Dahlia Goldbrenner
KOLEINU Shabbat Parshat Vayakhel Pekudei
SAR HS
כז אדר תשע"ג שבת פרשת ויקהל-פקודי 27 Adar 5773 Parshat Vayakhel-Pekudei Candle Lighting: 5:36 March 8, 2013 Havdalah: 6:39 Issue 9
In This Issue Dear Parents and Students, Only At SAR
Enrichment & Achievements This Shabbat will be of a very different pace than Outside the Classroom last for faculty and students. Our Shabbaton last was a beautiful event. I thank Rabbi Kroll, Ms. Chesed שבת Krieger, Rabbi Bloom for their remarkable work in coordinating this event and to the seventy two College Guidance (that's right, seventy two!!) staff members and their families who joined us for Shabbat. The school wide Sports Shabbaton is the greatest celebration of SAR. The ruach and the learning, the singing and the laughter SAR came together in a wonderful shabbat together. Important Dates
March 9 PTC screening of 'FOOTNOTE' Parents, we look forward to greeting you at Parent 8:00pm at SAR HS Teacher Conferences next week. Remember that March 12 מוצאי we change the clocks spring forward this Parent Teacher Conferences .שבת 4:30pm Dismissal
March 18 Shabbat Shalom Parent Teacher Conferences 4:30pm Dismissal Rabbi Tully Harcsztark March 19 Delayed Opening, 9:00am
March 22 April 3 Pesach Break, No School
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P4S2VIII
SAR HS Schoolwide Shabbaton
The
annual schoolwide shabbaton was a huge success. Following the school theme of Dveykut, this year's shabbaton focused on "Letting God In." Through a number of informal educational programs throughout the shabbaton, students explored the nature of their experience of spirituality and of feeling God's presence. 720 shabbaton participants, including students, alumni, teachers and their families came together in the Stamford Plaza Hotel and enjoyed each other's company, camaraderie and ruach. Each year, our schoolwide shabbaton is the largest yeshiva high school shabbaton in the country. There's nothing quite like a group of close to 500 high school students and their teachers sitting together in a circle and singing together at the shabbat meals. The intense ruach forged a real sense of achdut among the entire SAR High School community. There were so many highlights over the shababton including the zemirot, the davening, Rabbi Harcsztark's derasha to the entire shabbaton, the wide range of creative elective shiurim, the town hall meetings, seuda shlishit, havdallah, dancing to the music of the band, the talent show, the breaking of a world record for simultaneous t shirt folding, a kumzits with Shim Craimer and the countless moments of bonding and culture building. Thank you to everyone for putting all of their energy into the shabbaton! To watch a clip of our beautiful havdalah click here.
Purim 5773
With over 700 people coming together for Kriat Megillah, Purim was celebrated with a tremendous amount of achdut, fun and festivity. We had two readings one by men for men and women in the gym and another by women for women in the beit midrash. Everyone who layened did a beautiful job. As usual, the costumes of students and staff added greatly to the festivity. Following the megillah reading the band played and we had a terrific chagigah. After the chagigah everyone filed into the auditorium for a costume contest, the announcements of the winners of the Chinese auction and video shpiels. It was great spending the night with the whole SAR community celebrating Purim together.
Girls' Purim Program
On Wednesdsy evening, February 20th, we ran our fourth annual Girls' Purim Program. The program was attended by over 50 SAR high school girls who took time out of their busy schedules to learn, eat, and schmooze together. The program provides an opportunity for High School girls to learn and discuss issues within a female space. This year we discussed the goals we set for ourselves, where those goals come from, and whether boys and girls tend to think differently about goals. We began with chavruta in the Beit Midrash, where we learned selections from Megillat Esther, focusing on the goals the various characters in the megillah set for themselves. We had a lively debate about the degree to which Esther was active in controlling her fate throughout the entire megillah. After a festive dinner we broke into small groups for discussion sessions. Questions discussed included: What types of goals do we set for ourselves? What types of goals should we be setting for ourselves, but don't? Do you think our broader American society encourages girls to formulate goals in the same way as boys? What about Modern Orthodox society? If goal setting and achieving seems to be different for boys and girls, do those differences work to girls’ advantage or disadvantage? We had many interesting and productive discussions. It was a wonderful evening for everyone!
