Six MTA students met the requirements to enter the 2016 National Merit Scholarship Program: Yishai Eisenberg, CJ Glicksman Yair Gross, Ari Hagler, Tsahi Halyo, and Michael Kolber. 

Of the 1.5 million students who entered the competition by taking the PSAT exam last fall, our six students are among the 50,000 highest scoring participants from across the country who now go on to the next stage of the program when, in the fall, 16,000 students will be named National Merit Scholarship semifinalists. 

Those semifinalists will have the opportunity to continue in the competition for about 8,000 National Merit Scholarships to be offered in 2016. Good luck, guys! 

This past Thursday was Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, in observance of which we had an inspiring assembly commemorating the 6 million lives that perished during the Holocaust.  Nearly a month ago, many MTA classes started reading a fantastic book called 70 Days for 70 Years. This sefer is comprised of 70 eclectic essays ranging from pure historical anecdotes and allegories to fundamental exposition of Jewish thought and philosophy, composed by a variety of well-known authors. The sefer and the Yom HaShoah program of "70 Days for 70 Years" expressed the need and obligation to "remember the past to build the future."

The special program on Thursday included presentations by various students who spoke about their personal relationship to the Holocaust as well as speeches ranging from a recorded video of Rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau, former Chief Rabbi of Israel to a passionate speech by Rabbi Baruch Wieder, the Rosh Yeshiva of Yeshivat HaKotel in Israel.

One student speech in particular stood out to many of us. Yehuda Weschler, an MTA senior, spoke about how he was set to interview his grandfather about his Holocaust experience as part of the special MTA senior elective, Names Not Numbers. Unfortunately, his grandfather, Dr. Richard Weschler, a successful chemist who broke out of the chains of the Holocaust to be me'saken olam with his inherent chemistry skill, passed away just before Yehuda was able to interview him. Yehuda spoke about how Dr. Weschler was not a free man the first half of his life, but he never gave up. He rebuilt his family after the horrific Holocaust and made sure to raise his family with Jewish values. Today we live on in his legacy.

In his recorded speech, Rav Lau spoke about how a Jew without a Jewish concept of life is not a complete Jew; therefore the Nazis, yemach shemam, sought to destroy synagogues and Torah. Now, however, 80 years after Kristallnacht, tens of thousands are studying Torah all over the world . Rav Lau concluded, "They are not here anymore; they disappeared. We took care that our light will not be extinguished forever." Rav Lau tried to communicate to us that the only way we can build a better future is by remembering the past and staying true to our Jewish concept of life and Jewish values.

To conclude the program, we heard from Rabbi Baruch Wieder. Rav Wieder spoke about how we need to always remember that we are Jews - no matter where we live. As Jews, we represent the Jewish people and must always remember to act as such. We must make sure to always live with a mindset that we are first and foremost Jews and must never make a chilul Hashem. 

With that said, we all hope that we can learn from the past, from past experiences and past mistakes, so that we can build a better future - together - for am yisrael.

Before Pesach, MTA students went to pack Pesach food for Jewish soldiers in the American army. The program is run by KosherTroops.

KosherTroops received a letter from one of the soldiers who benefitted from the packing that the MTA students did.

Below is the letter:

Dear Mrs. Fuerst,

Words can not express the gratitude and appreciation for all the food that has been sent to me. I was down to my last piece of matza when today, during our at sea replenishment, I received 8 BOXES of Passover food. My excitement could not be contained because now I can eat and enjoy Passover the way it should be done. It was really touching in many ways and my appreciation is immense. It is an amazing thing you do for us and I want to let you know it will not be wasted. Your generosity and those of the many companies and people that helped put this together made what seemed like an almost impossible Passover undertaking into an enjoyable holiday. Thank you so much for all of this.

Thank you,

AT3 Abraham Zalta

This past Tuesday night the Mock Trial team faced Hunter College High School in the "top thirty-two" round of the New York Mock Trial competition. Only thirty-two teams were left in the New York City region (originally consisting of over one hundred teams). All teams came prepared with extensive notes and dedicated coaches.

Unfortunately for MTA, after two hours of speeches, interrogations, and arguments, Hunter came out with the win. The match was close, and lawyers CJ Glicksman ('16), Yehuda Goldberg ('17) and Yair Gross ('16), along with witnesses Larry Likhtenstein ('15), Rafi Felder ('17), and Dovid Tanner ('18), put up a good fight, constructing a very convincing case.

This loss means the end of the season for the Mock Trial team, but the students are ready to get an early start next year and with the help of their outstanding coach, Noah Pollack, maybe even make it as far as the finals.

by David Tanner ('18)

Back in November, MTA's own Rabbi Danto kicked off the special Bein HaSedarim Raffle program, available to students in all grades. The idea was to encourage talmidim to learn in a Beis Medrash environment during the off-time each week between Thursday night and Sunday morning for at least one hour and fifteen minutes. For each learning session, a raffle ticket for a $180 prize was earned, and students who learned enough times had access to the grand raffle, which carried with it the prize of $1,000.

Nearly 50 students participated, and those who submitted their learning time even once were invited to a wrap-up lunch this past Wednesday, April 15th, where the winning tickets would finally be drawn. The event started with pizza for everyone. Afterwards, Rabbi Taubes gave a brief introduction to our special guest speaker, HaRav Aharon Kahn shlit"a, a Rosh Yeshiva at YU whose many talmidim over the years include Rabbi Taubes himself. We were honored to have Rav Kahn address us on a timely topic - the nature of Sefiras HaOmer. Rav Kahn spoke about how the Sefer HaChinuch discusses the mitzvah of Sefiras HaOmer, and explained how the Sefirah is both a countdown and a "count up;" that is to say, that even though at this time of the year our eye is on Shavuos and Matan Torah, we must understand that each one of these days is also a day of growth which has inherent value in and of itself. This is one reason for counting up - one day, two days, three days - and not down. When one counts down, the concentration is only on the end result; when one counts up, every step of the way is crucial. (Click here to hear Rav Kahn's shiur)

After Rav Kahn spoke, the raffles were drawn. Dani Gruen won the $180 raffle, and Yisrael Friedenberg won the grand prize - one thousand dollars! While we wish Mazel Tov to them both, we all realize that the money was just an incentive to get us on the right path, and of course not the central point of the program.  The focus was to gain an understanding that even when we are out of the four walls of MTA, it is still our responsibility to keep up our status as Bnei Torah. On all accounts, this year's Bein HaSedarim program was an incredible success. Our sincerset thanks to Rabbi Danto.