THE RAMBAM RECORD
The eNewsletter of Rambam Mesivta High School
April 7, 2006 / 9 Nisan

Rambam and HAFTR Announce Educational Cooperative Agreement

Press Release: The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) and the Rambam Mesivta are pleased to announce that they have agreed to combine their educational resources and talents to form a unique educational partnership that will be called “Machon HaTorah – The Torah Institute”. The goal of the Machon is to offer a broad range of outstanding high school educational opportunities for the New York Torah community. The Machon will begin its operations with the commencement of the 2006-07 academic year.

The Machon’s program will initially have two divisions: A Rambam Division and a Yachad Division. The Rambam Division will be an advanced yeshiva program for boys that will be a continuation of Rambam’s highly acclaimed yeshiva high school program and will be housed in Rambam’s existing facility.

(Click here to read complete press release including the answers to questions yyou may have on your mind...)

Two Israeli Pilots Return to Torah

On Sunday, April 1st, Rabbi Yochai Eshkol and Rabbi Nadav Efrat came to speak at a special presentation to the Rambam talmidim. To see their long beards, and their gentle manner, none of the talmidim could guess at the history of these two learned rebbeim.

As their story unfolded, the talmidim were surprised to learn that both men were once highly-trained warriors in the Israeli Defense Forces - Rabbi Eshkol had been Jamor Eshkol, an F-16 fighter pilot who participated in the air battles and the protection of the skies of Israel during the Yom Kippur War in 1973 and in the Lebanese War in 1983. Rabbi Efrat had been Captain Efrat and participated as helicopter pilot in the Yom Kippur War in October, 1973. Efrat evacuated the wounded from the battlefield and rescued pilots who had ejected and parachuted into enemy territory, after their planes were hit.

Neither men were observant while they were members of the IDF, but since that time have not only become so but also received their rabbinical ordination. Today, Rabbi Eshkol has become the Rosh Kollel of "Ahavat Israel" in Rechasim. Captain Efrat is the HaRav Nadav Efrat and the founder of "Ahavat Israel."

"It's a great lesson for the boys to meet people who are learned, observant rebbeim, but are nevertheless fierce defenders of Eretz Israel," said Rabbi Yotav Eliach, principal of Rambam.

"These two men were so inspirational because they started out as non-observant Jews and are now trying to encourage people to be observant," said junior Charlie Cohen. "They did a total 180 in their lives."

Rambam Visits Shea Stadium

On Wednesday night, April 5th the Shea
Stadium faithful included a healthy contingent of fans from Rambam as the Mets played the Washington Nationals. In what is becoming an annual outing for the Mesivta, the talmidim packed into busses and off they went to see what the "new" Mets have in store for their fans this year.

Yes, it was chilly (it had actually snowed earlier in the day!) but that didn't stop the boys from enjoying the beginning of what could be a promising year for the Mets in '06.

Here's the in-depth analysis of the game by our own in-house Rambam sportswriter, senior Shlomo Sprung:

At a chilly night in Shea Stadium, bitter flashes of the past overshadowed the bright future for the Mets in their 10 inning loss to Washington. The Mets were lifted by the pitching of Brian Bannister who was making his major league debut. He carried a no-hitter into the sixth inning before running out of steam.

New York started off strong in the first inning and took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single by David Wright. As Bannister was cruising along, National’s starter John Patterson was running into some early trouble. He gave up a second inning home run to white-hot Xavier Nady and a two-run homer in the 3rd to Carlos Delgado to give the Mets a 4-0 lead after three innings.

Patterson settled down and was taken out after the 6th inning. The Nationals left-fielder Alfonso Soriano also left the game in the 6th inning after suffering from the after-effects of getting hit in the head by a Bannister pitch in the second. He was later diagnosed with a concussion.

In the top of the 6th, Washington staged a two-out rally. A double by Jose Vidro, a walk to Jose Guillen, and a three-run homer by former Yankee Nick Johnson made it 4-3. Both team’s pitchers held serve until the top on the ninth when Mets closer Billy Wagner came out of the bullpen with the roar of the fans drowning out Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.” Wagner did not look sharp in the 9th inning, and gave up a solo blast to Ryan Zimmerman to tie the game at four.

Washington closer Chad Cordero got out of a bases-loaded jam in the bottom half of the 9th when Paul Lo Duca lined out to right field to end the inning.

The game then unraveled for the Mets in the 10th inning. New Met acquisition Jorge Julio gave up a two-run homer to Guillen and Julio was relieved by Chad Bradford in a five-run National inning. Nationals reliever Felix Rodriguez gave up a run in the bottom of the 10th but the Nationals ended up a winner 9-5 at opening night at Shea Stadium.

Game notes:

• Delgado’s and Nady’s home runs were their first as Mets.
• Zimmerman’s home run off Wagner was the first in his major league career.
• Mets second baseman Anderson Hernandez made several spectacular plays in the field including a head-long, backwards, diving, over-the-shoulder catch in the eighth inning. He was temporarily unconscious after the play, but managed to recover to complete the game.

Congratulations to the students who made the Rambam Spring '06 Soccer Team: Ezra Azizi, Yosef Azizi, Aviv Bar-onn, Avraham Bitton, David Block, Yoni Block, Josh Bloom, Yaakov Cohen, Gilad Diamond, Aaron Friedman, Avishai Fuss, Raffi Holzer, Ariel Hochster, Maurice Levy, Max Plaut, Michael Saltzman, Eli Shulman, Ethan Soskel, Chaim Stauber, Dovid Tauber, Daniel Walz, David Zafarani, and Chanan Zupnick.

The team got off to a rough start this spring season with a 9-1 loss on Thursday March 30th against the top-rated squad from North Shore.

Freshman Tani Drellich teamed up with debate team veteran Michael Pisem to win the second place award at the debate held at Davis Renov Stahler (DRS) on Tuesday, April 4th. This comes after their second-place finish hosted by the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway on Thursday, March 9th.

In preparation for Pesach, the talmidim were given a brief break from morning shiur on Thursday, April 6th to thoroughly clean out their lockers. The photograph you see above is proof that they are, in fact, actually capable of cleaning up after themselves. It really did happen. We even have more photographs to prove it.

So, Mom, now you can put them to work at home!

Mazel Tov to Warren Benderly ('99) and his wife Devorah who this past Shabbos had a baby girl named Eliana Rifkah.

Condolences to the entire Aryeh family on the tragic loss of their beloved daughter and sister Avivia Rochel a"h haMokem Yehanchem Eschem B'toch Shaar Aveila Tzion V'Yerushayim.