Girls' Dance Team Win

We are proud to announce that the second annual Yeshivah of Flatbush Dance Team competition with representation from Hillel Yeshiva, Magen David Yeshiva and YOF resulted in a resounding first place win for Flatbush. Team captains Barbra Dayan, Sheri Tourgeman (seniors) and Kim Hamadani (junior) joined team members Caroll Dweck, Claudia Elkharrat, Sara Fligelman, Adele Greenberg, Cyntia Haddad, Jacklyn Klein, Helen Menashe, Helen Shalam and Sarah Sitt in a highly synchronized and dramatic performance that wowed the judges and the audience. Chloe Dweck and Janet Chrem were feature vocal performers, adding another level of talent to this spectacular event. At the end of the program, each team received a prize and donated money to their chosen tzedakah. Claudia Elkharrat explained why the Flatbush team chose to donate to Imagine Academy. Thank you to everyone who participated and came to show support, especially to Ms. Birman for being MC and to the Ladies Auxiliary for the use of their cotton candy and popcorn machines (and Ms. Rosie Dayan for her help).

Chris Herren Comes to Flatbush

Yesterday, former college superstar and NBA player, Chris Herren, came to speak to us about the hard times he faced in his life due to chronic substance use. It all began with alcohol and marijuana use in high school and continued to a debilitating drug addiction. Chris really opened our eyes and shared many stories with us. He told us that when he was in high school he was one of the best players in the country and he was the talk of the town. He got us thinking how you can be on top but by making poor decisions and doing bad and dangerous
things it can lead to your downfall. Many of us who love playing basketball were thinking how lucky he was having it all set for him and in one night he ruined his whole life. One stupid decision changed his whole life forever. He was already a wealthy person and he could have been a successful in the NBA but because of his horrible choices, he lost it all. People our age should be making right decisions because the choices you make can affect yourself as well as the people around you, like your family and friends. We’re very happy to see that Chris is sober and clean now and we wish him all the best.


Thank you, SAFE and thank you, Chris!
- Joey Arazi, Joey Sabbagh, Maor Salman - Seniors '12

Solidarity with Toulouse

The recent terror attack on a Jewish Day School in Toulouse, France made headlines all over the world and shook the entire Jewish Community.

At the Yeshivah of Flatbush we are particularly connected, as our very own Ms. Hanny Zaltzman grew up in Toulouse.  In fact, she was a student in the first class of elementary school at which the shooting took place.  This afternoon, Ms. Zaltzman was the featured speaker at an assembly in which the Yeshivah of Flatbush showed its solidarity with the Jewish Community of Toulouse. 

After a brief introduction by Assistant Principal Rabbi Joseph Beyda, Ms. Zaltzman addressed the entire student body.  She described the peaceful nature of the city of Toulouse and the spiritual caliber of its Jewish Community, which has roots back to the Middle Ages.  She then relayed conversations she had with her mother and her niece.  Her mother is the Principal of the elementary school which the young victims attended.  Her niece was with the victims just moments before the shooting and witnessed it firsthand.  Rabbi Beyda and Ms. Zaltzman explained to the students that the Jewish People are unique in that we are all connected and we share each others pain and lend each other support.  This is the meaning of the concept "Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh BaZeh."  

Ms. Zaltzman was followed by a Hashkavah delivered by Rosh Yeshivah Rabbi Raymond Harari, who also led the Yeshivah in a rare "whole school" Minha.  Each student in the Yeshivah will be writing a note to the Jewish Community of Toulouse in a show of support.  May Hashem comfort all of the bereaved amongst the Mourners of Zion and Jerusalem.

Torah To Go Series: Parshat Vayikra

Dance Competition this Sunday!

This coming Sunday March 25, 2012/2 Nissan 5772 Flatbush will be hosting its Second Annual Dance Competition in the high school auditorium. We encourage all girls to attend.

Tickets are $10 at the door.

Please come at 4:00 PM to support our Flatbush team.

 Participants:
 Barbara Dayan - Captain
Kimi Hamadani - Captain
 Sheri Torgueman
Adele Greenberg
Sarah Fligelman
Hellen Shalam
 Hellen Menashe
 Claudia Elkharrat
 Cynthia Haddad
Jaklyn Klein
Sarah Sitt
 Caroll Dweck

 Can't wait to see you all there!

WordMasters February Results

Four teams of students representing the Yeshivah of Flatbush recently won highest honors in this year's WordMasters Challenge, a national competition for high school students requiring close reading an analysis of many different kinds of literature, prose and poetry. Participating with 548 school teams from all across the country, our 12th graders placed first in the nation, our eleventh graders placed second in the nation, our tenth graders tied for third place in the nation and our ninth graders placed fifth in the nation. The teams are supervised by faculty advisor Shifra Hanon.

