Frisch Visits New Rambam Exhibit at YU Museum
Over the past two weeks, select Frisch classes visited the YU Museum with Frisch history faculty member Dr. David Sclar, who gave them a tour of the museum’s brand new Rambam exhibit. The tour was a one-of-the-kind opportunity; Sclar himself curated the exhibit, which is titled “The Golden Path: Maimonides Across Eight Centuries” and will be on view through the summer. The exhibit features some exceedingly rare objects, including books in Rambam’s own hand.
Frisch Takes Field Trip to YIVO Archives
Manhattan’s Center for Jewish History (CJH), which features libraries, archives and exhibits, hosts five major Jewish research institutions under the same roof: the American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. On May 18, Frisch sophomores in Dr. Yaelle Frohlich’s history classes took a field trip to YIVO, home of 24 million Jewish archival documents from around the world, with a special focus on East European Jewish history. These students got to be YIVO’s pilot group for new and exciting programming geared toward high schoolers. Students experienced first hand what it is like to do archival research, exploring some of the incredible youth autobiographies from the 1930s held in YIVO’s archives all while under the guidance of YIVO’s expert staff of archivists, librarians and historians.
“It was an amazing opportunity to learn about our history,” said Ahava Bak ’25. “The direct primary sources tell us so much on events and life all throughout Jewish history.”
For some students, it was also a chance to learn about the richness of East European Jewish life before the Holocaust. “While YIVO has plenty of material from the time of the Shoah, there is so much more,” said Kimberly Guttman ’25. “YIVO’s history is rich, and I very much enjoyed learning there.”
Frisch Hosts Engineering Symposium
On May 15, Frisch held its annual Engineering Symposium, dedicated by the Maurice and Hester Lowenthal Foundation in memory of Mitzi and Edward Traurig z”l. The evening featured a keynote presentation by Frisch alumnus Yoni Cooper ‘13, who shared his journey from Frisch to his becoming an Amazon engineer. Earlier in the evening, advanced elective students got to have dinner and a Q&A with Cooper in the campus’s new engineering lab. Following the keynote address, engineering students showcased their capstone innovations and Arduino games. Projects ranged from the seriously safety-oriented (e.g. “Stove Safety System” by Meirah Klayn and Nava Sandler, which automatically turns off a left-on stove) to the playful (e.g. “Brainy Board” by Max Stober, Henry Yellin and Kovi Ressler, which is a chess board that teaches children how to play the game).
Also on display at the Engineering Symposium were projects by Frisch’s Hackathon and CIJE Tank teams, Robotics Program, Girls Who Code, Fab Lab student creators and more. In addition, the event included the live annual Robotics CouGear Cup, where robotics teams compete to win the in-house Frisch robotics championship cup. Thanks goes to Rifkie Silverman, Travis Merritt and Michael Preston for their incredible instruction and mentorship throughout the year.
Evening of the Arts Held at Frisch
Frisch held its annual Evening of the Arts this past Monday, May 22. The first half of the event featured musical performances by Frisch’s Jazz Ensemble, Performance Ensemble and the Cougar Chorus. Then, attendees got to do a gallery walk and take in the outstanding artistic creations—from paintings and fashion design to paper sculptures, glass art and Judaica woodworking projects—by students in Frisch’s Art Track, Artist Beit Midrash, Art Club and other courses within the schools Visual Arts department with Ahuva Winslow and Mira Levy.
Frisch Student Entrepreneurs Showcase Innovations
On Tuesday, May 23 the end-of-year academic celebrations continued. Frisch’s annual Entrepreneurship Demo Day featured business pitches and startup ideas developed in the Entrepreneurship Track with Frisch’s Entrepreneurship Program Director Christian Balevski. The event was broken up into two halves. First, the audience got to go around and view all the groups’ projects. Then, 10 teams gave a three-minute pitch for their business ideas, with an audience vote at the end. Many of the projects were innovative, integrating new technologies like AI–for instance, “Parma-Cam,” an iPad system to detect medication errors, and “EduKaty,” which uses technological tools to target girls’ education inequality in sub-Saharan Africa.
