To most students, high school seems like an overload of homework and an endless amount of classroom lectures. To others, like the boys of Yeshivat Shaare Torah, high school is an opportunity to learn not only from teachers, but to give back and learn from peers as well.
Yeshivat Shaare Torah, located on Avenue P in Flatbush, initiated a chavrusa (study partner) program where high school boys pair up with OHEL Bait Ezra residents.
High School Junior a Winner in Touro Entrepreneur of the Year Contest
Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School junior Joseph Benun finished in second place in Touro College’s Gryfe-Levy Student Entrepreneur of the Year Contest. As part of the contest, students from metropolitan yeshivahs prepared detailed business plans for an original product or service.
A unique event was held recently for executive directors and fundraising professionals at Caraville Glatt in Brooklyn. The purpose of the event was to offer schools and nonprofit organizations solutions that can be implemented right now to improve their fundraising results. The event featured valuable information, tips and real-world examples to help fundraisers make their programs more productive.
Well known and respected presenters helped attract a diverse group of participants. Michael Rothschild, Director of the Chofetz Chaim Heritage Foundation, opened the proceedings with a short account of how his organization has successfully used different marketing techniques to achieve its goals.
The highlights of the afternoon included presentations by Rabbi Herschel Leiner, president of H. Leiner & Co. and a founding partner in Eastgate Management Service Corp; and Yitzchok Saftlas, president of Bottom Line Marketing Group.
The winter season at Yeshivah of Flatbush was filled with drama. That is, the good, entertaining kind of drama that accompanies the annual school plays.
The Joel Braverman High School senior class production of Fiddler on the Roof was held on a Saturday night. A packed audience of family, friends, alumni and the senior class, supported their fellow classmates. The play, directed by Marius Zilberstein and senior Stephanie Lifshutz, starred Tzachi Posner as the philosophical village milkman Tevye and Amanda Levitt as his wife Golda. Sara Reiss, who played Yenta the nosy matchmaker, had the audience roaring with laughter from her perfect Yiddish accent. By the laughter and applause throughout the play, it was apparent that Fiddler on the Roof was a huge success, which is a direct result of the long hours spent during practices and dress rehearsals, and the huge amount of effort from the entire cast and crew.
Rochelle and David Beyda recently opened their hearts and home to benefit Imagine Academy for Autism. The Bake Sale and Chinese Auction were dedicated in loving memory of Joseph D. Beyda A’’H. Imagine Academy is a special needs school that is dedicated to helping children with autism spectrum disorder reach their fullest potential socially, emotionally and academically, thereby improving their lives and the lives of their families.
The event began with a poignant speech by Rabbi Joseph Beyda on the importance of spending quality time with our children and family as well as its impact on our community.
Congregation Shaare Shalom recently held its annual Purim party. Thanks to the hard work of many members of the congregation, it was a smashing success!
When one performs an act of hesed, it becomes a domino effect, as one good deed leads to another. Recently, Magen David Yeshivah held a fun-filled carnival in honor of the Torah School for Special Children, a school that focuses on the needs of Jewish children born with Down syndrome. There was a superb turnout, and everyone was very excited; the night was filled with acts of generosity and kindness.
“To dance with the students from the Torah School for Special Children not only brought simcha to each student, but also created a sense of joy in everyone who participated,” said Rabbi Baruch Hilsenrath, principal of Magen David Yeshivah.
More than 10 years have passed since the Conference on Holocaust-Era Assets took place in Washington in December 1998. The 44 nations who signed the 11 principles at the Washington Conference have dealt with this self-commitment and the responsibilities tied to it in different ways. Sweden was amongst the signatory countries.
International standards for dealing with Nazi-Era claims were established on the basis of the 11 principles. These moral guidelines even go beyond what was agreed to at the close of the conference, in an effort to account for the atrocities of the Holocaust.
Jewish travelers arrived in Japan with Portuguese and Dutch merchants as early as the 16th century, but Jews did not permanently settle there until after Commodore Perry’s arrival in 1853. By 1895 the Jewish community developed to about 50 families and established Japan’s first synagogue.
In the 1880s, Jews settled in Nagasaki, a Japanese port city that was accessible to Jews fleeing from Russian pogroms. Soon after, the Nagasaki community, with about 100 families, was larger than the one in Yokohama. The Beth Israel Synagogue was built in 1894. During the Russo-Japanese War the Nagasaki community disintegrated, passing its Torah scroll to the Jews of Kobe. One of the most esteemed members of this group was Joseph Trumpeldor, who later became a hero of the Zionist movement for his role in the formation of the Jewish Defense Forces in Palestine.
We, the Sephardic community of NY and NJ, are blessed in ways that one cannot count or fathom. Like no other group, we can depend on each other during happiness and sorrow, sickness and health, prosperity and hardship. Like a successful marriage, we are there for each other. Caring and helping are major elements of what it means to be a Jew; and in our community it means even more.
Everyone is well aware that today, times are tough. While some businesses, with G-d’s help, have maintained success, others have not fared as well through this economic storm. Business is slow, money is tight, and everyone, from the richest to the poorest, is making changes in their lives and in their businesses. We, too, are asking you to make a change.
After you have 15,000 people call the Governor to protest his proposed $62 million in cuts to New York’s private schools, how do you send an even stronger message to the powers that be in Albany? If you’re TEACH NYS, you arrange for 50 of the most important Jewish leaders from throughout New York to travel to Albany and tell their legislators, “We need help.” So, TEACH NYS arranged for a coach bus to pick up yeshivah leaders from Brooklyn, Manhattan, Queens, Long Island, Monsey and Westchester. Nearly 50,000 yeshivah students were represented by dozens of yeshivah leaders in Albany. The group met with over 40 elected officials, declaring their one clear message—stop the disproportionate cuts to private schools in New York.
Yom HaShoah was established in 1951 by the Prime Minister of Israel David Ben-Gurion and the President of Israel Yitzhak Ben-Zvi. The original proposal was to hold Yom Hashoah on the 14th of Nisan, the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, but this was problematic because the 14th of Nisan is the day immediately before Passover. So, the date was moved to the 27th of Nisan, which is eight days before Yom Ha’atzmaut, or Israeli Independence Day. Yom HaShoah is also known as Holocaust Remembrance Day, when we remember the six million Jews that perished in the Holocaust.
There are many things to remember on Yom HaShoah, one of which is Kristallnacht, the evening of November 9-10, 1938, when Nazis terrorized Jews throughout Germany and Austria. Thirty thousand Jews were arrested and sent to concentration camps; 91 were killed. Thousands of Jewish shops, businesses and homes were looted and pillaged and over 1,000 synagogues were destroyed. This night came to be known as Kristallnacht, which means Night of Broken Glass, due to all the broken glass from the looting.
Contrary to popular belief, it was not Queen Isabella’s jewelry that enabled Columbus’s discovery of America; rather, it was Spanish Jewry! In particular it was Luis de Santangel, whose grandfather had converted from Judaism to Christianity under pressure of Spanish persecution, who lent nearly 5 million maravedis to pay for the voyage. In addition, Santangel’s influence with King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella was decisive in gaining their acceptance of Columbus’s proposals. In recognition of his assistance, Santangel was the first to hear of the historic discoveries directly in a personal letter from Columbus.
Jews celebrate the first two nights of Passover with a joyous family event—the seder. We relive the experience of our ancestors as they were exiled and enslaved in Egypt, then liberated by G-d over 3,300 years ago. We recount the miracles of the exodus, and pray that the future redemption comes very soon.
