The Rampage
Volume XXXXVI Number 3
The Ramaz Upper School
November 2012/Kislev 5773
An Evolving Sephardic Minyan Jonathan Koptyev ’13 Throughout its history in Ramaz, the Sephardic Minyan has gone through many major changes. Supposedly, the minyan started with only 20 sephardim, a minority in the school’s student body. Although a small group, these 20 devoted young men ran the prayer services independently, without a faculty leader to guide them or, more pertinently, to quiet them when they were talking. Nowadays, the minyan’s supervisor is Rabbi Meyer Laniado, a young rabbi of Syrian descent, who received smicha at YU. About two years ago he replaced the beloved Mr. Azure Zalta, the reputable and well-respected Syrian cantor, who resigned after several years with the group. Where does the minyan stand now? It appears that the dynamic has shifted since Mr. Azure’s period as leader. Mr. Azure carried out a very disciplined and controlling role as head, whereas Rabbi Laniado is more passive, believing that connection to G-d comes from within and cannot be forced upon anyone. Rather, Rabbi Laniado believes that the only way students will voluntarily participate is if they are encouraged to do so. Therefore,
Rabbi Laniado tries to have as many chazzinim involved as possible, using their own unique cultural scales and tunes. “No one ever became
tion to become acquainted with his or her cultural roots in order to truly understand the value of prayer in unison, especially because it is a privilege that many of the stu-
religious by being shushed in minyan… We hope that engagement will lead to a minyan where the students themselves take ownership of the minyan,” claimed Rabbi Laniado. The two leaders differ in how they approach the minyan spiritually as well. Mr. Azure constantly emphasized the Sephardic Jew’s obliga-
dents’ Sephardic ancestors did not have. Mr. Azure would always talk about different Sephardic cultures, connecting the circumstances of the specific region to the eventual results of varying customs. Rabbi Laniado directs his speeches more towards mussar, telling students to reflect upon themselves as a means of realizing their connection
with G-d. “Some of the students would like to learn how to read better, others struggle with God and his role in this world, and others don’t understand why they have to sit in their chair for 40 minutes having me ask them to open their siddur and recite shema along with the chazzan,” stated Rabbi Laniado. “This is why the goal is to create a positive attitude towards Judaism and tefilah.” However, some students do not really identify with Rabbi Laniado’s speeches. “I understand what Rabbi Laniado is trying to do by telling us we need to focus more on our prayers, but I feel like people just need to realize that by
themselves, not because he is telling us to,” voiced Solomon Michailow ’13. Steven Bentolila ’13 raised a contrary opinion, suggesting, “I like Rabbi Meyer’s speeches because they motivate us to better ourselves… He’s giving us a chance to do teshuvah, something so many kids don’t realize.” The minyan is often difficult to control when people begin to talk and tune out of what is going on. “Sephardic minyan is organized, but people do not participate as much as they should,” noted David Dellal ’13. “It’s just a little sad that there is a special minyan for Sephardic kids and they don’t put effort in it.” Still, the minyan seeks to maximize involvement by singing certain prayers in unison, in familiar Sephardic tunes. It seems to allow the kids to appreciate tunes of many different cultures, being that the Sephardic minyan is so ethnically diverse within itself. “I come across some beautiful tunes I never heard before,” mentioned Eddie Mattout ’15. “It’s nice to see common tunes bringing all the different cultures together.”
Student-Teacher Conferences Squeezed In Alex Weinberg ’14 On Friday, November 16, students bustled around the Upper School, bouncing from teacher to teacher in order to review their performances from the previous quarter. Student-Teacher conferences had been originally scheduled for two days earlier, but they were rescheduled to the Friday after Hurricane Sandy. The administration rescheduled to provide more classroom time to replace some of the time lost due to the superstorm. “We [the administration] decided to move the Student-Teacher conferences to Friday because we wanted to get in as much class time as possible before the end of the quarter. Placing the conferences on a Winter Friday was the best way we could find to salvage class time while still having Student-Teacher conferences before Parent-Teacher confer-
ences,” said Mr. Miller. Student reaction was mixed about rescheduling the conferences. Some thought the structure of the day was not great because it separated seniors from the rest of the school. Others thought that the decision sent a bad message, for it seemed to encourage a more test-oriented atmosphere, and not one which values interpersonal relationships between faculty members and students. “A whole bunch of kids just didn’t have time to see all their teachers,” said Russell Oppenheim ’14. Other students were content with having Student-Teacher conferences on Friday. “It was fine having Student-Teacher conferences moved because I still finished early, like I always do, and this way we were able to regain some test time lost due to Sandy. The test schedule would have been
too crazy if not for moving the conferences,” said Edward Tuckman ’14. Under the rescheduled date, seniors had conferences with their teachers during their free periods. “I thought it was a great idea to move the seniors’ conferences to other days. This way, seniors who were doing well in class could get their conferences out of the way quickly and students who might have needed more time got it,” said Amram Altzman ’13. Others thought it was unfair to the seniors forcing them to meet with their teachers on their own time when usually they have a specially scheduled day to meet with teachers. “It was not a great idea to move the seniors’ conferences. Most seniors did not need more time and now there is more burden placed on the seniors and teachers,” said Jacob Eisenstein ’14. Mr.
Miller was optimistic about separating seniors from the underclassmen’s StudentTeacher conferences. “I think we may have stumbled upon something here; the conferences are still underway and we need to finish our research into whether or not seniors actually had conferences, but I am optimistic,” he said. Many students called for reforming the way Ramaz does Student-Teacher conferences. “Why aren’t StudentTeacher conferences run the same way that Parent-Teacher conferences are?” said Yehuda Bloom ’14. “It is just so much more logical to have scheduled appointments; we wouldn’t have to spend pointless amounts of time in line and it would save the student body from worrying about line cutting and intimidation.” Others such as Sivan Aharon ’14 think that having set aside
times for each grade would be beneficial. “If during StudentTeacher conferences juniors had their own time and seniors had their own block of time and so on, we could make the whole day so much more efficient,” said Aharon. The reason that Ramaz does unscheduled Student-Teacher conferences is so that every student is able to meet with each of their teachers. “Mathematically it is simply impossible to have each of the 431 students meet with each of their teachers if we do Student-Teacher conferences like we do the parent ones,” said Mr. Miller. “Because students are supposed to be in school on the day of conferences, there is a greater necessity for them to see each of their teachers.”