Tuesday, May 01, 2007

BIG NEWS

Ada has been walking around telling everyone she meets that she's going to "Acamy Palm Beach" and she's getting a "napsap" in which she'll put her "shtraw cup with milk" and a notebook. For those of you who haven't yet heard the BIG news, here it is:

We're moving to Palm Beach!

You heard right. We're headed down to sunny Florida, to the island of the palm trees. Dovid has been appointed by the Judy Steinberg Hebrew Academy of Palm Beach as head of school. (That is the "acamy" to which Ada refers.) There is currently a preschool and we plan to open Kindergarten and Grade 1 for the coming school year. And so, a new Jewish day school is born in an area that has the fourth-largest Jewish population in the U.S.! Sadly, only about 32 percent of the county's Jews are affiliated with a synagogue. And with the number of Jewish children there having increased over 60 percent in the past ten years, we have our work cut out for us. I will be Director of Curriculum Development and will be splitting my time by teaching our first grade class.

So how do I feel? Thrilled and excited about this wonderful opportunity and the purpose we aim to fulfill. Happy for my family to be living in a place that is more laid back. Sad for my family to be living so far away from our family (grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins) in New York and Pennsylvania. Proud that my family will become a living kiddush Hashem, with His help. Nervous about adjusting to living on my own without the huge support system I currently enjoy and about managing the logisitics of a long-distance move almost single-handedly (Dovid is going into seclusion as soon as yeshiva lets out in June to cram for his semicha test this summer.)!

Thankfully, with all these powerful emotions threatening to turn me into a pile of useless overwrought nerves, I have very little time to feel or even think too much. I have been so insanely busy working for the Hebrew Academy, I have little time for anything!

One thing I do know: The Hebrew Academy of Palm Beach will be the most awesome school in the county. We're aiming for - and will stop at nothing less than - academic excellence and character-building. We care about each individual child and working with families as partners in each child's Jewish and secular education. I am quite confident that our children will love to learn and learn to love their rich Jewish heritage.

I'm off to Palm Beach next week for a few days. Don't miss me too much while I'm there. Ha! As if! ;)

9 comments:

Ezzie said...

Wow - that's amazing. Good luck! (What's with everyone going to Florida...!?)

AidelMaidel said...

I can't believe you're leaving me! sniff, sniff. This better not be the end of may cuties...

hope to see you at the chasuna!

Mazel Tov! You change your place you change your mazel and since your mazel was already pretty good, it can only get better!

Shoshi and Daniel said...

Hatzlacha Raba!!!

We will miss you so much!

Enjoy the beautiful weather for me!

Anonymous said...

Ayelet- I know I'm supposed to be happy for you, but this makes me very sad... we're really gonna miss you guys!
Adina and Gitti

Sarah Likes Green said...

exciting :)
all the best!

Jacob Da Jew said...

Mazal tov! Much luck to you and the whole family.

Don't forget us!

Anonymous said...

Ayelet, your enthusiam is tangible even here in israel. I can actually smell the palm trees and the sandy beaches. I bet you two will really put this school on the map! Hazlacha to you both bro and sis!!

Eliezer Eisenberg said...

Hatzlacha Rabba in your new life and its extraordinary opportunities to make a real and lasting difference for an entire community.

Orthonomics said...

Much success.