By Rachey Berkowitz ('07)

Guided by friends, mentors and teachers, students at WYHS embarked on a journey together through the crucial days of Aseret Yemei Teshuva (the ten days of repentence). The students launched the annual Teshuvah Campaign to inspire and prepare students for the Yamim Noraim (the high holidays).

The campaign began last Monday morning after Selichot, with a member of the senior class reading from “Praying with Fire.” This gave the students a chance to understand the importance of tefillah and receive tips for improving their quality of prayer.

After breakfast, students heard inspiring and motivating mini-shiurim by the teachers and rebbeim about the importance of teshuva and self-improvement. In addition, the boys and girls each had their respective nights of Kinnus Teshuva, where they enjoyed a delicious dinner at their teachers' homes followed by powerful speeches given by visiting speakers, Rabbi Sherman for the boys and Mrs. Lanner for the girls.

The final aspect of the campaign was tzedakah. The class representatives from each grade created a fun and original tzedakah box for their classmates to compete with other grades to raise the most amount of money. The money began pouring in for Meir Panim, an organization in Israel that is helping the citizens affected by the war in Lebanon this past summer.

By Ari Gold ('01)

The Shabbat before Rosh Hashana, WYHS provided me with a unique opportunity to give back to the school that had given me so much. Two weeks before, I was asked by the school if I would be willing to host this year’s Alumni Shabbaton in Manhattan. With my wife’s blessings, I immediately jumped at the chance to host.

Until last year or so, I had still been involved with the school by attending school Shabbatonim and visiting when I was home in Miami. However, it has recently been difficult to get involved with WYHS and find ways to give back. This reunion was the perfect way to catch that WYHS feeling again.

The weekend went off amazingly, with almost all of the alumni classes represented. At the delicious meals, we each reminisced about our own personal WYHS highlights which brought back many good memories. It was incredible to have so many learned boys together, who brought with them powerful divrei Torah. It provided the perfect mood leading into the year's first night of Selichot.

By Julie Rosenberg ('08)

On Monday night the class of ’08 had their junior night out. We hopped on a bus and headed to Quiet Waters Park where we enjoyed football, schmoozing, and of course, some amazing barbeque.

After dinner the entire class was randomly divided into teams for a scavenger hunt in the mall, where kids were able to spend quality bonding time with classmates.

We were given about one hour to run around the mall trying to find the answers to the thirty challenging and fun questions. The juniors had to work together to get information from store employees, count the number of certain products in stores, or obtain other types of fairly useless information as quickly as possible. Everyone had a blast as we ran in and out of stores with our friends.

Congratulations to the first place team members Aryeh Genet, Marc Finklestein, Bassie Orzechowitz and Julie Rosenberg who won Miami Heat tickets!