Master chef, Mickey Horvits with the finished product
Last night many students were busy making Crazy Ziti at our latest Cooking for a Cause event. Things got a little sticky and messy, but it was all worth it because all the meals made are going to the needy. These meals are going to be stocking the Sephardic Bikur Holim freezer. Thank you to master chef, Mrs. Mickey Horvits for sharing your recipe and expertise. Thanks to coordinators Esther Haddad, Florence Dweck, Susie Sasson, and Katie Fishel for organizing this event.
Cooking for a Cause allows students to learn how to prepare a variety of entrees, dinners, and desserts while participating in a Chesed event. All of the food prepared in these events are sent to needy families who can then enjoy delicious homemade dinners. For more information about this commission, read this previous post: http://www.myflatbushlife.com/2011/10/helping-against-hunger.html
Class 1-V was the winning class of the annual Chesed Race for Chesed Mission. After raising over $6,000, they earned a day trip to Manhattan as a reward. Before heading to the city, they made a Chesed stop at the Haym Solomon home. The students laughed and sang with the residents; their visit was a great Kiddush Hashem. Special thanks to Rabbi Ezra Hanon and his daughter Minna Samra for organizing the trip and for joining us. The people at the home were very grateful for our visit, but we were grateful to them for giving us the zechut to spend time with them.
Winning Team: Micael Elkarrat, Daniel Esses, and Elliot Levy with Victor (Waldo) Dweck
The Tzedakah Commission organized one last event to end off the year, a Hunt for Chesed scavenger hunt on Wednesday May 22nd. Students started off by participating in Cooking for a Cause, preparing meals for the needy; from there, 10 teams began the hunt. Each team received the same sheet of all different kinds of clues and trivia questions to complete within a set time. The clues ranged from getting a grandma slice from Pizza Time, to locating a 16-Handles’ spoon, to even finding Waldo.
The students in the Hunt had a blast scavenging in the high school and Avenue J. This event gave students the opportunity to take a break from the pre-finals pressures and earn Chesed hours. The winning team, Michael Elkarrat, Daniel Esses, and Elliot Levy got to choose the organization where they will donate the money that was raised. They chose to contribute to SBH. Thank you to Senora Ovadia, Mrs. Hanon, and everyone in the Tzedakah Commission for making this a fun filled successful event. ~Contributions by Renee Shammah
Emily Shrem recipient of the Rabbi David Eliach Award for Distinguished School Service
Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School held its annual Archon Induction Exercises today to honor students who have dedicated their time and effort to our school and community. We were honored to have Israeli Chief Rabbi Rav Shlomo Amar join us and address our students and guests. During the program, select students were recognized for their exemplary service to the school and were specially awarded. Emily Shrem received the highest honor by receiving the Rabbi David Eliach Award for Distinguished School Service. Tomer Kornfeld received an award for his commitment to Israel Activism, Frieda Shalam received the Donna Becker Memorial Award for Peer Tutoring, and Jamie Baum received a special award for her dedication to helping her fellow students academically. Mrs. Betty Fallas was also recognized for her commitment and dedication to our administration, faculty, and students. Flatbush students always go above the call of duty to help their fellow students and their communities. The Archon Exercises are a great way to recognize and honor our students.
~Mr. David Galpert
A group of girls with an interest in fashion received an amazing opportunity from our Pathfinders Program to volunteer at the Safra Community Center Annual Fashion Show held at the Plaza Hotel in NYC.
We arrived at the Plaza all dressed in black and received magnificent scarves to wear. Then we were escorted to the third floor where we met the directors of the show and were assigned specific tasks. Some of us were asked to dress elegant and distinguished women. As dressers, we were responsible to cater to our models’ needs and to organize all of the gorgeous clothing worn in the fashion show, which were designed by Douglas Hannant. I was sent to find Ann Dexter Jones, one of the multiple jewelry designers providing jewelry for the fashion show. I was excited to meet such a highly respected journalist who writes for multiple fashion magazines, sells her jewelry in Barney’s and travels the world. We even spoke to the models giving them confidence before they walked the runway. While watching the show, I was happy that I had this incredible experience and that I contributed to such a successful event. ~Carol Sabbagh
Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School Pathfinders Program: Beginning in 9th grade, the Pathfinders counselors work with each student to discuss their interests and develop their goals. Students are then given a wide range of opportunities of places where they can volunteer, intern and explore their unique academic pursuits and career ideas. Through the Yeshivah of Flatbush Pathfinders Program, we encourage our students to discover and expand their special talents and abilities and explore career options for the future. Whether a student is actively engaged during the school year or in the summer, we are confident that each Yeshivah of Flatbush student will find a path to success.