Frisch Presents Research Symposium
Frisch’s Research Symposium on May 23 featured presentations by seniors in the Research Seminar elective with Dr. David Sclar as well as those doing a directed study, under the purview of Nina Cohen. This year’s research projects included: “Death in Children’s Films” (by Bracha Israel), “Dwight Morrow High School: A Story of Race and Money” (by Noah Stifelman), “Innovator or Evil Mutilator: Walter Freeman and the History of Lobotomy” (by Jillian Leifer) and dozens more. Projects were presented in the form of papers, podcasts, video essays and websites.
Frisch Senior Trip
When this year’s Frisch seniors were sophomores, covid upended the traditional 10th grade Frisch trip to Virginia Beach. However, this past weekend, Frisch’s graduating class got to make up for lost time, and experience the grade-wide getaway they missed. The senior trip proved to be an incredible weekend of bonding as a grade, with fun activities, Torah learning and more. It was the perfect weekend for the Class of 2023 to spend together before bidding one another good luck on the way to their different yeshivot, seminaries and colleges.
Frisch Art Students Win International Jewish Photography Competition
Earlier this month, Frisch received the exciting news that the photos of four students have been selected out of hundreds of entries as winners in the 2022-2023 Jewish Lens Competition at ANU-Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv. The photos of Naomi Elkin ‘23 and Adi Beniluz ‘23 (“Endless Prayers”) and Daniela Hahn ‘25 and Gaby Zlatin ‘25 (“Milk and Honey”) will be displayed alongside all winning entries in the Jewish Lens gallery at ANU. They will also eventually be featured in the museum’s online gallery. In addition, Naomi and Adi’s photo was also selected as the top photo for all English-speaking countries.
Frisch Introduces New Golf Team
Now that there is a new yeshiva Golf League, students at Frisch are excited to have formed their own team, founded by senior James Forman. Last Thursday, the Frisch golf team won against Ramaz in a second playoff hole at River Vale Country Club. “The best part of the club is being able to interact on the course with kids from other schools,” said team member David Rosen ‘24.
Medical Sciences Track Covers Injury Prevention
Sophomores in the Medical Sciences Track with Dr. Karen Goodman and Dr. Avigayil Elkin have been learning about injury prevention. After learning about fire safety and burn management, the class did a simulation of a patient who had jumped from a building that was on fire, sustaining injuries and burns. Management of the injury included a simulated escharotomy for a circumferential burn.
New Nursing Club Comes to Frisch
Students from the Nursing Club, led by co-founders Noa Grinstein and Emma Salomon, recently attended the annual Orthodox Jewish Nurses Association (OJNA) conference in Midtown Manhattan. The conference featured a variety of presentations on nursing topics such as “Milk Sharing in the Orthodox Jewish Community” and a panel discussion on the “Wide Spectrum of Nursing Roles.” During breaks, the students made the most of their time by networking with nurses from diverse fields, such as medical/surgery, oncology, labor and delivery and aesthetics. In addition to gaining valuable knowledge, the students generously volunteered their time to help with conference set up and clean up.
Chess Culture at Frisch
Yeshivat Frisch’s chess team made it to the finals last week, after a year of chess’s popularity explosion among the student body. During any free period, one is sure to find a game in progress in the library, student lounge or cafeteria. This year, two Frisch-wide chess tournaments were organized by senior Jacob Feit—sophomore Ethan Feder, who plays competitively, emerged victorious both times—with hundreds of students attending and waiting with baited breath for every exchange, blunder and en passant.
Lunch N’ Learn for the Frisch Community
Rabbi Yosef Weinberger delivered a pre-Shavuot Lunch n’ Learn shiur this week to the broader Frisch community, on the topic of Moshe Rabbeinu and Jewish leadership over the generations.