NEW STUDENT GOVERMENT - A Parliamentary Model
For the past few years, SAR High School's student government has consisted of 2 grade representatives for each grade, and a school president, vice president, and secretary. While this form of student government produced some noteworthy successes, it did not seem to provide enough of a forum for the discussion of serious issues that affect the lives of the student body. At the instigation of senior Zach Nelkin, and with the assistance of current student body president Matt Landes, the GLCs, and Ms. Tamar Krieger, this year SAR High School implemented a top to bottom overhaul of student government intended to afford more representation for a range of student views and shape a governing body tasked with working with the administration to advance substantive issues in the life of the school. Our new student government consists of two class presidents for each grade, and a Student Council elected on a parliamentary model, with groups of 10 students running together on slates and seats on the council apportioned to slates in proportion to the percentage of votes that they garnered. The new system was explained to students in history class, and many expressed an interest in running for office. Six slates eventually contested the Student Council election, with the Freshmen Slate led by Manny Kuflik getting the greatest number of votes. We look forward to a year of substantive and successful school governance spearheaded by our new Student Council.
Mock Trial Team Sweeps Opening Round Trials For the 9th year in a row, the SAR Mock Trial team swept its opening round trials, and now advances to the regional play off round. The team beat tough teams from The Browning School and then Preston High School to advance. This year's case involves a claim by a graduate of a two year computer college who cannot get a job in the computer industry, and claims the school misled him about the quality of the faculty and their ability to get jobs for their graduates. Team members are: Seniors: Rafi Bocarsly; Tamar Lindenbaum and Britt Henoch; Juniors: Eitan Boiarsky, Hilla Katz, Talia Petashnick, and David Rice; Sophomores: Yitzchak Goldstein, Binyamin Kaplan, Jessica Kane, and Shalhevet Schwartz; and Freshman: Shira Silver. The team is coached by Louisa Brinn Schindelheim and Stuart Levi.
AIPAC - Making A Difference
This week seven SAR student representatives attended the annual AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington D.C., along with 11,000 attendees committed to continuing and securing American support for Israel. Abby Epstein, Daniel Estrugo, Samantha Fischler, Binyamin Kaplan, Yoni Rabinovitch, Ariella Schneider and Toba Stern had a fun and fascinating time listening to and watching presentations by Vice President Joe Biden, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Ambassador Michael Oren, Senator John McCain, and Canadian and Italian dignitaries, among many others.
We met with and heard from Brigadier General Dr. Daniel Gold, the man responsible for developing the now famous Iron Dome defense system. In addition to learning first hand about how the break through technology works, we also heard an account of the great skepticism and bureaucratic opposition he faced. Ultimately, Dr. Gold persevered, assembled a team of Israel’s top engineers and in a short time developed the system that has revolutionized Israel’s defense capabilities.
Iran and the need to prevent a nuclear disaster was a large focus of the conference, as mentioned by many dignitaries throughout. The story came alive, though, as we sat in a session on “Can Economic Pressure Stop Iran’s Nuclear Program,” run by Ambassador Bradley Gordon, an expert on Iran and nuclear proliferation. Ambassador Gordon was himself involved in the freeing of captives in the 1979 hostage crisis, the real life story that inspired the recent film Argo.
We attended a range of many different sessions and lobbied United States senators who visited AIPAC. We then joined thousands of other AIPAC representatives on Capitol Hill where we met with and lobbied our congressmen. Each of us individually urged them to cosponsor the Nuclear Prevention Act, the United States Israel Strategic Alliance and Security Act of 2013 and to support the full $3.1 billion in security assistance that the United States committed to Israel for the fiscal years 2013 and 2014, as well as $211 million in additional funding for Iron Dome. You too can be in touch with your local representatives and ask them to support these bills.
We met many dignitaries and officials but we also met many heroes. We were encouraged by the words of Rona Bar Simantov, the wife of deceased astronaut Ilan Ramon who emboldened us to keep shooting for the stars. We watched how in a most heart warming moment a paralyzed man who, with the help of Israeli developed technology had been given the gift of walking again, and before the entire AIPAC audience now met the inventor who is himself paralyzed. We were uplifted by the music of an Israeli musician who continues to bring joy to many others in spite of the scars he carries from the wars he fought defending Israel. And we met Nadav Ben Yehuda, an expert mountain climber from Israel who gave up his ascent to the summit of Mt. Everest, just 300 meters from the top, to save the life of a Turkish climber.
We were inspired and we were entertained; we learnt and we discussed. Plenaries, sessions, gala events, awards dinners, music sensations, technological innovations, lobbying sessions and a visit to the Hill filled our action and information packed three days. We left informed and invigorated, ready to bring what we learnt into our lives, to share it with others and to continue to enhance our efforts to strengthen the American Israeli relationship, knowing that what we know and do can make all the difference.
