Rambam Team on FOX News This Evening

The team from Rambam Mesivta, one of the four who came for a weekend tournament and may land up staying a week, will be on FOX news at 5 this evening.  Report Earle Farrel came by the school this morning, as we were finishing our shiur, to interview them about their experience.

If you can't catch it live, it should be on their website (http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/) after about six this evening.

Tournament Pics

For the sixth year in a rom, the Cooper Invitational was a weekend to remember.  From the camaraderie and competitiveness to the speakers and celebrities, Josh Kahane and his army of volunteers, outdid themselves once again.  Here's a collection of some of the best sights and sounds.  For links to all the pictures, see below.



Pics from Day One
Pics from Day Two
Pics from Day Three
Pics from Day Four

NY / NJ Students Riding Out Sandy in Memphis

Approximately 70 students, coaches, and chaperones who came to town last Thursday for the 7th Annual Cooper Invitational are getting a bit more Memphis than they had bargained for.  With Hurricane Sandy on its way, their return flights yesterday were canceled and it doesn't look like they'll be returning to the airport until Wednesday at the earliest.

The four teams, from Frisch, SAR, North Shore, and Rambam, came to school this morning for davening, breakfast, and a shiur and they'll be here for lunch as well.  After lunch they're either heading for some Memphis siteseeing or to the laudromat to get some clean clothes for their extended stay.  Tomorrow we'll do the same thing again and then, hopefully for their sake, they'll be on their way back home.

A Student's Perspective on the SAT's

Guest post by Gabriel Goldstein
11th Grade, Cooper Yeshiva High School for Boys

A Flawed System

“Five minutes remaining.” My heart begins to pound. I hear the clock ticking. Ticktock, ticktock, ticktock. I read over number 21. ‘I have four more questions left after this.’ ‘What if I don’t finish?’ ‘What if I don’t do well?’ These thoughts fill my head, distracting me from the question I’m so desperately attempting to answer. I take a deep breath: In, out. In, out. In, out. Finally, I zone in and push out 5 more answers before time is called. By this time, my brain is begging me to shut it down-I’m fried.

“Turn to the next section, read the instructions, and begin.” So much for shutting my brain down.

I suffer through two more grueling sections, somehow confidently answering each question. I walk out of the testing room and I’m overcome with an epiphany. We’re taught to believe that the SAT can determine your future, but I think that’s bologna. Only you determine your future. The simple fact that our future in college, our future in life, largely depends on one, three hour test makes me question why I even want to go to college. Why would I want to be a part of a system like that? It’s simply impossible to base someone’s academic abilities off of one pressure-filled, miserable day.

Here’s the perfect example. Last year, Rabbi Perl wrote a piece in the weekly newsletter about a young woman with a stellar GPA, amazing extra curricular activities to boast, and all around classiness. Her dream was to get into an Ivy League college; the only thing holding her back was her inability to perform on SAT testing day. This stirred thoughts in my head. College isn’t a sprint. You don’t go for one year and get a speed course on how to succeed in life. College is a process. It’s a leisurely stroll. College is four years so that you can stretch out the intake of a ridiculous amount of knowledge, hoping to retain half of what you learn, if you’re lucky. The SAT does not reflect one’s ability to understand and retain information. The SAT is a sprint. The SAT asks one to access everything they’ve learned in their multiple years of schooling and put that to use, all in thirty minutes or less. Is it okay to teach the next generation that everything needs to be rushed? That you don’t have to worry about enjoying your academic experience, you just have to suffer until you make it?

“Funny the way it is, if you think about it, one kid walks ten miles to school, another’s dropping out.” As Dave Matthews so powerfully summed up in his song “Funny the Way it is,” the reality of the academic system is that dropout rates are far higher than they should be (they should be zero). The world is slowly becoming a free for all. How can we teach today’s youth that not everything in life is a competition? There may be methods, but the SAT certainly isn’t one. The SAT is like throwing a piece of deer meat into a cave full of lions. Everyone scrambles to get the meat, leaving the others dead. Sometimes the good ones end up dying. The ones who enjoyed their courses, who wanted to learn. You see, the passion for knowledge is slowly dying. Schools no longer teach to spark a love for the infinite knowledge that is attainable in life; they teach to keep their stats high. They teach to prepare us for one stupid test that, unfortunately, will determine the rest of our lives. Where will this take us in fifty years?

