Volume 48, Issue 5 (February 2017) - The Rampage

The Rampage The Newspaper of the Ramaz Upper School

New York • Volume 48 • Issue 5 • February 2017 • Shevat 5777 • the-rampage.org

Julia Levi '18

Remembering Daniella Moffson z"l One Year Later Emotional Torah Dedication Ceremony

Daniella Moffson z”l has been in the thoughts of the members of the Ramaz community since her tragic accident over a year ago. The Jewish community in New York, the United States, and around the world has commemorated her loss through a multitude of ways that reflect her most central qualities - a love of Torah and Mitzvot and a sense of compassion and responsibility to others. Just this past month, on the third of Shevat, January 30th, the KJ-Ramaz community commemorated Daniella’s first yahrzeit.

Various projects have been put into action this past year to remember Daniella. The Daniella Moffson Foundation, created by her family, was made with goal

of continuing her legacy of giving to others and for commemorating Daniella through various communal events. Attending two summers at Chai Lifeline’s Camp Simcha, a new cottage known as Beit Daniella is being donated to the camp in her honor, and at this years Miami Half marathon, teams of runners joined together to run in her honor and raised money for Chai Lifeline. Daniella attended Camp Seneca Lake for many year's, and the camp shul has recently been named after her. As she was an avid challah baker, Dough For Daniella, which began last year, continues, with events being organized to bake challah with her recipe. Her legacy is being celebrated around the world; just last

month, a Dough For Daniella challah bake-a-thon was held in Australia, and a candle lighting ceremony in honor of her yahrzeit took place in Austin, Texas.

In order to commemorate Daniella’s yahrzeit with the KJ-Ramaz community, the Moffson family dedicated a Torah to the Ramaz Beit Knesset, where seniors daven every morning, in her honor. The ceremony began on 85th street at KJ where the torah was introduced, and a siyum took place for the tractates of the Talmud that the community learned over the previous year. The ceremony continued as the Torah was brought to the Ramaz Upper School, its new home, the next morning.

Juniors and seniors began their day in the Continued "'Daniella Moffson Torah Dedication " page 2

Ramaz Students Attend JOFA Conference

Josephine Schizer '20

“Chart yOUR Course”, the 9th international conference of the Jewish Orthodox Feminist Alliance (JOFA) was held at Columbia University on Saturday night and Sunday, January 14-15. Over 1,200 self-identifying Orthodox Feminists from 7 different countries, about 25% male and 75% female, gathered to discuss issues pertinent to feminist orthodoxy today.

JOFA was founded in 1997 by Blu Greenberg to “[expand] the spiritual, ritual, intellectual and political opportunities for women within the framework of halakha (Jewish law), by advocating meaningful participation and equality for women in family life, synagogues, houses of learning and Jewish communal organizations to the full extent possible within halakha” (JOFA mission statement).

The JOFA conference included davening--with options for traditional, partnership, and women’s tefillah minyanim--breakfast, lunch, and 6 session slots with an array of choices. In total, there were more than 50 sessions on topics including mikveh, agunot, high

school dress codes, women of the wall, women and smicha, and tallit and tefillin for women.

Additionally, there were approximately 40 high school students in attendance. For high schoolers, there was a special high school track including a session about Feminism and Halacha, a session about dress code, and a separate high school lunch.

The first high school session was titled “Feminism, Halacha and Tradition” with speaker Rabbi Lila Kagedan, the first orthodox woman to use the title ‘Rabbi’. She gave advice about how to advocate for women’s participation in davening and told the students about her background.

She personally decided to take the title of ‘Rabbi’, as opposed to ‘Maharat’ or the like for two reasons. First, she feels that it is a matter of equal pay for equal work; after investing equal time, hours and resources in Rabbinical School, why should men walk out with the title ‘Rabbi’, but not women? Secondly, she feels it is important for people who aren’t knowledgeable about wom-

New Navi "Electives"

Abigial Huebner '18

As juniors returned to school for the start of second semester, many saw a change in their schedules; the half of the grade that was supposed to take Navi during this semester was now in a new class.

“Prophecy: Selected Topics” appeared on their schedules, as opposed to the previous course, “Navi,” with new classes and new teachers. Ms. Krupka, the teacher who organized this new course, explained that it is somewhat of an “elective.” Although students did not get to choose their class, this new Navi course is different than the typical class in that “teachers will be going off the beaten path to look at different topics more in depth,” she explained. Many stu-

Continued "JOFA Conference" page 3

dents, however, are unhappy with the fact that although this class is called an “elective,” there is really no choice involved. “I don’t think the whole elective thing was a good idea because it wasn’t an elective,” said Sarah Cohen ’18. “They just decided we’re doing electives now and then stuck us in other random classes. If they’re doing electives then let us choose which classes we want to take,” she said. Ema Rozenfeld ’18 agreed, saying that “I think that when the word ‘elective’ is used, that means we have the choice to choose what we are going to learn. It’s a very interesting course because it’s different than what we normally learn, but I’d like it more if we could at least Continued "Navi Elevtives" page 3

Inside this issue...

Should There Be Alternatives to Final Exams? ... See what students are saying about this topic School Calendar Re-imagined... The Rampage gets the inside scoop from the Head of School Building the Wall... Is Trump's wall a positive change in American immigration policy?

Girls Varsity Volleyball... Read about their undefeated season Crossword... How quickly can you solve this tough puzzle?

page 10 page 6 page 9 page 11 page 12

News 2

The Rampage

February 2017

The G.O. Corner Netanel Kamel '18

Daniella Moffson Torah Dedication

What Has the Student Government Been Doing for the Student Body?

This past month has been jam-packed with final exams and assignments. The GO attempted to lighten the mood with hot chocolate on the morning of each final along with stress balls on one day. Abigail Huebner ’18 said the hot chocolate on the mornings before finals was “such a great action by the GO and made the students feel much more cared for.” After the completion of the last final exam, the GO treated the students to gummy bears and sour candies to leave a sweet post-finals taste in their mouths.

But now that finals are over and regular sessions have resumed, Secretary Naomi Freilich said, “The GO is meeting on a very frequent basis to prepare the upcoming events for second semester.” Secretary Freilich, Treasurer Sobel , and Senior Vice President Cohen shared that the GO is preparing for an amazing Purim carnival and that the students should stay tuned.

There will be the “classic” carnival essentials, such as inflatables and cotton candy, but this year’s carnival is going to be brought to the next level. “The GO is planning an amazing event, but the details remain confidential,” said Senior VP Cohen.

One event that many of the students are curious about is color war. When asked about the issue, Treasurer Sobel stated that “there will not be color war this year. The GO fought very hard for color war, but the administration is against it. It wasn’t just the issue with last year. The school has looked at participation for the past ten years, and it always has been less than 50% of the school. It isn’t a great atmosphere when the school spends a lot of time and effort preparing for a school event and then the students decide that they would much rather have a day off.”

Another question that everyone has on their minds is the overnight Seneca trip. Last year was the first year in a long time that the trip did not happen. Treasurer Sobel mentioned that the issue with Seneca is the clear division that lies between the students at Ramaz who have gone to Seneca as campers and those who haven’t. The students who have attended Seneca feel much more comfortable at the camp. Treasurer Sobel also noted that “although we probably are not expecting a Seneca trip this year, we can be expecting a school wide overnight in a different location.”

In addition to school trips, the students are also wondering about Ramaz apparel. Since the apparel sold out very quickly in the beginning of the year, students can expect a new line to be coming out very soon. “We are working hard on designing new apparel that we will be able to sell along with other Ramaz-Spirit items,” said Treasurer Sobel.

The GO also updated The Rampage on the topics that were discussed in the past few month’s SFAC meetings. One

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topic that was discussed was the standards for student leadership: Should anyone be able to run for GO and class president positions? Although the topic hasn’t been resolved, the main argument was that there should not be strict regulations on who can run for student office positions because it is important that the GO be diverse. Although there must be a standard, it should not be raised in favor of the highest marked students only.

Another issue that was discussed was blackout weeks.

Blackout weeks are supposed to be the weeks before final exams when there are no graded assessments. At SFAC, representatives discussed how it is sometimes unavoidable for there to be work during these blackout weeks because teachers have a curriculum to finish and therefore need to make sure it is all done by final exams. Additionally, classes that give a final outside of the eight finals during the allotted two weeks for final exams, like health and JLT, sometimes only meet once or a couple of times per rotation, so they end up giving their final exams during blackout weeks. Unfortunately, it seems impossible to halt all assessments and assignments during the weeks before final exams, but the topic has been recognized as a concern.

Another topic that was discussed was the student connection to prayer. Davening in general is a very personal spiritual connection, so trying to work on the grade connection to shacharit is quite challenging. Although this is a tough task because of its personal nature, the administration is attempting to implement more inspiring minyanim soon this semester.

Also discussed at SFAC was how honors Talmud students never have the opportunity to take any JLT classes. The main consensus at the SFAC meeting was that this system should be changed because honors Talmud students are missing out on the JLT experience, a chance to learn about prayer and practical Jewish law.

One other important topic that was discussed was second-semester student-teacher conferences. Treasurer Sobel said, “First semester should be enough because there should be a relationship with each teacher by second semester and therefore if a student has an issue, they will schedule a meeting by themselves.” It may seem unrealistic to take away an entire school day for a second student-teacher conference.