SAR ALUMNI - ISRAEL REUNION On Saturday night, February 16th, the many SAR alumni spending the year in Israel gathered together for their major reunion of the year. The reunion was held at the historic Beit Ticho restaurant in the heart of Jerusalem. Close to 70 alumni gathered together with Ms. Goldscheider, Rabbi Spierer, and Ms. Mann to catch up, enjoy a delicious Melave Malka dinner, and share their Israel experiences with each other. The alumni enjoyed seeing old friends and sharing their many different Israel highlights. As one student said, "Thank you so much to SAR for having the reunion. It was really cool to be able to see a lot of the friends who I was close with in SAR, but haven't had a chance to see as much in Israel."
We look forward to hearing more about the Torah learning, volunteering, and life experiences of our alumni as they continue to be enriched by the unique atmosphere of Medinat Yisrael.
MSG Varsity - Bronx Champions
On February 28th, the College Bowl team travelled back to NEP Studios on 106th Street to compete in the Bronx finals of the MSG Varsity Challenge, a trivia quiz show competition that is broadcast on the MSG Varsity channel. Victories over a succession of Bronx schools had gotten us to the point where we were playing Fordham Prep for the title of Bronx champions (Fordham Prep having already eliminated our nemesis Horace Mann.) Team members Hannah Saal, Zach Nelkin, Zev Schwartz, and Yannai Segal matched wits with Fordham Prep in a variety of categories, and the close fought game was in play until the final round. At the end, SAR High School emerged victorious, as our team established themselves as Bronx champions and prepared to move on to the regional playoffs. Those playoffs took place on March 6th, and a powerhouse team from Northport, L.I. knocked SAR out in the quarterfinals. We congratulate the team on its most successful season to date, and on the Bronx championship crown.
ENRICHMENT AND ACHIEVEMENTS OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM
AP Bio Experiments at Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
Forty five Advanced Placement Biology Students visited the Dolan DNA Learning Center at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) where they performed two experiments. In the first experiment, a "Restriction Analysis", they cut up DNA with endonucleases, the bacteria’s naturall defense weapons against viruses. They then used gel electrophoreses to separate the DNA fragments. This technique has a number of applications including "DNA Fingerprinting" used in forensics. The technique is also important in evolutionary investigations involving comparisons of DNA sequences. In the second experiment, the students transformed E. coli bacteria by creating conditions that would maximize the uptake of genes, including those that confer resistance to an antibiotic. This technique is important when it is applied to genetically engineering bacteria which subsequently produce important gene products such as insulin and clotting factors.
The CSHL has a rich heritage and has been the home to a number of famous biologists including Nobel Laureates James Watson (co discoverer of the molecular structure of DNA), Barbara McClintock (discovery of transposons), Nobel Laureate Richard J. Roberts (co discovery of introns and RNA splicing), Nobel Laureate Carol Greider (worked on telomere biochemistry), Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase (verified that DNA was the genetic material) and Max Delbruck and Salvador Luria (worked on bacteriophage genetics). In addition to conducting experiments, the students had a chance to visit the small museum which celebrates the amazing work of these and other molecular geneticists over the last 80 years.
The experiments that our students conducted and their visit to the museum helped them to experience first hand some of the principles studied in their AP Bio course. They also saw a film on cell signaling which was created to help students visualize an important phenomenon in cells. Our students worked hard and did a superb job conducting their experiments.
Bob Goodman Tobie Brandriss
SAR HS Science Olympiad - Silver Trophy in 2013 BJE Science Olympiad!
We are thrilled to congratulate the SAR Science Olympiad team for winning the Silver Trophy in the 2013 BJE Science Olympiad held on Sunday, March 3, 2013.
Over one hundred sixty students from thirteen Jewish high schools in the New York/New Jersey metropolitan area competed in 12 events. The Science Olympiad is sponsored by the Board of Jewish Education and is a challenging, fun, engaging set of competitions that gets students to problem solve and think scientifically. The events are drawn from the National Science Olympiad, which is a national nonprofit organization whose goal is to increase interest in science on the part of high school students and improve the quality of science education. Because the National Olympiad meets on Saturday, the BJE has organized a science olympiad on Sunday for Jewish high schools.
Our students were terrific! The SAR team won medals for 9 different events and they took the Silver Trophy as a team. We are very gratified that students from each grade were on our team: two 9th graders, three 10th graders, six 11th graders, and four 12th graders. Each of them played a critical role in advancing our team.