On Tuesday May 21, SGO 2014 pulled off their first trip. Over 50 students accompanied by faculty went to and enjoyed the Mets game against the Cincinnati Reds. The night started off with our very own Yeshivah of Flatbush Chamber Choir going on the field and performing a few of our favorite Hebrew songs in honor of Israel Appreciation Day before the start of the game. It was such an honor! They later came back and sang the national anthem too. It was so much fun to watch our friends sing in the middle of Citi Field and cheer for them. Going to the game was a great way to relax, meet new people, and unwind before finals. The weather was beautiful and overall it was an awesome night! Looking forward to going on more SGO trips in the upcoming year! ~Sylvia Dweck
Yesterday, the Junior grade had their annual "Junior Picnic" in Prospect Park. After much preparation and hard work the Senior Council put together this successful and fun day. The junior grade enjoyed an amazing day in the park with beautiful weather. Everyone interacted with each other and the grade came together as a whole. The students also had an opportunity to interact with their teachers outside of the classroom. One student even enjoyed a twenty minute game of catch with Mrs. Kaplowitz. The day was packed with all types of sports, relaxing, and just having a good time. The students also enjoyed a delicious barbecue for lunch. A huge thank you goes out to the Senior Council: Isaac Dayan, Ellen Haddad, Julie Mizrahi, and Francine Shamosh, Rabbi Joseph Beyda and Mr. David Galpert for putting together this amazing day. ~Jacqueline Baum
On Tuesday, May 7th, the poetry slam group drove 2.5 hours to the Kohelet School in Philadelphia to participate in a poetry slam. On the eve of Yom Yerushalayim, the theme of the slam was based around Yesrushalayim and students were invited to write and perform two poems: a free verse and a Haiku. Jacob Tessone, Fanya Donin, Aliza Kantarowitz, and Joy Feinberg represented Yeshivah of Flatbush in their sixth competition in the past two years. We are proud to announce that all of our students
brought home awards.
Jacob Tessone - Winner of the Most Creative Poem
Fanya Donin - Winner of the Best Presentation
Aliza Kantarowitz - Winner of BOTH the Best poem & Group Poem
Joy Feinberg - Winner of Poet of the Day
We are so proud of our poets and look forward to the next slam! Please email HeresToYouMsRobinson@gmail.com if you'd like to participate in the next slam. Check out the video of the slam below:
This past Shabbat we had our annual Flatbush Yachad Shabbaton. Many families in the local Flatbush area hosted Yachad members and advisors so that everyone would be close to the elementary school, where the Shabbaton took place. On Friday night we all prayed together in the elementary school and had a nice meal together with our Yachad friends. During the meal we sang and danced together and had a few divrei Torah. On Shabbat morning we prayed at Bet Torah in the Teen minyan and they graciously invited us for a delicious breakfast after Musaf. We all walked back together to the elementary school where we played Family Feud and then had our Shabbat meal. After the meal, we had some more divrei Torah, singing and dancing. We then had free time to play games or go home and relax. At 7 o'clock everyone came back to the elementary school for Seudat Shlishit and we sat in a circle filled with lots of powerful singing and some nice speakers. Being together in the circle and looking around at all the happy faces was an incredible feeling. We all sang together as one room no matter where we came from, whether we were a high schooler, advisor or a Yachad member. The feeling of being around such happy and devoted people was amazing. After Shabbat we had a musical havdalah and we ended the night with some rikkudim to welcome the new week. ~Lani Prus
A team of students representing the Yeshivah of Flatbush recently won highest honors in the year-end standings of this year’s WordWright Challenge, a national competition for high school students requiring close reading and analysis of many different kinds of prose and poetry. Participating with 582 high school teams from all across the country, the school’s ninth graders placed sixth in the nation in the cumulative standings at the end of the four meets held this year. The school’s eleventh graders placed second in the nation in the year’s final meet.
Two of the school’s students won highest honors for year-long individual achievement as well: Freshmen Dylan Sutton was the third highest-scoring ninth grader in the entire country in the year-end cumulative standings, while junior Andrew Hersh tied for sixth place among all participating eleventh graders.
Students who excelled in the year’s final meet, held in April, included freshmen Chiya Abramowitz, Esther Bildirrici, Victoria Gindi, and Dylan Sutton, sophmores Sarah Levy (who earned a perfect score), Rosie Douck, and Virginia Dweck; and junior Raizy Cohen (who earned a perfect score).
The Flatbush WordWright teams are supervised by Mrs. Shifra Hanon.
“Creativity is contagious. Pass it on” said Albert Einstein. On Tuesday, April 30th the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School did just that when it held its 3rd annual Evening of the Arts, coordinated by Mrs. Rachel Winkler. This mix of music, art, and drama was once again a huge success, showcasing the amazing talents of both our students and our Arts faculty.