It is important for students and teachers to have a connection both inside and outside of the classroom. A potential solution to this issue that was discussed in the meeting is “office hours” during a B4 school-wide free period.

usual manner of davening. However, instead of proceeding to class, they went out into the streets, filled with emotion, joining the Moffson family, friends of Daniella, KJ members, and faculty as they danced with the Torah. The Torah was wrapped in a pink cover and was ushered into the school with instruments.

The dancing continued in the auditorium for a little while longer, until everyone sat down and the ceremony proceeded.

Rabbi Grossman spoke first, followed by Rabbi Sklarin, who taught Daniella Talmud when she was in 10th and 12th grade. Rabbi Sklarin described her passion for learning the subject and for tefillah. “I can still picture her davening in senior minyan, joking around with her friends and sitting in my class,” said Rabbi Sklarin afterwards. Then, Daniella’s father, Michael Moffson, spoke. He talked about Daniella’s love for Ramaz and how it makes perfect sense that Ramaz be the home for this new Torah. He spoke about her love for mitzvot, and how she understood that it was the little, everyday mitzvot in life that meant the most. He told stories about Daniella when she was a student in the upper school that exemplified these qualities, which really brought her legacy to life. The chamber choir then sang a beautiful and meaningful rendition of “Eitz Chayim Hi.” Rebecca Araten ’18, member of the chamber choir, said that she felt that “the presence of music at the dedication added more layers of emotion, while also providing comfort. It was definitely an emotional, bittersweet event.”

The ceremony then ended, as some people went up to examine the Torah, noticing the quote from Eishet Chayil inscribed on it. Others ate breakfast, which was being served at the back of the room.

“The celebration was both uplifting and bittersweet for me. We were dancing with the Torah, yet at the same time, tears were dripping down our faces,” said Naomi Frelich ’18. The celebration brought with it mixed emotions among the Ramaz students and faculty, yet it was clear that everyone knew that Daniella’s legacy would live on forever through this Torah.

KJ/Ramaz Hosts Yachad Shabbaton Paola Mattout '19

This year, Ramaz’s Yachad Shabbaton was in memory of Daniella Moffson z"l. Members of the Ramaz community and those who knew Daniella attest to the fact that she was an incredible person, always doing mitzvot with immense love, care, and humility, so the Yachad Shabbaton served a fitting way to honor her memory. The Yachad Shabbaton took place at KJ, and many students from all grades came to participate.

The first activity was an icebreaker, allowing everyone to introduce themselves to the Yachad members. Everyone had the biggest smiles on their faces. Following the meet and greet sessions, everyone walked from KJ to the Ramaz Middle School for a beautiful Shabbat dinner. Rebecca Douer ‘19 said, “It was amazing to learn and interact with the Yachad members. We got to see all the things we have in common.” Ramaz students, along with the Yachad members and staff, sang and danced all of

Shabbat. After dinner, all participants came together in a circle to play some interactive games. Students were upset to go home, but they could not wait for an enjoyable day to come. On Shabbat day, even more Ramaz students came to join the fun and excitement.

Ms. Benel planned the beautiful weekend with the help of Rebecca Schrag, the director of the Yachad organization. Ms. Schrag is a Ramaz alumna. In her freshmen year at Ramaz, she hurt her leg badly. She decided in that moment that because she was able to get back up, she wanted to inspire and help others get back up.

Schrag’s goal was to put smiles on others’ faces.

Ms. Benel put it best when she said, “The Yachad Shabbaton is at the core of our values, core principles of who we are.” She explained how this Yachad Shabbaton should not be described as a simple event but rather as a time for Jews to come together in happiness, doing something they all wish they could

do on a daily basis. “If we want to address inclusion, it wouldn’t be known as an event. There’s a time and place for every man...We learn from each other whatever our talents or abilities may be,” said Ms. Benel.

February 2017

The Rampage

Senior Shabbaton

Rebecca Araten '18

This year's Senior Shabbaton in New Jersey brought the senior grade a great deal of enjoyment and bonding. The seniors started their trip by going to the Arcade Funplex, where they were able to explore activities such as go-karting and laser tag, with fun and interesting prizes awaiting them at the end. While the initial plan had been for the seniors to stay at a hotel by the beach, the intended hotel was unavailable because the faculty of the Yeshivah of Flatbush had already reserved it for their students. Instead, the new plan was for the students to stay at a hotel across the street from the Arcade Funplex.

Despite its ideal location, the hotel did not have ideal cleanliness. Students claimed that they saw insects on the floors and feared reports about previous infestations of bed bugs at the hotel. There were even some seniors who had to switch their rooms multiple times in order to avoid bed bug infestations. The students tried to improve the

situation by going on an impromptu trip to Target to buy hygiene and cleaning products, as well as, in some cases, new sets of sheets.

The students did not let the "hotel situation" spoil their fun, and they continued to rest over Shabbat, play board games, and bond with teachers and each other. Five Star Caterer came to provide food for the seniors, which Molly Blaustein ’17 described as "amazing."

On Saturday night, the seniors finished their trip by going to Skyzone, a large gym containing dozens of trampolines. After jumping up and down for about an hour, the seniors settled down to eat pizza. Despite the hotel complications, Blaustein said, “I'm happy I went.

It was fun." Jakey Lefkowitz '17 agreed and said, "There were definitely some tough points when we just kind of felt gross, but overall everybody kept high spirits, and it made it more enjoyable because we were all preserving the Shabbaton atmosphere together."

News 3

Navi "Electives"

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pick what we would be learning.”

There are two main reasons why this class was created. First of all, only half the grade has a Navi class for the full year - the other half of the grade has one Tanakh class, which focuses on Navi for only about two to three months per year. The school felt that the half of the grade taking Navi did not need to be studying one book of Navi for an entire year.

The second motive behind the creation of this class was the success of electives for seniors. Electives “allows [students] to study something new with different teachers,” Ms. Krupka explained. In the future, if this new class is a success, students may even be able to choose specific Tanakh topics they would like to study.

“I think electives are a great idea. What we’re doing in these electives is covering other areas of Tanakh, which the curriculum doesn’t cover.

In my class, we’re covering Esther and Daniel, and I’m looking forward to

JOFA Conference

en in orthodoxy to understand who she and other women rabbis are. For example, if someone hired her as a rabbi to officiate at a funeral, they would be surprised if she walked in and introduced herself as anything other than Rabbi.

She emphasized that the best way to respond to those who challenge your views is based on halacha. Those who care about issues of women in orthodoxy and davening should take the time to study the relevant texts, sources, and halachot because it is very hard for your opponents argue with sources supporting you. She also spoke to the struggle of orthodox women who care deeply about their religion and halacha but also want to be included, voicing the pain of feeling discriminated against and being excluded from something that you love because of something that you cannot change, being born a woman.

At another session, “Everyone’s Favorite Topic: Girls’ Dress Code in Day Schools”, participants heard Dr. Rivkah Press Schwartz of SAR and Ms. Esther Hidary of Flatbush outlining their views of dress codes and the differences between boys’ dress codes and girls’ dress codes.

Dr. Schwartz explained that one problem with dress codes is that they generally are not enforced, which leads to more infractions. Because students are warned countless times but rarely face consequences, they view punishments for dress code infractions as dependent on what teachers they run into rather than on the clothes they wear. This leads to more dress code violations, which Dr. Schwartz wants to prevent with “swift, certain, and mild” dress code punishments. However, Dr. Schwartz also noted that part of the problem may be

with the dress code itself, noting the difference between boys’ and girls’ dress codes. At many schools, the boys’ dress code reflects the community’s general expectation of dress - that boys should look presentable (shirts with collars, no sweatpants). The girls’ dress code is much more controversial, with more of a discrepancy between girls’ dress codes in schools and their dress outside of school. At many schools, modern Orthodox girls are expected to wear skirts to the knee or calf and crew neck shirts with sleeves, but outside of school, many wear pants and sleeveless or v-neck shirts. This discrepancy means that girls are more likely to rebel against the dress code, especially because their parents don’t feel strongly about it.

Secondly, while boys’ dress codes are generally about looking presentable, girls’ dress codes tend to be more about sexuality. According to Dr. Schwartz, it is important to be honest and acknowledge the difference, and that the best way to make it more fair is to enforce the boys’ dress code as stringently as the girls’ dress code. Overall, dress codes can have many purposes, such as halacha, professionalism, or comfort, and the purposes for each gender may be different. Because of this, dress codes are an issue that schools are constantly discussing. However, Dr. Schwartz also said that as a community, there is an idea that girls in a modern Orthodox day school should look a certain way, and that this is a problem that still needs to be addressed.

During lunch, high schoolers had the opportunity to meet new people over falafel. The majority of the high schoolers in attendance came from SAR, but there were also some from Ramaz, Frisch, Heschel, and out of town. The stu-

continuing teaching this,” said Rabbi Anstandig. The teachers of this course chose topics that interest them and that they thought students would enjoy learning. A few weeks are devoted to each topic before the class moves to another topic. These topics include the megillot, the comparison of the “Shivat Zion” era of Ezra to our modern-day return to Israel, the themes of Sefer Tehillim, the story of Iyov, and an overview of Yonah as a prophet and of Sefer Yonah. “Learning about Megillat Esther in school for the first time in depth is really different and interesting,” said Drew Korn ’18 about the current topic in his new class. The administration and teachers are still working to improve this new course. As Rabbi Anstandig said, “This is the first semester we’re doing it, so I think the school’s definitely open to suggestions - this is something that can and will evolve with feedback from the student body.”

