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Inspiring& Challenging
Teenagers Since 1998
Parshat Vayikra
Friday, Mar. 27, 2009
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We Have Something Really
Special
Sometimes you need an outsider's perspective
to help you realize what you have.
A few weeks ago, I told you about the various
research studies in which WYHS is
participating. The doctoral student
conducting the study regarding religious
purposefulness asked to meet for an hour or
so with four staff members, to brainstorm
how WYHS could be even more effective
at the first half of its mission,
"Inspire and Challenge".
I explained to him that he would have to
meet with the entire Judaic staff and the
entire student council. "Rabbi- I've been to
six other yeshiva high schools, and we
haven't done that. Why is it necessary?"
I explained to him that WYHS is
different. WYHS' mission is a joint
venture of its faculty, students and parents.
Since there isn't an hour during the entire
week that the entire Judaic faculty is free,
they met on this past Sunday night. The
meeting went for two and a half hours,
ending after 10.30pm. The teachers all taught
the next morning, and received no special
compensation for giving up part of their weekend.
The student council meeting the next
evening was just as spirited. The
students debated what underlying messages
WYHS could address in order to inspire its
students to be more purposeful in their
religious beliefs and practices. They came up
with some of the same issues as the faculty,
and some additional issues.
We are privileged to have an unusually
dedicated faculty and a very serious student
leadership. Their dedication to the
school knows no bounds. They view WYHS as a
team effort.
We are a relatively young school that has
many academic and extracurricular hopes and
aspirations as we continue to grow. Our
faculty and student culture will help us
continue to keep reaching new heights and
taking on new challenges.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Perry
Tirschwell
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MUST See TV!
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Red Sarachek
Tourny
BVB @YU in NYC
6:00pm Sun vs. Ohr Chaim
Listen on macslive.com
No Senior classes Mon.
The Odd Couple
Tues. March 31 7:30pm
Crest Theatre, Delray
Passover
Vacation
Sat- Sun, April 4-19
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...News Flash...
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Mazel Tov
Jeremy Hodkin ('09) was awarded a
$40,000 McKelvey Foundation Entrepreneurial
Scholarship in recognition of his
simplysimchas & icon media businesses
Boys Varsity Basketball Team on their
55-39 win over Melvin J. Berman and their
close loss to DRS HALB in the 18th Annual Red
Sarachek Basketball Tournament
Refuah
Shleima
Eliyahu ben Zahava Webberly
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Baklava,
Birkat
Kohanim,
and a Whole
Lot of Borekas
Sephardi
Gras at WYHS offered the
Ashkenazi
students the chance to get a taste of being
Sephardi. Though students may have
been
confused during davening (especially for
those who simultaneously used both an
ashkenazic siddur and a sephardic
siddur),it gave everyone a valuable
opportunity to embrace the culture that is
"Sephardism."
Thank you so much to the Zaghi family for
welcoming the Sephardi students into their
home and hosting a beautiful Birkat
Ilanot, the blessing of the spring
blossoms, which is derived from
Brachot 33B.
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Scholarships
101
By Mrs. Marcy Roberts
Director of College Guidance
Can you afford to go to college?
The price of college -- including tuition,
fees, room, and board -- continues to rise.
The number of private loans available for
higher education continues to shrink.
However, more sources of financial aid and
scholarships are now available for eager
college-bound students than ever before.
Students CAN afford to go to college through
a combination of scholarships, grants, and loans.
Don't know your PLUS loan from a Perkins or a
Stafford Loan? Check out www.finaid.org
for
details. Need to calculate your Estimated
Family Contribution (EFC)? Go to
www.fafsa4caster.ed.gov.
Want to avoid
scholarship scams and enjoy FREE scholarship
search engines? Try www.fastweb.com,
www.wiredscholar.com,
or
www.collegeboard.com,
and be sure to check
the WYHS college bulletin boards, but be
prepared to do some work! To achieve
scholarship success, you must earn top
grades, start
your scholarship search early, read
eligibility requirements for each award
thoroughly, complete applications carefully,
and meet deadlines!
