Westwood Jewish school prepares for Hanukkah, and a new leader

Tuesday is the first night of Hanukkah, the Jewish Festival of Lights, and K-8 school Sinai Akiba Academy is bursting with preparations to mark the holiday and mark a significant transition in the school's history.

In handmade costumes, the youngest students of the private Westwood school filed onto an auditorium stage as their teacher prompted the lyrics to their Hanukkah song.

Ben Cosgrove, who was in the audience to watch his first grade daughter, had gone to the school himself.

"As did my wife, and my brothers," he added. "We all performed in Hanukkah ceremonies like this. It's really fun sitting in the audience as a parent watching your kids do something that you remember doing when you were a child."

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Hanukkah commemorates an ancient military victory and the rekindling of lights in a Jewish temple after that battle. The school's headmaster, Laurence Scheindlin, was given the honor of lighting the 4-foot-tall array of candles called a menorah.

This was Scheindlin's 35th Hanukkah assembly - and his last.

In June he'll step down as headmaster. His Hanukkah message had to do with the ninth candle people use during Hanukkah, the helper candle that lights the others. In life, Scheindlin told the students and their parents, the person who helps others is the most important.

"Every time we do something for another person, every time we do a mitzvah and help another person, we are performing a miracle."

Hanukkah, he said, is about living successfully in two civilizations, American and Jewish, for example, without compromising either one. He's ready to step aside and let another headmaster lead the school.

"It's very bittersweet," said Scheindlin. "I'm filled with ambivalence about it because I love what I do, I derive tremendous satisfaction from [...] seeing how the flame of education can be rekindled and changed and developed with each passing year and I'm going to miss that."

After 35 years, he said, he feels he's done his best to let his light shine.

Correction: The photo in this story originally incorrectly stated the number of years the headmaster was at the school.