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dents did an icebreaker activity, ‘step into the circle,’ to learn about the group as a whole. Questions included how many students had ever leyned from a Torah or Megillah and whether students had learned Gemara in co-educational classes.

After attending the conference, Rebecca Araten ‘18 felt that “It was amazing to see the number of Jewish men and women who showed up for this worthy cause. It gave me hope about the future of our community. I learned that the role of the Jewish woman will continuously grow, and I can't wait to see more women in positions of leadership from which they were previously excluded.”

Ms. Tamar Benus agreed that “It was incredible to be around thoughtful, concerned, and dedicated people. Even for one day, I felt as though I was part of something bigger.

For me, one of the most impressionable moments was sitting through lectures/sessions and being surrounded (literally surrounded and squished, there were so many people that the floor was being used as extra seating), by a diverse age group.

I saw former campers, counselors, old teachers, neighbors, current colleagues, friends, and it just shows how important an event like this is. It I walked away feeling empowered and even more passionate about being a Jewish educator, because the conference confirmed for me how necessary it is to have a space for open and honest discourse as a larger community.”

News 4

The Rampage

February 2017

Changes in the Ramaz 2017-2018 Calendar Waving Goodbye to a Longtime Ramaz Tradition

Abigail Huebner '18

“Where did intersession go?!” many students wondered as they looked at the newly released school calendar for the 2017-2018 academic year. Instead of receiving the customary Friday and Monday off after the last final exam on Thursday morning, students now end first-semester exams on a Tuesday.

The following day - Wednesday - is the new “intersession,” with second semester beginning that Thursday. A new break was added to make up for the lack of a four-day weekend - Ramaz, much like SAR, now has vacation during the week before Presidents’ Day.

Rabbi Grossman explained that February break is replacing the traditional intersession because “the period between Winter Vacation and Passover Break is the most difficult for teaching and learning...it is common to have a stretch, like this year, of 14 weeks without a meaningful break. By combining the intersession days with other vacation days from earlier in the year, and by placing it between two weekends, we were able to give ten consecutive days off without losing any instructional days.” Additionally, the long four-day intersession posed its own problems, explained Rabbi Grossman.

“There have been discussions for many years about eliminating intersession because of behaviors on the Puerto Rico (and similar) trips that involve dangerous, unhealthy, and reckless decisions, as well as inappropriate activities that are not consistent with our values as a school community,” said the Head of School.

“We want senior year to end in a way that does not undermine the investment [in Torah values] but rather celebrates being and becoming b’nei Torah.” In the email containing the new schedule, Rabbi Grossman said that intersession had been eliminated “in response to significant parent feedback over the years.”

This recent development is the large portion of the senior class went on the school’s latest and, by far, strongest effort to customary Puerto Rico trip. Rabbi Stochel eliminate the senior Puerto Rico trip. Last and Rabbi Grossman confirmed that they reyear, for the first time, the school took a ceived reports of “inappropriate activities, as strong stance against the trip to Puerto Rico well as dangerous consequences of unhealthy, in an email to the seniors’ parents advising even reckless decision making.” In regard to against the trip. This email was a success; the why the trip took place this year and not last school stated that “a majority of students did year, Rabbi Grossman said that he does “not not participate” in the Puerto Rico trip. Eli- have enough information to offer a hypotheana Doft ’16, whose parents did not allow her sis,” and Rabbi Stochel, too, did not offer any to go to Puerto explanation.

Rico, explained Less than two that her parents weeks after this were not going year’s trip, the to allow her email announcto go even being the changes fore the email in the calendar was sent out. for next year She was always was sent out. planning on go A l ing to Atlantis, though the dea resort in the sire to get rid -Rabbi Grossman, Head of School Bahamas, with of the senior a smaller group Puerto Rico of friends “because the large group dynamic trip may have been a factor driving the subof going to Puerto Rico with a ton of people stitution of a February break for a long incan get a little dramatic.” Although the email tersession, it is not clear that this new system was not the deciding factor in Doft’s deci- will actually work. “To me, it just sounds sion, she explained that it did influence many like a week-long intersession,” said Will Beothers “in terms of their parents not wanting sharim ’18, who does not plan on going to to be the one to let their kids do something Puerto Rico next year but feels that the rising that the school explicitly disapproved of.” seniors will now plan this trip for the week This year, the school again sent out long February break. In fact, many juniors an email, hoping for the same result. “We have already expressed plans to move their cannot remain silent,” wrote Rabbi Stochel senior year intersession trip to a few weeks and Rabbi Grossman in this email. “We urge later, taking advantage of this new vacation. you [parents of seniors] to band together now “From what I’ve heard, people in our grade and take a proactive role to create alternatives want to go to Puerto Rico so badly that I to this potentially dangerous trip,” they stat- don’t think they even care when they’re goed in the message. The email was, however, ing,” said Orli Fouzailoff ’18. “But,” conseemingly less effective than it was last year - a tinued Besharim, “this does give the option

“We want senior year to end in a way that does not undermine the investment [in Torah values] but rather celebrates being and becoming b’nei Torah.”

Gabe Low '15 Visits Ms. Barak's Class from the IDF

Julia Levi '18

Ms. Barak’s Junior Hebrew class spent their first semester learning about the concept of Akeidah, sacrifice.

They began this unit by looking at the story of Akeidat Yitzchak in the Tanakh and reviewing what exactly occurred. After this, the class looked at photographs

by Adi Ness depicting this biblical event, namely one of a man pushing his son in a cart, a photo titled “Akeidat Yitzchak.”

They continued with learning poems

by Natan Yonatan and watching the Israeli movie Late Summer Blues in order to tie the whole unit together with the Yom Kippur War and the idea of going to the army and sacrificing for the state.

At the beginning of second semester, Gabe Low ’15, who is currently serving in the Israeli army as an infantryman, came to speak to the class about his experience. He explained to the group why he joined the army, saying that growing up in a very Zionist home, it was always a dream of his to enlist since he was a young child. Low described the physical training necessary for going into the army; he worked with a personal trainer prior to joining the army, and he felt pretty prepared, but he explained that as much as one thinks one knows about the army, one realizes that there is so much more to know once the actual service begins. Low went into the details of being in the army, describing the less than ideal showering situation and the

challenge of eating pretty much the same food for every meal. In fact, he told the group that he once had to eat the same food - tuna - for 39 meals in a row! Low told the group about his experience having to guard areas in the West Bank and overall what it is like to live with and depend on a group of soldiers. He also told the students about some funny experiences he had, such as the time when a rat bit him in the middle of the night while he was asleep, and he did not realize it until one of his fellow soldiers noticed it. From that point on, the soldiers in Low’s unit decided to call him “rat boy.”

“As I have always wanted to be in the Israeli Army after high school, I really appreciated how real he was about everything; he didn’t sugar coat anything and gave us an honest account of being in the army,” said Corrine Azizian ‘18.

Ms. Barak’s juniors really enjoyed Low’s visit and learned a great deal about life in the army and in Israel in general.

Low ended off by tying his experiences to the themes that the class learned about, sacrificing oneself for his or her country. He explained to the group that being in the army changed him as a person and made him realize how unimportant the materialistic things are compared to lifetime experiences. He also spoke about how different people’s mindsets are in the United States, as opposed to Israel. Here, people

are more for focused on themselves, and the goal is to get into the best universities for people of high school age. In Israel, however, the societal focus is more about working together, and most teenagers go into the army after high school. Low said that he really learned what it meant to be part of a team and a cohesive group.

He also met people from many different Jewish communities and felt that the army unites them all together. After serving in the army, Low plans to return to the United States to attend college, as he planned before going to Israel. He explained how it is important for him to complete his education in America, as he worked hard in high school and needs to accomplish what he set out for himself to do. After speaking, Low opened up the room to questions from the students.

“It was a pleasure to see how mature he has become in the army,” said Ms. Barak.

“He really understands the little picture and the big picture in life,” she said.

Students really enjoyed his story, and many stayed after class to ask even more questions, as they were so interested. As Rebecca Araten ’18 said, “Gabe Low’s words made everything that we’re learning in Hebrew class feel more real. Hearing about the challenges of being a soldier from somebody who used to be in our shoes shed light on the sacrifice made each day on behalf of the Jewish State.”

to worried parents of dragging their kids on family vacations instead of allowing them to go on intersession trips [i.e. the customary Puerto Rico trip].” Darbie Sokolow ’18 said, “I think that people will respect the school’s decision and not go to Puerto Rico - our grade’s different.” Nevertheless, it is very clear that many juniors disagree with Sokolow.

The students met the elimination of intersession and addition of February break with mixed reactions for reasons other than just the Puerto Rico trip. “I don’t understand how kids will be ready to get back to classes after two weeks of finals with just one day off from school,” added Sokolow. Many students already find it difficult to begin second semester after the long weekend off. Hanna Sholes ’18 likes this new calendar, saying that “Presidents’ week is a much longer, real vacation, which will give us much more time to relax and destress from school, whereas intersession was always very short.” Rabbi Grossman explained that this is yet another step in the Ramaz Renaissance, serving to “create a school environment that is more enjoyable and fun without sacrificing the strong academics that distinguishes us as a school. Creating a calendar with longer and more meaningful vacations, while maintaining the same instructional time is a move in this direction,” he said.

It remains to be seen whether or not the elimination of a long intersession will finally get rid of the senior Puerto Rico trip and how the student body will respond to the new calendar in the 2017-2018 school year. Rabbi Grossman concluded, “As with all changes, we will look for feedback, evaluate, and be responsive to our community in moving forward.”

