This past Thursday, the freshman class went on the annual end-of-the-year freshman rafting trip. along with Rabbi Green, Mr. Gillers, and the class Rebbeim. The purpose of this trip, aside from celebrating the end of our first year at MTA,  was to create unity within the grade and help everyone learn to depend on one another, as much teamwork was needed when the students and faculty members had to sometimes raft through harsh rapids. After the rafting, everyone joined together for a special barbeque dinner, and there was also time to relax and to enjoy some intense volleyball matches and football games. The freshman enjoyed their trip and the connection between Shuirim was enhanced.

On the Friday before Shavuos, the MTA Mountain Lions enjoyed a terrific hike in Upstate New York's Harriman Park. We hiked from Fort Montgomery, along the Hudson River, up Popolopen Creek and then up Popolopen Torne to an amazing vista. The creek was a fantastic mix of fun rock scramble and beautiful waterfalls and pools, and only the cool temperatures kept us from diving in. After a strenuous climb up the Torne, which included passing some interesting local fauna, we arrived at the top to find a magnificent 360 degree view. 

It was particularly relevant to be hiking there at the beginning of the Memorial Day weekend, as Popolopen Torne is the location of a cairn set up by West Point Cadets to memorialize fallen comrades. We stopped at the cairn to pay our respects to these heroes while also thinking about the dedication of their friends, who carried large stones up the mountain in order to build an appropriate memorial. 

The trail down the mountain is named 1777, in honor of an important Revolutionary War event. The 1777 trail follows the path of Sir Henry Clinton, who led British troops in an attack on Fort Montgomery on October 6, 1777. Though Clinton was successful at overcoming the American defenders of the fort, he did not succeed in his main goal of providing help to General John Burgoyne's army, trapped further north in Saratoga. Burgoyne's surrender, on October 17, was a huge victory for the Americans and a turning point in the war. 

In short, our hike combined the great outdoors, beautiful vistas, strenuous climbing, homage to fallen soldiers, and a history lesson. All in only four hours!

As part of his service to ARISTA, MTA's chapter of the National Honor Society, Menachem Gans ('15) served as this year's chairman of our annual school blood drives. Thanks to the terrific marketing and organizational efforts of Menachem and his team, there was a significant increase in the number of blood donations this year. Through its distinguished Bloodstock Scholarship Program, the New York Blood Center has recognized Menachem's accomplishments by awarding him a $500 college scholarship that he can apply to the college of his choice, as well as ten tickets and field access to an upcoming New York Mets game. The Bloodstock Scholarship Program also awards lower scholarships and awards; the $500 award is presented only to the most outstanding student leaders. Congratulations Menachem!

The Debate Team hosted its annual dinner this past Tuesday in the MTA Library. The featured speaker of the evening, an MTA Debate Team alumnus and American Legion award winner, was Rabbi Etan Schnall ('99), currently a Sho'el U'Meishiv at RIETS. Rabbi Schnall spoke about the experiences he had while at MTA and encouraged current students to take advantage of the exceptional teachers and Rebbeim. He recalled that he participated in every extra curricular activity that the school allowed him to! In addition to Rabbi Schnall, outgoing seniors Menachem Gans, Eli Morell, and Yisrael Friedenberg spoke and shared their most memorable stories about debate judges whom they encountered while on the team. 

At the dinner, next year's Debate Club officers were announced:

Presidents: C.J.Glicksman, Yehuda Goldbeg, Tzachi Halyo 

Vice Presidents: Ezra Epstein, Avraham Tsikhanovski, Daniel Mirsky 

Archivists: Noam Josse, Yisrael Danesh, Matthew Albert, Daniel Rivlin, Chanina Rothenberg 

Researchers: Akiva Cooper, Seth Jacobs, Zeve Kornwasser, Dovid Schwartz, Shmuel Turner  

We wish everyone on the team the best of luck next year!

Congratulations to Sruli Brach ('17) on his receiving the Outstanding Achievement Award in Chemistry from the American Chemical Society. This award is awarded to one outstanding student in each school for his or her achievements in chemistry. Sruli has proven himself both highly motivated and highly skilled in chemistry, taking it upon himself to take honors tests and homework even though he is in a regular class, and achieving some of the highest scores in the entire grade. We wish Sruli the best of luck in all his subjects and much success in his high school career and beyond. Mazel Tov!

