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College Acceptances
Mazel Tov to the seniors who were accepted to:
Queens College
University of Virginia - Jefferson Scholars
Yeshiva University
Drexel College - Dragon Scholars
Queens College Honors Program
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Yom HaShoah: Appreciating What We Lost, Appreciating What We Have
Yehoshua Szafranski ('14)
 For this year's Yom HaShoah program at MTA, we wanted to do something a little different. We therefore had students play an active role in the memorial candle lighting ceremony; and student representatives from every grade spoke briefly about a relative, or a role model, who perished in the Holocaust. We also hosted an esteemed scholar, Mr. Naftali Friedman (a YU alumnus), who represented his father, Mr. Alex Friedman, a Holocaust survivor, and showed us moving segments from his incredible, award-winning, documentary "More Precious than Pearls."
I would venture to say what made this year's program particularly special, though, was the theme that we chose: "appreciation". The program thus stressed the fact that we must of course recognize what was lost during the Holocaust and appreciate the tremendous loss of life, of so much lost potential, which can ever be replaced. But more than that, we should appreciate what we have now. We should appreciate what those who perished stood for. And we must never take for granted our own freedom that we are privileged to live with here in America, nor the tremendous gift of Medinat Yisrael, and the incredible institutions and communities of Torah and Judaism that have been created. G-d has given us remarkable resources and opportunities... What are we going to do with them?
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Six Juniors Receive National Merit Recognition!
(From L-R, David Orlow, Yehuda Tager, Yitzchak Fishbach, Zvi Goldstein, Yisroel Friedenberg.
Asher Finkelstein is unpictured)
MTA takes great pride in announcing the news that six of our juniors have received recognition in the 2015 National Merit Scholarship Program. Asher Finkelstein, Yitzchak Fishbach, Yisroel Friedenberg, Zvi Goldstein, David Orlow, and Yehuda Tager are among the 50,000 high scorers nationwide in the PSATs who have received this recognition. 16,000 of these original 50,000 high scorers will eventually be named National Merit Semifinalists in the fall and will therefore have the opportunity to continue in the competition for about 8,000 National Merit Scholarships to be offered in 2015. We congratulate our six students who have made it this far and we wish you success in the coming stages of this competition.
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A Poem from our Literary Journal Pearls of Wisdom
"The Smell of Ancient Dust"
by David Schmidt '16
You open the door of the library and inhale
Your nostrils collect the dust of time
Ancient dust
You open a book and it smells like incense
The dust of Egyptian Pharaohs and Russian Czars
And other rulers with strange names
The dust of warriors, doctors, leaders, and peasants
Collected between the pages of nonfiction and biography
The dust of farmers, teachers, dictators, and slaves
Collected between pages of fantasy and poetry
Smell of perfumes in Roman markets
Brought across the desert camel-back
From its Indian homeland with sapphires aquamarine
The smell of wars, blood and sacrifice
On the ziggurats of Mesopotamia
To the battlefield on the western front
Smell of Alexandrian knowledge
On papyrus scrolls and clay tablets
Cuneiform and hieroglyphic appear
From the obsidian walls of Zimbabwe
To the dry stone walls of Scotland
The stone powder reaches are noses
From the Great Wall of China to the Great Barrier Reef
And all of humanities travels
Breathe in and smell humankind.
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MTA's Academy News Wins Second Place in Nationwide
Student Newspaper Competition!
(Avi Weschler '14)
This year's Academy News Staff is proud to announce that our school's student newspaper has won second place in the annual American Scholastic Press Association competition. The ASPA is an organization which helps to improve school publications by recognizing exemplary reporting and offering advice on content and substance. We are thrilled and honored that The Academy News now ranks among some of the top school publications across the country. On behalf of the entire staff I would like to thank Mrs. Levitt for guiding us to this point. Keep an eye out for our next edition; coming soon!
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MTA Debate Holds Novice Training Session and Extemp Tryouts
This past Tuesday night, the MTA debate team convened for a special meeting which included a novice training session and extemporaneous speaking tryouts. The team decided on dates for the next few debates, discussed the coming resolutions, and experienced debaters answered many questions which the novice (first-year) debaters had regarding debate strategy. After the question-and-answer session, each member of the team was given an allotted time to prepare a 5-minute speech on a topic such as who his favorite author is and why, what he feels is the best thing about schools, and whether pizza tastes better than Chinese food.The speakers learned much about different aspects of public speaking, such as flow, originality, and appropriate levels of confidence and humor. The experience was both enjoyable and educational for all members of the team, who look forward to similar events in the future.
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Arista Blood Drive Organizers Honored by NY Blood Center!
(Dovid Ort '14)
This past Tuesday, six seniors (Josh Birnbaum, Dovid Leiter, Ari Mandelbaum, Dovid Ort, Moshe Rosensweig, and Yoni Sheer) from MTA's Arista and Chessed Club, the organizers of this year's three hugely successful blood drives, accompanied by Mrs. Levitt, the head of Arista, attended the New York Blood Center's annual high school recognition breakfast at the Bronx Zoo.
