Rabbi Doron Perez Visits Frisch

At Yeshivat Frisch, Israel is constantly in our tefillot and our hearts. Over the past year, students have had the privilege of hearing from individuals whose resilience, courage and ahavat Yisrael will stay with us for a lifetime. This past week, World Mizrachi Executive Chairman Rabbi Doron Perez visited Frisch. He spoke about the experiences of his son Daniel, z”l, who fell while defending southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

Frisch Travels the Globe: Cuba, Vienna and Italy

Over the past week, three groups of Frisch students have embarked on incredible, once-in-a-lifetime trips to locations around the world. This week, Mr. Alejandro Meneses’s sophomore Spanish class traveled to Cuba on a humanitarian mission to deliver medical supplies to the island’s Jewish community, all while practicing their Spanish language skills.

At the same time, Dr. David Winkler’s senior Italian language elective traveled to Rome and Florence, speaking Italian and visiting Italian Jewish sites like the Roman Jewish ghetto, along with other major Italian cultural landmarks.

Finally, Frisch was delighted once again to host Austrian Jewish high school students as part of the Vienna Exchange Program. The Viennese students visited New Jersey (including Frisch) for a week, and then a group of Frisch students had the opportunity to spend last week with their new friends in Vienna, learning about the city, its Jewish history, and the situation of the Viennese Jewish community today. All three trips provided eye-opening experiences about the locations themselves, Jewish life abroad, and the interconnectedness of diaspora communities.

Frisch Students Develop Shiurim

In the Beit Midrash Track, Frisch students are honing their skills in developing, preparing and presenting text-based shiurim and chaburot that they will deliver at local shuls. This week, Donny Rosenrauch presented a chabura to his peers in Rabbi Simcha Willig’s shiur on why wine specifically is used for kiddush on Shabbat, and the halachot pertaining to what to do if there is no wine or grape juice available on Friday night for kiddush.

Scholar-in-Residence Rabbanit Shani Taragin Returns to Frisch

Rabbanit Shani Taragin once again visited Yeshivat Frisch this week, inspiring the school community with Torat Eretz Yisrael. Rabbanit Taragin visits Frisch as a scholar-in-residence approximately one week per month during the school year and also delivers shiurim on Zoom, sharing her Torah across the academic tracks. This week she delivered shiurim to various sections, and offered a Frisch community lecture on the topic of “Misinterpreting Messages: Optimism, Hope and Dreams.” Rabbanit Taragin is educational director of World Mizrahi and Matan Eshkolot.

Rabbi Shalom Rosner Gives Shiur

Juniors and seniors had the privilege of hearing a shiur this week from Rabbi Shalom Rosner, rav of Kehillat Nofei HaShemesh in Beit Shemesh and a renowned maggid shiur at several yeshivot in Eretz Yisrael who is also well known for his online shiurim and divrei Torah.

Frisch Creative Writing Students Explore the Poetry of Tehillim

Students in Frisch’s 10th grade Creative Writing Track have been immersed in poetry over the past month. The class studied poetry form and structures, thematic narrative poetry, literary devices, rhyme schemes, gradations in voice and tone, and word choice (connotation and denotation). In addition, they studied the use of chorus and refrains in poetry, and analyzed the poetic enterprise represented by the Tehillim in the Tanach. This month, students have been utilizing their knowledge to compose original
Tehillim.

Culinary Arts Track Visits Citromax Flavor Lab

After studying the five basic tastes (sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami) in our culinary lab, Frisch’s sophomore Culinary Arts classes recently visited the Citromax Flavors lab and learned from food scientists and flavor specialists how smell, color and taste affect food and beverages. Students then made their own innovative blended beverages using natural extracts and taste-tested new products that were being developed in the lab.

Medical Science Students Spend Presidents’ Day Gaining Specialized Skills

On Monday, Dr. Joey Shatzkes arranged for seniors in Frisch’s Medical Science Seminar to go with Dr. Jake Gologorsky to a cadaver lab for neurosurgery, along with residents at Mt. Sinai. Students participated in dissecting and exposing the posterior cervical spine, a unique and up-close learning experience that illuminated their studies from the classroom. Meanwhile, Frisch juniors in the Medical Sciences Track did hands-on training as part of their pulmonary unit, working to master one of healthcare’s most critical, live-saving skills: airway management.

Engineering Gears Up for Arduino Projects With Cutting-Edge AI

Last week, the Frisch Hackathon captain, Eliezer Dimbert, shared his expertise with ninth and tenth grade engineering students in Mrs. Rifkie Silverman’s classes as they embarked on their capstone projects. He introduced students to the Husky Lens, an AI-powered vision sensor used with Arduino to enable real-time object tracking, facial recognition, line tracking or other AI-based computer vision tasks.

Meanwhile, the Girls Who Code Club was treated to an interactive lesson on computer message encryption by a local CS teacher.

Frisch Debate Team Dominates League

The Frisch Debate Team was on fire this winter. At the end of January, JV debaters took home prizes at the Northern Highlands meet for First Place Speaker (Adiv Korn), Third Place Speaker (Itai Korn) and Second Place Team (Benji Gold and Adam Herman). At the Indian Hills meet this month, the Varsity Debate Team took home prizes for First Place Speaker (Kate Lifshitz), First Place Team (Kate Lifshitz and Raelin Koslowe) and Third Place Speaker (Adam Lehrer). Back in December, the Varsity Debate Team was victorious at Paramus High School, winning First Place team (Mussia Poltorak and Serena Wachsman), First Place Speaker (Eliana Elkin) and Third Place Speaker (Serena Wachsman).

Vayehi Or: Student-Led Project Brings Literal and Metaphorical Light to the World

A student-led engineering initiative, spearheaded by Henry Yellin, empowered a group of Frisch students to conduct hands-on learning about solar energy and construct a full stand-alone solar grid.

Carefully packed and ready for impact, the group’s solar grid will be shipped overseas and installed in a school in Uganda’s Bidi Bidi refugee camp, bringing light and opportunity to students in need.

Frisch’s AJ Horowitz Wins Wittenberg Award

Frisch senior and wrestling team captain AJ Horowitz won the prestigious Aryeh “Captain Lou” Zinkin Yeshiva Wrestling Award at this week’s Wittenberg Tournament. The grant of $1,800 is awarded annually to a participant “who exhibits a strong pursuit of Torah while demonstrating a commitment to the advancement of the Jewish community.”

Lawyer Representing Jewish Cooper Union Students Visits Frisch

This week Aaron Stiefel, a lawyer representing Jewish students in the lawsuit against Cooper Union for failing to protect them from antisemitism, visited Frisch’s senior First Amendment elective classes, addressing the case’s Title VI claims and first amendment implications. A federal judge recently denied the university’s Motion to Dismiss, allowing the lawsuit to proceed, a big win for the students.