor timepiece. The gym reveled in the newly found ardor of its four admirers as well, while the stone floor in the vestibule shyly reflected her single sonnet. What was going on? To honor National Poetry Month, students and faculty had written poems in honor of their most beloved Golda Och Academy feature, and on April 1 had plastered the objects of their love in appropriate places (one entire class of students had poems pinned to their shirts!).

There were stranger things going on: Mr. Londino was discovered reading a poem in an English class. Poems protruded from every pocket. Seussical verses and hats on cats were flying through the halls. Perhaps most amazing, however, were the visits from the Urban Word NYC prize-winning Spoken Word Poets. English classes reverberated with the stampede of magical zebras, garbage cans bulging with undelivered love letters and dreams of awakening in a new world … all nudged with the panache only a New York City Urban Word Poet can bring (“The sign on this door says AMAZING!”).

April has just begun … what could possibly happen in the coming weeks? Stay tuned … (Wait—was that Brutus running through the BK in a toga? Chasing Puck?)





Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

A Model Experience at Model UN

From March 13-15, 28 Golda Och Academy students spent three days at the 10th annual Jewish-Canadian Youth Model United Nations. This year we were among more than 160 delegates from nine schools from across the United States and Canada.




Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

The group received an extraordinary number of awards, including gavels for best delegate on four out of seven committees, which were awarded to Oren Fliegelman, Adam Langenbucher, Jared Fineberg and Sam Rubinstein. Honorable Mention awards were given to Anna Brooks, Matthew Davis, Ben Hersch and Josh Pearlstein. In all, we received eight out of a possible 21 awards!

The recognition accorded our delegation is particularly impressive when we realize that most of the schools either have classes dedicated to preparation for the Model UN or coaches who come into school to prepare the students for debate. Our success is a credit to the caliber of the students and to everyone who helps prepare them for these kinds of activities every day.

The entire delegation was commended by the committee chairs for their research, position papers and ability to stay focused as they stayed in character while articulating their thoughts on a wide range of topics. We were continuously impressed by the manner in which our students conducted themselves, both in committee session and during free time when they had a chance to mingle with the students from other day schools! They are confident, poised and always respectful.

As a special bonus we were treated to a lesson on how to tie a turban from Jason Roth during the no-talent talent show. Guess what? He won!

Many thanks to Eleanor Brooks and Michael Monson for their dedication to our Model UN students.

Insightful Interviews with Holocaust Survivors

Once a year, Golda Och Academy invites participants of Café Europa -- an informal group where Holocaust survivors can engage in conversation, participate in social and educational activities, and develop supportive relationships --  to visit the school.

Our eighth graders learn interviewing skills and then meet with a Holocaust survivor to practice those skills. The students write up the interviews as a way to learn more about the survivors and their Holocaust experiences. The student write-ups will be collated into a booklet, and the students will present those booklets to the survivors at the annual Café Europa Yom Hasho'ah program in May.

Lore Ross Café Europa is a project of the Jewish Family Service of MetroWest.