The students worked hard to prepare, both on their own and with the teachers in the department. Their victory was especially noteworthy as they were competing the morning after the schoolwide Shabbaton. The students learn so much from their participation in this wonderful event and as one of them said on the bus as we were riding back to school from the Olympiad, "One of the best things is being around so many kids who are so excited about science."
We are very thankful to the teachers in the science department, Alicia Germano, Tamar Krieger, Tehilla Reiser, and Ron Zamir, each of whom coached the students for the events and to Tamar Krieger who did all of the organizational work for putting together our team.
Members of the team are: Marcella Dabbah, Adina Goldman, Akiva Goldman, Britt Henoch, Ben Kepecs, Aaron Lichtman, Yaakov Padwa, Elana Rosenthal, Alex Rosh, Marty Rubin, Ariel Sasson, Elana Sichel, Rebecca Sichel, Yannai Segal, and Aryeh Zapinsky.
Also gratifying to us is the large number of students (over 45) who participated in the in house competitions that we conducted here at SAR to select the team.
Participating schools were: Ramaz, The Frisch School, Ma’ayanot, TABC, Yeshiva of Flatbush, Magen David, North Shore Hebrew Academy, Kushner, DRS, Ezra Academy, Yeshiva University High School for Girls, SKA High School for Girls, SAR High School
The following are the medals our team won:
Gold medal 1. Elevated Bridge: Elana Sichel and Rebecca Sichel
Silver medals 1. Anatomy and Physiology: Adina Goldman and Ariel Sasson 2. Forestry: Akiva Goldman and Ben Kepecs
Bronze medals 1. Circuit Lab: Rebecca Sichel 2. Dynamic Planet: Ben Kepecs and Yannai Segal 3. Gravity Vehicle: Alex Rosh and Aryeh Zapinsky 4. Thermodynamics: Britt Henoch and Aaron Lichtman 5. Triple E: Adina Goldman and Yaakov Padwa
4th Place Medal 1. Fermi Questions: Marty Rubin and Yannai Segal
Tobie Brandriss Bob Goodman Science Curriculum Coordinators
Poetry Slam On Tuesday, February 19, seven Modern Orthodox high schools from New York, New Jersey and as far south as Philadelphia, met at SAR High School in Riverdale, New York for a Slam Poetry Competition. The slam was hosted by Mr. Hillel Broder, an English teacher and coordinator of the Performance Poetry Club, and seven members of the club represented SAR in the competition: Noah Benus, Yishai Chamudot, Shara Feit, Yael Marans, Ethan Metzger, Zach Smart, and Ilan Wolf. The event was judged by four New York area Jewish poets and writers—Aaron Roller, Cliff Fyman, Michael Orbach, and Joseph Winkler, and was peppered with guest poetry readings by the judges and introductions by SAR’s own Rabbi Harczstark and Dr. Shinar.
Students competed in two formats, a free verse poem and a “pantoum,” a poetic form comprised of four line stanzas in which the second and fourth lines of each stanza serve as the first and third lines of the following stanza. The free verse poem was required to be Purim themed; the pantoum, on the other hand, could address any aspect of religious experience. And as Slam Poetry, or “Spoken Word”, is primarily performance driven, the delivery of these poems was critical for their reception and proved to be quite entertaining and inspiring over the course of the afternoon.
The content of many of the poems dealt with various aspects of their relationship to God. “Six days a week, we wear a mask,” recited Rebecca Rosen, a sophomore from North Shore Hebrew Academy High School in Great Neck, New York. “Help me to understand your ways,” implored Mira Schapiro, a junior at The Frisch School, in Paramus, New Jersey. Some of the high school poets revealed critical questions about their faith. SAR’s Yishai Chamudot called his pantoum “Son of Man,” and described our world as a “pathetic excuse for Eden,” infused with powerful imagery of “split identity, split sea.” And the poem of Shira Levy of Central had a hipster edge. Her poem worked perfectly in the pantoum format, “but you won’t because you can’t” was a powerful, biting refrain.
SAR’s Zach Smart received the award for Best Free Verse Poem. A line from his poem was not only cleverly worded, but was something to which most in the audience could relate: “going where I need to go in order to get where I want to go, I’ve quite forgotten where I am.” Other awards recognized Best Pantoum, Best Poet, and Best Performance.
Aaron Roller, the co founder of the league, mentioned between rounds that although what drove him to set up the Yeshiva University Poetry Slam League was the creation of an artistic community amongst the modern orthodox high schools, the greatest source of satisfaction for him has been his realization that there are “lots of really talented poets in the Modern Orthodox high school community”.
