Did your high school aged child have an active Individualized Education Plan (IEP) in elementary school? Odds are that he or she stopped receiving services from the New York City Department of Education (NYC-DOE) close to the time that high school began. The High School Academic Resource Center (HSARC), a project of Teach NYS, Orthodox Union and the Sephardic Community Federation, is here to guide you in reactivating your teenager’s file so that support will be available during these demanding high school years.

Parashat Noah

The deluge that destroyed the world in the time of Noah caused a major upheaval in the physical makeup of the world. The geological and archeological evidence of this change has baffled many a scientist—so much so that even skeptical scientists argue that some fossilized discoveries may be attributed to the flood.

I spent the year after high school in Jerusalem, attending Michlalah Jerusalem College. There we were told to do weekly hesed. My first choice was to volunteer at the Sanhedria Children’s Home and I was thrilled when I was accepted. When I walked into the building, I was beyond excited, but as I opened the door to the room I was going to work in every Tuesday, my stomach dropped. There were only boys and they only spoke Hebrew.

College students who choose to study abroad for a few weeks, months, or a semester or two will reap the benefits for years to come. Studying abroad offers a unique opportunity to grow academically, professionally, and personally while going on a once-in-a-lifetime adventure.

Albert Einstein famously failed math as a child. It’s hard to imagine him struggling with the subject. Imagine the consternation of the grade school teacher who flunked him, when years later that little fish-out-of-water upended mathematical theory forever. Modern physics, our understanding of the world, and the United States’ development of the atomic bomb ahead of the Nazis are all attributed to Einstein’s maverick thinking.

Four Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School (JBHS) teachers recently spent five days at the renowned Herzog College’s Yemei Iyun B’Tanakh (Bible Study Days) in Alon Shevut, Gush Etzion, Israel. “It was an amazing experience. The Herzog approach to learning Tanakh is so fresh and enlightening,” said Tanakh Chairman Rabbi Avner Taler.