Finals:

Food for Thought Rebecca Araten '18

After completing their exams each day during midterms week, the students were rewarded with a wide array of snacks, including various pastries, granola bars, and fresh fruit.

This selection of food differed greatly from the treats that students had received in previous years, which usually comprised of solely cookies on Fridays and sometimes the occasional doughnuts. The students found the selection of food to be very helpful, although some students who lived nearby pointed out that they didn’t really need the snacks, because they were planning on eating shortly, when they arrived at their homes. Nevertheless, the majority of students immensely enjoyed the snacks, to the point that the snack supply sometimes ran out, and latecomers had to scrounge for cookie crumbs.

However, even if there was a shortage of cookies, the variety of other snacks made up for it, and students were able to find other options.

“I think it was amazing,” said Akiva Weinberger '18. “I think it is dangerous to give me doughnuts without a specific limit," he said. The GO is responsible for coming up with the idea of rewarding the students with food.

Rabbi Slomnicki, head of the GO, said, “The GO is constantly thinking about how to make the student experience here better, and everybody recognizes, especially the GO, that food is an important part of life.”

While the GO definitely pushed for their idea to be implemented this year, Rabbi Slomicki said, “I think we may have had this idea last year.” This year, however, was the optimal time for the idea to be put into action, because “the GO has found that working with Five Star has been very pleasant...The chef enjoys setting things up nicely and enjoys giving to the students that way.

The students should recognize how much the GO thinks about the student experience here at Ramaz.”

February 2017

Esti Beck '19

The Rampage

News 5

Ms. Mitnick Debuts a New Tanakh Final

Ms. Mitnick’s 10th grade Honors Tanakh class helped the Tanakh department try a new final format this past January, when they were tested on Sefer Shemot. A traditional chumash test format, which Ms. Mitnick used for this class on their previous two assessments, consists of sections like “who or what is this talking about?” and questions on the text itself. But this final was different. Students were given one seven-page unseen commentary and were asked to compare it to other opinions and texts that they learned in class. All in all, there were only fourteen questions to answer, but each question demanded analysis and a lengthy response.

The students were warned ahead of time about the changes to the test’s format, but were not told precisely which sections of material learned in class should be studied or what type of commentary would be used for the unseen, although they were assured that it would be in English. In the end, the text chosen for the final was an in-depth narra-

Abigail Huebner '18

tion of Shemot by Flavius Josephus, a first-century Romano-Jewish scholar and historian. Josephus’ interpretation carries additional weight in that his perspective comes both from his background as a member of the Jewish community and (after his conversion) from his time in the Roman camp.

“[The test] enables me as well as my students to be more creative in our use of the information we have learned.

Additionally, after having studied for a midterm, you (the students) are truly masters of the information. It is at this point, likely more than at any other point in your lives, that you can best analyze how this same information is handled by a famous historian,” said Ms. Mitnick. She continued, “Since learning about Josephus in college, I have been fascinated by his take on Tanakh. Any translation is an interpretation, and to delve into the possible motives behind Josephus' portrayal of Tanakh and the changes he made is highly interesting to me.”

Some of the students in the class disagreed about the over-

YUNMUN XXVII

The 27th annual Yeshiva University Model United Nations conference, or YUNMUN XXVII, took place this year from February 12th to 14th in Stamford, Connecticut. Our Ramaz Model UN team was thrilled to participate.

“Working on public speaking, making friends, and getting to know the topics were the best parts of YUNMUN for me,” said Ariel Attias ’18. The event began with a minor crisis. The night before YUNMUN, Dr. Stone, the coach of the team, sent out an email, stating that he would be unable to attend the conference due to medical issues. He informed the team that Dr. Sclar would be taking his place and offered the comforting closing words, “Good luck and have a wonderful time.

Doc.” Although initially worried about not having Dr. Stone with them, YUNMUN was still ultimately a success for Ramaz.

YUNMUN consists of 40 different Jewish high schools from all over the world, with over 500 participants. As Geri Mansdorf, the director of YUNMUN, explained, “YUNMUN is more than an event; it is a one of a kind experience providing...the opportunity to meet new people, expand the breadth and depth of your knowledge and understanding of the world, and of course, have a great time!” The delegates from Ra-

maz found this statement to be true, meeting many new people and learning a lot through their many committee sessions. YUNMUN includes of six committee sessions, ranging from 1.5-2.5

topics and come up with resolutions to solve world problems.

Ramaz students were on many different committees, including Security Council, Human Rights, Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and the World Food Program, and helped solve many pressing issues in the span of only two days. “I loved the opportunities that we had to meet students from day schools all across the world,” said Rebecca Araten ’18. “I enjoyed collaborating with them on issues I believe to be important,” she said.

The Ramaz students enjoyed their time at YUNMUN. During their hours of free time, Ramaz students bonded with both their old friends and their many new friends from different schools. “I loved socializing with other kids during the meals and meeting new people from other schools. I look forward to next year’s conference!” said Jacob Bengualid ’19.

hours each. Through these committee sessions, which contain about 15-30 students representing various countries, delegates have a chance to debate their countries’ positions on relevant

Parallax Hosts Poetry Slam Rebecca Araten '18

An old tradition was revived when Parallax, the creative writing club that produces an award-winning annual literary magazine with the same name, led a poetry slam this past month. A poetry slam is a get-together in which individuals come up with their own poems on the spot, after receiving nothing more than a general topic to guide them. While poetry slams have taken place in the past, it has been several years since the last one. Dr. Honig, the faculty advisor of Parallax, was responsible for coordinating the event, as were Mr. Elisha and the Editors of Parallax, Gabriel Klapholz ’17 and Julia Levi ’18.

On the night of the poetry slam, a group of student percussionists, led by Mr. Elisha, added to the event by providing rhythm and music to complement the students’ improvised poems. Meanwhile, the participants randomly chose slips of paper from a bag in order to determine the topics of their poems. The topics written on the scraps of paper varied greatly, ranging from “nightfall” and

all merits of the new style. “Overall, I prefer having a more analysis-based test instead of just memorizing the material,” said Elizabeth Aufzien ’19, a member of Ms. Mitnick’s class. “My biggest problem with [the test] was that if any of us didn’t understand the source, we would have failed - the unseen was worth almost all of the points,” she continued.

Ultimately, the new style was challenging for the students, who found that they had over-studied and overstressed about the unseen, and Ms. Mitnick, who said it was harder to write and grade than a traditional assessment.

When asked about the class’s overall performance, she said, “The class performed similarly to any traditional assessment, they did very well. I was somewhat shocked! Though, looking back, this should not have surprised me, as this was an honors class with highly motivated and intellectual students.

I would certainly use this format again, though I would want to make sure that it covered a larger portion of the material.”

No Math Final for Freshmen Suzi Dweck '19 and Paola Mattout '19

“winter” to “pumpernickel bread” and “income inequality.” Each student had the opportunity to perform twice, and the drummers presented their own original poems at the end.

Students needed to think on their feet, as their poems were entirely improvised.

This poetry slam event served as a new experience for many of the students, who had never participated in slam poetry before. Julia Levi, one of the Editors of Parallax, said, “Even though some of us were scared at the beginning because we didn’t know what to expect, we all had a ton of fun.” Parallax member Noa Attias ’18 said, “I thought it was very nice and a different type of experience than what we usually do at Parallax. I felt that I was pushed to think on the spot to find the right words and rhythm.”

The atmosphere was intimate and casual, and the attendees enjoyed pizza, cookies, and drinks. Levi concluded that the night was “super fun” and said, “We all were laughing and having a great time.”

This was the first time that the Ramaz freshmen, let alone any grade in the school, did not have to take a math final. The freshmen were not obliged to take a final for their math class. From the perspective of the freshmen, this was a great opportunity. It was their first time ever taking finals as students in the high school, so it was a helpful way to transition them from middle to upper school. “It was really great because we got an extra day to study, and being new to the high school, it brought down my stress level,” said Olivia Sakhai ’20.

Without this final, the freshmen were given an extra day to study for their history final. This “free day” helped them relax and not be too overwhelmed or stressed under the pressure of finals.

Although this new change brought excitement to the 9th graders, other students in other grades had very different reactions. “I wish they would have implemented this when I was a freshman; it would have helped me relax a lot,” said Danya Jacobs ’19.

Many students believe that this was un-

just since they did not receive the same treatment when they were first coming into the high school. “I thought it was unfair considering we had the same amount of stress when we were freshman,” said Shireen Sakhai ’19. This issue brought up a lot of discussion as to why this system wasn’t implemented for older grades when they were freshmen. “I think it is unfair because my freshman year math final brought down my average that year in math, but at the same time, I get that it is stressful, so I understand why the freshman should not have it,” said Hanna Sholes ’18.

Others believed that the absence of a math final will potentially do more harm than good. “I get that they are new to the school, but when they will eventually have to take a math final for the upcoming semester it will just be worse for them because they will not be prepared,” said Sophie Dahan ’19. Overall, there were mixed feelings towards this new change to the freshmen finals schedule.

Features The Rampage • February 2017

Advisory: A Closer Look

Julia Levi '18

Since 1995, Advisory Has Had an Impact on Ramaz and Its Students

One of the first things a Ramaz student does when entering the high school as a freshman is meet with their advisory: a group of about ten other students led by a selected adult advisor, a current teacher at Ramaz. Students are part of this group for their entire high school experience until senior year. It serves as their ‘home base’ at Ramaz, and they periodically convene with their advisories for discussions, whether it be on the first day of each school year, once a month during the free B4 period, or during pizza lunches.

