The Jay and Jeannie Schottenstein Honors Program at YU has just announced its admissions for Fall 2025, and among them are 19 students from MTA. This is both far more than any other high school and a significant percentage of the total admitted, a testament to the strength of MTA’s senior class. In fact, the class is so strong that of the 19, not all of them are even in the top half of MTA’s senior class!
The accepted students come from all over the map. Akiva Fox, Isaac Kantowitz, Gavi Pinsky, Dovi Rosman, Elishama Schwartz, Mayer Schwartz and Chaim Simon are from Teaneck. Ilan Feldman and Amir Gross are from West Hempstead. Reuben Freiber and Akiva Levine are from Manhattan. Elisha Gamss, Shua Ratzker and Ben Safier are from Bergenfield. Daniel Farkas and Ben Sicherman are from Brooklyn. Eitan Donath is from Westchester, Matan Marmer is from Riverdale and Aaron Berger comes from Atlanta, GA.
This success is the result of a combination of factors: It starts with the fact that these students are bright, hardworking and motivated to succeed. They have the academic ability to meet the standards for YU Honors. On top of that, they have experienced the excellent Torah U’Maddah that MTA offers and want more of it at the college level. And topping it all off is the fact that YU is home for them. They have become accustomed to the YU campus and they enjoy participating in its programs.
A great example of this occurred last week. YU Honors colloquia occur at lunchtime once or twice a month, where scholars from every field are invited to present their newest work to YU Honors students. On December 18, Rabbi Dr. Yosie Levine presented his new book, a biography of Hakham Tsevi Ashkenazi, and top MTA seniors were invited to participate. Not only did the MTA seniors enjoy the presentation and the question and answer session that followed, but they particularly enjoyed mingling with current Honors students, an incredibly impressive group that they look forward to joining.
MTA is extremely proud of its new YU Honors admits, and looks forward to learning of their accomplishments as they continue to grow.
