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This edition is sponsored by
Betty and Dr. Larry Schneck in honor of their grandchildren, Sam (11), Jeffrey (6) and Sophia (5) Collins
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What Is Our
Claim To Fame?
When people talk about you, what do they say?
It's something about which many of us don't contemplate much. We often dismiss others' view of us as inconsequential, lashon hara, and lacking the "full picture". I suggest that it is worth considering, as it impacts on our behavior.
Writing your epitaph may seem like a morbid exercise, which is perhaps appropriate before Yom Kippur. However, it makes one focus on what is truly important in life. There is much wisdom in Kohelet's insight that "it is better to go to a house of mourning than a party".
"Honest, kind, reliable, and loyal"are so much more important than "smart, rich, beautiful, and famous". We are so focused on winning the job, the girl or the grade that we often lose sight of "how we play the game", which is what people say about us "after 120 years".
When people nationwide think of our school, they think about last year's TAPPS playoffs (we're hoping to go to "states" this year as well!). Our school's sudden fame was not due to its basketball prowess, but for its commitment to its principles.
We took the high road last year when Coach Cole said on national television that we knew that a Shabbos playoff would be a problem, and that we would abide by TAPPS' decision. We came across not as an entitled and demanding minority (here go those pushy Jews again!), but as a sympathetic and righteous underdog.
Purim is about standing up for principles, even if the cost is high. We often focus on the victory at the end of the story and forget the beginning. If Mordechai hadn't refused to bow down to Haman, Haman never would have tried to annihilate the Persian Empire's Jews. "Revach v'hatzalah ya'amod l'yehudim"- In the end, there will be salvation.
What do you think? Please share your thoughts with me by replying to this email.
Rabbi Perry Tirschwell
Executive Director
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Check Out Tournament
Pics & Videos
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Click here to go to the RMBA 8th Annual Tournament Website
 to see downloadable pictures and video clips from the games. |
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Great Video Salute
to Shlomo Stern @Bnei Akiva Dinner
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Click here to see the video filmed partially in our halls and interviews with Houston Bnei Akiva leaders |
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Thank You PTO!
Playground Upgrade
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The PTO purchased new woodchips and rubber pellets for our early childhood and elementary playgrounds, respectively.
Check them out next time you are on campus!
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Nothin' But Net: The Tournament Edition
by junior Yoni Schiff
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Waz doin?
Last weekend, Beren Academy had the good fortune of hosting the 8th annual Beren Academy Basketball Invitational Tournament. The Tournament featured Ramaz, Beren, HAFTR, and Hyman Brand on the boys' side, and on the girls' side: Beren, Ramaz, Hyman Brand, and Akiva.
The weekend was filled with high quality basketball and a great Shabbaton. The format of the Tournament was round robin play to determine seeding for the championship or consolation games.
On both the girls and boys side the Beren Stars and Ramaz Rams played their ways into the championship. However, for some it was more eventful than for others.
Anyone who followed the tournament knows what I am talking about - the Beren Girls' 13 point victory over Akiva. Nah, just joshin. I am obviously referring to the 4OT classic between the Beren Stars Boys and the HAFTR Hawks, the most overtimes in the history of Beren basketball! The Stars surrendered a late lead and the game went into the first overtime. Little did all of us know, the evening was just beginning. The overtimes featured a buzzer beater, charges, threes, missed opportunities, and yes, even a completely scoreless overtime period. In the end, Beren Academy managed to prevail 47-41 and clinch a spot vs. Ramaz in the finals.
On championship Sunday both Beren teams fell to Ramaz. We won't get into the details or the controversy that surrounded both games because that is a topic that is better left alone. On the boys' side, HAFTR defeated Hyman Brand and finished in 3rd place, while on the girls' side, Hyman Brand defeated Akiva to take 3rd place.
Well, that's all the time I have for this week, but until next time this is Yondizzle Shizzle saying, please everyone, always make it to davening on time.
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Shkoiach Atzum
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Making New Friends
by sophomore Lilly Gelman
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 Last weekend Robert M. Beren Acdemy had the amazing opportunity to host and participate in the Annual Beren Invitational Basketball Tournament. It was a weekend full of friendly competition, good food, great programming, and, of course, meeting new friends. Beren Academy students were joined by students from four schools around the country including Akiva, Hyman Brand, HAFTR, and
RAMAZ.
