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From the desk of
Rabbi Perry
Tirschwell
With the hubub of Chanuka behind
us, we will be focusing on various educational
and extracurricular activities at our school
during
the next four editions of Yeshiva High-lites.I
want to thank the parents who came to the
town
meetings in Hollywood and Boca this past week. I
gained much from their input and suggestions, and
have begun sharing their feedback with the faculty.
In the past week, parents should
have
received copies of
the school's beautiful new viewbook and its
first
parent directory, in addition
to PSAT scores for 9-11th grade students (and PLAN
scores for sophomores who took that exam). Please
click here
to tell
Shimmie if you did not receive
them.
Shabbat
Shalom
Rabbi Perry Tirschwell
Principal
| WYHS' Top Flight Drama Program |
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In its third year under the direction of Mrs. Liz
Saddler, WYHS' drama program has matured into an
intense and sophisticated extracurricular course
which produces professional shows.
One of
the most
important messages of our drama program, In the
words of Mrs. Saddler, is "Hard work and commitment-
what it's like to really invest time and effort
into
something that is not centered on academics or
religion".
In drama, like sports, your fellow students are
counting on you- you don't want to let your friends
down. In the words of our director, "WYHS thespians
realize that they're part of a puzzle- if one
student
isn't on, the entire puzzle doesn't look the same."
Each year the students have had more input into the
direction of the play, helping choreograph dance
steps and arrange harmonies. The students
take a lot of pride in making the production as
professional as possible. After this past year's last
performance at the Crest Theatre in Delray Beach,
the stage manager of the theater commented on
how far the students have come. He said that "They
even vacuumed the dressing room afterwards- we
really enjoyed working with them."
This year WYHS is producing two plays, a musical
and a comedy. The musical, which will be
presented on
Saturday night, February, 5 and a Sunday matinee
on February 6, is called "Once Upon a Mattress". It is
a musical comedy version of the princess and the
pea which was written for Carol Burnet's first
Broadway role in 1969. Set in medieval times with a
number of wacky twists, it has classical Broadway
song and dance routines. In addition to the
16 actresses (15 students and Ms. Sardano) that
appear in this "by women, for women" musical, there
are 10 students in the stage crew who volunteer as
stage hands, props mistresses, ushers and box office
salespeople. They are ably managed by junior
Devorah Greer and senior Jessica Ramirez.
Taking out the time out of their busy schedules,
having to focus right after a full day at school,
learning to take constructive criticism, the willingness
to get up in front of a group of over 300 theatre
goers are amongst the many challenges that our
thespians face and succeed. Our shows are
successful because the girls give it their "all"
because they have internalized the message that
anything worth doing is worth doing with
excellence.
"Play practice is a lot of fun- hanging out
together four times a week has made us a very close
group. Each time we practice we can see the play
coming together" said sophomore
Meira Tirschwell.
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| The Week in Review |
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Wednesday's fast of Asara
B'Tevet was made meaningful by guest
speaker Rabbi
Ephraim Shapiro of Congregation Shaaray Tefilah in
North Miami Beach. Rabbi
Shapiro, whose upbeat and inspiring messages have
a powerful impact on teenagers and adults alike, took
the theme of the last month's school shabbaton to
the next level. The next step after realizing
that "It's
not all about you" is being considerate of others.
Rabbi Shapiro told a number of memorable and
moving divrei Torah and stories that brought
his point home.
For our weekly Israel update, the chief coordinator of
Hatzolah Israel, Mr. Elie Beer, spoke to the students
about his organization and thanked them for
raising
$3,000 for it through our Tzedaka campaign
earlier
this year. Over 1,000 Hatzolah volunteers
work hand
in hand with Magen David Adom as first
responders.
Having emergency medical equipment in their
homes, places of work and on ambu-cycles, Hatzolah
volunteers are able to get to the site of a medical
emergency much quicker than an ambulance that
has to fight Jerusalem or Tel Aviv traffic. Mr. Beer
shared a number of first hand stories of terror
attacks, presented the school with a Hatzolah vest
(which now hangs in our hallway), and
thanked them for being partners in Hatzaolah's
important work.
Thanks to Dr. David Tepper for making the
shidduch between this important organization
and our school.
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| Girls Basketball Wins Big |
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The Girls Varsity Basketball team had
a fantastic game Thursday night as they were
victorious over
their cross town rivals, Donna Klein, 44-17. The
score of their first competition earlier this season
against DKJA was 29-24, clearly showing the
improvement of the team over the past month. It
was a real team effort, with each player having the
opportunity to play and score. At half time, the team
had scored as
much as their final score in the first game.
This past Monday's Girls Varsity
Basketball game
against formidable Boca Christian was predicted to be
a 100 point game (in their favor),
however, the Storm team held their
opponents to 48
points. This was a victory in and of itself although
the Storm lost the game. Boca Christian's top scorer
was shut out in the 2nd quarter by an aggressive
Storm defense. Leah Bensimon was MVP of the game
and scored 6 points.
