RKYHS prizes an arts education as a basic component of first-rate education. This year, RKYHS inaugurated a new program in December, “The Month of the Arts at RKYHS” to crystallize all of the benefits of creative expression and to help students take advantage of all of the great cultural opportunities that they have access to attending a school right outside of New York City. Noticing carefully, slowing down to appreciate things that are beautiful, fostering personal expression and a broader understanding of the impact of the arts on the human experience were among the goals of this innovative program.

Over the course of the “Month of the Arts at RKYHS” students have studied poetry, created and performed their own original poems, performed incredible productions of “Beauty and the Beast,” enjoyed Jazz music by Israeli students from Kinor David (an Israeli Yeshiva high school dedicated to cultivating musical talent), created wearable art in the manner of Jackson Pollock, and attended a production of “The Marriage of Figaro” in Lincoln Center, to name just a few of the varied events.

This week, in addition to students continuing their contest to decorate the band room, students attended a concert at Carnegie Hall that featured Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn and a contemporary composer who, like Mendelssohn, had Jewish roots.

From the time of King David, music has always played a central role in the life of the Jewish people. By giving students an opportunity to experience the great and varied cultural life of New York City, an RKYHS education helps students embrace and contribute to their twin inheritance of Jewish and Western democratic civilization,

We are grateful to art teacher Mrs. Buechler and the rest of the faculty and student body who participated in the “Month of the Arts at RKYHS.” Like the creative and artistic abilities of its students, the school hopes to further grow and develop this program in the years ahead.