Letter from the Head of High School

LETTER FROM JBHS HEAD OF SCHOOL

Rabbi Dr. Raymond Harari (HS ’72)

This past year – with its losses, hardships, challenges and radical changes to our lives – was like no other. It was vaguely reminiscent of what the Torah tells us about the locust plague: “There had never been locust like this before, nor would there ever be.” The difficulties for our school community have been enormous. The Yeshivah, however, has been resilient, growing with every challenge.

Every step of the way, our administration has been blessed with an engaged, supportive lay contingent. Working more closely than ever before, the school, the boards of the Yeshivah and the medical advisory board were immensely thoughtful, creative and hard-working. Often, plans for opening, best practices for keeping our school safe and rules for quarantine were written one day only to be revised two days later, then revised again the next week. The collaboration across all levels of our school leadership during this crisis was invigorating. Before the pandemic, “Zoom” was a word in our lexicon that referred to a camera and “Owl” was the name of a particular bird. Overnight (literally), our exceptional teachers had to reimagine the most effective way to teach and create lessons and assignments that could engage our students remotely. When we were able to return to school on an almost fulltime basis, our faculty took on the task of supporting students stressed by Covid and created classroom environments that were warm and intimate despite the Plexiglas®, social distancing and masks.

Our students are truly amazing. Facing an unparalleled situation and many obstacles to learning, they applied themselves assiduously to their Judaic and general

The Yeshivah has been resilient, growing with every challenge.

studies in ways that sometimes amazed us. When necessary, they did what they had to: They learned half a day at home and half a day in school, studied in the cold, took exams under trying conditions and worked overtime to complete the required assignments. Our school has been consistently filled with smiling faces, especially during those precious moments when students were first able to come back into the school building.

Our extra-curricular program has continued to thrive despite limitations: Graduation, Archon and the Honors Assembly took place successfully in completely new formats. Together with other yeshivot, our school hosted a Zoom conversation with Natan Sharansky. Our Arts Department produced sensational Zoom productions of Witness Theater, Evening of the Arts and the Hanukkah Hebrew Play. The Pathfinders Department initiated ESports with Rocket League, preparing them to compete in the spring. Another new Pathfinders offering was Zumi Robolinks, where students learned artificial intelligence. The SGO held a welcome-back carnival and a virtual commission fair to get students involved. The Israel Guidance Department continued to encourage students to spend a year after high school studying in Israel and held virtual meetings with Israel school representatives throughout the fall semester. Our Athletics Department continued to thrive during the pandemic, even adding girls flag football and surfing and adjusting the competitive format for cross country so that our Falcons could compete virtually.

At times it has seemed as if the world was standing still – but not the Yeshivah of Flatbush. We are immensely proud of our faculty, students and lay leaders for their accomplishments over these difficult times.