News

MTA’s Names, Not Numbers program welcomed award-winning investigative reporter Jonah Kaplan on Wednesday, October 30. Originally from Philadelphia, Kaplan joined ABC11 Eyewitness News in 2016 as the Political and Investigative Reporter. A two-time Emmy nominee, he is an integral part of the ABC11 I-Team alongside Troubleshooter Diane Wilson.

The eighth grade STEM class at the Bais Yaakov Academy of Queens started the year exploring the engineering design process. Students began with the “Spaghetti Marshmallow Challenge,” a team-building activity in which they were to design and build a tower out of 20 pieces of spaghetti and one meter of tape that could support one marshmallow. The girls were amazed at how a seemingly light, fluffy marshmallow could tip the balance necessary for their designs to stand.

The week of Parshas Noach at HALB Lev Chana is filled with the excitement of exploring rainbows, water experiments, and sink-and-float activities. The highlight, though, is the annual visit of Party Pets, with their amazing, exotic visitors. Andre Ricaud and his assistants teach the children about conservation, being sensitive to people and animals with disabilities, animal habitats and eating habits, and fun facts about the menagerie of mammals, birds, insects, and reptiles they were introduced to. Hands down, when asked who the stars of the day were, the children responded: either Jake the Snake and the newest member of Party Pets, Roo, the baby kangaroo, or Joey.

On Monday, 23 Elul (September 23), the Senior class of Shevach High School, under the leadership of Yom Iyun head Mrs. Debbie Meltzer and senior Rochel Willig, organized a thought-provoking and meaningful yom iyun. The program began with a powerful video that the class produced, introducing the theme of the morning: “Shivti B’Veis Hashem Kol Y’mei Chayai – I yearn to live in the House of Hashem all the days of my life.” As senior Daniella Itshakov elucidated, this refers to our love for Hashem and our desire to be with Him.

On Wednesday, October 30, the MTA Varsity Hockey Lions played against Hillel High School. Both teams were ready for an exciting game. Two minutes into the first period, Gabe Pudell (’21) scored what turned out to be the first of many MTA goals. Shortly after that, Ben Friedman (’20) scored. That was it for the first period.

This summer, I had the privilege to work with three talented MTA Juniors on a cancer research project at Yeshiva University. The three students chosen to participate in this program, Shua Feigin, Moishe Newman, and Aaron Poulad, were selected for their interest in science and their dedication to spending half of their summer conducting research.