 Several of our students won highest honors for acheivements as well.

Seniors: Jeanette Braha Eddie Esses Andrea Sahris Eliana Schwartz Steven Staynberger and Lauren Zalta Placed among the highest 47 students out of 54,000 participants nationwide.

Juniors: Bert Chabbot, Renee Saff, Sol Sultan and Tali Zenilman placed among the top 39 of elevnth grade students.

Sophomores: Andrew Hersh, Aliza Kantarowitz and Albert Mishan were among the 22 highest scoring tenth graders.

Freshmen: Eli Cattan, Jen Fallack, Sarah Levy and Gabriel Rudy are amonth the top 49 highest scoring ninth graders.

The premise behind he WordMasters Challenge is that attentive reading and sensitivity to language are among the most important skills students acquire in school. the texts students must analyze for the challenge ranges from short stories to poetry to Shakespeare, even articles from the New York Times.

The students will participate in one more meet in the coming months, and medals and certificates will be awarded in june to those who have achieved the most in the course of the year.

YU Poetry Slam

Last week, some of our students attended a Jewish Day School Poetry Slam competition. Our students wrote and performed their own original compositions and competed against Jewish Day schools across the state.

 Our very own Sophomore Aliza Kantarowitz placed second as Poet of the Day.

We are so proud of her and all of our students who participated in this wonderful literary competition. Here are some of the performances from the competition.

 Special Thanks to Faculty Coordinator Ariela Robinson.

Model Congress

Congratulations to the entire Model Congress team for their performance at the HAFTR Yeshiva League Model Congress event that took place on Wednesday, March 14, 2012. They all worked very hard in their committees, presenting bills and debating legislation with other delegates. From among the hundreds of participants, 10 Yeshivah of Flatbush students were recognized with awards for their efforts: team captain Jessamyn Sutton, Ariel Aiash, Jacob Setton, Tomer Kornfeld, Shelly Reizen, Michael Bildirici, Viviane Wahba, Miriam Einhorn, Jamie Baum, and Hymie Anteby, who won a gavel for "Best Delegate" in his committee. The conference proved to be an enjoyable and educational experience for all, highlighted by a wonderful address by an AIPAC representative, in addition to the lively and informative committee sessions.

Color War 2012: Breakout

This year's color war focuses on the theme of leadership. Each team represents a different trait that succesful leaders share:
Green - Integrity/יושר - Earth
Red - Courage/אומץ - Fire
Yellow - Selfless/נדיבות - Wind
Blue - Faith/אֱמונה - Water

We broke out Color War 2012 with this amazing video:

Book Day 2012

Teachers and guests led 60 fascinating and insightful sessions all on themes related to the book 1984, by George Orwel, as they apply to our lives today, that students are still talking about. In addition, there was a marvelous luncheon for guests and faculty coordinated by Rochelle Dweck, Ami Sasson and Shifra Hanon which added an elegant touch to the day.The opening assembly kicked off the day with a keynote speech by Rabbi Abraham Cooper who spoke about how the insidious dangers of 1984 have crept into our Jewish lives today. That was followed by a riveting student enactment of a scene from the book 1984. This was followed by a documentary film depicting the lives of people who lived in a real life 1984. The closing assembly was a musical extravaganza with a performance of a Soviet nationalist medley by Lily Mauskop, a choir performance led by Brian Gelfand called "Voices of Hope", music of the future, featuring digital music arranged by high school senior, David Nachmany, and a closing with a video of highlights of Book Day 2012.

Book Day is a cross-curricular program designed to enrich our students and encourage them to think beyond the boundaries of one book or one issue and arm them with facts and ideas so that they can become knowledgeable future leaders of our society.
Book Day 2012 was coordinated by Rachail Kurtz, Library Chairman ; Brian Katz, Librarian and Mica Bloom, English Chairman. Bebe Levitt, our Alumni Director, played an essential role in Book Day planning as well.

Torah To Go Series: Parashat Vayakhel/Pikkudei

The Phoenix Online: Fourth Edition

The fourth edition of The Phoenix, the school's online newspaper, was recently published. Check out these amazing articles:

• That Time of Year

• The al-Aqsa Libel: A Modern-Day Blood Libel

• SOPA, PIPA, Keystone and What They All Mean

• The Threat Iran Poses

• The Rematch

YU Seforim Sale

Last week, our students went to Yeshiva Univaersity to participate in their Seforim sale. Here are some photos from that amazing experience!