Recently, Jeremy Hodkin ('09) did just this
and is the deserving recipient of a $40,000
scholarship from the McKelvey Foundation for
young entrepreneurs!
According to the president of the College
Board, "A college education is the passport
to opportunity and success in today's global
economy." Over the course of a lifetime, a
typical full-time worker with a college
degree can earn 60% more than someone with
only a high school diploma. Someone with a
master's degree can earn twice as much, and
those with professional degrees may earn
three times as much or more than a high
school graduate.
College is an investment. The real question
is not whether you can afford to go to
college. The question is: Can you afford
not to go?
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Click the Picture
for an Exciting Slide Show
Got
Sephardi?
by Ilana Ben-Ezra ('10)
For those of you who wish that you could
magically
transform into an honorary
Sephardi--especially
after experiencing our amazing
Sephardi Gras in
honor of Rosh Chodesh Nissan-- stop
trying. "Sephardism" is not just about
taking on a series of foreign, exotic,
"lalalala-ing" and goat-loving traditions - it
is inherited by families who hail from
countries like Greece, Turkey, Spain, Iran,
Iraq, and Morocco and who are blessed with the
privilege of embracing sephardic culture.
But,
if you want to pose as a wannabe
Sephardi
(as
many WYHS students already do), here are some
essential
rules that you must
follow. Be sure to carry a Zohar,
the centerpiece of traditional Sephardi
halacha (although some authorities, like
Rav Ovadia
Yosef,
base halachic decisions on the
Gemara, like Ashkenazim). An
important point for all you posers out there:
do not search for traditional sephardic garb, as
it does not exist. As explained by Rabbi Ovi
Jacob during Sephardi Gras,
Sephardim wear
clothing based on their ethnicity. So choose
a country and stick with it. And if you want
to eat sephardic
"fleishig food," forget it. It's called
"besari," and that's final.
With these
expert words of wisdom, good luck trying to
impersonate Sephardim!
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HELL-O, Tenth Grade
by Josh Stadlan ('11)
"That class was hell," remarked an honors
English sophomore to Mrs. Greer, who
responded with a devious smile.
In fact, the class was indeed hell, with Mrs.
Greer starring as the devil, wearing fiery
red pointed ears and carrying a pitchfork.
After reading and analyzing Dante Alighieri
's Inferno, in which Dante writes
of his
personal tour through the many circles of
hell, the sophomores received the challenge
of composing a satirical epic recounting
their journeys through the underworld. The
students-turned-medieval poets masterfully
retold their personal encounters with hell's
occupants, beginning with their "spiritual
plight," which ranged from the existential
angst that accompanies shopping at the mall
to feelings of depression that surface while
checking Edline. All of the works included a
description of each ring of hell's "sin" and
its corresponding punishments. The sins
included being a couch potato, the inventing
of automated messaging systems, the watching
of liberal television shows, and the classic
but severe sin of handing in English
assignments late.
Pleased, or perhaps bothered, by her
students' eloquence and wit, Mrs. Greer
sentenced them to a period in hell:
Into the English classroom they innocently
walked,
Unaware of what lied at stake,
Cheerfully and gleefully amongst themselves
they talked,
Oblivious to their grave mistake.
"Abandon all hope, ye who enter here,"
Warned the English teacher devil,
As the students began to tremble in fear,
Though in their creative stories they did revel.
With pleasure coated Devil cake,
And a purely heinous devilled egg,
In the intense flames,
the sophomores began
to bake,
But "Let us out" they dared not beg.
Reading each others' epics aloud,
Telling about Hell tours led by Shaq or about
Hell's Kitchen,
The authors were all extremely proud
Of their works, despite their obvious affliction.
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Yeshiva Highlites
Staff |
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| LeeLee
Borzak (’10) |
Editor-in-
Chief |
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('09) |
Senior Editor |
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Kaminetsky(’09) |
Layout
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Petrover(’10) |
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Rubin(’09) |
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Spektor(’10) |
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Staff |
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Houben |
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Horowitz |
Proofreader |
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