Jordan Levovitz (5/23), Yair Gross (5/24), Meir Uretsky (5/24),
Joshua Appel (5/26), Refael Mizrahi (5/27), Matthew Matatov (5/27)
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From the Lions' Den to the World's Most Famous Arena
On Tuesday afternoon, members of MTA's popular Sports Management club, accompanied by faculty advisor and former MSG employee Shuey Jacoby, headed south to Madison Square Garden for a private behind-the-scenes tour of the iconic venue. The group was met by Vice President of Business Solutions Branden Templeton, who played an integral role in the $1 billion transformation of the arena a few years ago, and subsequently met with Ryan Redler, Manager of Sports & Entertainment Partnership Sales. Over the course of two hours, the group had the opportunity to see unique club and hospitality spaces, as well as back-of-house areas (where they walked into the state of the art soda room which pipes soda through miles and miles of piping throughout the arena), and were able to walk down to the arena floor, which was set up for the company's WNBA Liberty team. Most important, the group learned first-hand about the business of sports from two of the best people in the industry. The club looks forward to continuing to learn about the sports industry through experiential trips.
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Choir Impresses in Concert
Last Thursday, May 12th, the MTA choir held their first ever dedicated concert, in honor of Yom Ha'Atzmaut. They sang an assortment of Hebrew and English a cappella songs, such as L'maancha, Seasons of Love, and a mashup of One Day/Wave Your Flag, to an enthusiastic audience of parents, faculty, and fellow classmates. A professional light setup intensified the beautiful concert, culminating in a surprise beat-boxing battle and final performance. For some members, this was their last year in the choir since they are Seniors. Under the guidance of choir director Mr. David Ross, the MTA chorus truly flourished in their stunning performance that left the audience thirsting for more.
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Ulpan Class Puts Hebrew Knowledge to Test
,by Avraham Tsikhanovski ('16)
Morah Haibi's rigorous Ulpan class is famous for teaching basic, conversational Hebrew to anyone who goes through it. And after a year of hard work, the senior class was treated to a meal at Golan with Morah Haibi and Rabbi Taubes. But there was a catch. You had to speak in Hebrew the entire time.
The progarm began with the seniors walking into Golan last Thursday and ordering classics like "six-dollar sesame" or "teriyaki chicken." Expect they were quickly reminded by Morah Haibi that everything must be in Hebrew, even ordering the food. Without skipping a beat, the seniors switched to Hebrew and started ordering "'of b'sumsum" and "bakbuk mayim." If you do not know what those words mean then you should definitely join Morah Haibi's Ulpan class!
After everyone received their food and took a seat, Rabbi Taubes gave a short D'var Torah about the importance of learning Hebrew. He quoted the Rambam who states that learning Hebrew is a mitzvah, as it enhances the learning of Torah. For example, while learning Torah in English is extremely valuable, it is a completely different and better experience when you learn it in Hebrew.
The meal ended with a favorite game played frequently in Morah Haibi's classroom: Eretz Ir. With several teams pitting their knowledge of Hebrew against one another, the game turned competitive, but still fun, very quickly. Onlookers watched as a bunch of high school seniors sat around and frantically scratched their heads for words to win the game. Although all teams put up a good fight, Morah Haibi's team, with David Schmidt, Benjy Lamm, Yisrael Danesh, and Avraham Tsikhanovski, won the game. The meal ended with everyone conversing in Hebrew well enough to keep up a conversation.
The seniors would like to thank Morah Haibi for a wonderful year of Ulpan. Although it was a challenging course, it was definitely worth it, because now we can speak Hebrew. We look forward to using the Hebrew we learned during our year in Israel and beyond.
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BMK Conquers OXC Challenge
This past Sunday, students in Rabbi Cohen's BMK shiur undertook the OXC Challenge, a 5-mile obstacle course that tested their grit, endurance, and physical capabilities through mud runs, climbing ropes, and other numerous obstacles. The students ran for Ohel, an important organization in the Jewish community and social service agency in the Jewish community that supports many, many families. Although the weather was rather frigid for a mud run, everyone who participated in the obstacle course was able to tough it out and had a fantastic time. We look forward to many more exciting opportunities in the future to help support charitable causes, and have a great time while we're at it.
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Yeshiva Fellowship Enjoys a BBQ
On Wednesday morning after our shiur break, the "fellows" of the Yeshiva Fellowship left from MTA to Teaneck for our annual Yeshiva Fellowship trip and BBQ. We made our way to Votee Park where we split up into teams, and proceeded to play many fun games of kick-ball and ultimate frisbee. The games were played between teams consisting of students from different grades, making the games not only interesting to watch, but almost heart-warming, as it is nice to see Juniors and Freshman get together to play an organized game.
Once the games were over and all the equipment was stored away, we boarded our busses and headed to the home of the Mayerfelds, whom we thank for hosting a delicious barbecue. After setting up the food and washing, we enjoyed hotdogs, hamburgers, fries, and a variety of salads. Beautiful Divrei Torah were given by Raziel Seigman ('17) and Akiva Poppers ('18), after which we davened Mincha and ate dessert. We then left from the Mayerfelds and returned to MTA where we resumed our normal school schedule.
We would like to thank all of the Rebbeim who helped make this year of the Yeshiva Fellowship and Bnei Aliyah such an incredible success. An additional special thank you to Rabbi Danto for all his hard work coordinating and leading such a wonderful program.
Please join us next year!