Despite the competitive atmosphere that comes with a basketball tournament,this weekend was an amazing opportunity to make friends. There were breaks during the games to talk and hang out with the out of town students. On Shabbat afternoon during free time, the Yoshors were generously hosted an open house where the students and athletes could socialize.
Coming from a "out of town" Jewish community and a small Jewish school, there are not many opportunities to meet other Jewish teenagers. This weekend gave us this chance. Where else would we have been able to meet Jewish high school students from New York, Detroit and Kansas? It is important to make new friends when we are young. Maybe we will go to the same yeshiva in Israel, or the same college. All I know for sure is that the friendships that we make at these events will be ones that we never forget.
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Behind The Booth: The Voices Heard Round the World
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 There are many aspects of the RMBA Invitational Tournament. There's the basketball of course, but there's also the social aspect, the coming together, the food, and the great atmosphere. However, an aspect that is highly underrated is what goes on in the broadcasting booth. People have no idea what goes on in that overcrowded wooden box thing that we call a booth, but let me tell you that when Mecah Levy is not running around stressing out about the wires, it's a party back there.
Throughout the games we have different people in the wooden thing broadcasting the various games to viewers all over the world. Now I know what at you are thinking; "Sam, by all over the world you just mean America and Israel, right?". Well, to that very well written question I say that you could not be more wrong. We had viewers from literally all over the world including South Korea, Japan, Australia, England, China, and Wisconsin (I know right, who knew Wisconsin had Internet access?). Seeing all those viewers from all those different places was really amazing. The idea that ten people in South Korea are now die hard Stars fans is just simply awesome.
The broadcasting itself was really fun. I mean, what's more fun than missing class to talk about basketball while at the same time watching a basketball game? However, we didn't just talk about basketball. Oh no, we talked about many different things including who was a better broadcaster (Yossi Hoffman or me), giving shutouts to all the alumni, and debating on whether a cheese danish is better than a cherry cheese danish (feel free to email the Buzz and voice your opinion as this is still an ongoing debate).
The coolest thing by far about the entire broadcasting experience was meeting Steve Bunin and seeing the master in action as he broadcasted one of the games. For those of you who think it is easy, think again. Being live while 20,000 (I may have added a few extra zeros) people are listening to you can be a bit intimidating and finding subjects to entertain them is harder than you think, since some games turn out to be really boring or blowouts. Still, I encourage everyone to try it out next year so that I don't have to do music, broadcasting, and PA all at the same time. I know I'm awesome but I can only do so much!
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Tournament Food Review
by sophomore Roni Buchine
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During the RMBA Invitational Tournament, there were many meals sponsored and made by different people. A big thank you to Pita Pal, Judy Hoffman, Jenny Tavor Catering, and many others that helped prepare food for the players and high schoolers.
Being a shabbaton, one would normally think that you would have mediocre food for the weekend and it wouldn't be anything special. This tournament's food was quite the contrary!
Starting during the week on Thursday night, there was some rockin' chili made to go with hot dogs and salad. This was a fantastic meal to start everything off. The weekday meals not only consisted of chili, but of many other things like falafel, and many cereals, cinnamon buns, and danishes for the breakfasts. Overall the weekday meals were pretty darn good.
For Shabbat things got even better! The Friday night meal consisted of a nice display with many people's favorite salad made by Jenny Tavor along with amazing chicken and rice. For Saturday lunch we had mashed potatoes and meat sauce, another round of chicken and some rice and vermicelli. This was a weekend of many yummy sounds and satisfied teens. Hopefully, we'll duplicate this awesome food for years to come!
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The Advice Fairy
Post Tournament Challenges
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 Dear Advice Fairy,
During the basketball tournament last weekend, I met a lot of new people. The only problem was that I kept on forgetting everyone's name! It's really awkward to ask someone their name after they just told it to you a few minutes ago! It also makes it hard to find people on Facebook later if you don't know their name. Do you have any tips for times when you are meeting a lot of new people and need to remember names?
- Too Many Names
Dear Too Many Names,
Many people have the same problem as you, including me sometimes. Names are just difficult, especially at the tournament when everyone has similar Jewish names (think along the lines of Danielle, Daniel, Daniella, etc.). On the bright side, it does increase the odds of just saying a random Jewish name and having it be the right one. However, that's not the approach I would suggest. One way to deal with this problem is to remember the name of just one person from every school, and then when you forget somebody's name, you can just go to the person you know from their school and ask them for a reminder. Another way is to connect their name to a physical characteristic about them or an item of clothing they are wearing.
