| • Volume 3, Issue 1 | • Tishrei 5771 | • September 2010 |
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SUCCESSFUL YOUNG LEADERSHIP INAUGURAL EVENT Over 100 individuals attended AFYBA's inaugural Young Leadership Division (YLD) event on August 31, a Watermelon, Wine and Cheese Party, co-sponsored by JWed.com, and Lincoln Square Synagogue, the event's venue.
Event chair Michal Harris gave a brief introduction followed by presentations from Joel Schreiber, Vice Chairman and Menachem Bar-Shalom, Executive Director of AFYBA. |
YBA/NAALE ELITE ACADEMY STUDENTS ARRIVE
28 students arrived in Israel on August 31 to begin 10th grade at YBA schools in the Naale Elite Academy program. The students were selected from among over 70 candidates for the fully subsidized program. They will spend this year studying in both English and Hebrew with the option of mainstreaming into regular all-Hebrew classes in 11th and 12th grade, finishing high school in Israel with a full Israeli Bagrut (matriculation) diploma. Israeli students and returning Elite Academy students from Ulpanat Segula, Kiryat Motzkin and Yeshivat Ohel Shlomo, Beer Sheva came to Ben-Gurion Airport to greet the new group.
Click here to learn more about the YBA/Naale Elite Academy program. |
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A BEDOUIN YBA YESHIVA? NOT YET, BUT...
The comprehensive high school in the Negev Bedouin town of Arara has changed headmasters three times in the past four years, and has been sinking deeper and deeper into administrative and economic difficulties. In conjunction with the Ministry of Education, the Arara Municipality recently turned to Yeshivot Bnei Akiva, to help turn the school around. "After much thought and deliberations," said YBA Director General, Elchanan Glatt, "we decided that it is consistent with our duty as citizens and as religious Zionists to accept the challenge of upgrading a state-sponsored school in the Moslim sector, just as we have done for over 15 schools in Israel's Jewish development towns in recent years."
"It's not as if our students are about to start studying Talmud or keeping Shabbat," explained Salem Abu Kush, the head of the Arara Municipality Education Department, "We simply checked and found that YBA was the most expert educational network in turning around failing schools." According to Abu Kush, the fact that YBA is a religious educational network is a significant advantage for the cooperative effort. "We share a common language with them; it's often easier than with secular Jews. This relationship has opened a constructive dialogue between our religions that can only bring about good things – we truly believe in coexistence." Glatt stressed that YBA's involvement will be limited to consulting services on administrative issues, with no bearing on the Bedouin school's curriculum. "We consider it a badge of honor that the Education Ministry chose YBA for this task. It is a public recognition of our network's professionalism and organizational excellence." |
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YBA HADERA TEACHER WINS A MILLION Rabbi Rules on Game Show, by Marcy Oster , Jewish Telegraphic Agency, June 13, 2010 The rabbi who became the first winner of Israel’s adaptation of the "1 vs. 100" game show doesn’t even have a TV.
Moshe Abu Aziz of Or Akiva, a high school teacher [at YBA Beit Shmuel, Hadera], became the first winner of the million shekel game-show prize on June 6. Contestants on the show must eliminate 100 opponents by answering trivia questions. Created in the Netherlands, "1 vs. 100" has been replicated in countries around the world, including the United States. Asked what he would do with the prize money, Abu Aziz told host Averi Gilad, "I have eight children to marry off." Abu Aziz’s family lives in a 2 1/2-bedroom apartment and does not have a television. Abu Aziz said he reads five newspapers and learns Talmud daily. |
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FOURTH 'YAGDIL TORAH' CONFERENCE by Arutz Sheva
The Yagdil Torah program encourages students at the yeshivas to learn Jewish Law above and beyond what the yeshiva requires. In the fourth year of the YBA Yagdil Torah Project, over 1500 students participated in two separate Talmud study programs. “Our students will be the future doctors and lawyers and scientists of this country,” Benjamin Lande told Israel National TV, and agreed with his wife Susan when she added “generals” to the list of vocations. “We want first and foremost that they will be great Torah scholars and they will be leaders of the Jewish people in all fields,” he explained. |
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YBA PIRCHEI AHARON CELEBRATES 50TH ANNIVERSARY On August 30th hundreds of Yeshivat Pirchei Aharon graduates gathered at the Haifa convention center to celebrate the yeshiva's 50th anniversary with a festive alumni reunion.The yeshiva, located in the Kiryat Shmuel neighborhood of Haifa, was established in 1960, and was named for Rabbi Aharon David Burack, a noted Talmudic scholar and Rosh Yeshiva at Yeshiva University in New York.
