Koleinu

Outdoors Society Takes On "The Playground"
Unlike most SAR students, the members of the SAR Outdoors Society started their winter vacation with an ice climbing expedition. The group drove 2 hours to climb at an ice formation dubbed "The Playground" in the Catskills. Group members included Adam Aqua, Arieh Levi, Jonathan Smerling, Byron Weiss, Jonah Eidman, and parent, driver and climber extraordinaire, Michael Eidman. The group was led by superb guides from Alpine Endeavors, who taught them how to climb, repel, and belay, and supervised the climbs. Armed with ice axes, crampons and harnesses, everyone participated in an exciting and exhilarating day of ice climbing. All participants climbed each of the three routes and belayed each other multiple times. When the sun disappeared behind the mountain and everyone was nice and tired, the now veteran ice climbers decided to head back to the car, where everyone grabbed some well deserved hot chocolate, thanked the excellent guides, and embarked on the drive back home.

Before the trip many of the participants were skeptical if the expedition would be worth the money, but looking back all agreed that they were overwhelmed at how incredible the trip was. Reflecting on his experience, climber Adam Aqua said, "What's incredible is how awesomely unique this trip was. Before I signed up, I would have never thought I would ever go ice climbing in my life, yet the Outdoors Society has made it possible to do things like this. It's unique activities and clubs like this that make SAR such an awesome school. I think we are incredibly lucky to have many clubs like the Outdoors Society coordinating events like this." Adam was one of the day's top climber, completing the hardest route, and climbing a less challenging route but with just one ice ax.

--Jonah Eidman

Bible Club Hears from Two History Scholars

The Bible Club was privileged to hear from two eminent scholars, Lawrence Schiffman, who spoke about the Dead Sea Scrolls, and James Kugel, who fielded questions on Bible Studies from the students. Prof. Schiffman, who is Chair of the Skirball Department of Hebrew and Judaic Studies at NYU, began his presentation with an interesting slide show depicting the history of the Dead Sea Scrolls. He explained the various theories behind the identity of the Qumran sect and compared the scrolls to biblical and apocryphal texts. He then presented the class with two challenges that the discovery of the scrolls pose to traditional Orthodoxy: How does it fit into our understanding of the Bible, and How does this fit into our concepts of Jewish History? He spent the remainder of the lecture answering these questions drawing on classical teachings and his own theological ideas.

Prof. Kugel, Director of the Institute for the History of the Jewish Bible at Bar Ilan University, held a Q & A discussion with the students who asked questions about biblical studies, religion, theology, and history. The conversation opened the door for other topics that the Club would like to investigate.

Stay tuned for more upcoming events...

SAR Model UN Team
Represents North Korea in Yeshiva University Competition
Ariel Futter (10'), Jeremy Rosh (10'), Jonathan Boiarsky (10'), Akiva Futter (11'), Jesse Lifschitz (11'), and Gamliel Wernick (12') participated in Yeshiva University's Model United Competition on February 8-10. The students, members of SAR's Model United Nations Team, were tasked with representing the country of North Korea on various model committees. Team members needed to accurately represent the views that the actual North Korean regime would have on issues, ranging from nuclear proliferation to child labor, discussed in various mock-committees. For example, one student represented North Korea at the International Labor Organization, a United Nations Committee that governs labor issues around the world. Another student represented North Korea at the International Court of Justice Committee. The students were very competitive and did an excellent job representing North Korea. Unfortunately, many team members came close to, but did not win, awards. Nonetheless, the experience will prove invaluable in aiding the team in its quest for victory next year.

Linas Phillips, Documentary Film Maker, Speaks with Midnight Run and Film Clubs
In a special program co-sponsored by the Midnight Run and Film clubs, avant garde filmmaker Linas Phillips exclusively screened his documentary Great Speeches from a Dying World about the lives of nine homeless residents of Seattle, Washington on Wednesday February 25th in SAR's auditorium.

Following the screening, Mr. Phillips met separately with each club.

With the Midnight run club, he discussed the close to two years he spent getting to know the people depicted in his film and what it taught him about homelessness. One of the most powerful experiences was the reversal of the normal power dynamic. Instead of the homeless receiving, they were "doing me a favor by helping me with my film."

With the Film Club, Mr. Phillips discussed the interesting differences between documentary filmmaking (this is his second, the first is entitled Walking to Werner) and making fictional films. Mr. Phillips was first trained and worked as an actor, and is now currently working on fictional projects.

For more information about Linas Phillips:

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1060510/bio

For a review of Great Speeches from a Dying World:
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/02/11/movies/11grea.html

Students Visit the YU Seforim Sale

On Thursday February 5, a group of students boarded a school bus and headed toward Washington Heights to go to YU's annual seforim sale. We were participating in a program geared toward high school students in which students would have an opportunity to hear a shiur from a YU Rosh Yeshiva and then browse for seforim. Rabbi Kivelevitz and Ms. Kleinburd, two of our staff's major bibliophiles led the group. The bus took a bit of a circuitous route though, and the group arrived a half hour late. The group was at first disappointed because they missed the shiur from Rav Goldvicht. However, upon realizing the problem Rav Goldvicht delivered a private shiur for the SAR students- so the bus' circuitous route actually paid off. Students bought a number of seforim and the SAR library also made several purchases. Students had a great time learning, and also buying seforim from which they will continue to learn.