Juniors in Rabbi Daniel Rosen’s AP Rhetoric class honed their skills as invested members of the community by submitting op-eds and letters to the editor at various newspapers this year. The many pieces our students got published touched on a variety of issues – including topics specific to the Modern Orthodox community or Bergen County, as well as those relevant to the entire United States and beyond. The pieces appeared in

Some students focused on their future foray into post-secondary education. Nina Tepler wrote about on campus, while Batsheva Ohayon and Julia Sohn and addressed the challenge of choosing a college where not only , but where organizations exist to foster .

Other students focused on various aspects of the high school experience. Nava Markovich argued that high school , while Molly Nelson recounted a with Habitat for Humanity. Andy Katz reported favorably on a at the High School of Economics and Finance. and focused on the relationship of young people today with the State of Israel and Israel education.

Students also addressed issues facing the wider Jewish and general communities. Bailey Hartman wrote about , while Jonathan Safier argued strongly against the banning of shechita (ritual Jewish slaughter of meat) or .

Shmuel (Jeremy) Boss wrote about the significance of a , while Seela Langer analyzed two other pieces about mass shootings and school lockdown drills, Eliana Suldan argued for why one should adopt a pet, rather than buy one from a breeder, and in another piece addressed the Gaza/Israel border crisis (The Northern Valley Suburbanite, May 24 and 26, 2018). Meanwhile, Ethan Langer (The Bergen Record, May 26, 2018) and Rebecca Aduculesi (Northern Valley Suburbanite, June 7, 2018) focused on school bus safety and the aftermath of a tragic Paramus school bus crash in May 2018 (individual links unavailable).

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Fox provided examples of both common and rare cases where genetic testing can be useful—for example, the Jewish community has near eliminated occurrences of the fatal Tay Sachs disease—and also pointed out some of the ethical and halachic issues that relate to tougher, more complicated cases.

A provocative, open question Fox left the class with is how and at what age/life stage to best bring genetic testing to the Modern Orthodox community, whose marriage-minded members do not always meet through pre-arranged shidduchim. The discussion noted that this question remains pertinent within our community, as the Dor Yesharim genetic testing system may sometimes seem to fit better for communities where young men and women meet in a more arranged and structured manner.

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Talia Bardash ’15, currently a sophomore at Stern College for Women, came along on the trip as an NCSY adviser. “The students��were so inspirational and always wanted to help in any way they could,” said Talia. “They each brought with them enthusiasm and an excitement to help everyone they could, and I think they were really appreciative of what they had when they saw, firsthand, how many people were left with nothing after Katrina. As a �鶹���� alum, the students reminded me how much �鶹���� teaches us about helping and being kind to everyone. ”

For Ari Zucker, NCSY’s East Brunswick coordinator, the NOLA chessed mission��with �鶹���� was a welcome continuation of the unique partnership. “Whether through building a home for those who can’t afford one or creating an energy efficient environment, the �鶹���� students exemplified the Jewish value of an Ohr LaGoyim, a light unto the Nations, as they worked to take action and responsibility to enhance the city of New Orleans,” he said.

“My trip to NOLA was an experience that I will carry with me forever,” said Abigail Heinrich ’18. “I learned, grew and made memories that will last a lifetime.”

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Working in groups, students created webpages – under the guidance of Rabbi Pittinsky, Director of Educational Technology – for their respective candidates that included��links, videos, documents, pictures, cartoons, polling results and more. As candidates dropped out, students wrote “political obituaries” and were assigned to a track a different candidate still in the race.

The assignment is a perfect example of project-based learning, engaging students through real-world applications that extend beyond the classroom. It has also helped the political education of our students, many of whom will soon be eligible to vote for the first time.

