SHS Honor Society Induction

Last week, Shulamith High School proudly held its annual Honor Society Induction, adding almost 40 new students to the ranks of this illustrious organization. Requirements for acceptance include academic grades, additional chessed hours above the standard quota, peer tutoring responsibilities, consistently positive investment in learning, and participation in a variety of school activities. The students who qualified proudly embody the full range of qualities SHS hopes to impart to its students.

On Sunday, March 26, 2023, forty students from the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach participated in the Long Island History Day competition at Hofstra University. For the past five months, under the guidance of their social studies teacher Ms. Kristen Waterman, the students created documentaries, websites, and museum exhibits on topics related to the national theme, Frontiers in History: People, Places, Ideas. The students researched topics from as far back in history as World War I and as recent as the 1970s. They competed with public and private school students from all over Long Island. This year, HALB received a special award and has one project advancing to New York State History Day. New York State History Day will take place on Monday April

24, 2023 in Oneonta NY. This years’ winners were:

Advancing to NY State: First Place Junior Group Exhibit: Daniel Ellsberg: Pioneering the First Amendment

Miri Berman, Arielle Katz, Mikaela Kleiman, Sara Ostreicher, Rachel Zimmerman

Special Award: Richard Marks Award for Outstanding Junior Entry on New York History: Building the American Dream: William Levitt & the Suburban Frontier

Moshe Broder, Rafi Croog, Yoni Epstein, Eitan Summers, Jacob Torczyner

Congratulations to the winners and all who participated.

To open the program, Dr. Dora Haar, Honor Society Chair, quoted Rabbi Jonathan Sacks’ understanding of why the Torah dedicates so many parshiyos to the construction of the Mishkan, when, in fact, the Mishkan existed for a relatively short period of our national history. He explains that the Torah begins with the creation of the world, Hashem’s home for us, and the second sefer of the Torah, Sefer Shemos, ends with Bnei Yisrael building a home for Hashem. These parallel narratives of creation juxtapose the kodesh and chol with which we need to guide our lives. There is a time and place to construct and create within our world of physicality, but the Mishkan and the mitzvah of Shabbos represent a time and place to refrain from worldly matters and commit ourselves only to holiness. Dr. Haar illustrated the students’ commitment to this idea, through their dedication to their schoolwork and personal accomplishments, while also devoting themselves to chessed, peer tutoring, and myriad forms of personal growth.

Senior Rachel Enayatian was chosen to speak on behalf of all inductees. She began by graciously acknowledging the parents, teachers, mentors, and fellow students who have encouraged and enabled the inductees to achieve their great accomplishments. She then quoted Shlomo Hamelech’s message in Koheles, who after a lifetime full of achievement and success, emphasized the essentiality of effort above all else. He taught that whatever you set out to accomplish, you must invest in with all your might, for total dedication to your goals is a habit more powerful than the knowledge you learn along the way.

Mrs. Sara Munk, principal, echoed Rachel’s message of going all in for whatever you set out to accomplish. Citing Kobe Bryant’s ability to sense if the height of a basketball hoop was a quarter of an inch off, she drove home the message that only through focus and commitment to a goal can such a level of expertise be achieved.

With great pride, we congratulate our inductees who have in fact shown their drive for excellence, and exemplify the balance of kodesh and chol, personal and communal responsibility, and scholastic and well-rounded achievement that are synonymous with SHS.