CONTENTS

1. Rosh Hashana Appeal
2. 5770 - Year in Review
3. YBA Adds Musical Yeshiva
4. Rishon Letzion Schools to Join YBA
5. Summer School for YBA Teachers
6. Hesder Students Inducted into IDF Units
7. Profile: Joseph Cedar, Screenwriter & Film Director
8. AFYBA Young Leadership Trip to Israel
9. Sukkot Family Day Trips in Israel

ROSH HASHANA APPEAL

Dear friends,
          On behalf of the 22,000 Yeshivot Bnei Akiva students in Israel, we wish you and your family a joyous and meaningful New Year. 
71 years ago, Harav Moshe Tzvi Neriya zt"l established the first Bnei Akiva high school yeshiva with just 13 students at Kfar Haroeh. Today, 65 YBA schools from the Golan to Eilat, bring the philosophy of Am Yisrael, Eretz Yisrael, al pi Torat Yisrael to every corner of the Jewish state. 

           Indeed, YBA has grown to become the largest religious Zionist educational network in the world. As you will read in this issue, three more schools have just recently joined the YBA network, and we will continue to add institutions and educate more students in the ideology of religious Zionism.

           Our mission is to inspire and train Israel's next generation of leaders, and we remain the backbone of Israel's religious Zionist community, with over 65,000 graduates contributing to every facet of Israeli's economy and society.

           YBA needs your support to maintain our standards of excellence while at the same time meeting the needs of every student. All YBA schools maintain an open enrollment policy – no child is ever turned away due to the parents’ inability to pay tuition. 47% of all YBA students receive full or partial scholarship!  We ask that you consider providing whatever assistance you can to help us continue meeting our vital mission.

          We sincerely thank our annual contributors for their support. If you have never yet contributed to YBA, we hope that you will consider joining the thousands of our supporters worldwide with a generous donation to the AFYBA Scholarship Fund. 

           In this special Rosh Hashana issue we will recap the year that has past and share with you some of the changes in store for the year to come. Please enjoy this newsletter and then take a moment to visit our secure online donation page at www.afyba.org to make your pledge. Alternatively, you can mail your check to the AFYBA office at: 11 Broadway, Ste. 901, New York, NY 10275. 

          May Hashem bless you and your family with a year of health and happiness, and all Clal Yisrael with a year of peace and prosperity.

Sincerely,
Daniel Edelman         Joshua Annenberg         Menachem Bar-Shalom
Co-President            Co-President                 Executive Director

P.S. YBA graduates can be found in leadership positions in every profession and economic sector in Israeli society. Your contribution not only helps to ensure YBA's continued growth and development – it is also an investment in Israel's future. Thank you for your support!

          Click here to visit the AFYBA secure online donation page.

5770 YEAR IN REVIEW

         5770 has certainly been an eventful year for the YBA educational network in Israel, marking its 70TH ANNIVERSARY. During the course of the past year:

Bar Ilan University hosted an academic conference examining the history of YBA and many ways in which our schools have influenced Israeli society. Thousands of YBA students helped to raise funds to write a new Sefer Torah, which will be carried by YBA schools participating in the annual March of the Living mission to Poland. 19 from among over 4,000 YBA teaching and support staff were honored with Distinguished Service Awards at a gala staff appreciation event.

A new book, Ha'or Hagadol, was published documenting the history and development of YBA as Israel's leading religious Zionist educational network.

         We are proud that the YBA network continues to expand and earn awards and distinctions of excellence in every field. Consider just a few of our schools' and students' achievements in the year gone by:

Ulpanat Tzfira at Moshav Tzafariya near Ben-Gurion Airport was Israel's highest ranked high school in the chemistry matriculation exams, with a composite score of 97.9! Yeshivat T"OM (Torah U'Melacha) at Moshav Herev Le'et near Hadera was once again awarded a 5-star rating in the national Beautiful Campus competition, and received this year's Most Beautiful Campus in Israel prize. Or Ashuel, an 12th grade student at Ulpanat Amana in Kfar Saba, took first place in this year's World Bible Quiz, held on Yom Ha'atzmaut, after having won Israel's National Bible Quiz a month earlier. Yael Madmon, a 12th grade student at Ulpanit Tel-Aviv, was chosen by the Ministry of Education to receive its national Student Volunteer of the Year Award for exceptional community service.

