Rudnick’s artistic side
Aside from teaching, new science teacher Marla Rudnick has a great appreciation for art.

Rudnick, whose mother enjoys painting portraits, grew up in a household where art was a common hobby. Once Rudnick realized that her drawing skills were not up to par with her mother’s, she decided to attempt knitting metal instead. She excelled so greatly at it that she eventually began to sell her artwork.

Art gives Rudnick the opportunity to use her “creative juices” and her strong observation skills.

“The one thing my mother always taught me, this is something that I am going to stress in my science classes, is observation,” Rudnick said. “She would say, ‘look at that, look how beautiful that is.’ But in saying that, she taught me to observe things.”

Gold skydives
English teacher Naomi Gold had always dreamed of skydiving, and a couple years ago she finally talked herself into doing it.

The free fall portion was about 10 to 15 seconds, and the rest of the descent was around five minutes.

“[The free fall] goes by really quickly,” Gold said. “There are so many things going through your head, like ‘I’m about to die.’”

Although she did not particularly enjoy the experience because she got motion sickness, she is glad that she finally got it over with. Now Gold can say proudly that she has been skydiving.

Goldstein travels around Europe
Germany, England and Scotland are among Jewish text teacher Joel Goldstein’s favorite places to travel.

Goldstein and his wife have gone on a few trips to Europe, and spent a week in the Alps. Although neither of them ski, they enjoyed hiking and sledding together.

“It was like a nine mile sledding course and the ski patrol had to save us,” Goldstein said. “It was a little crazy … you take the trail lift up and they hand you a sled and are like ‘just go.’ You’re like, ‘alright, I don’t know what I’m doing, but sure.’”

In addition to the Alps, Goldstein has also traveled along the countryside between London and Scotland, and stopped at “markets and all sorts of historical places.”

Rosenthal returns to CESJDS
Alum Dan Rosenthal (‘00) has returned to CESJDS to teach Jewish history for the upcoming school year.

As a high school student at JDS, Rosenthal played drums in the band. Additionally, he took classes from many teachers that still work at JDS including Jewish text teacher Paul Blank, English teacher Annette Lakein, English teacher Thomas Worden and science teacher Nick Miller.

Rosenthal has a Ph.D. in history and after teaching at universities for seven years, Rosenthal is very excited to be back at JDS. He believes that “the level of instruction here is as high as a lot of universities.”

“I hope that I can use my experiences to make classes enjoyable and engaging and to try to avoid pitfalls,” Rosenthal said.

Bar-Noy hikes in America and Israel
Outside of the classroom, Hebrew teacher Yoram Bar-Noy enjoys archaeology and hiking.

Although it was more convenient for him to do so when he lived in Israel, Bar-Noy visits and hikes around national parks in America every chance he gets.

Bar-Noy has always dreamed of going on Shvil Yisrael, the hiking trail from northern to southern Israel.

“I hope when I will have time, maybe after my retirement, to take a backpack and to [hike] with the family,” Bar-Noy said. “To hike from the north to the south, or from the south to the north.”

Platt gardens native plants
Library assistant Terrilynn Platt has always been interested in nature.

As a child, she loved animals because they “move and interact,” however as an adult has Platt gained an interest in plants as well.

“I’m interested in working with native plants and doing rain gardens and eco friendly gardens,” Platt said.

Platt, who is “desperate to have some green life in the library” is considering bringing some of her plants to school.

Banks “almost crashed” in 2000
Math teacher Ellen Sussna-Heyman and her colleagues were preparing for the year 2000.

Sussna-Heyman was a banker by training, and prior to teaching she worked in banking and supervision for the Federal Reserve.

Many people believed that the banking system would crash at the turn of the century, so Sussna-Heyman spent a year making sure that banks would continue working properly on Jan. 1, 2000.

“I spent New Year’s Eve at the Federal Reserve Command Center waiting for disaster and there was no disaster,” Sussna-Heyman said.

After deciding that she wanted to make a more clear and direct impact on her community, Sussna-Heyman became a math teacher and began her career at CESJDS.

Resnick in the outdoors
Math teacher Arden Resnick studied abroad in the “adventurous” Australia for four months during college.

There, she was exposed to many different outdoor activities including hiking, bungee jumping and skydiving. Resnick also spent time traveling around Australia and New Zealand.

Not only does Resnick enjoy adventure, but she also simply likes relaxing outside.

“I like to do anything outside, like hang out by the pool or at the beach, or you know just be in the sun,” Resnick said.

Macht travels to Chile, twice
Middle School Guidance Counselor Jodie Macht spent her junior year of college in Santiago, Chile and later returned to teach English there.

Over the course of her time in Chile, Macht traveled north to the desert and south to Patagonia. She also visited Peru and Machu Picchu.

“If I had to choose, Patagonia was my favorite because they had glaciers, really blue lakes that were almost like turquoise colored, mountains, just a little bit of everything,” Macht said. “I love hiking so there was a lot of hiking there too.”

Goldstein loves dancing
At the age of four Jewish Text teacher Jael Goldstein began to dance and she has not stopped since.

Goldstein danced throughout middle school, dance and choreographed in high school and took dance classes in college. Even last year, when Goldstein worked as a sixth grade teacher in New Jersey, she was able to incorporate dancing into her lessons.

“I taught [them] how to do the Charleston, which is a social dance from the 1920s,” Goldstein said. “I did theatre camp for a few years when I was growing up so I had to do it for one of the shows that I was in.”

Although Goldstein has learned many forms of dance, modern dance is her favorite.

Reiser taught around the world
After teaching English around the world, ESOL teacher and liaison to Israeli families Rebecca Reiser joins the CESJDS community.

“Among the places I’ve traveled are China and Haiti, where I had the opportunity to teach English for a week which was an incredible experience,” Reiser said in an email.

Prior to working at JDS, Reiser taught ESOL in Montgomery County Public Schools.

Aside from teaching Reiser enjoys doing yoga and gardening fruits and vegetables.

Farber volunteers in Israel
After graduating college, ESS teacher Ricki Farber embarked on a year long journey in Israel.

Farber participated in Sherut La’am, a volunteer program in Israel, and lived in Beit Shemesh.

“I was one of two Americans in the town and it was great to be immersed in such a culturally diverse area,” Farber said in an email.

Additionally, Farber enjoys running, playing tennis and doing yoga.