Carmel Academy Blog

This past spring, the Carmel Academy community said goodbye to Amy Erani, our long term Director of Judaic Studies, founding Board Member and long time parent. In her capacity, Amy provided our school with religious guidance and policy setting. Carmel Academy’s Mission Statement declares that our school “…is passionate about Jewish identity and values.” therefore, it became critical to find a religious leader who embraces our commitment to living Jewish values and will help guide us in matters of religious practice.

Nora Anderson, Head of School and Dr. Tali Aldouby Schuck, Director of Judaic Curriculum and Professional Development, convened a search committee consisting of six members of our parent body. The committee reflected the religious diversity of our school and its members have clearly demonstrated their commitment to Jewish life.

The search committee created an interview process where potential candidates had personal conversations, conducted demonstration lessons, delivered divrei Torah (words of Torah) and spent time observing our classes. After a long search and many interviews, the committee selected Rabbi Seth Braunstein to become Carmel Academy’s new Director of Religious Experience.

Rabbi Seth has traveled extensively, working for many Jewish communities around the world. Some of his experiences include: the educational directorship for YUSSR (Yeshiva and University students for the spiritual survival of Russian Jewry) in Belarus; coordinating a communal educational empowerment program in Perth, Australia; and directing an outdoor adventure leadership training program at Camp Moshava. He has also led a teaching seminar in Austria for the Ronald Lauder Foundation. In Israel, he led an inter-denominational teen program for the Abraham Joshua Heschel School. Seth has worked with a variety of special needs groups in both the Jewish community and the greater world, such as Yachad, The Council for the Jewish Disabled and participated in an inter-denominational rabbinical mission to El Salvador with the American Jewish World Service (AJWS). Seth served as the rabbinic associate/family educator at the Hebrew Institute of White Plains and as the Director of Havayah and Moreshet at Hebrew College in Boston. Currently he directs The Szarvas Fellowships program in Hungary. He speaks Russian, enjoys photography and hiking. Seth received rabbinic ordination from Yeshivat Chovevei Torah Rabbinical School in June 2006.

The hiring of Rabbi Seth completes Carmel Academy’s strong Judaic Leadership Team. With Nora Anderson at the helm, Dr. Tali Aldouby Schuck overseeing TaNaKh, Mishna and Gemara curriculum and professional development, Erica Sokoloff overseeing our students’ Chagim, Chesed and Tzedakah experience and Irit Kornblit leading the Hebrew Language department, CA’s Judaic Studies program is vibrant and academically rigorous.

We are delighted and honored to welcome Rabbi Seth Braunstein to our school. His vast experience, knowledge and engaging personality will make him a valued member of our Carmel Academy community as well as a role model to our students, faculty, parents and community.

As our school grows we continue to take steps to formalize our educational and administrative processes. One of these steps is to become an accredited school. The Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (www.caisct.org) is an approved agency by the Connecticut State Board of Education which provides accreditation to independent schools.

According the National Association of Independent Schools, “accreditation is a system of accountability that is ongoing, voluntary, and comprehensive in scope. It respects differences in institutional populations, missions, and cultures, and fosters institutional change grounded in the judgment of practicing educators. It is based on standards, which are developed and regularly reviewed by the member institutions and which define the characteristics of good schools and colleges.”

The first phase of the accreditation process is the submission of a Self Study Report to the Connecticut Association of Independent Schools (CAIS). Our faculty spent a year studying the fifteen standards for CAIS accreditation and summarizing their findings and recommendations. These findings were synthesized into the Carmel Academy Self Study Report.

The next step of the Accreditation process is an on-site evaluation by a CAIS Accreditation Visiting Team. The CAIS Accreditation Visiting Team, led by Mark Griffin (former Head of School of Eagle Hill) and Shelley Kreiger (former Head of School of Ezra Academy), both extremely experienced and well respected professionals in the field, spent three full days in our school visiting classrooms, assessing our curriculum, looking at our program, analyzing our financial data and ultimately, seeing whether we live by our Mission Statement.

The CAIS Accreditation Visiting Team, unanimously recommended our school for full accreditation. Furthermore, on a 1 to 6 scale with 1 being exemplary and 6 representing failure, they rated our school a 1!!!! Carmel Academy passed the Accreditation Process with Distinction.

On Thursday night at our Board Meeting, Dr. Douglas Lyons, Executive Director of CAIS and former Head of School of Greenwich Country Day School, told the Board that Carmel Academy meets the highest standards of education. He went on to describe the 14 standards assessed as high standards, not as minimum standards of professional practice. Dr. Lyons concluded that our school is one that exemplifies best practices in education.

