THE RAMBAM RECORD
The eNewsletter of Rambam Mesivta High School
March 17, 2006 / 17 Adar

Purim Chagigah

The festivities began on Friday morning March 10th during shiur when the talmidim began to feel the excitement of Purim. A spontaneous Purim chagigah began as the talmidim gathered in the hallways to sing and dance. All the rebbeim, including Rabbi Friedman, were coaxed by the students to join the joyous celebration.

The ruach resounded through the halls, and soon spilled outside the front of the building where the singing and dancing continued until they returned to shiur.

The following Monday, March 13th, the students returned to Rambam for the annual Purim chagigah. After the magillah reading and breaking the fast, the talmidim poured into Rambam where they enjoyed hours of singing, dancing, (Rocky's tap-dancing was a big hit!) ruach, camaraderie and Dougies.

The rebbeim and talmidim even competed for the best costume!

Another Great Showing by Debate Team

The Rambam Debate team was awarded second best team at the round robin debate hosted by the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway on Thursday, March 9th.

Senior Westleigh Nirenberg was awarded the honor of Third Best Individual Debater at the event.

The topic of the debate was the following:

Resolved: The U.S. Government should suspend cooperation and aid to the Palestinian Government until all of its members have accepted as binding the commitments made by Yasser Arafat to:

• Recognize the right of the Sate of Israel to exist in peace and security;
• Resolve all outstanding issues relating to permanent status through negotiations;
• Renounce the use of terrorism and other acts of violence;
• Assume responsibility over all militant elements and personnel in order to assure their compliance.

Scholarship Dinner a Big Success

A great time was had by all at the 13th Annual Rambam Scholarship Dinner held at The Sands of Atlantic Beach on Saturday evening, March 3rd.

The evening was a great opportunity for parents, seniors, friends, alumni and staff to gather together to joyfully celebrate the mission of the Yeshiva. It was filled with ruach, dancing, and great desserts.

This year, the event honored the Rambam Class of '96, and featured a special tribute to one its members, Alumnus of the Year, Jonathan Dyckman ('96).

Attendees appreciated the fact that the speakers for the evening kept it short, light and funny. Speakers included Rabbi Yotav Eliach doing some of his hilarious imitations, and the Guest of Honor Yehuda Honig's speech which consisted in its entirety of "Thank you all for coming. Have a nice evening."

Also, a special well-deserved thank you to all the parents and administrators who helped to make the successful evening possible.

JV Hockey Wraps Up a Great Season

The Rambam Ravens JV Hockey team wrapped up a great season with a dramatic 3-2 playoff loss against Frisch. The gutsy Rambam squad was trailing 3-0 entering the third period when it staged a stirring comeback. Freshman Sholom Hammer and sophomore Dovi Hochbaum each scored goals to make the score 3-2 deep into the period. Then, a third goal? No, the referee ruled that the ball did not cross the line! So, when the buzzer sounded to end the game, Rambam remained one goal short of advancing in the playoffs.

The game was probably best summarized by one of the referees who said after the game, "I have never seen a team fight from behind so tenaciously as your boys did."

Yaakov Gross, who co-coaches the team with Meir Wadler, said: "I think that says a lot about the Rambam team. They view themselves as the equal of any team, no matter the other team's won-lost record, and they never quit, no matter how bad the score or how late in the game it is."

"I think both teams played a good, fast, aggressive game. We outshot them in the early periods but just couldn't crack the net. The last period was a scramble; I felt that we had the momentum and came close to tying it up but they successfully killed the clock to preserve their lead."

A busload of Rambam students attended the game and cheered strongly for the team throughout the game at the Magen David facility.

"Everybody understands that the playoffs are just a chapter, not the end of the story, for this team and these players," said Gross. "They'll be back, and they'll continue to do great things."

On Language

By sophomore Jeffrey B. (Rocky) Reichman

The Oxford Comma:

Here's something you don't hear everyday, yet something that perhaps many of us use everyday. Even in English classes (except of course for English classes I've had at Rambam) Oxford Comma is very rarely heard. It's not in most dictionaries and thesauruses, including Roget's II and Webster Dictionary, unabridged. However, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary sweeps to our rescue, and defines the Oxford Comma, also known as the Serial Comma, as "a comma used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before 'and' or 'or' (e.g. and Italian painter, sculptor and architect.)"

It easy to see how the name Serial Comma came about-since serial is something in row, continuously, and the the Serial Comma is exactly that - but what about the name Oxford Comma?

The answer is simple: it originates from a character of the house style of Oxford University Press. As is axiomatic from the illustrious dictionaries Oxford has produced, they had a lot of influence when it came to language, so their house style of using the oxford comma has become very popular.

In 1918, William Strunk Junior, in his Elements of Style, discusses the Oxford Comma, and regarding whether to use or not, he agrees with the first. However, Lynne Truss, in her Eats, Shoots and Leaves, writes that you can either use the Oxford Comma or not, depending on whether you want to adhere to language standards or language style.

Should you use the Oxford Comma? Most people generally do use it, although I personally do not, preferring standard over style when it comes to the English language, wishing to eliminate the amount of pauses in a sentence containing a list.

The debate on the usage of the Oxford Comma may continue, but I think we've answered it here. As William Safire put it last week: "Que sera sera: "What will be will be."

For more etymology articles from Rocky, visit his website http://literarymagic.com.

A tough 7-2 playoff loss to Ramaz on Thursday, March 9th put an end to an otherwise successful Varsity hockey team's season in 2005-2006.

"The game illustrated the importance of securing home court advantage during the regular season," said coach Tzvi Hershenov. "We didn't do that and it hurt us in this game against Ramaz on their court.

"The graduating seniors are going out on a high note, however, having competed in the playoffs this year. I also feel good about the fact that we have a good crop of juniors stepping up so I expect we'll be a force to be reckoned with."

Check out a couple of the animated productions that the students in Mr. Stevens's Computer Class created.

Using Macromedia's Fireworks software, the students were to create animations of a bowling ball rolling down a lane and knocking down pins.

Elan Kirshenbaum
Yehuda Holzer
Shlomo Yosef Simpser