The concept of advisory was first instituted by Dr. Zeitchik after his first year at Ramaz in 1995. Before the establishment of advisory and during Dr. Zeitchik's first year, each grade had two advisors who served more as grade coordinators. After visiting other schools, Dr. Zeitchik realized that instead of two general advisors per grade, there should be several advisors, each assigned to a small group of students. Essentially, the idea was to create small groups where an informal conversation could be held to discuss grade-related themes along with fellow peers and a faculty leader. During an advisory session, groups discuss topics relating to the in-school and out-of-school environments, such as the nature of competition, being kind to one another, and risk taking. The idea is to facilitate an open-ended conversation in an informal teaching environment.

Advisory also gives the chance for students to potentially have a teacher and a group of peers to consult; it is a place that gives the opportunity for emotional connections to develop both among peers and between students and a faculty member. “We understand that different students respond differently to this kind of offer of support. Some kids feel that they are fine and don’t need it, others go to a faculty member for practical support, and others do grapple with some issues and feel the need for this connection,” said Dr. Zeitchik. Dr. Zeitchik and Ms. Bernfeld pick advisors who they feel will connect to students and will have the right energy and attitude for the job. Not all teachers are advisors, and some have been offered the position but have declined for their own reasons or philosophies. The advisors are divided into two groups of guidance, one under Dr. Zeitchik and the other under Ms. Bernfeld. According to Dr. Zeitchik, there is no one, standard way of being an advisor: they are all different, making the way they approach the job different, too.

They each have differing strengths - some like the emotional

aspect of the connections within their advisory, while others are more practical and problem solving advisors, but they all share an energy and desire to guide high school students.

Another critical idea behind advisory is the concept of creating layers of support for students. If students have a problem, they can go to their advisor and then perhaps after that to their grade coordinator, then Dr. Zeitchik and Ms. Bernfeld and further. By having an advisor, students have many places to look for support if they are having an issue. At the same time, there should not be an environment in which the advisor is the only one who knows what is going on with a student in the case of a bigger problem. There needs to be a group of faculty members working together, namely the advisor, the grade coordinator, Dr. Zeitchik, and Ms. Bernfeld. Sometimes a more serious issue comes up in the grade that the advisors don’t feel comfortable taking up.

In this case, advisors may prefer a more professional attempt at resolving the issue, and Dr. Zeitchik and Ms. Bernfeld will talk to the grade as a whole in an assembly or other gathering. “The point of advisors is not to be a student’s therapist or to solve all their problems, but it is to pay attention and look out for their problems” said Dr. Zeitchik.

A main issue regarding advisory is timing. Students do not really have a lot of time in their rigorous schedules.

Advisors, too, have busy schedules and don’t have tremendous amounts of time to spend with their advisees. “Time is definitely one of the greatest challenges facing advisory.

Perhaps we should have carved out more time for it in its earlier stages back when it was first instituted, but we need to be respectful of the student’s and the teacher’s limited time in this school,” said Dr. Zeitchik. Ms. Sole-Zier, currently an eleventh grade advisor, wishes there was more time dedicated to advisory. “I wish we had more time allocated to advisory meetings, not just as a full session but perhaps weekly homeroom, so we could touch base and check in with one another more often,” she said. Kyla Mintz ‘18, however, disagrees: “I think that we have advisory enough times.” She continued, “It’s definitely necessary to meet with our advisories every once in awhile to discuss important issues. However, I think that most of the time if we are having a problem, we can just approach advisors outside of the scheduled advisory time and could discuss similar issues as we did as a group.” Dr. Zeitchik and Ms. Bernfeld have already began

to allocate more time to advisory and work on the scheduling. Starting this year, freshman have an advisory meeting during homeroom every A day. This creates a routine aspect to advisory, and makes for an environment with a greater potential to be supportive to the students and foster more bonds and connections between peers and their advisors.

In the future, Dr. Zeitchik mentioned potentially committing more time to advisory, especially in a way that extends advisory outside the school environment, such as trips.

He and Ms. Bernfeld also are working on having even better training sessions with the advisors to sharpen their skills as much as possible and make sure that everyone is thinking as creatively as possible and that the meetings are not predetermined. At the same time, the meetings shouldn’t be a place where advisors are imposing ideas on the students. The goal of advisory is for everyone, students and teachers alike, to be working together and taking responsibility for their role in creating the culture here at Ramaz. Dr. Zeitchik feels that he saw a major improvement in how things were being handled last year when Ms. Bernfeld began working alongside him.

“It is good to have a male and female figure, so to speak. It really provides more balance to this whole system,” he said.

It is important to understand that advisory is designed to fit the widest range of students at Ramaz and their daily struggles. It is not designed for one kind of kid.

It also isn’t a program created based on how every student feels at every meeting time. Sometimes people will be less in the mood to be at advisory, and sometimes students will be less interested or inspired by a conversation than at other times. Advisory is not a source of entertainment, it is an opportunity for an open-ended learning experience. Ms. Rabhan, an advisor and a former student at Ramaz before advisory was implemented, said that she “values advisory very much and wishes she had it when she attended Ramaz.”

Overall, advisory is a system that allows students to develop thoughtfulness, sensitivity, and awareness to certain issues. It is a setting that has potential to change and that is always evolving, especially through the topics it addresses, ones that are as relevant as possible to a certain group of students or to a certain time. Advisory is a time to do all of this important work in a more laidback setting and, as Ms. Sole-Zier said, a time to “develop a different type of relationship with a teacher and your peers, perhaps a closer one.”

Finals Scheduling: Students and Teachers Share Their Opinions Josephine Schizer '20

Finals are always extremely stressful, but student stress levels vary based on the actual organization of finals schedules. The placement of each exam affects how much time students can devote to it, so they feel strongly about having a schedule that allows them to have enough time to study for the harder finals.

Currently, the class presidents work with Ms. Brachot, who coordinates finals schedules, and their respective grade coordinators to determine the grade’s finals schedule. The presidents create two possible schedules, and the students have the opportunity to vote for the one schedule they prefer. According to freshman class president Judah Wahba ’20, the class presidents have almost full control over arranging the schedules.

However, there are some limitations on scheduling the exams. For example, the same final cannot be first in January and June. According to Ms. Brachot, this rule is because in the past, students always chose history as the first final, which is not fair to the other departments (all the finals must be graded by the same date regardless of the date they were taken by the students). Another constraint is that certain finals, including foreign language and certain senior bands, cannot be last, because it is not fair for students who do not take those classes to have an extended break.

The class presidents have many factors to consider. Certain grades or classes have free days. This year, the freshmen did not take a math final, and sophomores in Rabbi Lookstein’s Jewish Family Ethics class during second quarter did not have a Hebrew final (the class with Rabbi Lookstein replaces Hebrew for one quarter). The presidents must schedule free days to be beneficial for students’ studying and breaks. Junior presidents must consider if

there are ACT dates before finals. For all grades, the presidents contemplate which finals are hardest for the majority of the grade and how to distribute optimally those harder tests. However, next year, a lot is going to change because only six days are scheduled for midterms on the calendar.

Most students across the grades appreciate that the finals schedule is the responsibility of students. Freshman class president Wahba likes the system, which allows students’ input, but sophomore class president Danya Jacobs ’19 disagrees, as students become frustrated with the class presidents when they inevitably dislike parts of the schedule.

Zach Buller ’20 likes the system but wishes the student body was given more than two options from which to choose. Michal Rahabi ’20 also likes the scheduling process because “it gives us students the ability to make choices and dates for finals based on what we want, not what the faculty in that department wants.” Ms. Brachot appreciates that “the process is student-driven and gives students a voice in terms of forming the two proposals and giving the entire grade a chance to vote,” but on the other hand, agrees with Jacobs that “students are never happy with the schedule and always blame the class presidents.” She added, “Some subjects are consistently first or consistently last and teachers might find that unfair.”

Most students, however, are happy with the process for selecting the finals schedule. Nevertheless, students had varying opinions about this past January’s finals schedule.

Some students had issues with the placement of their study days. For freshmen whose language final was cancelled, they had free days on both Monday (when they were supposed to have a language final) and Tuesday (a grade-wide study day) after the weekend. Elizabeth Newman-Corré ’20 felt that at that point, the study days were not helpful because all the

hard finals were in the first week. Other freshmen appreciated the extra day to study before the difficult history final.

For many students, the placement of the hardest finals is of utmost importance. Rahabi appreciated that after the hardest final, in her opinion, biology, she had easier finals for the rest of the week. Other freshmen wished that the history final was earlier, as they did not have to study for it during early days of finals. Yonatan Weitzner ’19 appreciated that the sophomore exam schedule placed chemistry and math, the most difficult finals, in his view, at the beginning. On the flip side, Kyla Mintz ’18 did not like the junior finals schedule because it placed math and science in the second week of finals “and, by then, it was incredibly difficult to focus.”

Overall, students prefer to have the hardest finals first, but opinions vary on the single hardest final (although the consensus seems to be between math, science, and history). Therefore, it is difficult to make all students happy - placing all three of these finals in the first week would lead to complaints that it is impossible to devote enough time to all three, but placing any of them at the end of the finals weeks causes students to worry that at that point, it is too hard to study and focus. Ultimately, a perfect finals schedule is subjective, making it impossible to satisfy the whole grade at once. Perhaps, giving the student body all the information about the constraints and allowing them to submit schedules to the presidents for which the class can vote would help ease the uproar surrounding supposedly ‘bad’ final schedules. More transparency about how the schedules are created and the limitations will make the students more accepting and understanding of why the schedules cannot be perfect.

