The Jewish Day School

JDS Glossary

• Advisory - Provides an opportunity to meet in small mixed grade groups to foster community spirit and team building skills. The program is designed to facilitate communication, give support to students in the decision-making process, provide scheduled individual and group activities outside the regular curriculum and serve as a resource in referring students to needed support services.
• Alon - loosely translated "leaflet" - the JDS newsletter. A weekly eAlon (with school information for the upcoming week) is emailed to parents each Friday.
• Beit Din – Jewish Court of Law – 7th Grade students participate in Project Beit Din during the school year.
• Board of Trustees - JDS is governed by a board comprised of current and alumni parents, alumni, grandparents and community supporters.
• Camp Experience – Sixth Grade fall wilderness camp experience which includes team-building activities and environmental studies.
• Camp Seymour – Seventh Grade environmental camp trip in the fall of the year which includes team-building activities and environmental studies. Camp Seymour is located in south Puget Sound.
• Derech Eretz - Positive, intentional behavior
• Derech Lemidah - The pathways to learning
• Development Department - the department responsible for raising funds to supplement the academic and building needs of the school not covered by tuition.
• Annual Auction – school’s largest volunteer effort, this fund raising event is held each spring.
• Annual Fund – school budget’s primary artery providing 23% of operating revenue
• Family Camp - Annual fall and spring weekend getaways at camps in the Northwest. JDS families come together to meet new and old friends, enjoy sports, bonfires and boating while relaxing in a , Shabbat friendly environment.
• Graduation - Gowns are worn for the 8th Grade graduation held during the last week of school. Other grades have graduations and stepping up ceremonies to end the year.
• Haggadah - The book read during the Passover Seder, telling the story of the holiday.
• Hakira - the Hebrew word for inquiry (from the Hebrew verb Lehakir, to recognize)
• Havdalah - A ritual separating Shabbat from the work week.
• Herb Rosen Leadership Seminar – Annual seminar established by the Rosen Family to reflect and honor Herb’s lifetime commitment to making a difference at JDS and the world around him. Community, business and civic leaders come to the campus to share their personal experiences and talk about leadership.
• Islandwood – The 5th Grade environmental camp generally scheduled in January.
• Israel Mission - The 8th Grade trip to Israel is the culmination of the Jewish Day School educational experience and has become a celebration of Jewish History and tradition. Students return from this two and a half week spring trip with more self-confidence and a greater appreciation of their heritage.
• JAG (Journey and Growth) - Program offering a variety of elective, mini-courses designed to enhance the middle school curriculum, to provide more opportunity for cross-grade groupings, to foster team-building skills and to provide opportunities for middle school students to explore their passions. JAG courses may focus on journalism, the arts, music, sports and community service. Students receive grades for participation and citizenship.
• Kavod – Hebrew meaning respect, dignity, honor and integrity.
• Kavod Initiative - An all school effort to increase student-to-student respect in the school as well as to increase the level of empathy in JDS students.
• Kippot - (or yarmulkes) ritual Jewish headcovering
• Lag b'Omer - The 33rd day of the Counting of the Omer. A minor holiday on which the mourning restrictions of the Omer period are lifted.
• Latke - (Potato) pancake.
• Leshomra - JDS green initiative.
• Lomdim Cheshbon – Hebrew for “it is time to study math now” and is the title of JDS Math Initiative designed to strengthen math computation skills in Kindergarten through 5th Grade.
• LRC – The Learning Resource Center provides identified students in Grades K-8 with a variety of support services, designed to maximize their academic potential.
• Lulav - One of the "four species" taken on Sukkot, but often used colloquially to refer to all four. During the Sukkot holiday, there is a commandment to take four species - the Lulav, a palm frond; the Etrog, a species of citrus fruit; the Hadas, myrtle; and Aravah, willow - and wave them in a special ceremony with a blessing.
• Minyan - The world minyan refers to a group of 10 people or more who come together to recite one of the three daily prayer services. In the JDS Middle School, prayer begins our school week as we gather Monday morning for prayers directed upward and inward.
• Mitzvah - Any of the 613 commandments that Jews are obligated to observe. It can also refer to any Jewish religious obligation, or more generally to any good deed.
• Mitzvah Fair – Students from different grades are divided into groups representing ten different mitzvoth. They work together to present their mitzvah and teach about the Tzedakah organization they chose that fulfills the mitzvah.