We’re headed downhill, ladies and gentlemen. A change needs to come fast.

This piece originally appeared in the CYHSB Weekly newsletter

Bracket Challenge

It's that time again...Cooper Tournament fever is sweeping through the school and the community!

If you haven't yet filled out your bracket, be sure to do so here.  For a full schedule of the games and for links to the live broadcasts, visit the Cooper Invitational site at http://www.cooperinvitational.com/ .  Let's go Macs!

Showmanship Champs!

The MHA made its presence known at yesterday's annual ASBEE Kosher BBQ contest.  From students who won their 3-on-3 tournaments to parents who won theirs, and from award-winning beans from our yankee Director of Technology to a Best in Showmanship for our booth and our team name, it was a winning day all around.

Much thanks go to Jonathan Wogan for spearheading our efforts and to Hillel Weiner, Noam "Beans" Davidovics, Lee Baum, and Jonanthan's friend Mickey, for helping to make the day such a success.

Seth Mania Continues

FOX 13's evening news on Friday featured this story on our newly famous student.

The cross country footage in the video isn't from the meet in which the incident occurred.  It's from the last meet of the season which took place just last week at Shelby Farms in which Eli Osdoba placed 8th overall (out of 120 runners) and the Cooper Macs team took 5th place overall (Isaac Graber and Seth both finished well ahead of the pack).  Pictures from the meet are here.

Below is a behind-the-scenes look at FOX news anchor Earle Farrell's visit to our school and his interviews with Seth's classmates that unfortunately didn't make the final cut.

Our English Teacher Blogs About Hebrew

Mr. Aaron Brame, our wonderful new upper school English teacher, was a guest blogger yesterday on the popular I Love Memphis blog.  His post was entitled "On Reading My First Hebrew Word."  Here's a selection:

Not content to remain illiterate in my own classroom, I went out last week and got a Hebrew primer for adults. I learned my first consonants and vowels—bet, kamatz, reish, shuruk, chaf, and sin–and penciled in the review exercises in my book. The next day, standing in the hallway at school, I searched the many Hebrew posters and signs that hang on the walls, looking for a word I understood.

I found one.  Baruch, (בָּרוּך), or “blessed,” the first word of most Jewish liturgical blessings.  It wasn’t much, but it was a beginning, and a reaffirmation of the value of education, the power of study, and the joy of understanding one another.

Read the post in it's entirety here.  And next time you see Mr. Brame in the hallway, test him on his latest Hebrew word. 

Friday Assemblies

One of the new elements introduced into our elementary school program this year is a weekly Friday assembly.  Organized and run by Mrs. Gersten, it features a student dvar Torah, a program from our Bat Ami and / or Kollel, as well as a presentation from one of our lower school classes.  The response so far has been wonderful and it has helped to make school spirit - as well as our erev shabbat spirit - soar even higher.

Here are some clips from Kitah Aleph's presentation of their Sukkot songs from this past Friday's assembly. Fantastic job Kitah Aleph and fantastic job Morah Deena!

Yom Kippur at the Jewish Home

In what has become an annual tradition and a touching act of chesed, boys from our high school once again joined our Torah MiTzion Kollel in spending Yom Kippur at the Memphis Jewish Home and Rehab Center.

While getting the opportunity to lead the tefillot and do the laining on one of the yamim nora'im is a wonderful learning experience for the boys, their primary purpose in going is to bring a level of energy and vitality to the religious life of the Home's residents that is unmatched throughout the year.  The reports we receive year after year is that as a result of the efforts of our Kollel and our high school boys, Yom Kippur for the residents of the Jewish Home truly is as the gemara in Taanit describes it: one of the happiest days of the year.

National Merit Scholars

We are proud to announce that Dylan Cooper and Gidon Feen were both awarded Letters of Commendation from the National Merit Scholarship Corporation.  34,000 Letters of Commendation are awarded annually to high achieving high school seniors across the country out of an applicant pool of approximately 1.5 million entrants.  We know this is just the beginning of the accolades for these two talented seniors, and we look forward to hearing more good news in the weeks and months ahead.