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Rabbi David Goldfischer, Assistant Principal, introduced the program, held each year during the Aseret Yemai Teshuva, with a thought from Rabbi Yehuda Amital, ��›�, the former Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat Har Etzion. “The secret of getting close to God,” explained Rabbi Goldfischer, “is getting close to your true self.” A short video accompanied his message, featuring the pivotal scene from Disney’s The Lion King where Simba realizes that he must stop running from his responsibilities and become who he was always meant to be. Blinkoff took the stage next, continuing the Disney theme, and started by telling students the origins of his professional path. “I always loved to draw, and when I saw the movie E.T., it made such a huge impression on me that I knew I wanted to be a director one day,” he said. “Eventually, after seeing The Little Mermaid, I decided I wanted to be a Disney animator—but I had no clue how to get there.”

Blinkoff drew laughs when he spoke about how his devoted mother toured the Walt Disney animation studios with him asking how someone might get a job as a Disney animator, until an employee gently pointed them in the direction of professional art schools from which Disney regularly recruited graduates. Determined to succeed, Blinkoff began his studies at the Columbus College of Art and Design, where, he readily admits, he was the least talented student there. After several failed attempts to land a coveted Disney internship, Blinkoff worked harder on his craft each day until finally, he achieved his dream. “I want to impress that on you again,” he told the students. “I was a really motivated guy without talent who worked really, really hard to achieve his dream job.”

For awhile, it was a dream: Blinkoff worked on such seminal Disney films as Pocahontas, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and Mulan (murmurs of appreciation could be heard throughout the audience).When the animators didn’t have anything to sketch, they would ride roller-coasters or camp out at Disney hotels. But a trip to Israel with his parents during this time left Blinkoff with a seed of curiosity about his Jewish roots and heritage—a seed that didn’t come to fruition until three years later. “I had everything I ever wanted, but something was missing,” he explained. He decided to enroll in a short yeshiva program in Israel, called Isralite, run by Rabbi Binny Freedman and Rabbi David Aaron.

There, Blinkoff learned of the mezuzah’s role on a doorway to signify a place of transition. He began asking certain questions for the first time. “What am I going out into the world for? What kind of home do I want to create?” he told the students. His Jewish journey had begun in earnest.

Eventually, his questions and search for deeper meaning led Blinkoff to a fully observant lifestyle. Today, Blinkoff works as a director for Disney and says he sees himself as not just a filmmaker anymore, but a Jewish filmmaker. (He often infuses the films he now directs with Jewish symbols, like adding a mezuzah to Piglet’s door in Winnie the Pooh.)

He lives with his wife, Marion, and four children in Los Angeles. Two of his children, Meira and Asher, are involved in voiceover work for major motion pictures. Asher voices a key character in Hotel Transylvania 2, coming out in just a few weeks. “The Hollywood premier is on Shabbos, but to us, it’s not even a question of whether or not to go,” said Blinkoff.

Blinkoff closed his talk with a thought. “It’s not easy to figure out how you’re going to live as a Jew, but it’s really the best kind of work,” he said. If the round of earth-shattering applause he received from students is any kind of indication, his message—amid the cool anecdotes from a veritable Hollywood insider—hit close to home.

“It was pretty cool how he made his dream job come true,” said Michal Karben, a junior, “but it was even cooler to learn that he was able to take the Jewish beliefs that he eventually found and combine it with his dream job. I know people worry about how to pursue certain professional areas given the fact that they are religious Jews, and to see someone who made it work, like Saul Blinkoff, is very inspiring.”

Following his talk, the student body and faculty had an inspiring kumzits and then enjoyed a dessert with �鶹����’s unique spin on a sweet new year: chocolate fondue stations with a selection of fruit and candies.

“�鶹���� is thrilled to have hosted Saul Blinkoff as part of its annual Teshuva Program,” said Rabbi Eli Ciner, �鶹����’s principal. “As we head into Yom Kippur, I am confident that Saul’s message—the importance of seeking one’s place in the world and growing spiritually—will linger in the minds and hearts of our students.”

