The Academy Chronicle front page: Lions Get a New Roar

The Academy Chronicle | September 19, 2025

Smith Jewish Academy

September 19, 2025

Introducing The Academy Chronicle! Third through fifth graders joined HaMorah Esther to learn how to write, report, edit, and create a student newspaper and tell the stories that matter most — our stories! Here's the first issue from September 19, 2025.

Front page of The Academy Chronicle: Smith Jewish Academy Debuts New Name In case you haven’t heard yet, our school began the 2025-2026 school year with a whole new name. Our school is now named after Harold and Mickey Smith, both of blessed memory, who were passionate about Jewish Education in the midwest. Rabbi Mitchell Smith chose to give a large financial gift in honor of his parents, and a new name was part of the gift. The previous name, Heilicher Minneapolis Jewish Day School, was in honor of Amos and Celia Heilicher. Their family was consulted very early in the process. They agreed to the name change, in the interest of allowing the school to continue its great work in the Twin Cities Jewish community. Dr. Dan Ahlstrom, our head of school, said he is happy with the new name. He likes the community and he is happy with how the school is running. Hannah L. said, “It’s a great chance to honor the Smith family, and I love the new merch!” Hannah is a graduate of the school and on the HaBonim staff. New Chef for a New Year Chef Eric has been a chef for 16 years. He was in the Air Force to make money so that he could go to school to become a chef. He has worked at some four star restaurants. He has a family member who is allergic to mushrooms. This has given him a lot of practice making food for people with a variety of different likes and needs. He said his favorite things to eat are milkshakes, pizza, and tacos. He also loves to drink Mountain Dew. Chef Eric said that cooking kosher is not so new for him, but he has not done so on a regular basis before. He is up for the challenge, though!
introducing b'not sherut; soccer starts strong: New B'not Sherut Are Ready to Play Their names are Klil-Or and Oriya. They said they are really enjoying the year so far and cannot wait for the rest! Here are some fun facts about our bnot sherut: Coincidentally, they knew each other in Israel before coming to the USA. They are both from Mitzpe Ilan, a town in Israel. This is not Klil-Or’s first trip to Minneapolis! She was here seven years ago. In their free time they like to eat and travel. Oriya has five siblings. Klil-Or has four. Remember they are always here for you. p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 13.0px 'Helvetica Neue'} SJA Comes Home to a Big Win The SJA Lions soccer team represented their school proudly yesterday as they took down St. Helena 7-2 in front of a roaring homecoming crowd. Hundreds gathered around Sam London Field as former Athletic Director and current Head Coach Hector Sztainer guided the team to victory. Co-Head Coach Lior Sztainer returns this fall to help mentor your defending league champion Lions. Big shout out to Dr. Dan and all of the volunteers who served up A LOT of hot dogs and chips to the hungry crowd! p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center; font: 13.0px 'Helvetica Neue'} SJA Soccer Starts Strong 9/12/25: Smith Jewish Academy won its first sports competition by a score of 5-3! The first game was our 5/6 team against Groves Academy on September 10. Milo W. scored the first goal for the school. The team was full of spirit both from the sidelines and on the field. Lee Metzger, SJA’s athletic director, said, “the team is developing good chemistry.” The 7/8 team played hard against Blessed Trinity, but they could not pull ahead. “It was a good first game because we were trying really hard,” said Mia M., a player on the team. 9/18/25 (Homecoming): The Lions were hot on the prowl this week! Both teams were victorious in their games. On Wednesday the 5/6 team had one crazy game against Yinghua Academy. Milo Williams scored not once but TWICE to get us going. But the best part? With only one minute left, the score was 3-3 and everyone was freaking out. Then—BOOM! Blake A. kicked in the winning goal and the whole place went wild! 9/10/25: Soccer season is starting and we have two teams - 5/6 and 7/8. The first game is for 5/6 against Groves Academy on September 10. This team is a new team from last year. This team was expected to do well with many talented players. This should be an interesting season for both teams. The coaches for 5/6 are Shai Avny and Aaron Karasov and the coaches for 7/8 are Lior Sztainer and Hector Sztainer.comparing Zelda and Mario; soccer photos: Zelda VS. Mario: There Is No Competition Video games are FUN. SO FUN. When you hear the word “games”you know it’s FUN. AND Zelda is obviously better than Mario. Here is why: Zelda is open world. This means that you can explore. Zelda starts off in a place with no enemies, so all you CAN do is explore until you find a way out. The main characters in Zelda are better. First, because there is only one of them Also, in Mario the main character cannot do much to fight off enemies. In Zelda, though, you can collect a lot of shields and weapons. Link, the main character in Zelda, is more fun than Mario because he can do many things that Mario can’t do. Mario can mostly only run and jump after all! The music in Zelda is better because it really fits the mood of what you are doing. For example, field music is calmer than battle music, which is calmer than Final Battle music. Also, the music in Zelda is better because the end music is pretty much the best music I ever heard. The Zelda series is more interesting to keep up with, as the stories continue to change and evolve. Zelda has more abilities, and one of your weapons even has an ability. Last but not least, Zelda is obviously better because Levi S. likes it more!Rosh Hashanah word searchRosh Hashanah coloring sheet
Staff: Avi C., Maya R., Levi S., Eli W., Lev W.
Photo credits to Steve Teener, et al.
Sports reporting was assisted by Lee Metzger and Elena Levitt.
Editor’s assistant is Sarah McFinkel.