A Student Publication of the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School • 1609 Avenue J, Brooklyn, New York • Vol 52, Issue 3 • December 2017 / 5778
After-School Judaic Classes Prove Popular
New Rediker App Receives Mixed Reviews By Julie Saadia Junior Editor
By Daliah Ben-Ari
The Rediker app debuted two weeks ago, billed as a more user-friendly way for students and parents to access data that can be found on the Plus Portals website. Previously users could keep track of their academics only by visiting a website whose mobile version was difficult to use. As junior Jamie Ashkenazie said, the new app “provides access to my grades, test schedule, and report card simply through the click of a button.” Additionally, the app keeps track of a student’s lunch holds and detentions that need to be served. All that’s needed to access anyone’s account is the code “yofhighschool” and the student’s regular online login information. The new Rediker app is designed to be much more efficient for grade advisors as well, who previously had to manually insert cuts into the system and then e-mail student individually to notify them of their lunch holds. Now students can just check the app and see for themselves what needs to get done, allowing them to monitor their own responsibilities rather than relying on their grade advisors for important updates in their schedule. Some parents appreciate having so much information so accessible. “It makes my life easier,” said a mother with children in both the elementary school and high school. “I don’t have to rely on my daughters reporting back to me for their grades. I can just check it on the app wherever I am.” However, some users argue that the app is not as effective as it is meant to be. Junior Chen Menashe downloaded the app but was disappointed to find that information was missing. “Some teachers don’t upload the grades, so the whole thing is pointless. It’s is just a waste of storage,” Menashe said. Other complaints were focused on the app itself. “It’s slow, it glitches, and doesn’t save my account so I have to sign in every time I re-enter the app,” claimed junior Ezra Faks, and many other students affirm his claim. Some students have not even bothered to download the app at all, feeling comfortable enough with the website itself.
Editor-in-Chief
continued on page 3
In This Issue
Special Feature: Being Ashkenazi at Flatbush Page 3
Students take notes as General Peled and Colonel Kemp answer questions
Global Security Experts Address HS Students By Dorette Dayan School News Editor
Two Yeshivah of Flatbush students, along with 11 other high school journalists from Jewish day schools throughout the Northeast, were invited to attend an exclusive press conference in Manhattan on Sunday, November 5, hosted by Our Soldiers Speak organization featuring Major General Avshalom Peled, Commander of Israeli National Police Academy and Colonel Richard Kemp, Retired Commander of British Forces in Afghanistan. Our Soldiers Speak is an organization that designs curricula in order to educate the future leaders of the Jewish community so they will be able to advocate for Israel on college campuses. It is currently the only organization of its kind that involves active-duty Israeli soldiers. This press conference was established with the intention of furthering an understanding of the IDF’s actions, policies, and role in world events, particularly among leaders in this country’s most impressive high schools, so that they can help inform others. The subject of the briefing was “Countering Terror in the Homeland— Domestic and International Threats.” Driven by questions from the student journalists in attendance, the main focus of the discussion was about “lone wolf ” terrorists—attackers who act on their own rather than being affiliated or instructed by known terrorist groups. General Peled and Colonel Kemp shared their knowledge on how to recognize and prevent lone wolves as well as how to guard against and respond to such attacks.
Entertainment: What to watch on Netflix Page 5
According to General Peled, Israel’s multiple layers of defense begins with operations and tactical methods, which include deploying trained counterterrorism Israeli police to secure the routes of buses and trains. Then, all security personnel congregate in Responsive Joint Command to discuss what further actions must be taken based on the information they have accumulated from all previous attacks in conjunction with all the knowledge that they compiled on the new attacker. General Peled claimed that, “It is almost impossible to win a war without intelligence, and because of intelligence, lone wolf cases are more easily identifiable and can therefore be prevented from beforehand.” For all of this to occur, he explained, police need to be trained in counterterrorism. General Peled is the head of training at Israel’s National Police Academy. He explained the importance of involving the public in addition to trained law enforcement in the fight against terrorism. “The public is the country’s eyes and ears, and they help stop many different terrorist attacks by reporting suspicious activities,” he explained. Colonel Kemp said that, because these attacks are so spontaneous, it’s hard to deter them. However, many of them are acts of the radical Islamic agenda to kill infidels. Kemp explained that the mindset of lone wolves is “to kill as many civilians as possible using any method they can.” Luckily, thanks to Israeli intelligence, many lone wolf attacks are able to be prevented. Yet, in reality, it’s very difficult to monitor everyone, especially in large countries like England and the United States. Therefore,
continued on page 4
The Food Corner: 5 tips to make you an expert Page 6
A recent array of extracurricular Judaism-focused classes, taught by our very own Flatbush faculty, have been attracting many students. These hour-long weeknight classes have been thriving among students, who religiously attend on a weekly basis on top of their usual workload. Teachers such as Rabbi Mizrahi, Ms. Harcsztark, and Rabbi A. Harari have been hosting classes since the start of the school year, some continuing the tradition they began years earlier. One class in particular, taught together by Ms. Harcsztark and Rabbi A. Harari on Tuesday nights at Bnei Yitzchak, delves into a wide range of topics. “We try to take contemporary issues relevant to students’ lives and explore what Halakhah and Jewish tradition have to say about them. Sometimes we will focus on bigger, broader issues, and other times we will focus on narrower practical Halakhic matters,” Ms. Harcsztark explained. Rabbi A. Harari started the Beit Midrash learning program a few years ago, which was initially only open to male students. However, this year the program was expanded so that female students would have equal access to this learning opportunity. What differentiates these specific classes from a typical Judaic Studies class in school is the tone that’s set for the classes. The program is designed to create an engaging and stimulating conversational learning environment about how the world of Torah interacts with our everyday lives. The classes truly grasp the essence of Torah lishma, or learning for the sake of learning, as opposed to the traditional classroom setting, which is required and results in report-card grades. “The clear difference between these
Ms. Harcsztark (top left) at her Tuesday night class
continued on page 3
Sports: The man behind the tournament Page 8 www.theflatbushphoenix.com | 1