A Viral Kiddush Hashem

Do 1250 comments and 12,200 "likes" on the Huffington Post article mean Seth's story has gone viral?  How about this morning's front page article in the Commercial Appeal?  What about the fact that we got a call this morning from someone who wants to donate $1000 to the school in honor of Seth?

Of all the responses - and, as this morning's paper reported, there have been many - this is my favorite.  It is a Facebook comment by Rabbi Dov Karoll, executive assistant to Rosh Yeshiva HaRav Aharon Lichtenstein of Yeshivat Har Etzion in Israel:

'Like' is an inadequate response for this. I thinks the baraita probably says it best:

כדתניא, (דברים ו) ואהבת את ה' אלהיך - שיהא שם שמים מתאהב על ידך... ויהא משאו ומתנו בנחת עם הבריות, מה הבריות אומרות עליו - אשרי אביו שלמדו תורה, אשרי רבו שלמדו תורה. אוי להם לבריות שלא למדו תורה, פלוני שלמדו תורה - ראו כמה נאים דרכיו, כמה מתוקנים מעשיו, עליו הכתוב  אומר (ישעיהו מט) ויאמר לי עבדי אתה ישראל אשר בך אתפאר

The quote is from the Talmud (Yoma 86a).  Here is what it means:

As it was taught (Deuteronomy 6): "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God," i.e., that the Name of Heaven be beloved because of you.  If someone studies Scripture and Mishnah, and attends on the disciples of the wise, is honest in business, and deals with people pleasantly, what do people then say concerning him? ‘Happy the father who taught him Torah, happy the teacher who taught him Torah; woe unto people who have not studied the Torah; for this man has studied the Torah look how fine his ways are, how righteous his deeds! Of him does Scripture say: And He said unto me (Isaiah 49): You are my servant, Israel, in, whom I will be glorified."

Geoff Calkins on Seth Goldstein

I know I've blogged about this story twice already, but when the top sports writer in the city puts it on the cover of the Sunday Sports Section, how could I not mention it again?  Besides, his wonderful way with words is worth reading in and of itself.

Way to go, Seth.

More on Cheating

In my newsletter message last week, I wrote about the Harvard cheating scandal, the questions it raises, and the lessons to be learned.  Clearly, Robert Kolker of New York Magazine must be an avid reader of the MHA/FYOS Reporter because two days later he published this piece which focuses on a similar scandal at New York's prestigious Stuyvesant High School and expands on the ideas in very important ways.  

Here are some selections

But the much-publicized scandals have shined a light on the problem, and social psychologists say today’s high-school students live in a culture that, perhaps more than ever, fosters cheating, or at least the temptation to cheat. The prime offender, they say, is the increased emphasis on testing... 

...But why do bright kids—Stuyvesant and Harvard students—cheat? Aren’t they smart enough to get ahead honestly? One might think so, but the pressure to succeed, or the perception of it anyway, is often only greater for such students. Students who attend such schools often feel they not only have to live up to the reputation of the institution and the expectations that it brings, but that they have to compete, many of them for the first time, with a school full of kids as smart, or smarter, than they are.

The article is well worth reading in its entirety - and giving to your high school children to read as well.

Students Pen Columns in Commercial Appeal

The cover of the Faith in Memphis section of today's Commercial Appeal featured a column by our own 9th grader, Noga Finkelstein.  She was one of five local teens asked by the newspaper to reflect on what the Yamim Noraim (High Holidays) mean to them.  Here's a small selection from Noga's powerful piece:

As the choir begins a round of lovely harmonies, all ears turn attentively to the words that are conveyed through the inspirational words. This is especially heartwarming to me because it resembles the common goal we all share throughout these days, becoming closer to G-d

Joining Noga was MHA 8th grade alum, Asher Finkelstein.  Both of their pieces merit reading in their entirety.   For many of us, this isn't the first time we've read their published writing and I have no doubt it won't be the last.

Kol ha-kavod.

A Rosh Hashanah Video from the Bat Ami

This video, made by our four wonderful Bnot Sherut and featuring student and staff throughout all divisions, was the highlight of our first weekly Elementary School Friday assembly.  Enjoy it and shanah tovah to all!

