SHALHEVET HIGH SCHOOL 910 S Fairfax Avenue Los Angeles, CA May 2021 • Sivan 5781 Vol. 21 • Issue 5 shalhevetboilingpoint.com
School officials study path to no masks next fall By Juliet Wiener, Science Writer
ISRAEL UNDER FIRE BP Photo by ELi Weiss
CONFRONT: Above, a woman draped in an Israeli flag and a man wearing a Palestinian keffiyeh debated across the street from a pro-Israel rally in Beverly Garden Park May 23. The rally, supporting Israel after its cease-fire with Gaza, attracted hundreds and was surrounded by police in riot gear. When demonstrators and counter-protestors began to clash, police attempted to disperse crowds with loud sirens. Meanwhile in Israel itself, alumni on gap year programs watched up close as fighting raged for 11 days. BP coverage begins on page 6.
Amidst dancing and ‘pure happiness,’ Shalhevet alumni saw tragedy unfold on Mount Meron By Keira Beller, Staff Writer Around 1:15 a.m. on April 30, Sam Rubanowitz tried to make his way down an overcrowded, slippery exit pathway from the Lag B’Omer celebration at Northern Israel’s Mount Meron. Twenty minutes earlier, 45 people lost their lives, apparently in a forward crush of exiters who were unable to stop moving
after some fell and became trapped underneath them. Some called it a stampede, although no one was running. “The pathway which I had gone was the exact pathway that the stampede happened, around 15 to 20 minutes before I got there,” said Sam in an interview. “If I had chosen to leave earlier, I could’ve been involved in the stampede.” Around the same time, Ari Schlacht
found himself surrounded by yelling and red lights flashing as he came across the night’s disastrous result that Sam would only learn about later on. “One by one, as we’re standing by the top, you see the crowd would split open for a Hatzalah member who would be walking with a stretcher and like, a little kid lying on it, not moving,” said Ari. “It pretty much just Continued on page 8
Seniors go to Oregon for first school trip post-Covid By Tali Liebenthal, Staff Writer Shalhevet’s class of 2021 spent a week in Oregon experiencing nature and recreation, replacing the two weeks they would normally spend in Poland and Israel experiencing education and history. From May 2 to 9, they lived out their seven-day stay in nature at the Macleay Conference Center in Salem, Ore., which contained a soccer field, large gym, arcade, and fully kashered
kitchen all at their disposal. It was the first time any school trip had taken place since Covid cancelled everything from debate conferences to Sarachek last March. Also cancelled were Robotics and Boiling Point conferences, along with other sports meets, chesed trips and Shabbatons. But the three-week Poland=Israel Experience, as it is called, But the three-week Poland=Israel Experience, as it is called, is someting different, beginning with painful visits to concentra
Continued on page 3
In order for Shalhevet to be completely mask-free next fall, all staff and students would have to be fully vaccinated against Covid-19, school officials said this week. However, the question of whether vaccines will be required for all students in 2021-22 has yet to be decided, according to Chief Operating Officer Ms. Sarah Emerson. “A decision has not yet been made with regards to requiring the Covid vaccine for next year,” Ms. Emerson wrote in an email reply to Boiling Point questions May 21. “We will continue to take guidance from the CDC, as well as, of course, state and local health officials as we make decisions for the school community and student body.” Shalhevet’s administration and Medical Task Force have briefly discussed next year’s Covid guidelines in meetings, but have not yet formally met to make a decision. Dr. Julie Higashi, co-head of the medical task force and a Shalhevet parent, as well as an infectious disease specialist at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, said they will have to come to a conclusion before students return to campus in August. “I really think it’s going to come down to what we want the school to look like going forward...,” Dr. Higashi said in an interview. “It’s about being able to be completely mask-free, and that’s the main decision factor. So I can’t tell you what they are going to do or say but those are the considerations being weighed.” Current CDC guidelines, which will go into effect in Los Angeles County June 15, say vaccinated individuals will no longer have to wear masks indoors or outdoors in any-sized gathering, but those who are unvaccinated will still have to wear a mask. And although school officials are waiting for the CDC to supply more vaccination guidance for schools before making a decision, as a private school Shalhevet technically does not need to wait for the CDC to decide for itself. To date, hundreds of private institutions and universities across the country, including UCLA and USC, have come out with statements saying vaccination will be required for their students returning to campus in the fall. “Everybody wants kids back in school in-person, and so from the standpoint of vaccine mandates, a strategy that other schools have taken is to say we really want to be fully open and we want to be fully open without masks,” Dr. Higashi said. “So what it’s going to take to make that happen is that the vaccine will be mandatory.” Shalhevet is still exploring this option, but Dr. Higashi also offered another model of how school next year might look -- a version where both vaccinated and unvaccinated students would be allowed on campus: vaccinated students can be maskless on campus, while unvaccinated students would be reContinued on page 2
3 9 11 12 SHALHEVET SCOTTSDALE MOVING FORWARD
SPRING ONE-ACTS FEATURE MOVING AUDIENCE
MAKEUP CAN BE CRUELTYFREE
BASEBALL: FIREHAWKS BURN PANTHERS