The mayor of Haifa at the time, Abba Chushi, supported the establishment of YBA Pirchei Aharon as the first yeshiva high school in the area, and forged an alliance with YBA making it the first full-fledged municipal public high school with a Torani yeshiva curriculum. This model partnership between YBA and local government was later often adopted by municipalities across the country. YBA Pirchei Aharon counts many noted national leaders among its graduates, including Chief Rabbi Yona Metzger, Akko mayor, Shimon Lankry and former Jerusalem mayor, Uri Lupoliansky. |
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PROFILE: RABBI YONA METZGER
Rabbi Yona Metzger was born in Haifa in 1953 and is YBA Pirchei Aharon's most famous graduate. He served in the IDF 7th Armored Brigade, fought in several wars, and was discharged as an army chaplain with the rank of captain. Rabbi Metzger completed his rabbinic studies at the Kerem Be-Yavne hesder yeshiva and continued to teach in yeshiva and in schools. He published several books, two of which were awarded prizes by the President of Israel. In 2003 Rabbi Yona Metzger was appointed Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel. Yona Metzger, the Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel, talks to SPIEGEL ONLINE about Abraham as the father of all three monotheistic religions -- Islam, Christianity and Judaism -- and explains how that connection could be a starting point for a dialogue of peace between them. SPIEGEL ONLINE: Chief Rabbi, Jews refer to Abraham as "Our Father Abraham." How difficult is it for you to accept the fact that Christians and Muslims also call Abraham their father? Metzger: This is not difficult at all. It fits very well with the Jewish religion. A close look at the word "Abraham" reveals that it is constructed from the words "father of many nations." So, if Muslims associate themselves with Abraham's son Ishmael, or Christians associate themselves with Abraham's grandson Esau, or we associate ourselves with his other grandson Jacob, then three great monotheistic religions were born from him. Click here to read the entire Spiegel Online interview with Harav Yona Metzger. |
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RELIGIOUS ZIONISM IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF HARAV KOOK ZT"L
The following translated article by Harav Aryeh Stern, Head of the Halacha Brurah Institute, was published on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the passing of Harav A.I. Hacohen Kook ("Haroeh") zt"l, the spiritual father of modern religious Zionism, on the 3rd of Elul. About 100 years ago, Harav Avraham Isaac Hacohen Kook zt"l, sent a letter to the congress of Agudat Yisrael, in which he described the social fabric of Eretz Yisrael as divided, in his opinion, into three groups. The first was the Old Yishuv, which dealt exclusively with matters of holiness and didn't permit any foreign language or secular studies in its "cheder" or yeshivot. The second group was the diametric opposite – the secular Zionist society that, according to him, dealt exclusively with secular matters.
In between the two, Harav Kook pointed to a third group which, in his words, "understood that it must strengthen and reinforce the spirit of Hashem that lies within heart His nation, while at the same time involve itself in all aspects of life that require practical studies." To Harav Kook, obtaining all the cultural advantages as practiced in the world was desirable, but on a secondary level to the study of Torah. Click here to read the entire translated article by Harav Aryeh Stern that first appeared in Issue 309, HaShabbat Tzohar, Parshat Shoftim, 4 Elul, 5770. |
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