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Engineering students have had a long productive winter and are deeply engrossed��in their capstone projects. Ideas were researched, proposals presented, parts ordered and explored, and the groundwork for prototypes is now well under way. Our students are growing in knowledge and experience as they write codes, design circuits, build, test, and improve their models:

• Sprouts include a Technological Terrarium that monitors and provides all a plant needs to grow
• Paintbot, an interactive drawing experience
• Exoskeletons designed to help the handicapped
• A Smart Signer that converts sign language into verbal communication
• An En-Forcer-Er helmet that monitors impact on a football player’s skull.

Tenth graders are building 3D printed parts of their own design. We are also planning a field Trip to Konica Minolta’s Corporate Headquarters for a first hand look at the latest in 3D printing.

Lecture Series:

Our Engineering lecture series continues to expose the students to cutting edge developments in this fast growing field. We were privileged to hear from:

– Micah Lemonik, a Principal Software Engineer at Google’s New York City headquarters, where he is an engineering lead in the Google Apps group.�� Micah joined Google in 2005 and worked on many popular products such as Google Docs and Google Drive. He shared with us the fascinating world that is a career at Google.

–��Hadar Cohen, a �鶹���� alum currently a senior at Cooper Union,��where she studies Electrical Engineering. Hadar shared her personal journey to engineering and��her experience at Cooper Union including details on her many engineering projects. She��provided some understanding of what it means to be an engineer and the different fields available to potential engineering students.

– Rabbi Binyamin Zimmerman, visited from the Zomet Institute in Israel. The Zomet Institute is dedicated to seamlessly merging Halachic Judaism with modern life. For over 30 years their researchers and engineers have devised practical Halachic solutions. They consult and develop solutions for The Israeli Ministry of Health, The Ministry of Defense, Ben Gurion Airport, Amigo Mobility, Elite Food, Tnuva Dairies, Israeli Channel 10 Shindler Elevators and more. Zomet’s engineers have developed and implemented technologies that enable products such as metal detectors, security jeeps, elevators, electric wheelchairs and coffee machines to be used on Shabbat. I met Rabbi Zimmerman and heard him speak about Zomet’s mission on my recent trip to Israel with CIJE.�� It is an incredible place. Rabbi Zimmerman exposed our��engineering��students to the ideas and practical challenges behind merging technology and Halacha while viewing��technological advancement from a religious perspective of partnering with God.

Coding:��

�鶹����’s Girls Who Code Club is germinating. Every Monday we meet after school with a volunteer instructor from GWC, Colleen Stowe, to learn the art of coding. Our girls have designed a computer game, are learning about artificial intelligence and will begin work on a final coding project. We visited Microsoft for a coding session and have a trip planned to Google to meet with female engineers. �鶹���� was approved to continue our club next year and I hope to open the world of coding to a new group of budding coders. The national organization works to inspire, educate, and equip girls with the computing skills to pursue 21st century ��opportunities.

Senior Elective:

Our senior elective, which combines a Halacha study/engineering design project, is blossoming and being piloted by Ronit Langer and Amitai Cohen, who are working with 10th grader, Bracha Getter on a project they call “kosher STEM”. They are busy in the lab this spring bringing it to life. Rav Zimmerman, from Zomet was impressed with our engineering program and graciously agreed to review and share with his engineers the project proposal. Our students are building a prototype for a Shabbat mode for electronic locks.��We received incredibly helpful feedback.�� Rav Zimmerman was so impressed with our lab and our students that he and his team at Zomet welcome the possibility of continued work with our students.