Junior High on ESPN?

When we created the Junior High Lounge this summer we intended for it to be a place for our 7th and 8th graders to hang out and to bond with our new Junior High Program Director, Rabbi Ezra Baldinger.  Thanks to a donation from the Bosin family and some fancy film editing by 8th grade director-in-training Asher Stein, it has become much more than that...

A Kiddush Hashem of the Highest Order

After writing my last post and directing you to the school newsletter to read about this week's incredible events at our Boys High School cross country meets, I saw this email from a total stranger sitting in my inbox.  I had to share it:

Dear Rabbi,

I had to write you after observing the actions of one of your students from the Cooper Yeshiva School this afternoon at the USJ cross country meet. I was watching my son's team, Germantown High School, run the race when one of his teammates suddenly collapsed. Your student, Seth Goldstein,stopped racing when he saw the boy was in trouble having a seizure. He called for help and I ran over there and he guided me and others through what we needed to do as this boy was in distress, reassuring us along the way that this young man was going to be alright.  I kept thinking he was maybe someone's dad, maybe a doctor or an EMT . I realized he was a race participant only after the ambulance arrived and my son's teammate was in the hands of professionals. Seth only then excused himself to complete the race. And I realized he was a race participant. What a fine young person that you are educating at Cooper Yeshiva!  I was very impressed by Seth's character, staying calm in an emergency and putting his first aid skills to use, and most especially by his unselfishness in forgoing his race opportunity until he realized the young man was out of harm's way.  I was equally impressed by his perseverance and determination to complete the race after tending to the needs of a student from another school. What a great young man! I'll always cheer for the boys from Cooper Yeshiva after today's race and Seth's beautiful display of humanity.  Keep up the great work you are doing over there at Cooper Yeshiva.  Memphis needs more young men like Seth around!

Sincerely,

Jessica Chandler

Cross Country Kicks Off

Thanks to Coach Nokes, we kicked our first season of competitive cross-country for all divisions of the school this week.  While the 2nd place team finish for our 5th and 6th grade boys (led by Simcha Osdoba's 7th-place finish) and the third place team finish by our 7th and 8th grade boys (behind a team best finish of 14th by Asher Stein), the real stories this week came from our boys high school meets.  Two meets, two incredible feats, which should make every member of our school community proud.

Read about them in my Dean's Message and in the IkaRR Korner of this week's MHA Newsletter.

Premier Soccer Club Accommodates Shabbos for MHA Student

You may not know it by looking at her, but 5th grader Shayna Kahane ranks among the school's most highly accomplished athletes.  Though a few years back she played together with our elementary school girls on our first ever lower school girls soccer team, Shayna's knack for the sport quickly propelled her onto more and more competitive teams in more and more competitive leagues.

Most recently, it was recommended that Shayna try out for the newly created MidSouth FC Elite Academy, a conglomerate of the region's premier competitive soccer programs: Memphis Futbol Club, Arlington Soccer Academy, Bartlett Soccer Club and Futbol Club Legendinhos.

According to the MSFC's website, their program boasts the following accomplishments:

• Appeared in SIX national Finals

• Winners of nine international tournaments

• In 2010, five Midsouth FC teams qualified for TN State Cup finals

• The only Memphis club to produce a US national team player to appear in a world cup

• More than 400 MidSouth players have gone on to play for top colleges on scholarship

• Eight Midsouth players have gone on to play in the MLS (Professional soccer league)

Knowing that their practice and travel schedule would pose a problem for Shayna in terms of shabbos, the Kahanes initially did not pursue it.  However, when members of local soccer community assured Shayna and her parents that if she was good enough, the program would find a way to accommodate her, they decided to give it a try.

So, two weeks ago Shayna tried out for coach Ross Paule, a former Major League Soccer player.   Just as predicted, when he saw what Shayna could do an offer quickly followed to provide her a private workout every Sunday morning in place of the team's major workout on Saturday mornings, as well as an exemption from all Saturday games without risk of losing her starting spot.  The MSFC can now proudly list "accommodated one shomer shabbos athlete" to their list of accomplishments.

We wish Shayna the best of luck on her new team and - more importantly - the strength to continue making a kiddush Hashem wherever she goes!