This past Wednesday night was the annual MTA dinner for Arista - The National Honor Society. The dinner bid farewell to all the senior Arista members who will be graduating in a few weeks, while welcoming the new, incoming junior Arista members.

The National Honor Society was created in 1921, nearly a century ago, and has since become the nation's premier organization established to recognize outstanding high school students in the areas of scholarship, character, leadership, and public service. MTA Arista members propose school projects upon their entrance into the organization in their junior year, ranging from running blood drives to creating an innovative and free-tutoring program throughout the school, called "Each-One-Teach-One."

One of the dinner speakers, Yehuda Weschler, now the former president of Arista, pointed out one aspect about Arista in particular that applies to life in general as well. "We will not all be leaders, in fact, most of us will be followers; however, even though we will not all be leaders, we all have the potential to be leaders." Another one of our speakers, Rafi Anapolle, now also the former president of Arista, focused on some of the aspects of the life of Rav Aharon Lichtenstein, zt'l, who just passed away, that apply to every Jew - every day. Rafi explained how even though our main focus in life should first and foremost be serving our creator - Hashem - we must never forget our duties towards friends, family, and anyone in need.

The main speaker of the night was our own Rabbi Michael Taubes, Rosh Yeshiva of YUHSB/MTA. Rabbi Taubes delivered a powerful Jewish history lecture, which is the custom at the annual Arista dinner, thanks to an endowment from the family of Mr. Bruno Fankel, about complex events that played a role in the creation of Israel - the Jewish State. Focusing on a mysterious murder of a young political leader and the dramatic trials which followed, Rabbi Taubes explained the background politics and ideologies that dominated the time before the birth of the State of Israel in 1948. He described how parties from all ranges of the political spectrum, from religious to traditional, from liberal to conservative, and so on, affected the creation of Israel as a Jewish State. One central figure Rabbi Taubes focused on was Rav Kook, zt'l, and how he fought to make sure Israel would be not only a Jewish State, but a religious state, and yet tried hard to unite all Jews, while standing up for what he believed in. 

We would like to thank Mrs. Levitt for such an amazing night as well as everyone who helped to make the dinner so uplifting and enlightening. Also, we would like to thank our outgoing presidents Rafi Anapolle and Yehuda Weschler, and all the senior Arista members, for their hard work this past year. Finally, we would like to specifically congratulate the new presidents of Arista, Michael Kolber and Mikey Hizami, the Vice-presidents Jason Blatt, Ari Hagler, and Rami Nordlicht, as well as Project Managers Ezra Epstein, Yair Gross, Eli Kahn, Max Landsburg, Daniel Mirsky, David Schmidt, and Avraham Tsikhanovski. We wish them luck for the rest of this year and the year to come!

On Sunday, friends and family of Marsha Dane Stern Stern, a"h, along with school leaders and the students of Rabbi Tani Cohen's 12th grade shiur, joined together for a special program to commemorate the 36th yahrtzeit of MTA's namesake. The program included a special performance by MTA's award winning chorus and moving speeches delivered by Rabbi Josh Joseph, Senior Vice President of YU and son-in-law of Marsha, and by Rabbi Joseph's wife, Dr. Julie Joseph, who recalled growing up not knowing her mother, but trying to live with the values her mother embodied. 

Asher Finkelstein ('15), a cousin of Rabbi Joseph, delivered a short dvar Torah, and other moving words were shared by Marsha's sister, Wilma Kule, and grand-daughter, Marsha Zimbler. Rabbi Taubes represented the students and faculty of the high school in thanking the Stern family and explaining the impact that Marsha's legacy has had and hopefully will continue to have at the yeshiva named in her memory. The guests then enjoyed a delicious brunch set up in the library.

This past week, the entire YUHSB student body was involved in a special Anti-Harassment Policy training program.  The school was divided grade by grade over the course of two mornings, as the students heard a presentation led by Ms. Marjory Fisher of T&M Protection Resources, LLC, an agency working very closely with Yeshiva University on these matters.  The interactive discussion educated the students about our own YUHS policies, including important definitions of harassment and sexual harassment, as well as about the importance of bystander intervention and the lines of communication that are open with trusted adults on campus.  As Rabbi Alfred Cohen said, "The presenter was incredible. She engaged our students and really knew how to reach them."

Following the informative formal presentation, students were broken up into small groups for discussions led by Rebbeim and guidance staff members.  The groups focused on processing the talk that they had just heard and on thinking about specific scenarios where harassment could be an issue.  Students got involved in sometimes heated discussions with their group and leaders, even bringing Ms. Fischer over to specific groups in order to dig deeper into the topic at hand. The program left students feeling more knowledgeable about the subject and empowered to describe and report levels of discomfort with faculty, staff and other students.