Warriors' Week in Review
Dear Parents,
What a great week it has been at MDYHS! It is a pleasure for me to share a glimpse of some of the wonderful programs and activities of the past few days with you.
On Monday, as a prelude to our celebration of Yom Ha'Asma'ut, we commemorated Israel's Memorial Day - a solemn recognition of those who have paid the ultimate price so that we could have our cherished State of Israel. When Gilad Shalit's army unit visited us in October, they gave us a treasured gift - a song written in memory of their fallen friend, Hanan Barak, a hayal in the unit. Two of our juniors, Avi Akibeh and Hannah Cohen helped to produce a video centered around this beautiful song. All of the students had the privilege of seeing and hearing this heartrending tribute, followed by a riveting speech by Sergeant Benjamin Anthony, a machine-gunner in the IDF, and founder of Our Soldiers Speak. Sergeant Anthony spoke of his experiences in battle, his abiding faith in HaShem, and his confidence in the perpetuity of 'Am Yisrael. He charged our students to chase their dreams, to use their strengths and talents to change the world, and to protect our beloved homeland always - in whatever venue we find ourselves. These powerful words touched the students so deeply that a parent wrote to me saying, "I heard about the amazing speaker today...my son cannot stop retelling me the stories he heard, and all the students had the same reaction...they were moved and inspired..." Please see the attached photo from this poignant commemoration, all of which was supervised by our own Ms. Elyse Nadjar.
Following on the heels of Monday's moving tribute, our students celebrated Yom Ha'Asma'ut joyously on Tuesday. We began with a festive all-school tefillah, followed by an inspirational speech by our esteemed Rosh Yeshivah,Rabbi Harold Sutton, on the power of unity and hope for the future as reflected in the State of Israel. A delicious breakfast with spirited singing and dancing set the tone for the day. During the morning, each class was assigned an important figure related to Israel's history - David Ben Gurion, Menachem Begin, Golda Meir, and a host of others - and the students were given an hour to use provided resource materials - to study the personality that was assigned to them, and then to present interactive exhibits to other students in the school. All of the exhibits were judged by faculty members, and the winners were one of our 9th grade girls' classes - for their puppet show highlighting the life of Eliezer Ben Yehudah, and one of our 10th grade girls' classes - for their stirring exhibit on Ilan Ramon. Please see the attached photos from this exciting day, all of whose activities were supervised by our own Ms. Audrey Nasar.
Yesterday, our entire 11th grade, under the leadership of Mrs. Debbie Solomon and Mr. Steve Harris, visited thecampuses of Baruch College and Brooklyn College, where the students were given special tours and learned about the admissions process, scholarship opportunities, the college experience as a whole, and Jewish life on campus. The MDYHS delegation also toured the college libraries, saw student clubs in action, and had a chance to connect with the Hillel staff on campus. What a wonderful way to experience a taste of the future in higher education! (Please see the attached photo from this informative visit).
And while on the subject of a future in higher education, it is a joy for me to extend warm wishes of Mabrouk to the following students on their college admissions and prestigious award recognitions:
Jeff Grazi - New York City College of Technology
Benny Mann - New York State Comptroller's Student Achievement Award
Rosie Mosseri - New York State Comptroller's Student Achievement Award
Noy Yatcha - Brooklyn College
Great success in the area of college admissions does not happen by chance - it takes careful preparation and diligent work. Toward that end, we have partnered with the College Board, producers of the SAT test, to provide free, unlimited access for all of our 11th grade students to the Official SAT Online Course - a one year program featuring interactive exercises, over 1,000 practice questions (exactly like the ones on the actual exam), personalized score reports, detailed answer explanations, and sample essays with annotation. This is an invaluable resource to help students excel on this critical exam! In addition, this coming Sunday we will be hosting approximately 30 of our juniors for the Princeton Review ACT Exam Diagnostic at the MDY elementary school. This service, provided free to our students as a result of our partnership with Princeton Review, will inform each student whether he or she should expect to perform better on the SAT or the ACT, so that the student can strategize as to which exam to take for college admissions. Also, please note that this coming Tuesday, we continue with the MDYHS SAT Workshop, under the direction of expert SAT coach Mrs. Sara Haleva, where students will focus on Critical Reading andWriting Skills. Our students are working hard, taking advantage of these great opportunities, and I am confident that the results will be outstanding!
In yet another way that we assist our students to pursue and attain their dreams of excellence in college and beyond, I had the wonderful privilege, along with Dr. Abe Tawil, to visit with faculty and department directors at Columbia University this past week. Two exciting developments emerged from our meetings: we discussed an arrangement whereby next year, b'ezrat HaShem, we hope to host 2 Columbia University Masters students one day a week for the fall term - they will be working on an educational project of our choosing in fulfillment of their own Masters program; and we will be sending a couple of our faculty next summer to Columbia's intensive two-week Summer Institute for professional development. This partnership with Columbia is extraordinary, and of course, our students will be the proud beneficiaries of this arrangement.
As I mentioned in last week's letter, I plan to share some of the wonderful Senior Internship highlights with you each week. This week, I would like to focus on Yoni Chaya, Helen Esses, and Sophia Dweck - all of whom are interning for Nina Ferrer. Nina is a famous design architect, who was on the cast of HGTV's Design Star season five. Our budding designers and artists, along with Nina Ferrer herself, met up with our own Jeffrey Dweck, when he conducted a site visit as part of his own internship. Yoni is working on a major project; Helen is painting; and Sophia is working on interior designs - all the students love what they are doing, and Nina could not stop raving about our talented interns! (Please see the attached photo from this great site visit). While this was happening, across midtown Albert Manopla was building his future empire in the world of real estate. Working for a realty company, Albert - all by himself - showed a potential client a commercial space, and found out hours later that the client put in an offer for the property! Within a day, Albert worked his way into a meeting with the Operations President of Modell's Sporting Goods. Albert and the president had a chance to talk and to get to know each other. What great beginnings toward successful career pathways!
Our teachers continue to shine as leaders in the educational world at large. Rabbi Michael Bitton, along with a few colleagues from other yeshivot, has organized JedCamp NY-NJ, which is scheduled to take place this coming Sunday. This program will gather more than 100 educators from schools across the greater metropolitan area to discuss various pedagogical and EdTech issues. At the same time, I was so happy and proud to see that our ownMs. Audrey Nasar was cited in the acknowledgements section of A History of the Jews of New York, published by NYU Press, for her valuable assistance in the author's work. (Please see the attached photo of this citation). And this coming Sunday, our own Rabbi Avner Bitton is to be feted as one of the honorees at the annual dinner of Yeshivat Torah Vodaath. MDYHS faculty are awesome!
As we turn the corner of the spring semester, our Spanish Language & Literature students, under the leadership ofMrs. Leah Cymet, have produced their annual Spanish journal, Ideas - a beautiful bound volume of 64 pages that focuses on twentieth century Spanish and Mexican painters, and features articles, artwork, and original puzzles. Our creative trilingual students have produced a masterpiece! (Please see the attached photo of this exquisite work).
Finally, kudos to our powerhouse Junior Varsity College Bowl Team, under the direction of Mrs. Shuli Sharvit, for their victory over the team of Yeshiva of Flatbush in a close and exciting match. Nissim Hazkour led the team to this glorious final competition for the season. Go Warriors!