130 students from 14 YBA yeshiva high schools who participated in last year's Yagdil Torah V'Yadir project earned prizes for mastering at least 50 pages of Talmud, over and above their normal school curriculum. Yinon Horesh, a 9th grade student at Yeshivat Holon, surpassed 35,000 competing students to win this year's Israel Math Olympics and took home a prize of NIS 50,000. Ephraim Schram, a 10th grade student from Yeshivat Kiryat Herzog in Bnei Brak, took first place from among the 13 finalists for the title of Chatan Talmud at the annual YBA Chidon Talmud contest

YBA ADDS UNIQUE MUSICAL YESHIVA

          Yeshivat Kinor David (David's Harp) was founded ten years ago as an experimental school and has evolved to become a leading music school, in the spirit of the ancient Levite Tribe, which provided the musical accompaniment heard in the Holy Temple. The school serves 130 students who flocked to the school to pursue their ambition of becoming professional musicians. The following article by Michal Sharon originally appeared in shalom-magazine.com. 

          A harp hung over King David’s bed. At midnight, a northern wind would blow on it and it would play music by itself. King David and his students would then arise and study Torah... delving its depths until the dawn. Therefore King David would say: “Awake, my glory, awake, harp and lyre, I will awake the dawn.” (Ps. 57:9)
(Midrash Rabah, Bamidbar, 15:16)

           From its lofty dwelling, the High-school-Yeshiva Kinor David (“David’s Harp”) looks out over a beautiful view of the rolling hills of Samaria and beyond – all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. Visitors to the Yeshiva feel the open skies and ancient hills enhance the atmosphere of this unique establishment. Located high on the hill in the village Ateret, music can be heard floating down throughout the day from the Yeshiva to the homes below.

          Click here to read the entire article about YBA Kinor David.

RISHON LETZION SCHOOLS TO JOIN YBA

           Following on the footsteps of YBA Hadarom, Rehovot, and YBA Kinor David, Ateret, which joined the YBA educational network last month, two more schools announced in August that they will join YBA in the coming year, making a total of 66 institutions in the YBA family.

            After witnessing how YBA succeeded in transforming weak yeshiva high schools into first-rate schools in Netivot, Ofakim, Haifa and other cities, the Rishon Letzion municipality turned to YBA to take over the administration of its local religious high schools. Yeshivat Rishon Letzion will formally join the YBA family as of September 2010, to be followed a year later by Ulpanat Rishon Letzion. 

           Click here to visit the AFYBA secure online donation page.

SUMMER SCHOOL FOR YBA TEACHERS

           Why are more and more schools seeking to joint the YBA educational network? One reason might be the amount of staff in-service training that YBA affords its teaching staff. While our schools formally concluded the scholastic year at the end of June, after the classrooms empty out, our rabbis, teachers and support staff used some of their new-found free time to invest in their own enrichment.
The following in-service training days took place in July:

Teachers Study Day at YBA Yavneh

Rabbis Study Day at YBA Ner Tamid

120 secretaries, bookkeepers and office staff from 55 YBA schools also visited the Neot Kedumim Biblical Gardens, to mark the close the 5770 school year. YBA Director General, Elchanan Glatt, expressed his appreciation for their hard work and contribution to their schools. "Your jobs behind the scenes are often taken for granted as compared to the work of the teaching staff," he said, "but it is certainly no less important!" The participants enjoyed a guided tour of the park, lectures and a catered lunch, and at the end of the day expressed their hope for more events of this kind in the future.

