***8th Grade Visit Day - Welcome future Lions!***

Chaburahs with Rav Schachter and Rav Twersky - after davening - Beis Medrash

Bergen County Night Seder - 9:00-10:00 - Beth Abraham

This Sunday we will bid farewell to the Sophomore participants of our annual MTA-Mekor Chaim exchange program who leave for a six week stay in Eretz Yisrael.

YUHSB and Yeshivat Makor Chaim (YMC), located in Kibbutz Kfar Etzion in Gush Etzion, are partners in an annual student exchange program in which YUHSB sophomores and YMC juniors spend several weeks in each other's yeshiva. The project is unique in that it has provided an opportunity for YUHSB students to obtain an experiential appreciation for the Torah of Eretz Yisrael through a fully integrated program with their Israeli peers for Limudei Kodesh.

Yeshivat Makor Chaim was founded over a quarter-century ago by noted Jewish educators Rabbi Adin Steinzaltz and Rabbi Dov Singer. It was awarded the prestigious Religious Education Prize in 5765 by the Israeli government. This unique institution embodies a revolutionary philosophy of high school education. It puts the emphasis on educating a new generation of passionately committed Jews, who realize that their own fulfillment is dependent upon the diversity they encounter among others. Love for learning Torah together with individuality and self-expression are the keys that make this school so successful. YMC is one of the most sought-out high schools in Eretz Yisrael, attracting the best and the brightest throughout the country.

The goal of the YUHSB program is to give our students a taste of the Makor Chaim experience in two ways - by sending our students there and by bringing the Makor Chaim students to our yeshiva. The culture of deep spiritual purpose, joyous song and dance, and ongoing reflection that is the hallmark of the Makor Chaim education exposes the YUHSB boys to serious religious and intellectual growth in ways that might otherwise be unavailable for the typical 10th grader, while offering their Israeli counterparts a flavor of American learning. For their part, the visiting Makor Chaim students have injected a sense of passion, urgency and authenticity into the rhythms of school life here at our yeshiva as well, while gaining insight into Jewish life and Torah learning in the United States.

It has become clear over the several years that MTA and YMC have partnered that the students in both institutions gain immensely from this one of a kind program.

This past week was the YU Lobby Mission to Washington for High School students. We had been preparing for this annual trip for almost six months, and the all our hard work really paid off. The mission was arranged by Matt Schwartz, from the YU Office of Admissions, and organized by leaders of Hatzioni, MTA's Israel advocacy club. It attracted over 100 students from nearly ten Jewish high schools in the tri-state area.

On Sunday, we had the opening plenary session on the Beren Campus of YU, where I was privileged to welcome the large crowd of students and introduce Yotam Goren, First Secretary General of the Israeli Mission to the UN. Yotam addressed the issue of Iran's nuclear program and discussed the strong influence we, as students, can have on members of Congress when we lobby for Israel. We then split up into groups and went over the bills we were lobbying for. Afterwards, we had several breakout sessions when we rehearsed for our congressional meetings. Once the opening session concluded, we were fully prepared to go to Washington.

Early the next morning, we boarded the bus and headed off to the nation's capital. The Hatzioni/MTA delegation was led by Mr. Sragow, who joined us for the entire trip. Our first stop was the Israeli Embassy, where I was honored to address the crowd once again and introduce Dor Shapira, the Israeli Government's Counselor for Congressional Affairs. Dor spoke about the strong relationship between the State of Israel and the U.S. Congress, and discussed the responsibilities of his job as Israel's envoy to the Senate and the House of Representatives.

We then went to Capitol Hill, where we visited the office of New York Senator Chuck Schumer. We met there with Pat Gonzalez, the Senator's foreign policy staffer. To our surprise, Pat was very educated on the issues we were lobbying for and he was the one who did most of the talking during our meeting. Pat discussed the recent agreement with Iran, and explained why he and everyone in Senator Schumer's office felt it was a bad deal. He repeatedly stressed the strong need for the Senate to immediately pass new sanctions on Iran, before the end of next week.

After the congressional meetings, we went to Congregation Kesher Yisrael of Georgetown for dinner and Maariv. We then boarded the bus and headed back to New York. The bus arrived back at YU at approximately 10:30PM, after a successful lobby mission.

It was truly a unique experience organizing and attending this mission to Washington. I hope all the YUHSB talmidim reading this article will join Hatzioni next Monday for a lunchtime event with Congresswoman Grace Meng and participate in the MTAPACmission to Washington next March.