Post-Shiriyah Message From Mrs. Septimus

In my time at North Shore, Shiriyah has always been the highlight of my year. And this year was no exception.

The primary purpose of Shiriyah has always been to raise students to new levels of camaraderie, grade solidarity, and overall ruach –both school spirit and a religious experience. It also reinforces character development, instilling skills like leadership, collaboration, and entrepreneurship that the school emphasizes throughout the year but that find new and bold expression in out-of-classroom contexts.

This year really brought the grades together in powerful ways. The Freshman worked hard in every competition and sang with such ruach during their own songs and other grades as well. The Sophomores had remarkable team spirit and at some points really seemed like they could win it all! The Juniors started off very strong with rope tying and even when things started to fall apart, they felt unified as they came in last place again. The Seniors, as our smallest grade, had a rough start but by Tuesday they pulled it all together and in the end earned a landslide win.

The level of talent this year wowed faculty and students and made judging public speaking, dvar Torah, hallway, banner, cake, and more very difficult. The theme was Israel at 75 and each grade learned about and depicted what we love about Israel, what the country has accomplished these past 75 years, and in what ways it is Israel is central to every Torah Jew.

Shiriyah night took place this year at Sephardic Temple. The room looked beautiful with each grade sitting together by team color. We had 30 minutes of spirited simcha dancing and the night ended with the whole school participating in kumsitz singing and much excitement as we announced the winners.

The faculty and administration also demonstrated amazing devotion during Shiriyah. Each teacher took his or her role in the program very seriously and added to the torah, energy, and creativity with their involvement.

With each year, both myself and the students feel love and excitement for Shiriyah as strongly as the absolute exhaustion afterwards!

Till next year,

Mrs. Septimus