Dear FJA Families, There is no sustained national story as compelling, tragic, miraculous, and uplifting as the story of our people. Our Biblical ancestors experienced fortune, exile, and redemption; first and second temple Jews saw the height of Jewish sovereignty, and the low of conquest that brought with it suffering, destruction, and death; Jews of…

Good morning FJA families, Thanksgiving, or the concept of offering gratitude as a matter of ritual, is as old as Judaism itself. Our forefathers brought thanksgiving offerings to G-d, and with the establishment of the covenant at Sinai, there was a specific sacrifice called the “toda” or “thanksgiving” offering. It was a sacrifice that, by…

Dear FJA Families, You can represent two years in a myriad of ways – 1,052,000 minutes, 730 days, 2 cycles of the earth’s rotation around the sun, or the time it takes to earn an associate’s degree, flip an hourglass 17520 times, or assemble 17 Boeing 747 “Jumbo Jets.” However you frame the value of…

Dear FJA families, The Jewish month of Elul, the entryway to the Jewish high holiday “Days of Awe,” season, often carries with it a weighty and solemn spirit. However, the season is also replete with traditions intended to stir a longing for a relationship with our Creator and to remind us that we have a…

Dear FJA Families, Two weeks ago, at a conference held by the National Association of Independent Schools, it was reported that speakers who had been invited to present at the conference shared rhetoric that is antisemitic, anti-zionist, based on unfounded and distorted narratives, and antithetical to our deeply held core values. We are working closely…

Sukkot is not a holiday designed for comfort. We exit our homes to eat, live, sleep, and socialize in a temporary hut with a flimsy roof where we are vulnerable to the elements and away from the “creature comforts” we have grown used to or dependent on. Even in Israel, where the climate is more…

On Purim we acknowledge that not all is as it seems. We read the megillah where the cast of characters defy their presumed identities and their motives are anything but straightforward. Even God, arguably the “main character,” pulling the strings behind the scenes, doesn’t appear at all in the text. Is King Achasverosh good, bad,…

Martin Luther King Day is no ordinary federal holiday. It is one of only two that is designated as a national day of service (the other being September 11 National Day of Service and Remembrance). In fact the formal name of the holiday is Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service and it is through…

Now the earth was astonishingly empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep… (Genesis 1:2). …And God said, “Let there be light,” (Genesis 1:3). And God saw the light that it was good…(Genesis 1:4). Darkness is associated with a primordial state. Before time, before forms, before dimensions and space, there was only darkness.…

When we think of schools we tend to think of formal learning. Classrooms and teachers, desks and whiteboards (or interactive whiteboards), students and lockers. Certainly all of these elements exist at FJA but we are so much more than the sum of our formal learning “parts.” FJA is a unique community with a culture all…