This article was adapted from Lori Marcus’s “Modern Orthodox Students Meet to Slam in Poetry Combat” (2/22/13: http://www.jewishpress.com/news/modern orthodox students meet to slam in poetry combat/2013/02/22/0/) Read more about the slam’s coverage in Michael Orbach’s “On Judging a Y eshiva Poetry Slam” (3/1/13: http://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/125724/on judging a yeshiva poetry slam)
Metzger Performs at Finals of Regional Shakespeare Contest
Though he will not be representing New York City at the National Shakespeare Competition in May, Ethan Metzger wowed many in the audience Tuesday night with his sterling performance of King Henry’s speech from Henry V , and his lovely recitation of a Shakespearean sonnet. Ethan’s rousing monologue, “Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,” was warmly received at the Morgan Library, as was his delivery of sonnet #138, “When my love swears that she is made of truth.” In addition Ethan acquitted himself well in a cold reading of a speech from Coriolanus by the title character. Cold readings are especially challenging as the actors have fifteen minutes to look over a speech they have quite likely never seen before and try to bring it to life.
Twelve student actors contested in the finals of the New York City regionals for the honor to move on to the National Shakespeare Competition, which is sponsored annually by the English Speaking Union. The twelve actors had been selected from a pool of 69 performers from New York area schools.
Those interested, please click here to watch a video of Ethan's excellent performance at Tuesday night's Shakespeare Competition at the Morgan Library.
We Flex our Math Muscles
We continue to set more SAR High School records in our math enrichment program.
Last month, nearly 70 students sat for the 75 minute American Mathematics Competition. Sophomore Marty Rubin merited an invitation to now participate in the grueling AIME (American Invitational Mathematics Examination) because he achieved a score of 126 out of 150 on the AMC 10, placing him in the top 2% of all participants worldwide. Marty has the distinction of being the first student in SAR HS history to be invited to the AIME two years in a row. Sophomore Uri Hoch and Freshman Yedidyah (DD) Naiman rounded out our AMC 10 team of high scorers. Junior Jacob Saks, Sophomore Shalhevet Schwartz and Junior Michael Kesselman earned highest scores on the AMC 12 and were therefore designated as the SAR HS team members. This is the second time that Shalhevet and Jacob made it to the top 3 in an AMC contest.
Five of our nine students who submitted original, independent research papers to the Math Fair in January were selected to present their work at the first round of competition later this month. Sophomores Uri Hoch and Daniel Jubas, who each earned medals last year, are the first ever SAR HS students to be invited back to present different Math Fair papers the following year, at the next level. Additionally sophomores Jacob Shteingart and Solomon Friedman and Freshman Ben Kepecs earned invitations to round 1 as well.
We wish all of our mathletes good luck at their next levels of competition.
Write On
Last week, seven SAR High School Students, Yaela Halper, Elana Rosenthal, Yoni Israel, Ricki Heicklen, Noa Stein, Dalia Scheiner, and Miriam Lichtenberg, accompanied 40 other high school juniors, from the tri state area, on a program called Write On For Israel. Write On For Israel is an Israel advocacy program, funded by the Jewish Week, which meets once a month at Columbia University. It trains these students to become leaders, in Israel advocacy, on their future college campuses through journalism and media. Some of the students on the program had visited the Jewish homeland countless times, while for others it had been their first time in Israel. However, all of the students would agree that no matter how many times we have been to Israel, none of us experienced it the same way we did on this past trip. They were privileged to get a first hand look at the problems that Israel faced on a daily basis and speak to high ranking journalists and political correspondents.
The journey began at the Kfar Saba security checkpoint, where we spoke to soldiers working at the checkpoint. They expressed that this outpost was established as a direct response to violence from the nearby Palestinian population in the late ‘90s, not to set borders. The soldiers are constantly facing situations where a group of small kids will approach them from the front throwing rocks at them and teens from behind throwing Molotov cocktails. When the soldiers push the children aside to continue their daily routine, the Palestinians had photographers situated to portray the situation in favor of the Palestinians.
They then went on to visit the most northern part of Israel, along the Syrian border . Similarly to the soldiers at the Kfar Saba security checkpoint, the soldiers at expressed to us the hardships of how the media falsely portrays their actions. Two years ago when the Syrian government fell, thousands of Syrians came into Israel illegally and claimed the land to be theirs. Instead of the IDF turning these refugees away they let them into Israel. If someone climbs all three fences into Israel but they are not carrying any weapons Israel cannot shoot. Yet to this day, the media blames Israel. When a student asked what the UN does if somebody crosses the border an Australian soldier, named Michael, responded “ They want the Arabs to cross the border so that we can be victimized on CNN.”