February 2017

The Rampage

Features 7

"What'd You Get?" Everyone Does It A Special Look at Gradesharing in Ramaz

Natalie Kahn '19

When teachers hand back an exam, the classroom instantly fills with whispers and side conversations all containing the question - “What did you get?” Students often compare their grades to one another and compete to receive the highest score.

Grade sharing certainly has a few positive aspects. “It helps the student understand his or her standing in the class... if a student receives a poor grade on a test and then finds out that the whole class did poorly, the student will understand that there isn’t so much to worry about,” says Rebecca Araten ’18.

However, the primary effect of sharing grades seems to be negative. “Knowing other people’s grades can help motivate you to do better,” says Ilan Kogan ’17, “but it can also make you feel worse about yourself.” Students all too often feel the need to beat their classmates and feel dejected when their grades are not on par with those of their friends. This situation can encourage students to push themselves when they might not normally do

so, but it also creates a classroom hierarchy in which people rank one another based on the grades they have received. “Some Ramaz students characterize one another based on grades... it makes the environment cutthroat,” says Loren Elmann ’19.

Although students may hear other people discussing their grades, some still do not want to share their own. Even those who do not partake in sharing their grades are still affected. Isaac Sarao ’19 said, “Ramaz kids respect others’ privacy but aren’t as thoughtful about loudly and publicly declaring their grades, which ends up making people whose grades are lower feel bad anyway.”

Not everyone feels that his or her privacy is respected, though. Some people feel forced to share grades.

“Ramaz kids are basically forced to share their grades,” says Naomi Levy ’19, “because even if someone says no to sharing, then people automatically assume that

person’s grade is too low and embarrassing to share.”

There is not much teachers can do to stop the competition. Even those teachers who do not permit grade sharing in the classroom cannot control what happens once students leave the room. Ramaz students sometimes fail to take into consideration the fact that not everyone responds the same way to receiving a disappointing grade on an exam. Some people brush it off, laugh about it, or use it as motivation to do better on the next exam, while others really take it to heart and are upset about a low test score, for example. No one is perfect, but it is important to be able to celebrate one’s own successes, as well as those of one’s classmates, without hurting the feelings of those who feel they have not succeeded or violating the privacy of those who wish to keep their grades to themselves. This way, the students who want to play no role in classroom competition have the opportunity to do so.

Senior Lounge Dynamics Emily Stemp '18

The entire student body at Ramaz is well aware of the invisible yellow tape stretching across the entrance to the fourth floor lounge that reads “No Trespassing: Seniors Only.” For years, the cozy spot has been exclusively reserved for seniors, especially during second semester.

While a lounge set aside solely for one grade seems exclusive, many seniors feel it is, in fact, quite a logical and fair system. Unlike the lowerclassmen and even juniors, Ramaz seniors have seen it all - they’ve endured the most tests, finals, college applications, and more. They’ve also created the strongest bonds with their classmates. Given these elements, many seniors feel the lounge is quite necessary, for it allows the eldest students to have a “safe haven” that is comfortable, filled with their friends, and even given its own snack machine.

When asked about their feelings about the senior lounge, Rachel Kraft ’17 said, “I really appreciate the lounge, and the vibes that live there.

I get to lie down, hang out with my friends, listen to music, and overall just relax. It’s nice to have a place that is separated from the rest of the students.” Julia Krevat ’17 added, “The lounge is great, especially during second semester when so many seniors have a ton of free time. I can take a nap or watch any of my favorite shows.”

The juniors look forward to possessing the lounge next year. Hyatt Aronoff ’18 felt, “It’s very exciting… it means that we’ve made it through three years of Ramaz, and we are finally being rewarded for it with our own space.” Hannah Sholes ’18 added, “I'm so excited to finally just hang out with our grade and not have to struggle to find a seat like we do now.

I also think it will allow our grade to get closer because everyone will be together in one area.” The lounge continues to be a unique aspect of Ramaz and inhabiting it will continue to serve as a milestone in the high school experiences of the students.

Club of the Month: Feminist Club

Julia Levi '18

Feminism Club has gained a lot of attention throughout the school since it began at the start of this academic year. Founded by Sarah Cabot ‘17 and Brittney Kohler ‘17, the club meets on alternating Wednesdays and Thursdays in Room 306. Dr. Gaylord is the faculty advisor. The goal behind Feminism Club is to try to remove the taboo from the word ‘feminist.’ “So many people at Ramaz understand feminism as the ideology that females are superior, while in actuality, feminists fight for gender equality,” said Cabot. Feminism Club

was founded on the idea that students could benefit from having weekly discussions about the inequality between men and women and the importance of fighting against it. So far, the club has been successful, with a solid group of mostly female students attending each week for a discussion. Kohler and Cabot plan on having two speakers come to Feminism Club in the near future, one of whom began the fight against slut-shaming. The primary goal of the club, as Cabot put it, is “to leave an impact on the way the school regards women’s rights.”

Arts&Entertainment The Rampage • February 2017

Zachary Buller '20 and Josephine Schizer '20

Hidden Figures, Reviewed

Hidden Figures is a special movie. The plot (which is based on a true story), acting, humor, and emotional moments all make this film completely worthwhile. The movie features three brilliant women who work for NASA in the 1960s. The women cannot pursue their talents fully because they are African-American. The movie focuses on how these women fight the racial segregation and limitations of their time; these three heroes fight against the unequal society around them in an attempt to achieve their rights.

At the start of the movie, the three women are employed as “computers” for NASA. They are responsible for the mathematical calculations required for NASA to send spaceships into space. Katherine, the main character, is the most talented computer and is therefore chosen to work in the specialized department that is handling the landing equation for astronaut John Glenn’s mission into space. This equation is paramount to John Glenn’s safety - if it is not accurate, he will either burn up upon reentering the atmosphere or be lost in the far reaches of space. Katherine has many ideas regarding this equation, but originally, the other scientists in her division do not respect her brilliance because she is both a woman and African-American. She faces additional challenges as a result of her ethnicity, including being forced to run half a mile in high-heeled shoes to reach the segregated African-American bathrooms multiple times a day. With the help of her (somewhat) compassionate boss, Mr. Al Harrison, Katherine fights the

social norms of the time and proves her mathematical prowess.

Katherine’s friend Mary Jackson dreams of becoming an engineer but is denied permission to take classes required to attend engineering school. She brings her case to court to fight this injustice. The third woman of the trio, Dorothy Vaughn, must deal with lack of acknowledgement, working as a supervisor of the African-American computers without receiving pay or respect worthy of that position.

This movie is exceptional because of the inspiring true story that it narrates. The actors’ portrayal of each of the characters allow the viewers to identify with the characters, especially Katherine. The viewers can feel the the heroines’ pain in being denied their rights and are likely rooting for them throughout the movie. This movie is both entertaining and moving and forces the audience to contemplate about how unjust the world was for these women. Hidden Figures portrays the palpable racism in the South in the 1960s. It was terrible that these brilliant women were restricted in choosing their professions because of the color of their skin. The movie emphasizes the ironic reality that these African-American women were better at their jobs than their white male colleagues. The movie also displays the character development of the white characters and their changing attitudes toward the African Americans.

Two hours and seven minutes after the movie begins, one leaves the theater content and satisfied, feeling empathy for the characters and joy in their success.

Furthermore, the acting in this movie was spectacular. Teraji P. Henson’s portrayal of Katherine Coleman allowed for viewers to empathize with her throughout her difficult life experiences.

Specifically, confrontations with the white scientists working in her department, including Jim Parsons, who plays the role of her supervisor, Paul Stafford, allow Katherine to prove her worth. Kevin Costner, playing Katherine’s boss Mr. Harrison, embodies the bystander who chooses to act. In his most compelling scene, he decides to desegregate the bathrooms after Katherine explains to him why she is always absent from the office - she needs to run great distances in order to go to the bathroom. Harrison knocks down the “colored” sign on the previously segregated bathroom in front of all his employees, thereby demonstrating to the entire department how illogical and senseless it is to cause Katherine so much anxiety on a daily basis simply because she has a different skin color.

Additionally, the movie showcases NASA’s groundbreaking technology and its cutting-edge space program. The remarkable math that Katherine was essentially inventing was exciting for the audience to witness.

Watching the math in motion as the rocket launched was a real pleasure. Hidden Figures is definitely an important movie to see.

La La Land, Reviewed Alexandra Orbuch '20

La La Land, a fast-paced love story, comedy, and musical, tells the story of a jazz pianist who falls in love with an aspiring actress. The love interests, Mia and Sebastian (played by Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling), carry the film with their talent and on-screen chemistry.

The movie begins with a massive musical number set on a packed Los Angeles highway, which sets the scene for a film filled to the brim with vibrant color and music.

La La Land has its more cynical and re-

Basia Fellner-Dublin '20

alistic moments, too; it reveals the trials and tribulations of the worlds of show business and love and how they intertwine. Mia and Sebastian, who are both struggling artists, must choose whether to stay together or to proceed on diverging paths to achieve success. The film’s bittersweet ending leaves viewers satisfied, while at the same time melancholy. Overall, the movie was excellent, however, the final scene robs viewers of the happy ending they expected and so greatly desired.

from the left: scenes in the Oscar-nominated films Moonlight, Hidden Figures, and La La Land. Graphic via LA Times.