If worst comes to worst, you can always just ask them again, and hope that they understand that there are way too many people there for everyone to remember who everyone else is in just a few days.
I hope this helps next time you are in a similar situation,
- The Advice Fairy
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In advance of the 2013 TAPPS Playoffs
RMBA Thanks Congressman Al Green
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 On Tuesday, February 19, the middle and high school students of RMBA were privileged to have an assembly with Congressman Al Green, who provided immense political assistance and support for the Beren Stars.
Congressman Green delivered an inspiring speech about each individual's duty to make a difference. He explained that we are obligated to help the community, not for our own sake but for sake of others. The Congressman told us about the various Jews who helped with the advancement of the civil rights of African Americans in the 1960's. It is with their help that he now has the political clout to help change the rules of TAPPS to accommodate all Sabbath observers. He encouraged the students to pay it forward- to help others in their moment of need.
At conclusion of the ceremony, the co-captions of the Beren Boys Varsity Basketball Team, seniors Albert Katz and Zach Yoshor and Athletic Director Coach Chris Cole presented Congressman Green with an autographed basketball (which Congressman Green is pictured handling adeptly above).
The Beren Stars will not have to worry about a conflict between Shabbat and the playoffs, semifinals, and championship games, thanks to the efforts of the Congressman and those of National Legal Committee member Martin Siegel, NAACP National Board member Howard Jefferson, Congregation Beth Israel Rabbi Emeritus Samuel Karff, Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church Founding Pastor Bill Lawson, Texas State Senator Rodney Ellis, AJC National Legal Committee Chair Bobby Lapin, Anti-Defamation League Southwest Director Martin Cominsky, and Director of AJC Houston Region Randy Czarlinsky,
Check out the great press coverage of this event in today's Houston Chronicle and
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Get Your Copy!
Stars 2012 Season Commemorative Books Going Fast
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This masterpiece captures the energy of the international sensation of last year's Beren Stars Boys Varsity Basketball Team standing up for Shabbat.
Thank you to Larry Jefferson, Chair of the Commemorative Book Committee (pictured with Past President Ira Mitzner and Rabbi Perry Tirschwell) for his immense dedication of time and energy which made the book a reality.
Councilman Larry Green, who was recently presented a copy of the book to thank him for his efforts last year, commented "The book is so unique and Larry did a great of chronicling the story. I will give the book a prime place in my office for all visitors to review. Kudos on this publication and thanks for including me." Click here to purchase your copy!
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Lobbying Trip to Austin
by Senior Eliana Sinoff
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Two days after the tournament, six RMBA high school students (including me) and Rabbi Sinoff made a trip to Austin to lobby with
The Jewish Federation of Houston, who invited us to participate as their guests. We met at 6:45 am to make the fairly time consuming trip to Austin. When we got there, we were given tips on lobbying. After that, we divided into small groups to prepare for our presentations to the representatives.
The three topics we focused on were Medicare reimbursement for nursing homes, funding for Texans feeding Texans (Meals on Wheels program), and helping elderly or disabled people pay utility bills. After that, we had lunch with politicians and members of the Federation (thank you, Federation, for the Glatt Kosher meals!). There were speeches from Representative Senfronia Thompson and Mark Kornberg.
Following lunch, it was show time. We went with our groups to meet with Representatives about the issues. My group met with Representative Garnet Colemen, who was very nice, and very sympathetic with the causes for which we were lobbying. We all met up again, and went home. That was the end of our big day.
All in all, it was a very informative and fun experience. We got to learn more in depth about what's going on in Texas government currently, and the issues that impact our community. It was educational, and I would recommend that the school participates again in following years, and that students take advantage of this opportunity.
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The Beren Buzz Staff
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 Contributors: Yossi Hoffman, Zach Yoshor, David Hadar, Josh Hakakian, Ariel Wadler, David Palla, Daniella Saghian, Rebecca Kerzner, Ari Hoffman, Hersh Bootin, Tai Miller, Sara Shkedy, Shirley Lipski, Roni Buchine
Rabbi Perry Tirschwell Executive Director
Suggestions? Reach us at buzz@berenacademy.org
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