Start Up Nation:

Training students to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams requires training teachers to foster those endeavors.��I was privileged to attend CIJE’s Journey to Start Up Nation in Israel this past February as a mentor and guest lecturer for new teachers to the program. It was incredible. We visited engineering schools, accelerators and met with entrepreneurs. I had the opportunity to meet and speak with some of Israel’s top biomedical and high tech companies including the CEOs of��Biosense-Webster and Johnson & Johnson, who discussed the engineering behind cardiac technologies. The group also met with Shai Melcer, executive director of BioJerusalem, an organization dedicated to promoting the advancement of the biomedical industry in Jerusalem as well as Bob Rosenschein, founder of Answers.com. and Daniel Schreiber, President of Powermat.��“This trip took teachers from the classroom into the field where ideas are conceived, products are developed and promising innovations are financed,” explained Jay Smallwood, CIJE-Tech Specialist.�� “These few days of exposure to such an esteemed group of CEOs, engineers and product developers from biomedical devices to Shabbat-approved technologies will trickle down into the mentorship teachers��provide their CIJE students.”

All engineering students will have the opportunity to attend a student journey to Start up Nation next winter break. Two of our 10^th graders Daniel Koenig and David Lifschitz reported on this year’s journey which included both an exposure to entrepreneurship and workshops at the Technion. Details to follow.

Annual��Symposium:��

Our Annual Engineering and Research Symposium is scheduled for Thursday evening, May 28^th where students will be showcasing their projects and Susan Englehardt will be our keynote speaker

Susan Engelhardt presently serves as Executive Director of the Center for Innovative Ventures of Emerging Technologies (CIVET) at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, where she spearheads the development of programs that help faculty and students bring innovations to the market and develop their skills as innovators, as well as establish pathways for industrial academic partnerships. Susan brings to CIVET over 20 years of experience in engineering, process design, and business relationship management cross-industry at companies such as Bear Stearns, Deloitte Consulting and AT&T Bell Laboratories. Ms. Engelhardt holds a Master of Science degree from Columbia University and a Bachelor of Science degree from Queens College. I look forward to greeting you.

Rifkie Silverman

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In biology, after discussing the laws of inheritance elucidated by Mendel more than 150 years ago, the ��freshman as “Bothead parents” created “Bothead progeny”. ��The age old question of “why are my eyes blue” ��was demonstrated as the traits of the baby Botheads clearly represented a random combination of the genes of the parents. The students in Animal Behavior took a trip this week to the Bronx Zoo.�� After learning about how and why ethologists (scientists that study animal behavior) do their jobs and after practicing these skills with videos and in-class projects, the students were prepared to put their animal research skills to use. Students chose an animal, clearly defined its behaviors (to limit bias!), and created a tally of those behaviors on an ethogram (a table of animal behaviors).��The students will have the opportunity to analyze their data, draw inferences, and present their findings to the class.��In the Science Research class, students are busy analyzing novel gene sequences from a plant species called duckweed. To determine the size of those sequences, the students purified DNA and using gel electrophoresis were able to determine the size of the DNA sequence and the quality of their purified sample. The gels may look like a scene from a CSI episode but actually require mastering some very sophisticated techniques in molecular biology.

Need a bright idea to demonstrate the different categories of chemical reactions? In lab, students were given the opportunity to predict the outcome of certain classes of chemical reactions by examining the products of those reactions. ��Magnesium, produced by a synthesis reaction burns with a startling, bright white flame. When studying the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide��, a glowing splint will burst into flame as oxygen is released. Exploding the hydrogen given off when zinc is dropped into acid also dramatically illustrates single replacement reactions. The goopy precipitate that formed during a double replacement reaction was appreciated as well.

While the laws of physics might seem abstract to most, there is no better tool than a slinky to illustrate some of the major properties of waves. ��The students held a slinky by opposite ends and shook. The slinky’s sinusoidal undulations illustrated the crests and troughs of a transverse wave. As they pushed one end of the slinky and watched��a ripple slide to the other end they were able to witness the compression’s and rarefaction’s of a longitudinal wave. The finer points of waves were studied in the lab in a ripple tank with green water to make the waves more visible. The students observed reflection and diffraction around barriers they set up in the ripple tank.

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These objectives are achieved by using authentic resources including on line print, audio-visual, and traditional print resources such as magazines, newspapers, and short stories.�� There is also a cultural component emphasizing life and values of the native speakers.