Israel Awareness Hosts Israel Activist, Michelle Rojas-Tal

The Israel Awareness Commission arranged for YOFHS students to hear an informative, shocking and inspirational lecture by StandWithUs Diaspora Education Director, Michelle Rojas-Tal. Mrs. Rojas-Tal started her journey from inner-city, low-income-family teen to Israel activist, back in Astoria, Queens in the 1990s. The product of a Jewish mother and Puerto Rican father, she was mixed into two communities, and always walking the line, fitting neatly into neither. After the events of Sept. 11, 2001, that changed for Mrs. Rojas-Tal, when she started to educate herself on and defend her Jewish roots as she realized more and more that most of the world—and her New York City college peers—were either misinformed about Israel or completely against its existence. She told the story of a panel discussion on the Middle East conflict she was invited to watch at Pace University. The panel was made up of anti-Zionist Arabs and one Israeli who refused to serve in the Israeli army. The professors who led the discussion thought this was a fair and balanced representation of views on the conflict. That was the turning point for Mrs. Rojas-Tal, who since that day, has not only made aliyah, but also completed a training course to become an ambassador at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which eventually led to her present position as an outreach activist to Jews in South America, Australia and South Africa. She currently lives in Jerusalem, coordinating all programs for international students in Israel and abroad. Students left armed with information, from not only the lecture, which was accompanied by striking images on a PowerPoint presentation, but also StandWithUs pamphlets and magazines. Mrs. Rojas-Tal filled the students with confidence and hope that by being well-informed on Israel, we can all be its best ally. Special thanks to StandWithUs Regional Coordinator Avi Posnick, who accompanied Mrs. Rojas-Tal to the presentation.

SGC Shushan Purim Visiting

Most of the students at the Yeshivah of Flatbush have mountains of junk in their house after Purim. We take for granted the fact that we get so much food and candy, but most of us don't realize that some people don't receive food and candy like we do on Purim. The elderly people that are staying in the Beth Israel Medical Center don't get michloach manot on Purim. Juniors, Bonnie Azoulay and Muriel Nakash from 3-S coordinated with the SGC to organize a trip to the medical center to give the elderly mishloach manot on Shushan Purim. We went on a bus with 12 students to go visit them and put smiles on their faces. We all dressed ourselves with festive costumes to really bring in the spirit of Purim. They were so delighted to see us. We could see the impact we made on them as their faces lit up when we handed them the mishloach manot. It couldn't have been a more perfect and appropriate act of chesed to do on Shushan Purim.

Mock Trial Win!

Congratulations to the JBHS Mock Trial 2012 team on winning its first competition last week. The state-wide tournament pits over 90 NYS schools against each other in local and regional competitions, followed by a championship round in Albany in May. 

The YOF team was supported in its efforts by teacher-coach Howard Rothbort, and attorney-advisor Jack Erdos. Mr. Erdos, a YOF parent, is an attorney who volunteers in the NY State Mock Trial tournaments. Coincidentally and fortunately for us, he was assigned to help YOF train for the competition.
 
Team members are: Daniel Cohen, Edan Darmoni, Rachel Erani, Ezra Idy, Solly Idy, Shterny Isseroff, Gaby Kabarriti, Yaron Marciano, Sally Saban, Marc Smouha, Isaac Tessone, and Tali Zenilman. 

This year's case, People of the State of New York v. P.J. Long, is a criminal case in which the defendant is charged with Assault in the Second Degree.

NYS High School Mock Trial is sponsored by the Law, Youth & Citizenship (LYC) Department of the New York State Bar Association and promotes citizenship and law-related education in schools throughout New York State. LYC assists educators in creating opportunities for students to become effective citizens able to participate fully in our democratic society.

Kudos to our team on the first step of the journey!

Homelessness Symposium

Yesterday, we took teaching about Matanot L'evyonim to a different level. We held a homelessness symposium to examine homelessness and poverty in America. We hosted multiple schools from around the tri-state area, so that they could join in and learn about this important issue.

The event was organized by students at the Yeshivah of Flatbush. Students say that their Panim trip to Washington, D.C. where they met and spoke to homeless people, inspired them to organize the symposium.

Check out the media coverage that this event received in these articles and the video below:

• Flatbush Scoop
• News12 
• ACE New York

Sophomore Seminar 2012

Freshman Seminar 2012

Heritage Trip 2012

Torah To Go Series: Parashat Tezaveh

Lunch N' Learn: Learning Beyond the Classroom

The Spiritual Growth Commission has launched a new initiative to promote Torah learning outside of the classroom in a more informal setting.

During lunch, freshmen had the opportunity to study with senior mentors. They were able to discuss different practical halachah questions. It was a great way for each member of the group to understand each point of view and discuss the topic at hand.  At the end of the program, there was a raffle to win permission to go out on Avenue J for lunch a few weeks early.  This program was a fun way for the students to spend their lunch period learning and meeting new people.