Along with the visit to this border patrol, these students had the honor to visit a Forward Operating Base, Battalion 605, along the border of Israel and Lebanon. From where they stood at that base, the IDF soldiers informed them that Hezbollah was watching their every move. The challenge for the soldiers is being on the border and patrolling the area twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. The area they patrol is so quiet, yet this absence of action is what scares the soldiers the most for all they do is watch and wait.
After, they headed to the Jordan Valley and met with Yaron, Commander of the Jordan River Valley regional brigade. Yaron informed the group that hundreds of people come to the Jordan Valley with tents and bring the press with them. If these people who try to come in are wealthy enough to sustain themselves and their only purpose of entering is to stir up trouble, then the IDF does not them though through. The press will then send pictures to newspapers around the world showing a soldier not allowing a poor refugee into Israel.
After two days on intensive military education, they were off to Jerusalem. There they heard from a wide range of speakers like Khlaed Abu Tomer, an Arab Muslim, Palestinian, and Israeli citizen who writes for the Jerusalem Post and Mark Regev, spokesmen for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. They also visited and spoke to the mayor and Efrat and spent Purim in Sderot. Write On For Israel provided these students with skills and information that they will be able to bring with them as they graduate high school and move on to college campuses.
CHESED
Sophomore Students Make an Impact: 10th Chesed Day 2013
On the morning of Friday, March 1st, students in the sophomore class volunteered at seven different sites throughout New York City, as part of the Sophomore Chesed Day. Between singing Purim songs from floor to floor at the Hebrew Home to delivering Purim packages in costume to home bound seniors through BJCC, our tenth grade students shared the holiday spirit with our Bronx neighbors.
Students also helped to sort and package food for distribution at the Foodbank of New York, led a bingo game at a Met Council low income housing site, sorted and packaged medical supplies to be shipped to third world countries with AFYA, and packed and distributed free nutritious groceries to low income families at Yorkville’s food pantry.
Ms. Anat Katz, a sophomore advisor, reflected on her experience volunteering at Kittay House, an assisted living facility in the Bronx: “These kids surprised and amazed me. Our "task" was to retell the Purim story and sing songs. Somehow the kids were able to twist this into a very engaging and vibrant two hours! With those seniors that were cognitively able to engage, they conversed and even argued about different interpretations of the Megilla. With those less able, they asked and talked about their senior's lives and shared from their own. We got up their and sang (let's just say, we will not be participating in Nashir). Alex Haberman & Jeremy Tzigutkin were incredible. They really made a difference at their table. Jeremy, in particular, who was paired with a senile old woman, was so patient and kind to this woman, and spent almost two hours talking to her. Ilan Wold, Shira Wolf, Ora Rogovin, Jeremy and Alex held a very lively discussion (speaking into a microphone) about the different possible interpretations of the Megilla.”
Thank you to the sophomore advisors and fellows who made the chesed day so successful.
Hoops for Heart
On February 27th, 2013 SAR’s Physical Education department (Valerie Gryzlo and Martin Berlin) ran a program to raise money for children with heart disease. Teachers and students wore their best red to support a healthy heart. The program, called Hoops for Heart, was a great success. In one hour we raised over $200. Students came to the gym made a small donation and then participated in different basketball and hula hoop activities. A variety of students from all grades participated. We also had students volunteer to help run the program. Seniors Amanda Goldsmith, Danielle Pitkoff, and Malka Hirsch worked on promoting the event and running the donation table. Talia Laifer and Lauren Levy were in charge of the music throughout the event. Lilly Scherban, Dalia Gatoff and Jenna Goldschmidt handled the score keeping. Thanks to all of them, the event ran smoothly. We also want to thank the health club and art club for all their great work and support. This would have never been a success without the many wonderful volunteers.
Some background on Hoops For Heart: Hoops For Heart (HFH) is a national fundraising program sponsored jointly by AAHPERD and AHA. HFH is a valuable program that promotes physical activity, heart healthy living, and chesed. It helps set and achieve goals, where they discover that they can make a difference!
Gives students the opportunity to work on basketball skills and play exciting skills games. Funds critical research and educational programs that fight heart disease and stroke, our nation's No. 1 and No. 3 killers. Involves the entire school.