A Shinning Star in Moonlight: Jharrel Jerome

Moonlight, the academy award winner for best picture, written and directed by Barry Jenkins, is a movie drama of a journey of self-discovery. Based on the play In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue by Tyell Alvin McCraney, Moonlight won Best Motion Picture at the Golden Globe Awards. It also achieved eight Oscar nominations at the eighty-ninth Academy Awards, including Best Adapted Screenplay. Produced by Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, and Jeremy Kleiner with film stars Trevante Rhodes, André Holland, Janelle Monáe, Ashton Sanders, Jharrel Jerome, Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali, the movie is divided into three parts on the life of Chiron, an African American homosexual boy.

The movie starts off with Chiron as a young boy (Alex Hibbert). It then moves on to show this boy as a teenager (Ashton Sanders) and, finally, Chiron as a grown man (Trevante Rhodes). This beautiful film portrays how what really matters is how one sees oneself, not the views and opinions of others.

Jharrel Jerome, starring as Kevin, is a character who helps Chiron with his identity. Jharrel is a sophomore at Ithaca College and flew to Miami to participate in the film. “Kevin is kind of this really cool, macho character. He built this identity of being such a king and ladies’ man, but he has this hidden identity where he is questioning his sexuality. But he comes from a world where being gay is not allowed,” he

said. Now, Jharrel hasn’t always been interested in becoming an actor. Growing up in the Bronx, Jharrel decided he would want to be a doctor or lawyer, but his aunt thought that he should try acting, so Jerome decided to audition for performing arts high schools. In February 2011, Jerome found out that he got accepted to the drama department at LaGuardia High School of the Performing Arts. “It was an intense audition. When I found out in February [2011] I got into the school, it was a crazy moment. We freaked out,” Jharrel said.

Jharrel performed in many of the LaGuardia High School productions. Agents and managers would go see his shows. Jerome caught the eyes of many of these agents. Most notably, he stood out when performing as the lead in the musical In the Heights and playing a role in The Laramie Project.

At the end of those two shows, “I had different managers and agents trying to contact me, and it was amazing because it was the first time I felt adult-like in high school,” he said. On October 9, 2015, when he was in his freshman year of college, Jerome sent in an audition video for Moonlight. A week later, he found out he got the part. He took off twelve days from school to film his part of the movie. “The theater department at Ithaca is amazing. They were really open to having me go over there and miss classes. They were intense days. It’s a great script, and the character plays a pretty substantial role, so I got

the chance to do a lot of things on and off camera,” he said. In the film, Kevin is trying to put on a different identity because in the community where he lives, he has a constant pressure to be a tough person. Jerome says that he can relate to Kevin’s character. “LaGuardia has a lot of people who aren’t from the Bronx or the hood per se, so trying to fit into another persona or trying to be someone else is something I did for a while before I realized it was time to set that away and be myself,” he said.

Besides acting, Jerome is also interested in rapping.

He got to display his talent when he played Usnavi in In the Heights. Jerome is eager to show his talents both in films and on the mic. “I’ve been freestyling since I was eleven and writing since I was about fifteen. People really like it. I found my sound recently, and music is something that has always been in my life - it’s been my culture,” he said. Jerome had a very busy year when he shot his part of the film. He had a lot on his mind during his first film. “It challenged me personally. The day we shot was exactly two months after my grandfather passed, so the day was really heavy for me. I was there filming and looking up in my own moment, thinking that this is where he would want me,” he said. This movie has inspired people both watching it and performing in it. A lot of people can relate to this film and learn a very valuable lesson; be yourself, and don’t be embarrassed about who you are.

Ramaz Upper School

The Rampage New York • Volume 48 • Issue 5 • February 2017 • the-rampage.org

Print Editors-in-Chief:

Gabriel Klapholz* Elianna Schwartz*

Online Editors-in-Chief:

Jasmine Levine* Gabrielle Amar*

Opinion The Rampage • Febreuary 2017

Layout Editor

Moselle Kleiner*

Managing Editor:

Nicole Aboodi*

Associate Editor:

Tyler Mandelbaum

*

The Wall

News Editor:

Oriya Romano* A&E Editor:

Caroline Jaspan* Sports Editor:

Jacob Hocheiser

*

Faculty Advisor:

Dr. Milowitz Contributing Writers: David Grinberg Hadley Kauver Julia Levi Josephine Schizer Netanel Kamel Naomi Freilich Rebecca Araten Suzi Dweck Paola Mattout Becky Tauber Emily Stemp Basia Fellner-Dublin Abigail Huebner Alexandra Orbuch Hannah Doft Yonatan Weitzner Natalie Kahn Esther Beck Zachary Buller Sophia Kremer Harry Shams The Rampage is the student newspaper of the Ramaz Upper School. It is published on a monthly basis.

Letters to the editor may be submitted to rampage@ ramaz.org. Letters must be signed and may be edited for space and to conform to The Rampage's style and format.

The opinions expressed in The Rampage are of the author’s alone, and do not represent the views or opinions of Ramaz, The Rampage, or its Editors.

Denotes member of The Rampage Editorial Board. *

Natalie Kahn '19 and Esther Beck '19

As the new presidential administration settles into the White House, questions have arisen as to whether President Trump will uphold his campaign promise to build a wall on the US border with Mexico. Would building the wall actually be a positive change in US immigration law?

Beck: Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, bear with me. This has been (and will continue to be) a trying time for anyone following political news, no matter which party they belong to - it has been almost impossible to keep up with the flurry of executive orders and statements flying out of the White House. One of candidate Trump’s biggest promises was to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border (his reasoning being, and I quote, “they’re rapists”), but as we all know, only a fraction of the things said on the campaign trail make it all the way to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Even if I cast aside everything I believe in - throwing all of my anti-Trump bias aside - and said that we did need to deal harshly with the issue of undocumented immigration to the United States, I don’t think the wall would be the right answer. Would it really work? Would it be worth the estimated $15 billion? If we’re willing to throw away that much money on a fence, it better be made out of solid gold. No matter how high we build it, it’ll still be scalable - the only way to truly protect a border is to have patrols stationed closely together to make sure that no one’s climbing over, which already renders the wall superfluous. If the guards are there anyway, what’s the purpose of the extra barrier?

Kahn: Although we may not need a huge looming wall, a fence may suffice. Statistics show that in countries in Europe where a fence has been put up all around the border, illegal immigration has dropped by over 80%. Whether or not people can climb this wall, the additional psychological effect of a wall may still be powerful. Certainly, a sizable number of people trying to get in illegally will be turned away by the challenge of scaling a wall, especially since the odds of being caught in the process are much higher.

Beck: These people - the ones who are trying to get into our country, the ones that are grasping for a better life - have already gone to dire measures to even make it to the border. What makes you think a wall emblazoned with our noble leader’s name is really going to be the thing that stops them? They’re hungry, tired, and desperate people who have fled violent situations; they have no choice but to keep moving forward, even if it involves climbing over a fence.

When people truly have no other choice, they will find a way to get what they want. Besides, America, the country founded by the immigrants - the one built on the “huddled masses” - has no right to be trying to keep these people out anyway.

Kahn: Although only a small percentage of Mexican immigrants are “rapists” and other criminals, the reality is that even a couple more criminals can be disastrous for our citizens. Lives can be ruined or lost. First of all, leaked FBI data by Breitbart Texas shows that the majority of terrorist encounters took place in border states, thus showing that terrorists are able to enter our country through Mexico. It is statistically proven that a significant number of illegal immigrants from Mexico end up in gangs. Another substantial number of these illegal immigrants is involved in drug dealing. Part of Trump’s agenda involves cracking down on the issue in the United States of illegal immigration. While Obama was more in favor of stopping deportation of illegal immigrants, Trump has decided to avoid deportations before they even become necessary by preventing people from sneaking over the border, which he claims can only be achieved in one way: building a wall.

Beck: The issue here isn’t imported criminals, it’s domestic ones.

Nobody’s perfect - and we’re sitting here breeding homegrown

terrorists, entirely nearsighted; we’re blind to our internal issues as we blame it all on people who are coming into the country. If anything, these newcomers are willing to work harder and for less than the privileged, entitled masses who were lucky enough to be born here. If any criminals would happen to be among the newcomers, though, we’d deal with them the same way we deal with any other lawbreakers among us. We’ll prosecute them and put them on trial and likely end up jailing them, but it’s not worth it to make thousands of people suffer because of one or two miscreants who happen to belong to their racial group. By the same logic, we should round up and deport all white supremacists because Dylann Roof decided to go shoot up a church in South Carolina, but I don’t see anyone calling for that to happen.

Kahn: There are going to be “domestic” terrorists no matter what.

The point is that we’re not helping anyone by just increasing the number of overall terrorists, domestic or international. Besides, criminal activity is not the only concern brought up by these large amounts of immigrants. If we understand why illegal immigration is so problematic, not just safety-wise but also economically, then we can understand the need for a wall. Not only do illegal immigrants take away jobs from Americans (7.7 million illegal immigrants had jobs through U.S. employers in 2008...how much better would it be for our economy if those jobs were taken by legal U.S. citizens?), but they also already cost American taxpayers huge amounts of money. It is estimated that taxpayers spend an average of 12 billion dollars on primary and secondary education for the children of illegal immigrants.

