Jewish Star Schools

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HANC students at AIPAC hone Israel advocacy tools

Several students from HANC’s high school last week joined 400 other students from across the country and attended the three-day AIPAC Schusterman High School Summit in Washington, DC.

The conference educated the students on Israel’s situation and helped develop their political advocacy skills.

Representing HANC were Robyn Awendstern, Victoria Kalmanowitz, Eliana Kaufman, David Sroka, and Judah Wolkenfeld, who traveled with AP History teacher Mrs. Laura Eisner,

The Summit included speakers such as Matt Nosanchuck, White House liaison on Jewish affairs and IDF Sgt. Benjamin Anthony, from Our Soldiers Speak. The students also interacted with Israel activists from college campuses across the country, including our HANC alumna, Marissa Young (’11) from Columbia University.

The trip culminated with a trip to Capitol Hill to lobby the office of Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy on the issues discussed during the conference.

HANC’s students report that they are eager to implement their activism and ideas back at school. This is one of many opportunities that HANC High School affords its students in leadership and in Israel advocacy.

N. Shore Hebrew students win environmental prize

The North Shore Hebrew Academy High School’s Pond Squad, assembled by Science Department chairman Gerard Wykes, studied factors that reduce the volume of ponds on Long Island.

A video documenting their efforts in using the school’s own pond as a lab, won first place out of 58 entries in the GLOBE program’s international environmental video contest.

GLOBE connects a network of students, teachers and scientists from around the world to better understand, sustain and improve Earth’s environment at local, regional and global scales. The video was viewed and used internationally by web-connected classrooms during GLOBE’s annual virtual conference, before it was awarded first place.

Concurrent with its Environmental Science Program, North Shore HAHS has been a participating GLOBE school for six years. The high school’s En. Sci. students routinely measure atmospheric and hydrologic variables and enter them into GLOBE’s enormous database for analysis and interpretation. To date, more than 23 million measurements have been contributed to GLOBE by participants such as North Shore, creating meaningful, standardized, global research-quality data sets that can be used in support of student and professional scientific research.

Since 1995, over 58,000 trained teachers and 1.5 million students in 112 countries have participated in GLOBE. North Shore Hebrew Academy HS is proud to be part of this important effort.

To view the video, go to www.nshahs.org/awards.

Touro prez at Rambam

Dr. Alan Kadish, the President and CEO of Touro College and University System, and Dr. Moshe Sokol, Dean of Landers College for Men, met with the educational arm of Rambam Mesivta.

Dr. Kadish emphasized Touro’s commitment to accommodate the needs and the lifestyle of the Torah community., and about the university’s many innovative programs incorporating technology, “virtual dissections” in the medical school to enable Kohanim to attend.

Dr. Sokol spoke about a Landers initiative called “Center for Jewish Law and the Professions,” which offers those pursuing degrees in business, psychology, medicine, law and dentistry with special guidance in the Halachic issues that will confront them in their professions.

Rosh Mesivta, Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, noted the importance of “opportunities for Bnei Torah in a setting and a framework where learning Torah and Shmiras HaMitzvos is of paramount importance.” Rabbi Yotav Eliach, Rambam’s Principal, said that Touro’s upcoming BA-MD program “would definitely interest many of our talmidim who want to pursue a career in medicine”’

After meeting with Rambam administrators, Dr. Kadish and Dean Sokol had lunch with the senior class and met with Rabbi Haar and Rabbi Ziskind, who teach seniors. Mr. Hillel Goldman, Rambam’s Assistant Principal, discussed various initiatives and joint programs to enable Rambam talmidim to experience first-hand all that Landers College has to offer.

Shalhevet girls having a bowl

At 10 a.m. on Monday, Rosh Chodesh Kislev, all of the Shalhevet students were sitting diligently in class when G.O. president Bracha Gold announced excitedly over the loudspeaker that all the girls should board the buses waiting for them outside. The excitement built up as the girls tried to guess what the surprise trip was.

The buses made their way towards Woodmere Lanes. Smiles and laughter filled the bowling alley as the girls were having a great time knocking down pins — a few even winning a free game of bowling by beating the Rocky Road challenge.

After bowling, the Shalhevet students enjoyed lunch on Central Avenue at their favorite places. It was a great start to a fabulous month ahead!