Children learn to realize that regular physical activity in childhood and adolescence improves strength and endurance, reduces anxiety and stress, helps control weight, builds healthy bones and muscles, and increases self esteem. These healthy lifestyles lessons carry on into adulthood and help to make physical activity part of their daily lives. Hoops For Heart helps establish lifelong habits!
SAR HS Responds to Blood Shortage in New York City
With 61 units of blood collected on March 5th, SAR responded to the severe blood shortage in New York City. From 8:45am to 3:30pm the gym was booming with students, faculty, and parents eager to donate to the New York City Blood Center.
Our Blood Drive Committee, composed of dedicated juniors and seniors, enthusiastically recruited donors and supported their peers through the blood collection process. The Blood Center’s Account Manager was amazed at the commitment of the volunteer committee and the overwhelming desire of students to sign up for the drive. The collected pints of blood will be used to save 183 lives!
Chesed Begins At Home: February Service Mission:
Over the February break, 13 Juniors, including myself, dedicated our week to doing chesed that started and ended in New York. On Monday and Tuesday, we ventured out to Breezy Point, Long Island to help those families who were affected by Hurricane Sandy. Students tore down one house, while others cleaned and made another house ready for the family to move back in the next day. On Wednesday, we traveled to the lower East side to the Education Alliance facility. The majority of children that attend Education Alliance are Asian. We read books to three and four year olds about the upcoming Chinese New Year as well as assisted them with an art project. Next on the agenda was helping 4th and 5th graders from a local public school with their homework. While previously the children we had been working with were Asian, these students where mostly African American. We concluded a hard days work with dinner and a Nets game. On Thursday, the final day of the Mission, we began at the Food Bank of New York where we packaged over 2500 pounds of food that will feed over 1800 people. After we completed our assignment at the Food Bank, we arrived at our final destination of the trip, POTS (located in the Bronx). POTS is an acronym for Part Of The Solution. We sorted, cooked, plated, and served food to over 1000 needy people in just 3 hours.
Our February Chesed Mission taught us many lessons. First, New York City is extremely diverse. We learned how the lower East side wasn’t always Asian, but Irish, Jewish, and Italian. Second, 13 of us made a big difference in a very short amount of time. The woman that owned the house that we were cleaning began to cry when she saw that it was restored and that she was able to move back in. Imagine if we were in Breezy Point for a month, how many other lives we could change. And try to envision serving 1000 hungry people in just 3 hours! And finally, we realize how thankful we are for what we have. I would like to thank Yoram Roschwalb and Ms. Meier for providing us with this wonderful opportunity. Moshe Schwartz
Haiti: A Treasure Chest of a Country
Over the February vacation, I visited Haiti and specifically Port Au Prince on a relief mission. We visited an orphanage, a local school, the sites for the Afya Foundation's work in Port Au Prince, and got a real stark and sharp view of what the developing world looks like, at least in my opinion. I wrote a blog about my experiences, and want to share a small snip pic of my writing with the student body of S.A.R: "People tend to assume that slums are dirty because people are uneducated and do not know any better. That is so false there are no other options, so they make the best of their situation by putting garbage in a 'center.' It's actually very well planned considering the fact that there are no other options. As I’ve mentioned previously and will continue to do so we need to look past the glossy images and banal statistics to understand the true situation of Port Au Prince and its slum world."
Interested in more? Check out my blog here: https://docs.google.com/a/ sarhighschool.org/document/d/14hrEytB09B_GmASq9UaetjT0a J2i00ZRsyi_q3aDLc/edit. And pictures: https://docs.google.com/folder/d/0B JT_8L8hzS1N1pQOG9KUHVmR1k/edit? usp=sharing.
POST HIGH SCHOOL: COLLEGE PLANNING College Corner
If you’re a parent of a current junior, or have ever been the parent of a junior, you know what a busy and important year this is! In addition to working hard on their courses and being involved in a plethora of extracurricular activities, students are beginning to seriously consider how to choose a college that meets their academic, social, and religious needs. On Wednesday March 13th we will visit New York City campuses: Yeshiva College/Stern College, New York University, and Queens College. Our goal is to help students begin to visualize themselves as college students and to consider what type of college offers the best fit for each individual. By visiting a variety of campuses, students experience firsthand the difference between campuses, large and medium size student populations, and the variety of Jewish life.
Back at SAR, junior advisories were introduced to Naviance, a powerful tool that allows students and their parents to easily research colleges for academic majors, admission and testing requirements, and much more. Upcoming junior advisories will focus on preparing a college resume that highlights academic and extracurricular achievements, learning about the college interview, and practicing interviewing skills. Finally, future junior advisories will emphasize the college essay and introduce students to the Common Application. We are confident that with hard work and thoughtful preparation, this year’s class of juniors will discover many rewarding opportunities in their future.