On behalf of our faculty and staff, we thank the Board of Trustees, our parents and our friends and supporters for their partnership and their belief that at Carmel, students receive an outstanding Jewish and General studies education. May we continue to grow M’Chayi L’Chayil-From strength to strength.

Shabbat on the Kineret by Michael L-
Shabbat in Israel is very special. The first Shabbat we spent in Jerusalem where we got to pray at the Great Synagogue in a formal environment. The second Shabbat was more relaxed and we were away from a major city in a natural environment. We stayed in a hostel in the Galil called Karei Desha. The hostel was beautiful and surrounded by grassy areas and a beautiful beach. We arrived at Karei Desha on Friday afternoon and we began our preparations for Shabbat. After an intense week of hiking and touring, we were ready for some real Shabbat rest!

The Friday night service was beautiful and very meaningful. We sang Shabbat songs, and went through the Kabbalat Shabbat service together. After davening, we went downstairs to the dining room, where we made Kiddush and HaMotzi and enjoyed an awesome dinner. This dinner was especially great because food at youth hostels is not usually good-so we were not expecting to have delicious food! We were pleasantly surprised. After dinner, we went back upstairs to enjoy an Oneg Shabbat. At the oneg, we had candy and cookies and played a bunch of fun games. When the oneg was over, we went to our rooms and fell asleep without needing our teachers to encourage us: we were happily exhausted!

On Shabbat morning, we got to sleep late (8:30), which for this trip was really late, we had been getting up between 5:30 and 6:00 every morning…8:30 sounded like paradise. Shabbat morning davening was very special. Before we left on the Israel trip, our teachers divided the Torah reading among the students of the three schools. A whole bunch of the kids, including me, lained from the Torah and one of the teachers gave a great dvar Torah. I was really happy and proud to be part of this service and to have contributed to it being special for us.

After davening we had Kiddush and another amazing meal! In the afternoon, we had free time to sleep, hang out with friends or go down to the hostel’s private beach on the Kinneret. After all the traveling around, it was so nice to finally have a chance to relax.

A Special Visit to the Na La’Gaat Museum by Eliana W-
The Israel trip has been an incredibly experience for me. Each day we did new, fun things and we learned a lot about Israel. For me, one of the most meaningful parts of the Israel trip was going to the Na La’gaat Museum. The meaning of the name is “Please touch”. In preparation for this visit, we were told that this museum would give us the experience of being blind. I didn’t know what that meant. How could they take away our ability to see-even a little bit!

When we got to the Na La’Gaat Museum, we put all of our stuff in lockers and were led into a dark room by people who were either blind or visually impaired. It was strange because this wasn’t the kind of dark that you could get used to. There was no light at all. It was actually kind of scary to feel so helpless in the dark. We were led to seats at a table and then given a lump of clay and told to sculpt something that represented our Israel experience. It was strange to sculpt without being able to see what you were doing. I kept on wondering, what if my sculpture is horrible or doesn’t look like anything! While we worked, we asked the staff, who was either blind or visually impaired, questions about what it’s like to live without seeing. They were open and very honest with us and they gave me an appreciation of what they go through every day. On the other hand, they were not unhappy or complaining about their disability. They have learned to live with it and live very happy lives.

This was the most meaningful part of the trip for me because it showed me what it would be like to be blind. When I walked out in the light, I had a new appreciation for the gift of sight and the thousands of things it allows us to do every day.

A Hike in the Sataf by Adina H-
Our Israel trip has given us the opportunity to learn a lot about the land and the different landscapes we find in Israel. Even though Israel is a small country, it has a rich natural landscape: it has desserts, natural springs, lush vegetation, hills and mountains. After we left the Yom HaZikaron ceremony at the Rishon Le’tzion school, we had a chance to take a short, but very cool, hike in the Sataf. The Sataf is a mountainside hike in the hills surrounding Jerusalem.

The hike was full of interesting plants and amazing views of Jerusalem. Along the way, we saw an interesting flower called Dam Maccabi’im, Blood of the Maccabees. The flower is small with little red petals on it. This flower is considered to be symbolic of Yom HaZikaron, so it was fitting that we saw it on that day along our trail.

We learned that the Sataf is an ecological treasure where agricultural methods have been reconstructed just as the Israelites practiced them thousands of years ago. Further into the hike, we discovered a small water tunnel that was fed by an underground spring. One by one, we crawled inside the tunnel. The tunnel was very small and dark. Even though the darkness made it kind of scary, it was also really cool. The excitement of the tunnel, together with the beauty that we saw along the trail, made me look forward to even more hikes in Israel!