At the breakfast were students from close to twenty different schools from all over New York City who organized blood drives this past year. We heard from a representative of the Blood Center who spoke of the importance of our efforts. She thanked us for our work and encouraged us to continue helping save lives. We also heard from a studentwho was herself a blood recipient and was the blood drive coordinator in her high school. She told us her story; she was on a plane to Italy when she suddenly fainted in the aisle due to a lack of white blood cells. Upon landing she was rushed to the hospital where she received a blood transfusion; after the ordeal doctors told her that her blood levels were so poor that she was just 24 hours away from death and that the blood she received saved her life. She described the feeling of being so close to death before the blood transfusion, but within 5-10 minutes she was sitting up and feeling alert as if nothing had happened. She said that at that moment, she realized that it was because of just one person, who took only 45 minutes out of his or her day to donate blood that she is now living and feeling good. This event inspired her to encourage others to donate to save more lives like hers.
After the speeches, the blood center representatives gave out awards.This year, MTA ran three drives and had a total of 167 donations and thus a 111% (not a typo!) donation rate - the rate is based on of the number of students eligible to donate and the total number of donations (repeat donors are counted as new donors each time they donate) - the second-highest donation rate of any school this year. After our lovely breakfast we were given the freedom to see anything we wanted in the Bronx Zoo. It was a truly enjoyable trip, and we look forward to further success next year!
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MTA Quidditch Off to a Magical Start!
((Yehuda Goldberg '18)
During lunch this week, MTA students of all ages embraced their inner Harry Potter, as they journeyed to the Quidditch Pitch to play the newest and most exciting sport at MTA. Many students were initially skeptical, asking "what's Quidditch without flying broomsticks, crazy 50-foot dives for a snitch and magic?" They were soon answered with three words: Lots of fun! Using a combination of basketball, dodgeball and European handball, Quidditch proved to be a sport playable by muggles as well as magic folk. Nothing is quite like the experience of racing around the Den, holding a broom in one hand, trying to score with the other and ducking from dodge balls - all at once. We thank Mr. Gillers and Rabbi Green for all their support and help and look forward to the future success of Quidditch at MTA. See the pictures here!
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Rabbi Soniker's Shiur Collects Clothing for Yad Sarah!
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In Mr. Lightstone's Class, Soda and Mentos Produce a Sweet Lesson!
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Mazel Tov!
Mazel Tov to Nachum Cooper ('09),
our Lion's Life coordinator, on his marriage to Chani Spirn!
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Monday, May 5th - YOM HAZIKARON
No Homework tonight, enjoy your community Yom Ha'Atzmaut progran
Student Council campaigning begins
Quidditch club practice will take place in the Den during lunch
Chaburah with Rav Willig will meet during lunch on the 5th floor of Glueck
Extemporaneous speaking tryouts during lunch in room 405
Yom HaZikaron program begins 1:45 in the Beis Medrash
Lions Baseball vs. Heschel
Bergen County Night Seder at Beth Abraham 9-10pm
Tuesday, May 6th - YOM HA'ATZMAUT
Dress in blue and white; polo shirts are permitted!
Davening in Lamport Auditorium
Chaburah with Rav Weinberger will meet
10th grade Mekor Chaim meeting at breakfast
Chagigah begins 11:15 in The Den
Book and Film club in Room 203 during lunch
Navi Chaburah with Shua Brick in the library during lunch
Nefesh HaChaim Chaburah with Rav Kahn will meet 12:30 in the Beis Medrash
MTA Chorus practice Room 405 during lunch
MTA Band practice fifth period in the band room
Monsey Night Seder 8:30-9:30 at Congregation Ohav Shalom
Passaic Night Seder 8:15-9:15 at the Agudah of Passaic, will not meet - moved to Monday
Wednesday, May 7th
Leadership institute meeting during breakfast Room 203
Chaburah with Rav Schachter and Rav Twersky meet after davening in the Beis Medrash
New Arista leaders meeting during lunch in Mrs. Levitt's office
Bergen County Night Seder at Beth Abraham 8-9 pm
Thursday, May 8th
Chasidus Chaburah with Shoof in the Library during breakfast
Student Council elections
MTA Chorus practice Room 404 during lunch
MTA Band practice fifth period in the band room
Names Not Numbers dinner 6:00pm in Weissberg Commons, Belfer Hall
Mishmar dismissal 7:00
Friday, May 9
Teaneck/Bergenfield Shacharis and Shiur 8:50 at Bnai Yeshurun
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5.2
David Spellman
Hershele Vaisman
5.3
Yosef Wildes
5.4 Joshua Klein
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5.6
Daniel From
Ariel Newman
5.8
Eitan Siegman
Shilo Shalom
Jake Socol
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Please share with us your significant family milestones so we may appropriately acknowledge events and losses and properly communicate information. Please contact Mr. Nachum Cooper at ncooper@yuhsb.org
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A Lion's Life Executive Staff
Editors-in-Chief: Joey Goffstein '14, Ori Putterman '14 and Avi Weschler '14
Executive Editors: Binyomin Shtaynberger '14 and Efraim Tepler '14
Sports Editor: Jeremy Borgen '15
Associate Editor: Shimmy Mandelbaum '16
Photography Editor: Shimmy Socol '16
Faculty Advisor: Mr. Nachum Cooper '09
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