On February 27th we met with colleagues from CAJUE (Counselor Advocacy for the Jewish University Experience). CAJUE meets four to five times a year and provides the opportunity to share best practices with other college counselors from neighboring Jewish Day Schools. This past meeting took place at Ma’ayanot in New Jersey where among other issues we discussed the benefits of Naviance, a potential NYU housing change that could affect observant Jews, and CUNY admissions.
Sophomore and junior parents met in the College Counseling Center last Tuesday morning for a chance to ask questions about the college process. Everyone agreed that applying to college has certainly changed since they attended, and that understanding what’s involved helps to make the application process less stressful. We encourage you to call if you have any questions about this exciting time in your children’s lives.
SAR ATHLETICS
SAR Wrestling Caps Off Season With Unprecedented 2nd Place Finish
In only their second year, the SAR wrestling team wrapped up their season with an unprecedented second place finish at the Henry Wittenberg Invitational Wrestling Tournament. Two Hundred wrestlers from 14 Yeshiva high schools across the country competed at this annual 4 day event held at Yeshiva University. SAR wrestling had a 12th place finish in their first year and were able to jump all they way to second place with the great effort, determination, and never quit attitude of all the team members. Assistant Coach Eric Samson has been quoted as saying "In the fifteen years of this tournament's existence, no team that has been this new has done this well. Myself and all the other coaches are very proud to coach such exceptional student athletes!" The team brought seventeen wrestlers to the tournament and left with eight individual trophies out of fourteen weight classes. Some of those great individual performances came from Captain Harry Scheiner (1st place), Captain Josh Shaw (2nd place), Gabe Santoriello (1st place), Achsaf Atzmon (2nd place), Alexander Haberman (2nd place), Ben Listman (5th place), Jeremy Berger (2nd place), and Jonathan Wiener (5th place). The team is very happy with their improvement, but will come back next year with greater expectations and their sites set on 1st place!
Sports updates:
The Boys Varsity Basketball Team lost to Frisch in the Quarter finals, after beating HANC.
The Girls Varsity Basketball Team lost to Central in the first round of the playoffs.
The Girls JV Basketball Team defeated Flatbush. Now they go on to the Semi finals at HAFTR on March 12th at 8:30pm
After defeating Kushner the Boys Varsity Hockey Team lost to DRS in the Quarter finals.
The Boys JV Basketball Team will play in the Semi final round at North Shore on Monday March 11th @ 8pm.
The Girls Varsity Volleyball Team won against Frisch in the Semi finals and will play in the championship on March 13th @ 7:15pm at Wastchester Hebrew High School .
The Girls JV Volleyball Team won against Maayanot in the Semi finals and will play Frisch in the championship on March 13th @ 8:30pm at Westchester Hebrew High School.
The JV Boys Hockey Team lost in the playoff semi final round, 2 1, at DRS. Jacob Ungar scored the goal for the Sting. Congratulations on a terrific season.
SAR
Planning your Pesach menus? Need a special hostess gift(s)?
Order SAR's "The Open Kitchen," a fresh approach to cooking kosher. Visit www.openkitchencookbook.com to order. $36 per book. Copies also on sale in the HS office. All proceeds benefit the SAR Scholarship Fund and Programming.
Dedicated in memory of Sheri Raskas, z"l.
SAR counts on our parents, grandparents, alumni and friends to celebrate and support our milestone events which enrich academic, co curricular, secular and Judaic studies. As a token of gratitude, sponsors will receive program acknowledgement, be recognized in Koleinu and be listed in parent and faculty announcements. Kol HaKavod to College Night, Israel Night, SAR Auction, Drama Society and Nashir sponsors. These upcoming programs are available for sponsorship. For more information, visit www.sarhighschool.org/sponsor or contact Rachel Spinner, [email protected].
Yom Yerushalayim 5/8/13 Night of Art & Music 5/30/13 Adult Education Ongoing Drama Society Productions Spring Rosh Chodesh Celebrations Monthly
שבת שלום
SAR ACADEMY SAR HIGH SCHOOL Jesselson Campus Dedicated to the Memory of JJ 655 West 254th Street Greenberg
Riverdale, NY 10471 503 West 259th Street 718.548.1717 Riverdale, NY 10471 www.saracademy.org 718.548.2727 www.sarhighschool.org
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