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Dr. Barry Rozenberg Discusses Career Guidance With Junior Class
 This past Tuesday, MTA students had the opportunity to hear from Dr. Barry Rozenberg, an instructor and practicing dentist with offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Long Island. Dr. Rozenberg was one of the professionals asked by the college guidance staff to speak to the Junior class about the challenges and benefits of their particular occupations. Specifically, he spoke about the differences between general and specialized dentistry, as well as the requirements and difficulties involved with the hands on training, education, and residency which are all needed to enter the field. Furthermore, Dr. Rozenberg spoke about the broader concept of how to select one's career, along with some of the criteria associated with this major life choice. Overall, the program was very enjoyable and informative and the junior class is looking forward to many more experienced professionals taking time out their day to come speak at MTA in the future.
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On Tuesday, the debate society participated in a debate at the Rambam Mesivta which centered around a pivotal issue of current foreign policy: Should the U.S. promote democracy in the Middle East? Because this was the last debate of the season, Mrs. Levitt paired and experienced debater (i.e., a debater who has been part of the club for more than a year) and a novice debater. This pairing allowed the experienced debaters the opportunity to mentor the future leaders of the club, and the novice debaters to improve their debate skills. MTA did exceedingly well, with two teams going undefeated. Additionally, Yehuda Goldberg ('17) took first place debater, and Aharon Goldstein ('19) and Yehuda took first place team. The MTA debate team looks forward to its upcoming annual dinner on Tuesday and further success next year.
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by Michael Kolber ('16)
Last week, each of Morah Haibi's 12th-grade Ulpan students took their final exam: a conversation in Hebrew with either Rabbi Taubes, Mrs. Tova Rosenberg, or Rabbi Richter, none of whom any of us had previously conversed with in Hebrew.
Topics that came up in the conversations included our plans for the summer and the following year in Israel, recent books and movies we had read and watched, our favorite restaurants, and our latest trip to the mall, including directions on how to get to them (yes, even Israel). Some of the conversations with Rabbi Taubes revolved around what jobs we were interested in our future, as well as the late Oliver Sacks.
More important than demonstrating mastery of Hebrew to Morah Haibi, the conversations proved our adequate grasp of the language to ourselves, instilling in us the confidence we will need next year to utilize all that we have learned. Rabbi Taubes expanded on this, explaining how the benefit of a good Ulpan class goes beyond hailing taxis and ordering Coke; it gives us a key to another part of the world.
Rabbi Taubes himself was sure to discuss the Poland trip with those students who had participated in the recent Names, Not Numbers trip, asking about the feelings of inspiration and connection that resulted from the trip, and sharing his own views, particularly because it was also his first time visiting the country. We were thus sure to ask him questions about Poland in return.
Rabbi Taubes, Rabbi Richter, and Mrs. Rosenberg all gave of their time to ensure that we were able to have a meaningful conversation, and for that we are grateful. Additionally, we would all like to thank Morah Haibi for the terrific year, filled with a huge amount of learning, games, and class trips to Rechov Meir Street.
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by Rami Nordlicht ('16)
This past Wednesday at breakfast, the MTA Senior class congregated in the Library for a celebratory breakfast marking the end of their MTA careers before the grade's Senior Trip and Graduation. After a representative from each of the grade's shiurim shared a brief reflection about his MTA experience, an informal awards ceremony led by Rabbi Shulman was held. At the ceremony, awards such as the first in the grade to be married, best dressed, and best trio were all decided in one amazingly hilarious ceremony that everyone enjoyed. The breakfast concluded with a video showing the highlights of the Class of 2016's MTA experience (produced by resident photographer Shimmy Socol), a nice way for the grade to reminisce about their high school years as they wind down. The breakfast was enjoyable for all and provided for a nice and exciting prelude to the upcoming Senior Trip and Graduation.
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Lions Rout in First Two Games of Columbus Baseball Invitational
On Thursday evening, the MTA Baseball Lions took the field against the host team Columbus Torah Academy for their first ever game in the Columbus Baseball Invitational Tournament. The fans wouldn't have known it was the Lions' first ever game as they jumped to a quick 4-0 win in the first, en route to a 9-1 victory after 6 innings, ended by the mercy rule. On Friday morning, the Lions again took to Field #1 of the Columbus JCC to take on the Fuchs Mizrachi Mayhem of Cleveleland, OH. Once again, the Lions came out strong and secured the dominating 15-5 win, securing their slot in the quarterfinals. Due to seeding rules, which are based on wins and runs allowed, the Lions ended up as the 4th seed. They will be taking on the Ida Crown Aces of Chicago, IL, on Friday afternoon. Let's Go Lions!
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Annual Bein HaSedarim Raffle
On Monday, the Yeshiva Fellowship held its annual Bein HaSedarim raffle. Every week, participating students learn after school on Thursday and before Shiur on Sunday for an hour in a Beis Medrash. For every week that a Talmid learns, he accumulates another ticket in the raffle. All of those who participated were served a delicious Chinese lunch. Rabbi Taubes spoke about the importance of learning Torah outside of school and about learning becoming a part of our lives in these formative high school years. Congratulations to Eli Fink ('16), who won $1,050 and Raziel Siegman ('17) who won $350.
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A Lion's Life Executive Staff
Faculty Advisor: Elie Hirt
Publishing & Design: Devir Kahan ('13)
Editors in Chief: Raziel Siegman ('17)
Executive Editor: Rami Nordlicht ('16)
Director of Digital Content: Shimmy Socol ('16)
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