This past week, Rabbi Ahron Bookson, assistant menahel, came into Rabbi Engelberg’s second grade class at Yeshiva Tiferes Moshe to give them an oral farher upon completion of perek yud-tes. Random questions and m’farshim went flying around the room, with children intuitively answering on the mark. They read p’sukim while highlighting the storyline, chapter and verse. The farher was quite successful and revealing, with every child being rewarded with scrumptious chocolate milk that afternoon for lunch. Perek kaf, here we come!

Teachers from HALB Middle School, SKA, and DRS attended Day One of the Civic Spirit Educators Institute earlier this week. At the Institute, teachers from all three schools worked with neighboring schools to gain the tools to cultivate student connection to our country’s founding values and institutions, to empower them to become influential in their communal landscape, and to increase knowledge of foundational American texts and ideas.

It is a truly amazing phenomenon that a person who went through so much personal pain and tragedy can be in a position to offer chizuk to others, but that encapsulates who Rabbi Leo Dee is, and how he is coping with tremendous personal loss. MTA talmidim were privileged to be able to attend Rabbi Dee’s lecture to YU students on Monday afternoon in MTA’s own beis midrash. The room was packed with talmidim from grades 9-12, YU students, and rebbeim as well. It was standing room only, as everyone realized how much they could benefit from Rabbi’s Dee’s moving words.

It was a record-breaking year for the Ezra graduates of 2023 who were able to go spend a gap year in Eretz Yisrael this year. As the staff and faculty celebrated the departures of 18 students to Israel to learn Torah this September, it was clear that Ezra Academy was growing significantly in their mission to help students develop and grow their foundation for a Jewish future.

Central continued this year’s focus on the Power of Positivity with “Thank You, Hashem” Day on Wednesday, November 29, one of many self-care days that will be held for students throughout the year. The focus for the end of the semester is “Positivity in Action,” a push that has incorporated various activities and outings stressing the importance of a positive mindset into student interactions with the outside world.