THE RAMBAM RECORD
The eNewsletter of Rambam Mesivta High School
November 19, 2004

Rambam Protests Former Nazi Camp Guard Living in New York City

“No SS in the U.S.” “Your Neighbor is a Nazi.” “Show Your Face.” These are some of the slogans approximately two hundred Rambam Mesivta High School students, faculty and others chanted as they rallied outside the house of Jaroslaw Bilaniuk today in Douglaston, Queens. The Justice Department has moved to revoke Bilaniuk’s U.S. citizenship based on his participation in horrific acts of persecution against Jewish civilians while serving as an armed guard at an SS slave-labor camp in Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II. (Click here to read more...)

"A Package From Home" Founder Makes Appeal

Barbara Bloom Silverman, Founder of A Package From Home made a presentation before the assembled talmidim and urged them to help Israeli combat soldiers in the field.

A Package From Home is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2000 that sends care packages to soldiers serving in the Israeli Defense Forces.

Ms. Silverman carefully displayed the contents of a typical package that the organization has sent to thousands of Chayalim Bodedim (soldiers without family in Israel) and combat soldiers.

"These packages are filled with basic necessities of a combat soldier's life that they have told us in the past that they need," said Ms. Silverman, "including anti-fungal socks, warm hats and gloves, t-shirts or two-piece long underwear sets, candy, chocolates, snacks and assorted toiletries."

"Each package also contains a letter of appreciation from children and adults from all over the world for their part in securing our country," she added. "I can assure you these letters are greatly appreciated by the soldiers in the field."

Also speaking at the assembly were David and Penina Gross, parents of Rambam alumnus Eli Gross who is now serving in the Israeli Defense Forces, and Lieutenant Colonel Tzvika Levi, highly decorated veteran of an elite Israeli combat unit.

To learn more about the organization and to contribute, please click here to visit the A Package From Home website.

Rambam Leads Stock Market Challenge

As of this writing, Rambam's Team E is in first place in this nationwide Sy Syms School of Business $100,000 Stock Mark Challenge offered through Yeshiva University.

The competition began on November 8th and will end ten weeks later on January 14th, 2005. Each student team will manage an imaginary $100,000 portfolio of stocks, mutual funds, bonds and commodities during the 10-week contest. The trades are executed online and the top three teams nationwide will share $3,000 in cash prizes.

The interest in the Stock Market Challenge has been intense among Rambam students and the school is fielding the maximum five teams.

Team A - Ariel Fishman, Raffi Holzer, Naftali Lubin, Westleigh Nirenberg and Avi Shraibman. Team B - David Orner, Avigdor Lalehzarzadeh, Jeffrey Reichman, Ezra Azizi, Abraham Bitton. Team C- Shai Horowitz, Elliot Tanzman, Sruli Szpigiel, Zoli Honig, Elliot Wiesenfeld. Team D - Naftali Gluck, Yossi Nordlicht, Yair Oelbaum, Daniel Himber, Simcha Gross. Team E - Chaim Stauber, Aaron Friedman, Jonathan Guenoun, Yaakov Miller, Michael Pisem.

Rambam Honors Father of Fallen Soldier

Mr. Moe Fletcher, father of Jacob Fletcher who was killed in combat in Iraq just over one year ago, spoke to the assembled talmidim at Rambam in honor of Veteran's Day.

Mr. Fletcher spoke movingly about his son's short life. Jacob was a 1994 graduate of Babylon High School who went on to join the U.S. Airborne and earn the bronze star, purple heart and a special U. S. Army commendation for his service in Iraq.

Mr. Fletcher recounted the story of his son's service in Northern Iraq, from the day he first jumped into the area to fight with the Kurds to the day a bus he was riding in was destroyed by an enemy IED (Improvised Explosive Device).

"Sometimes we forget in our daily lives the sacrifices that these young men and women are making on our behalf," said Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, Rosh HaMesivta of Rambam, "We owe Hakarat Tov, a debt of gratitude, to all veterans and our fighting men and women."

Rabbi Yotav Eliach, principal at Rambam, concluded the presentation with an announcement that Rambam will be "adopting" Jacob Fletcher's army unit and will be sending care packages to members of the unit before they leave for their next mission in Afghanistan.

Click here for more information about Jacob’s Adopt-A-Soldier Program.

- Photos by juniors Zoli Honig & Daniel Lax

Rambam Freshmen Play Paintball

Getting a well-deserved break from their afternoon studies, the Rambam freshmen took an outing to Cousin's Paintball in Coram, Long Island on Tuesday, November 16.

The boys had a blast at the outdoor facility, playing "capture the fort" and bonding with their fellow students on the field of "battle."

"It was really fun," said freshman Yori Thau, "But it's also very intense. Hopefully, it's the closest to real battle any of us ever gets."

After winning its opening game, it's back to the drawing board for the Rambam Ravens Varsity Hockey team after two straight defeats: 1-0 in a tough defensive struggle in their home opener against Solomon Schechter and 8-2 in a hard-fought away game against the Davis Renov Stahler Yeshiva High School for Boys (DRS).

The Ravens next game is on Nov. 23rd, 7:45 pm - vs. Solomon Schechter of Long Island, at the SSLI facility.

- Photo by freshman David Orner

Rambam students broke out their new Ravens thunder sticks to cheer on the varsity basketball team in their home opener on Thursday night, November 11th.

Though the fans were fired-up and the noise was deafening, the Ravens suffered their first defeat of the year, falling to division rival RAMAZ.

"We played a tough team," said senior Elan Kattan. "We know we made mistakes and we have to work on correcting them. Hopefully, this will lead us to a successful rest of the season."

The next game for the Raven's varsity b-ball is on Monday, November 22 at 8 p.m. at Westchester.

- Article contributed to by freshman David Orner

Now that the Rambam Debate team has been selected for 2004 - 2005, the squad is looking forward to building on their success of last year.

Click here to see the roster of this year's debate them.

The members of this year's Torah Bowl team are set and ready to compete in this year's competition.

This year's team is: Abraham Bitton, Yaron Blumstein, Yaakov Cohen, Yisrael Herzberg, Dovi Hochbaum, Yaakov Miller, Yechezkel Stepner, Jonathan Ziring, Elliot Weisenfeld, Elan Kattan, Avi Bernstein, Levi Simsovits and Chanan Zupnick.

Congratulations to the members of this year's Rambam Ravens JV Basketball team: Ikey Ben-Simhon, Moshe Bindler, Jonah Blumenthal, Justin Freedman, Marc Friedman, Naftali Gidon,
Ariel Habshush, Akiva Hershenov, Jeremy Kugelman, Adam Rand,
Eli Shulman, Mutty Shur,
Jeremy Siegel, Sruli Szpiegel, and David Zafarani.

The JV's next game is at home on Saturday, November 20th at 7:30 p.m. vs. Hebrew Academy of Long Beach.

C'mon out and root the Ravens on!