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The sixth graders at the Bais Yaakov Academy of Queens have been busy exploring the topic of volcanoes. They learned that a volcano erupts because of pressure built up inside it from rising gas-filled magma. To better understand and experience this concept, the girls headed outside to engage in a fun simulation activity. Working in groups, the girls added water and Alka-Seltzer tablets to film canisters before closing them tightly and setting them on the ground. They excitedly observed the erupting canisters and shared their hypotheses with one another.

During the week of November 5, Yeshiva of Central Queens’ JHS students elected their G.O. members. The previous Friday, the students voted for who would make it past the primaries. Four students were elected to campaign for positions. Two boys and two girls ran for sixth-grade representative and seventh grade representative, and, finally, from eighth grade, eight students ran for two Vice Presidents and two Presidents.

On Tuesday, November 5, MTA’s Sophomore Yeshiva Fellowship cohort and their mashgiach, Rabbi Pearl, had the incredible opportunity to tour the Passaic Eruv with expert Rabbi Micah Shotkin. Rabbi Shotkin, who has built eiruvim for communities across the country, explained the intricate laws of building and maintaining them.

In 2009, when Reb Ezra Klein founded a learning program for baalei batim in his Flatbush community, l’ilui neshmas his mother, Pesi Rochel Klein, a”h (whose initials spell out “Pirka”), on her first yahrtzeit, little did he realize that it would blossom into a nationwide program. In celebration of its first ten years of tremendous growth, the Agra D’Pirka Decade Dinner will take place on Sunday evening, November 24, at the Tiferes Rivka Hall, in Brooklyn, at 6 p.m.

Student ambassadors greeted a record number of prospective parents and students from many metropolitan elementary schools at the Stella K. Abraham High School for Girls Open House on Sunday, November 3. The overflowing crowd heard from Mrs. Elisheva Kaminetsky, Principal, Judaic Studies; Mrs. Bluma Drebin, Principal, General Studies; Rabbi Yosef Zakutinsky, Director of Student Programs; Ms. Elana Flumenhaft, Associate Principal; and SKA Senior Avigail Goldberg.

The MTA library reverberated with the sweet sounds of Torah learning on Monday, November 4, as talmidim in Rabbi Danto’s Freshman shiur completed their final stretch of intense chazarah, followed by a celebratory s’udah and a b’chinah with Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Taubes. In shiur, talmidim focus on learning b’kius bir’tzifus – learning straight for as long as they can. In the beginning of the year, talmidim learn for 1-1.5 hours straight and build up to three hours of uninterrupted learning by the end of the year.