This week, the Honors College had the unique opportunity to be addressed by Akiva Ennis ('10), a UPenn senior and MTA Alum, on the topic of "Synagogues in the Diaspora." The lecture, based on his Senior thesis, was an insightful look into the architectural development of the Shul. Ennis proposed that ancient synagogues developed in three stages. First, they were locations that were combined with study halls, containing no Aron or other features which we normally associate with Shuls today. The second phase was more specific, however, as synagogues were more often than not built out of other pre-existing structures such as homes. The third stage was when synagogues became distinct and recognizable structures using architecture reflecting the culture of the nation it was housed in. 

Overall, the lecture was informative and interesting and we thank Akiva Ennis and Dr. Berliner for providing us with this opportunity.

Zvi Goldstein

For the past two semesters, with the guidance of Professor Paul Glassman of Yeshiva University, I have been studying the design elements and strategies that can be used to form a cohesive leisure space in an urban location. In my first semester, I researched about how to go about giving the pedestrian a sense of place in a setting which is dominated by the automobile. I then took what I had had learned from my research and I applied it in my second semester to the creation of a redesigned YU campus, using a certain modeling software called Google SketchUp. My work has undoubtedly left me with a greater appreciation of all the elements that are employed in landscape architecture, especially in the small parks dispersed all over New York City which I have visited. 

I really came to appreciate Professor Glassman's experience and knowledge over the course of my fellowship with him, from our first meeting, when he helped me zero in on a topic for the year, until now, when I can finally take in the view of all the knowledge I've gained under his wing. I can truly say that while I learned a lot, I also had a ton of fun. Our shared interest in the subject matter, combined with the voluntary and freestyle nature of the Senior Fellowship program, made for a really exciting and productive year that I gained from tremendously.

Yehuda Karol

As one of this year's Senior Fellows, I was given the unique opportunity to study Medieval Jewish History under the guidance of Rabbi Dr. Haym Soloveitchik. The goal of my fellowship was for me to learn how to properly understand a particular halacha and to then trace its treatment through the period of the Rishonim in their respective communities. The first half of the year I participated in a weekly class on the topic of mayim acharonim, the washing of the hands at the end of a meal, a mitzvah which is not practiced by most people today. We first focused on understanding the nature of mayim achronim by learning the relevant gemaras, and we then progressed to the Rishonim, first of France, then Germany, and finally Provence. At the moment, I am working on the second part of the class which is writing a research paper on the topic of kiddush bimakom seudah and the various viewpoints on the subject. This inyan contains numerous halachic discussions such as what constitutes the changing of a location, the practice of reciting kiddush for widows, and why kiddush is recited Friday night in Shul. 

Through this fellowship I have learned from Professor Soloveitchik not just content and how to read a text in a certain way, but also how to approach a class and how to prepare for it properly. Professor Soloveitchik is well known for his insistence that students enter the classroom better prepared than they had ever imagined, and anything less than perfection on their part is not tolerated. I learned this the hard way, and over the course of the year I trained myself to work harder than I ever had, determined to make sure that I understood every word with complete and total comprehension. I quickly realized that there is a significant difference between spending four hours preparing for a class and spending five in preparation! This extraordinary experience has taught me much more than I ever could have imagined on both the topics of mayim acharonim and kiddush bimakom seudah, as well as the correct way to treat any subject or situation, and I am thankful to Professor Soloveitchik for spending so much time helping me, and to Dr. Berliner for instituting this fellowship program.

Yehuda Tager

This year I had the distinct privilege of participating in the senior fellow program here at MTA. I was able to do psychology research with Dr. Ariel Malka, a professor of psychology at Yeshiva University. Together, we researched the relationship between different personal characteristics and political attitudes. This is a topic that Dr. Malka has been working on for a long time and he has published several papers on the subject. I worked with him on his next paper, which will hopefully be published soon. Additionally, I conducted my own research into this area of study. 

Dr. Malka is presently examining the correlation between need for cognitive closure and political attitudes. His thesis is that people with high need for closure tend to be fiscal liberals but social conservatives. Together, we sifted through many relevant studies in order to create a meta-analysis of the topic which will be published. Additionally, he helped me conduct research into the psychology of extremists. We proposed that there are two fundamentally different types of extremism, ideological and violent extremism. I extend my sincerest thanks to Dr. Malka and to MTA for this valuable opportunity.