HESDER STUDENTS INDUCTED INTO IDF UNITS

           450 Hesder yeshiva students were inducted into the IDF during the first week of August. Induction statistics just released showed that 260 Hesder students joined the Golani, Givati, Kfir, Nachal and Paratrooper infantry units, while 50 were drafted into the Tank Corp. In addition, ten Hesder students were drafted into the Navy, where they will serve on Israel's Dabur and Devora patrol/torpedo boats. The remaining 130 soldiers will serve in the chaplaincy, field medic, intelligence and other IDF units.
Hesder students in combat units who qualify for officer training must agree to forego the second half of their yeshiva experience in order to be accepted to IDF officer training school. It is often a difficult choice to make.

           In a related story, the "Nachal Haredi" unit, which was established by the IDF ten years ago to encourage haredi yeshiva students to serve in the army, has grown into a full 700-soldier battalion. Nachal Haredi soldiers differ from their Hesder counterparts in that they serve together in a separate unit, allowing for their special religious stringencies, rather than integrating into regular IDF units with less religious and non-religious fellow soldiers.

           Click here to read the article "Haredi Battalion Comes of Age on its 10th Anniversary", by Yaakov Katz, in the Jerusalem Post, August 20, 2010.

PROFILE: JOSEPH CEDAR, SCREENWRITER & FILM DIRECTOR

Joseph Cedar accepting Silver Bear Award

           Joseph (Yossi) Cedar, a graduate of YBA Netiv Meir in Jerusalem, is one of Israel's most acclaimed film directors. His first film, Time of Favor (2000), won 6 Ofir (Israel Film Academy) Awards, including Best Picture. His second film, Campfire (2004), was also a success with 5 Ofir Awards including Best Picture. Beaufort (2007), his third film, received 4 Ofir Awards, as well as the Silver Bear Award for Best Director in the Berlin International Film Festival, and an Academy Award nomination for Best Foreign Language Film. His fourth film, Footnotes, is scheduled for release later this year. The following interview was originally published in Tikkun Magazine.

Shai Ginsburg: Could you tell me a little bit about yourself?

Joseph Cedar: I was born in the U.S. My parents immigrated to Israel when I was six and settled in Jerusalem in the Bayit Vegan neighborhood. I grew up in the Bnei-Akiva [religious] youth movement and attended a rabbinical high school. I served three years in the IDF paratroopers. I did my B.A. at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Theater Studies and Philosophy and then traveled to New York to study Filmmaking. From an early age I was engaged with the "stage." Every group needs someone to produce events: for Purim or Chanuka or the end of the year, you always have to stage something.

SG: There are very few "skullcap-wearer" filmmakers in Israel...

JC: That's true. I am one of the few; there are not enough "skullcap wearers" who are interested in making movies. Out of some hundred filmmakers, perhaps two succeed in transforming their stories into film. But I think that is accidental rather than something inherent [in the Israeli film industry]. I don't think that the cinema apparatus in Israel prevents religious people from making films. Nor do I think that religious circles attempt to dissuade creators from making films. It's merely a matter of numbers.

           Click here to read the entire interview by Shai Ginsburg in Tikkun Magazine, July/August 2005.

YOUNG LEADERS FELLOWSHIP TRIP TO ISRAEL           AFYBA is planning its first training program for future leaders, ages 25-35, in Israel during the week of Thanksgiving, November 20-28, 2010. The program aims to educate future AFYBA leaders committed to religious Zionism and its core values of Am Yisrael b’Eretz Yisrael al pi Torat Yisrael. Rabbi Jonathan and Miriam Gross            The cost of the program will be $999, including airfare, hotels, most meals, special programs and tours. Participants will tour Israel, visit various YBA institutions, partake in Chesed projects with YBA students, meet celebrated graduates and religious Zionist leaders and study the philosophy Harav Kook, the father of modern religious Zionism. Rabbi Jonathan and Miriam Gross from Omaha, Nebraska, who received the Akko Young Leadership Award at AFYBA's 2010 Annual Tribute Dinner, will serve as tour leaders.              The highly subsidized trip will be limited to 17 participants. Applicants will be expected to complete an application form, including an essay question describing their interest in religious Zionism. Application deadline is September 4, 2010.           Click here to view the AFYBA Young Leadership Training Program in Israel itinerary.           Click here to download the AFYBA Young Leadership Training Program in Israel application form

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Director of Public Relations
oz@yba.org.il

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