The Girls Basketball team is coached by
Stephanie "Micki"
Jones and Krystle Jones. Micki and Krystle are
sisters, both of whom have extensive coaching
experience. Congratulations to a team that is
evidently working
very hard!
Tuesday, the Boys JV and Varsity Basketball teams
as well as the Girls Soccer team were defeated by
North Lauderdale Academy.
The Junior Varsity Basketball team fought
hard against
their tough
opponents but were out-rebounded due to much
taller players. Moshe Waba hustled a lot and made a
big difference on the court. Daniel Shimansky was
high scorer with 11 points, Jason Mann 8, and Yakir
Bitterman 6.
The Boys Varsity Basketball team was down
by 10 points going
into the half, up by 5 going into the 4th , but lost 57-
53. Dovi Lamet had a fantastic game hitting 3 three
pointers and 7 out of 8 free throws and Jon Struhl
had 13
points.
The Girls Varsity Soccer team played an
amazing
game
against an incredibly aggressive team. The storm
defense held their ground for the entire game with
Amanda Schiff shutting down N. Lauderdale's top
player. Jen Adler controlled mid field and with a
strong offense, the storm kept the ball in the
opponent's end of the field for much of the
game.
This coming week brings welcome quiet to
the Storm. The only sports competition is the
game against Hebrew Academy in the American
Airlines arena (see the last article below for details.
Two news articles recently
appeared about WYHS' Sports Program. School
Sports of South Florida magazine in its December
issue featured an article by junior Moshe Genet about
the fall sports and the beginning of the basketball
season. The Boca Raton/Delray News nominated Dov
and Jordan Lieber to their first team. Click below to
see the articles.
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| The Heat Game & Other Coming Attractions |
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The long awaited showdown
between the Yeshiva
Storm and the RASG Hebrew Academy of
Greater
Miami Warriors boys varsity basketball teams will take
place
at center court in the
American Airlines Arena (home of the Miami Heat
and "the Shaq") this coming Monday, December 27,
at 2:00 p.m. After regular morning classes,
regular Monday lunch will be served and the students
are dismissed. Students may either go home
(Corporate Connections will be running), drive to the
arena, or avail themselves of a bus that we are
offering to the game.
Between the WYHS game (ends at ~3:45 p.m.) and
Heat game (starts at 7:30 p.m.), all fans must
leave the arena and are free to do what
they want. They may take the bus to Miami
Beach
for free time for dinner and shopping and mincha and
maariv (or they can go home or out with friends).
When the Heat game is over (approximately 9:45
p.m.), our bus will make stops in North Miami
Beach, Hollywood and Boca. Students and
faculty will receive their tickets on Monday. Others
who have reserved tickets are welcome to
call the game organizer, senior Amanda Ruben,
at 561.251.6854, to arrange a pick up time.
A week from Monday on January
3rd, Dr. Norman
Blumenthal, a nationally-recognized adolescent
psychologist, will be giving WYHS' third parent
education seminar this year. His topic will
be "Discussing Without
Blushing- Talking about Drugs, Sex, Death and Other
Taboo Subjects with Your Teen". The workshop will
take place at the school at 8:00 p.m. Throughout
the course of the day, Dr. Blumenthal will be meeting
with different groups of students and faculty
members.
Two weeks from tonight the North Miami Beach
Family Shabbat will take place at Congregation
Shaaray Tefilah. On the weekend of January 7-8, our
Judaic faculty will spend shabbat with the
families of WYHS students from North Miami Beach.
NMB families should please click here
to tell
Shimmie Kaminetsky how many members of their
families will be attending.
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Student Fundraisers Subsidize Trips |
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Schools across the country are grappling with the
rising costs of school trips, particularly pre-
graduation senior trips. Schools and students try to
find a balance between a memorable trip and a
reasonable price. The desire that every parent
has
for his child to have a more comfortable lifestyle has
come true
when it comes to travel. Many of our children think
nothing of hopping on a plane to New York, so their
expectations of a memorable trip are
elevated.
More than any year in our school's history, the
students are aggressively fundraising to subsidize
these trips. Though the trips are far off in the
spring, the students have been focused for months
on their long term goals. To keep the price
of
their senior class trip
within reach of every student (and parent), each
week throughout
the school year the seniors are selling delicious
babkas and challahs,
flowers and towels for netilat
yadaim (washing before hamotzi). The
seniors are learning many things from this experience,
including dealing with suppliers and deadlines,
marketing, and pleasing customers. They have
received high marks on their efficiency and
assertiveness.
Even the juniors are selling Krispy
Kreme donuts to help subsidize their planned ski
trip to
North Carolina this Spring. One Friday a month
(Erev Shabbat
Mevorchin), they deliver fresh donuts to your
door in North Miami Beach,
Hollywood or Boca as a Shabbat treat for your
children.
You can support their efforts by clicking on
the link at right in our links section for order forms for
the fundraisers.
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GOOD and WELFARE
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| Mazel tov to Batsheva Davis, '03 and Pnina Edelstein, '03 on making aliyah this past week. |
| Refuah Shleima to board member Bernie Oppenheim |
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