Official Newspaper of SAR High School
The Buzz
February 2013 — Vol. 8, No. 3
What’s Inside
Make For Yourself A [Male or Female] Teacher (Pirkei Avot 1:6) Female Gemara Teachers in the Yeshiva World
By Olivia Rosenzweig
Ricki’s Rant Page 2
Where Art Thou, Oh President?
izes the school’s unique religious progress.”
Over the past few years, SAR has allowed for the establishment of a weekly Women’s Tefillah group, a Women’s Megillah Reading, and most recently, Women’s Torah Reading. But perhaps even more empowering, but surprisingly less controversial, is SAR’s hiring of women to teach Torah Sh’Baal Peh. Although a taboo in many other schools and institutions, women Gemara teachers have become a very normal phenomenon at SAR, with overall acceptance and support from the student body. Yael Marans (’16) feels that “having female Gemara teachers should be expected at a school like ours.” She recalls: “When I was looking at high schools, it bothered me that some similar schools to SAR didn’t have female Gemara teachers.” She continues, “Though it may seem like a minute detail, to me, the way SAR has female Gemara teachers symbol-
Continued on page 13
SAR’s Progression over the Years
By Samantha Schnall
Page 4
While female Gemara teachers are expected at SAR, there are many schools in the area that don’t hire women to teach Gemara. The Marsha Stern Talmudic Academy (MTA), an all boys Yeshivah in Manhattan, does have female teachers, but none that teach Gemara or any other Limudei Kodesh
The “Glory Days” of SAR
Page 3
Dveykut B’Tfilah
Ms. Hecht-Koller, one of SAR’s female gemara teachers
class. Rabbi Taubes, the Rosh Yeshivah of MTA, explains that this is because “We believe that when it comes to Limudei Kodesh, especially Gemara, which is our core Limudei Kodesh class, it is the job of the teacher not only to transmit the necessary academic information, but also to serve as a religious guide and role model whom the student can aspire to emulate in his own life.” He continues, explaining that a Limudei Kodesh teacher should “influence the student on a personal level through the establishment and building of a close personal relationship.” “Such a relationship would be inappropriate between a female teacher and a male student. As an all boys yeshiva, we would therefore not hire a female Gemara teacher,” he concludes. Frisch, a co-ed yeshivah in Paramus, N.J., also has yet to hire a woman Gemara teacher. Although the school declined to comment on this issue, one Frisch student,
When the first sixty-eight students walked through the doors of SAR in February 2004, they “took a leap of faith.” The first years of any educational institution are bound to have some bumps in the road, and SAR was no exception. After two years of intensive research and planning, Rabbi Harcsztark opened the high school in 2003. In its first year, the school opened with the Riverdale Jewish Center serving as its temporary home. It was not until a year later that the High School moved into its permanent location, with a total of one-hundred and forty students in the freshman and sophomore classes. By 2008, an auditorium, hockey rink, and running track were added. The Annex and technology center were completed a few years later. In its beginning years, there were, inevitably, several flaws present in the way SAR was run. But over the past ten years, many changes have been made for the bet-
ter. Mr. Huber confirms, “The students in the first years [of SAR] lacked many things students have now, like the assurance that
SAR High School
their teachers are experienced and highly effective.” Louisa Schindelheim, a fellow and alumni from SAR’s first graduating class, agrees, remembering that she had “some re-
ally nutty teachers in those first few years.” She specifically recalls that one of her math teachers disappeared in the middle of the year to pursue his political career. Many procedures and protocols, including the test calendar, an attendance system, and a system for course selections, were not yet fully established and effectively executed in SAR’s first years. Dr. Schwartz explains, “Things run smoothly now and it doesn’t seem like a big deal, but back then students picked out their courses so late in the year that they came back in September and didn’t know which courses they were taking.” There also weren’t effective chesed programs, books in the library, good sports teams, choices of electives and foreign languages courses, or Grade Level Coordinators. Most surprisingly, teachers weren’t expected to enforce the dress code. Dr. Schwartz recalls that she hardly spoke to students about dress code. Since there wasn’t a set procedure for violating the dress code, Continued on page 13