JPPS-Bialik Newsroom

The 2010 JPPS-Bialik Concert Gala was a major success as the extended JPPS-Bialik family joined together for a night of great food and drink, entertainment, and naturally, schmoozing! More than 250 people attended the 2010 Gala, which honoured the Roskies siblings for their role in advancing Jewish education and the preservation of Yiddish. About $120,000 was raised from generous members of the community.

Montreal, March 4, 2010 — “A classroom is a lot like a football team. Without respect and teamwork, everything falls apart,” Montreal Alouette football player Damon Duval recently explained to a Grade 4 classroom at JPPS.

Purim festivities engulfed JPPS as one of the more joyous Jewish holidays on the calendar made its celebratory return to the school.  Everyone had a ball at the annual Purim carnival, while many yummy hamenstashen disappeared from the packages in order to claim their rightful places—in the bellies of happy JPPS students!

The mutual giving of food and drink in baskets called mishloach manot is a time-honoured Purim tradition. Celebrating Purim is simply incomplete without nashing on a hamentashen, or two, or three. But imagine having the power to satisfy someone’s sweet tooth while simultaneously supporting the vital work that the JEM Workshop does in the community.

For the past few years, JPPS Home and School has graciously sponsored a French Enrichment Program in art appreciation directed by Irène Krausz. This year, the program was revised and expanded. The goal, across all grades, is for the children to gain an understanding of the basic elements and principles of art. This picture depicts a very special art lesson given by renowned artist Joseph Krausz for a Grade 4 class of students. Mr.

JPPS celebrated the festival of Tu Bishvat on February 1, 2010. With its name derived from the date on which the holiday is marked on the Hebrew calendar, Tu Bishvat is commonly known as the “New Year of the Trees.” Modern customs include planting trees (or donating money to buy trees in Israel) and eating dried fruits and nuts such as figs, dates, raisins, and almonds.

Matthew Halickman, a JPPS graduate from 2008, is up to some good. After taking to heart the lessons he learned as part of the Ambassadors of Change initiative, Matthew wanted to make a difference. He wanted to ensure that other students would also grow up with these same ideas. To that end, he began a program whereby he purchased, and will be purchasing more, books detailing the lessons of tolerance, and those books will be donated to various schools.

JPPS students were actually treated to an Olympic sized surprise when torch bearer Bernie Lebovits from Cote St. Luc dropped by for a visit. How exciting. Go, Canada, go!

Back in December, when the latkas and sufganyiot were still warm, JPPS had great fun with their annual Chanukah assemblies as each class prepared some sort of a performance. Whether it was a song, dance, or both, the Chanukah spirit was alive and well at JPPS.
 

 Russell Martin is currently living out his dream as a professional baseball player for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Once upon a time, this All-Star Major Leaguer was a standout player for NDG baseball. It stands to reason that Jordan Glazer, recently named NDG‘s athlete of the borough award for his baseball prowess, has eyes towards the majors himself.