See pictures and videos from the amazing evening below:
~Written contributions by Ms. Shelly Kaplowitz.
~Pictures by Mr. Michael Grazi and Victor Dweck
~Claymations by Morris Shalom and Ralph Missry
~Videos edited by Victor Dweck.
~Compiled by Mr. David Galpert.
Gilda's writing workshop is a place where writers from all over New York State come to discuss and write their own literature. I, along with Helen Menashe, Steven Hakim, Mikey Shamah, Lital Nainshtein, and Cynthia Benun took part in this workshop. It was unbelievable meeting and interacting with fellow writers from across the state, and especially sharing our writings with them. Joining together with all the different students and having them read and critique our writing undoubtedly helped us improve as writers. We were given a complicated piece of writing, which allowed all of us to interpret it in various ways. Then we were given a prompt to write about, which helped us convey thoughts in our own special way. The experience was one that we all enjoyed, and one that we will definitely take with us in the future.
Students took part in a special Yom Yerushalayim program today, where they heard about the importance of Yom Yerushalayim, commemorating the reunification of Jerusalem and the establishment of Israeli control over the Old City at the end of the Six Day War on the 28th of Iyar in June 1967.
Today the students of the Yeshivah of Flatbush had an amazing, heartwarming assembly about Yom Yerushalayim. We heard both students and teachers speak about the importance of having our own Jewish state and learning its history. Rabbi Benlulu spoke on a video in which he explained the importance of Jerusalem while a slideshow played behind him. The students were very involved; singing and clapping along to the music playing. The students of the Yeshivah of Flatbush were very moved by this program and many were speaking of it for a long time after it ended. We know next years program will be even more in inspirational- if that's even possible! ~Fortune Mosseri
Students and Faculty of the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School describe what Yerushalayim/Jerusalem means to them in this video:
Rabbi BenLuu of Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School explains the importance of Yom Yerushalayim to our students in this video:
Yeshivah of Flatbush was proud to offer our students the opportunity to compete in the National Science League Contest. Students were offered the chance to take Biology, Chemistry, Earth Science, Environmental Science and Physics. The students received credit for taking the exams during their lunch periods.
We are especially impressed with the students' achievements as evident in our highest scorers. Among the students who took Biology, Jack Mosseri (3-V) scored highest followed by Max Edeson (1-HN) in second place and Jeffrey Nussbaum (3-HR) in third place. In Chemistry our top scorer was Eileen Sutton (3-HR) with an almost perfect score, followed by Abraham Tawil (3-HR) in second place and Andrew Hersh (3-HR) in third place.
Congratulations to all students who took the exams!
On Tuesday, April 23, Yeshivah of Flatbush hosted their annual college night. Many Sophmores and Juniors attended the program which gave them a taste of the college application process. The night started off with a question-answer panel with a range of college representatives from places such as Univeristy of Massachusetts, Columbia University, Babson University, And Yeshivah University. The representatives answered all sorts of important questions for the students to consider when picking and applying to a college.
Students then made their way down to the gym which was full of college representatives with information, pamphlets and email sign up sheets. Students were able to speak to these representatives face to face and ask all sorts of questions about specific colleges. Many top colleges attended such as Yale, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, Cornell and NYU. This program gave students a look into the world of college and applying to college. Students left with a better understanding of where they want to go and how they can get there. ~Jacqueline Baum, Junior
Ms. Robinson's Wellness Tzei U'Lemad is an elective class that meets once a week for students who want to dedicate themselves to learning how to balance a healthy life both physically and mentally. We have had speakers come in to our meetings to speak about the dangers of the media, attended and hosted a series of yoga classes during finals, and concentrated on various forms of personal expression. This semester in particular we focused our efforts on our final group project: A Wellness Art Show.
Our Art Show took place on Wednesday night, April 24th. The night showcased our girl's work as well as the cancer patients and families from The Sephardic Bikur Cholim Cancer Center. The theme of the show was Community and we aimed to bridge the two worlds of education and healing through the powerful tool of art.
We also showcased a collaborative piece of art that we had been producing by both our students and The Center’s clients. We created an 8 ft mosaic that depicts the splitting of the Red Sea. The Cancer Center had worked on one side of the split sea and the students of Yeshivah of Flatbush had been working on the other. Last night, we united the pieces for the first time. The mosaic depicts the waters separating in order to allow for the Jewish community to travel through it, and ultimately secure our survival as a people.
Our guest of honor, Emily Shrem, served as the link between these two communities, and not only did she showcase her own art work but she spoke beautifully as well. The event was a really nice, enjoyable night that truly helped show the power of art and the beauty of community. ~Ms. Robinson