Spanish 1

We continue to have lots of fun while learning in Spanish 1!�� Students are building their vocabulary at a rapid pace using engaging techniques such as TPR (Total Physical Response), in which students act out new words by following the teacher’s commands.�� This can sometimes lead to crazy games of ‘Simón dice’.�� It is tremendously rewarding to see how students (with no prior knowledge of the language) are now able to have a basic conversation in Spanish about their daily school routines, likes and dislikes, clothing, and their friends and family.�� Students have enjoyed presenting their projects on what their lives would be like if they lived in a Spanish speaking country. They recently used technology to complete a slide presentation entitled ‘¿Quién soy yo?’ in which they wrote about their personal and physical characteristics, their interests and their families.�� ¡Qué divertido!

Spanish 2

We recently finished a unit on food and art.�� In class we learned the difference between traditional and modern art and focused on two Spanish artists: Pablo Picasso and Diego Velázquez.�� Students worked in groups to complete travel brochures about cities in Spanish-speaking countries they wish to visit.�� They discussed the various points of interest, customs and local Jewish communities. They were also required to explain how one navigates through the airport, the various check-in points, baggage requirements, and security process. Our students’ cooking skills were also showcased as they directed and starred in their own cooking videos.�� We are now finishing up a unit on the media.�� Much of class time is spent discussing current national and international events in the news in Spanish.�� ��In addition, to bring together the theme of media and an amazing week of Shiriyah, students recently completed articles and ‘live’ broadcasts from the hallways of �鶹����.

Spanish 3

We are continuing to cover Latin American authors such as Miguel Unamuno, Eduardo Galeano, and Gabriel García Marquéz whose short stories have led us to explore issues regarding underdevelopment in Latin America.�� Students have been perfecting their writing skills and recently wrote, directed and presented an original play.�� In addition, we have been reviewing old grammatical concepts such as ‘ser’ and ‘estar’ and stem-changing verbs and learning new ones such as the future and conditional tenses.

AP

The Spanish 4 AP class has covered numerous topics this year.�� We started with food during which students wrote, produced and starred in their own cooking shows.�� We moved on to health and medicine where students presented dialogues on different health-related scenarios, read and presented articles on various current health topics in the news, and completed online surveys on health issues such as heart disease.�� Our current topic, ‘La identidad’ has us watching several videos about the life and identity of Latinos in America which has led to discussions on immigration and language.�� In addition, since we normally take time to discuss the Jewish holidays when they come up, this past week we spent part of a class talking about the meaning and rituals of Tu B’Shvat.

Spanish Club

This year saw the inception of our new Spanish Club. We are planning an educational trip to the Hispanic society of NYC and planning fun activities as we explore the varied cultures of the Spanish- speaking world.

French 1

French 1 is enjoying the opportunity to communicate by discussing��days, seasons, time, food, activities, colors and many other major��topics necessary for communication.�� To reinforce numbers, we play��bingo.�� To reinforce classroom directions and parts of the body, students participate in a good game of “Jacques a dit” (Simon says).��Students made power point presentations introducing their families and��friends .�� They described them using newly learned vocabulary

French 2

Students in level two French are continuing to build upon skills��learned in level one.�� ��Students have been involved in many of the��same activities only at a higher level.�� They recently wrote an essay��in the past tense and continue to present original dialogues using the��target language.�� They examine on-line dialogues thus enriching their��ability to learn everyday French.�� Their favorite activity is to learn��French songs and jingles which reinforce the facility of the language.��The class was exceptionally enthusiastic about sending Hannukah
greetings in French.

French 3

As expected, students continue to build on skills learned in previous��levels.�� Many more class conversations about likes, dislikes, daily��activities and future goals.�� We have read some short stories and��continue to review native speaker situations on line.�� We have used a��website which presents news in slow French.�� Students will be working��on presenting “TV commercials” and they are looking forward to writing��their own individual fairy tale using past tense of verbs which they��have just mastered.

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