• Navi - The 6th grade core Judaics class, Navi, follows the Children of Israel as they enter the land of Israel for the first time and struggle to live out the Torah’s ideals while building an empire. The word Navi means prophet, a slightly confusing name for a class that focuses not on prophecy but on a historical narrative. Nevertheless, this section of Bible, which includes the book of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings is collectively known as “Neviim Rishonim,” the Early Prophets.
• Parent Association – JDS parents are members of the Parent Association which works to build a strong school community by providing support for parents, students, faculty, and staff.
• PEJE – Collaborative initiative of major philanthropic partners, whose goal is to strengthen the Jewish day school movement by increasing enrollment in Jewish day schools in North America. www.peje.org.
• PNAIS – Pacific Northwest Association of Independent Schools whose mission is to promote high educational quality for our schools through the establishment and advancement of comprehensive accreditation standards, to foster collegial and ethical relations among our schools, and to safeguard and represent their interests
• Purim - Even though Purim represents a very significant event it is considered a minor holy day since it is not part of the Torah. It centers on the plot by the wicked Haman to murder all the Jews in King Ahasuerus 127 provinces and how Hashem used Queen Esther and her uncle Mordechai to bring relief and deliverance to the Jewish people.
• Rosh Chodesh -The first day of a month, on which the first sliver of the new moon appears. It is a minor festival today, though it was a more significant festival in ancient times.
• Rosh Hashanah - The new year for the purpose of counting years.
• Ruach - spirit
• Schach - the Hebrew name for the material used as a roof for a sukkah. Schach must be something that grew from the ground but is currently disconnected from it. Palm leaves, bamboo sticks, pine branches and wood, as well as many other types of organic material, could all be used for schach, unless they were processed for a different use.
• Shabbaton - A program of education (and usually celebration, too) that is held on Shabbat
• Simchat Torah - A holiday celebrating the end and beginning of the cycle of weekly Torah readings.
• Student Council - Represents the Middle School students' ideas and concerns to faculty and administration, reaches out to all Middle School students in order to facilitate a positive personal experience at school, organizes social events and fund raisers, decides upon and carries out mitzvah projects at JDS and the wider community and organizes spirit events to promote an inclusive, spirited and warm atmosphere in the Middle School.
• Sukkot - A harvest festival commemorating the booths in which the Israelites resided during their 40 years in the wilderness, lasting for either 8 or 9 days and beginning on the eve of the 15th of Tishri. (generally falls in October) A sukkah is also the hut in which we dwell during the festival of Sukkot, should be made from the unused parts of the harvesting grain and wine, namely the stalks of grain and twigs of the vine.
• Tal Am – A program based on the notion that the best learning environment for children is one in which knowledge is acquired through a variety of activities including games and visual aids.
• Team Yerukim - student-led groups of elementary and middle school students which encourage recycling, promote environmental awareness and spearhead new environmental initiatives on campus.
• Tikkun Olam - repairing the world.
• Toshba - The name of the 7th grade core Judaics course, Toshba, is an abbreviation of the longer Hebrew phrase Torah She Beal Peh, which means the Oral law. Oral Jewish law is different from written Jewish Law (known as the Torah) in that oral law expands and interprets the Torah, trying to make this divine document useable and relevant to changing times and changing geography.
• Tzedakah - Generally refers to charity.
• World Math Day - Real-time, online, day long, global math competition. Visit www.worldmathsday.com for more information.
• Yearbook - A yearlong desktop publishing project produced by select 8th Graders, several 7th Graders and their teachers. They work to compile the annual history of JDS.
• Yom Ha-Atzma'ut - Israeli Independence Day.
• Yom Ha-Shoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day.
• Yom Ha-Zikkaron - Israeli Memorial Day.
• Yom Kippur - Day of Atonement. A day set aside for fasting, depriving oneself of pleasures, and repenting from the sins of the previous year.
• Yom Yerushalayim - Holiday celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem in the hands of the modern state of Israel.

Hebrew Greetings/Expressions:
Shabbat Shalom - "peaceful Sabbath" - greeting for Shabbat
Shavua Tov - "good week" - used after havdalah
Chag Sameach - "happy holiday"
Shanah Tovah - "good year" - greeting for Rosh Hashanah
G'mar Tov - "good finish" - greeting for Yom Kippur (you can also wish someone an "easy fast")
Shalom - peace, hello or goodbye
Mazel Tov - congratulations
L'Chayim - "to life" - used in a toast before drinking

Check out more in this "cheat sheet" from www.interfaithfamily.com.