Beck: Immigrants aren’t just taking jobs - that’s a claim that betrays ignorance of the larger economic picture. Even the Wall Street Journal, a right-leaning publication, ran an article earlier this year titled “Immigration Does More Good Than Harm to Economy, Study Finds” that discusses how in the long run, increased immigration leads to a better fiscal outlook and even benefits native-born Americans. While there isn’t yet enough data on legal versus undocumented immigrants and their impacts, one can imagine that they’re driven to work harder than someone who was born with the opportunity to do what they want, thereby benefiting our economy as a whole and, therefore, our quality of life. While I may agree with you - the ideal way to allow people into our country would be legal pathways, America just doesn’t issue enough green cards to even begin to compare to the number of people who should be allowed in to escape the humanitarian crises in their native countries. We can’t preach against illegal immigration if we don’t create an efficient legal path.

Kahn: The wall itself isn’t designed to stop Mexican emigrants completely; its purpose is to stop illegal ones. Whether illegal immigrants are “driven to work harder” or not is irrelevant; the point is that they are ILLEGAL, and by condoning their behavior, we are disadvantaging people who apply to come here legally.

We are practically encouraging people to just waltz in whenever they want. Whether America should increase the number of green cards issued is a separate issue; we still need to do everything we can to stop illegal immigrants because we need to have a say in and a record of who can come into our country. Although there is a debate regarding the most effective way to stop illegal immigration, Trump clearly believes a wall can do the job. Why not try?

Opinions 10

The Rampage

February 2017

Too Many Finals?

Naomi Freilich ’18

Though the class presidents and the administration work hard to find a “suitable” finals schedule, it seems that the number of finals is just too much to handle. In an attempt to ease both the stress and the transition of the ninth graders, it was decided that there would not be a math final. Additionally, freshman advisors gave their advisees advice on how prepare for the finals workload. Though this is understandable as freshmen are new to the system, what about everyone else? As a student in the eleventh grade, I have especially felt this burden, and I have never experienced such fatigue after taking eight finals without any breaks in between. Not only is this unreasonable, but it also has a detrimental effect on the health of a student. Since when did Ramaz stop caring about the concept of a “healthy body and a healthy mind” and start

to assume that their students are robots, being able to take eight consecutive finals?

Recently, the schedule for next year’s school year has been released with six final days instead of eight. Though this is definitely an improvement, more steps need to be taken in order to improve the current finals situation. The idea of taking one final right after the other adds a tremendous amount of stress to the process, as well as a sense that the student cannot absorb the material for that final because he or she has to immediately study for the next final. A break day in between finals is a possibility, but for now, I think that it is in the hands of the administration to work out a schedule which takes into account that a healthy and rested body ultimately leads to a healthy and thoughtful mind.

Midterms at Ramaz: Should There be Other Options?

Julia Levy ’18

As expected, midterms are a time of great stress for most Ramaz students. They require the ability to study a semester’s worth of material for eight different classes within a span of eight days of consecutive exams (with only one weekend serving as an interruption). As midterms progress, students get more and more tired and many find it hard to focus towards the end. Consequently, their level of performance goes down closer to the end of exams.

My own experience with -Kyla midterms is very similar to the one mentioned above: I become progressively tired as the eight days go on, and I don’t always offer my best on every final, as it takes a while to recuperate from the previous final. My experience is that what I get on a final either keeps me where I am or has the potential to lower my grade, even if I have been doing perfectly well throughout the semester.

I think it would be extremely effective for there to be alternative options to midterm exams in certain classes. An alternative option could be, for example, a creative project that requires a lot of work but can be done at home over the span of a few days, ridding students of some of the midterm week stress. During the school year, many teachers give alternative assignments for students to do along with classic tests. Some teachers, such as Mr. Jaffe will give a take-home test once a semester. Others, such as Rabbi Stern, will sometimes give small projects or longer

homework assignments to grade. Through this system, Rabbi Stern’s students have a set amount of time to answer harder math problems that ask them to apply their knowledge in a different way. This alternative method of grading is also becoming popular in the english department. Dr. Gaylord’s new system allows for students to submit creative work to be graded along with the classic essays, quarter test, and vocabular y quizzes. In science classMintz '18 es, students not only do homework assignments and take tests, but they also get to perform labs to get a more hands-on experience with the material they are learning. They are then graded on the lab assignment or the lab report.

If many classes aren’t only based on tests, shouldn’t there be an option for a midterm to be replaced with a larger project instead of a formal final exam? This system would allow students who have greater strengths creatively and even artistically to demonstrate their best abilities and skills in a class. “I would really appreciate it if this kind of option were available,” said Elana Shalomoff ’18. “Most of the time my midterms either keep me where I am gradewise in a class, or bring me down a grade.” Instituting a class project to complete instead of the classic midterm exam would also make students put more thought into what they are doing, spending more time integrating

“I feel like midterms just show how well someone can cram information into their heads in one night”

what they learned over the semester and applying it to something new and fresh. “I feel like midterms just show how well someone can cram information into their heads in one night,” said Kyla Mintz ’18. Shalomoff agreed, saying that “no one actually starts studying for midterms two weeks before, when winter break ends. Everyone is just frantically studying within the given eight days of midterms, and we are all stressed.

Not everyone is able to gather all that information in that given time and then take a two-hour test on it the next morning.”

This system would not mean that every midterm needs to have another option of the same weight to go along with it. For some classes, such as math, a traditional final exam might be the best way to

test how well the student knows the material. A project that could be substituted for this kind of midterm would have to be very big to equal the weight of the exam.

Rabbi Dov Pianko said, “this could make sense as long as the project would test the skills of the student equally to how a midterm would. In math, it probably makes more sense to have the actual midterm.”

Overall, I think that it would be a good idea to reconsider what a midterm means and how it evaluates students. Perhaps giving students an alternative choice would not only lower stress levels, but also allow students to explore and showcase their different abilities and put more thought into what they have learned in class.

Sports

The Rampage • February 2017

Becky Tauber ’19

Girls Varsity Volleyball

Coming off of their 2016 championship, the girl’s varsity volleyball team is on the path to another victory, eager to become champions for the second year in a row.

This season, the volleyball team went one step further than last year, closing the regular season undefeated with a 10-0 record. At their final home game of the regular season, the team had an intense match against rival school Frisch.

Fighting for many long points, the team played a great game and closed the season on a high note.

Coming up for girls varsity volleyball

is their first playoff game, which will be against HANC. In the event that they win this game, they will be playing against the winner of the SAR vs.

SKA match. The team’s biggest competitions in the league are SAR and Frisch, whom Ramaz have beaten both at home and away in the regular season. SAR and Frisch have played against each other twice, each winning one game. The girls have been working tirelessly this season and are hoping to bring home another trophy as undefeated champions, giving the volleyball team its “three-peat” status.

Girls Junior Varsity Basketball

Sophia Kremer ’20

The Ramaz High School Junior Varsity Basketball girls’ team experienced a tough season. Their record was five wins and five loses. They are second place in their division and are preparing for the playoff season.

The team has a new coach this season, Mr. Joseph Dacorta, from the Ramaz Middle School. Scheduled weekly practices with Coach Dacorta help the team improve their performance in their games. He teaches them plays and other helpful tips on how to advance their skills. Mr. Dacorta explained that he is “impressed with the team’s growth as a family and [he is] looking forward to coaching them again in the future.”

Captains, Suzi Dweck ’19, Paola Mattout ’19, and Sherine Sakiah ’19, lead the team through their losses and help them gain confidence as a family. “Leading the team in practices and giving them pep talks before the games has been a blast!” said Sherine Sakiah ’19 . Paola Mattout ’19 expressed that she is “so proud of the team and all of the improvement that they have shown.” Suzi Dweck ’19 said that she has “experienced an extraordinary opportunity to express leadership and friendship.” Overall, the captains are enjoying their season with the team.

The team began the season very successfully and won their first few games.

Then, they began to lose momentum, and the winning streak ended. The first losses

Boys JV Basketball and the Playoffs

were massive ones, but the girls were able to rebuild their confidence, and the games were soon ending in tighter scores. These games were true nail-biters for the crowd.

Some even went into overtime. The last two games were wins that allowed the JV girls to ultimately grab a spot in the playoffs.

A main struggle for the team this season is confidence. The girls do not have enough confidence in themselves. They would go into the games with their heads down, and that attitude would affect the ending result. Another struggle was the fouls. The girls would foul their opponents too often, so the other team would get free shots. This tendency leads to an easy win for the other team, especially in those nail-biting games. Some players would even get thrown out of the game because they received the maximum of five fouls.

In conclusion, the girls’ Junior Varsity team has had a roller coaster of a season, with some great wins, some heavy losses, and a lot of room for improvement. They will continue to practice and prepare for the playoff season.

David Grinberg ’19

Will the Ramaz JV Basketball be heading to the playoffs? A burning question among many Ramaz students.

In short, no. Ramaz has had a rocky season and finished 3-7.

Ramaz hoped to win against SAR and JEC to wedge themselves into the top eight. However, the dream quickly turned into an unreachable goal.

Ramaz started off their game with SAR strongly. Ramaz took the lead several times in the first quarter, and there was a period in the first half where both teams were not scoring at all. The score was roughly equal going into the second half, with a small Ramaz scoring deficit that favored SAR.

A key issue during the home game was that Ramaz was not trying to score, rather they passed around the ball without the intent of looking at the basket. Ramaz fell behind, and SAR was able to score inside and around the perimeter of the three point line. At the end of the fourth quarter, with approximately five minutes left in the game, Ramaz brought the lead down to a difference of four points! Ramaz missed several key free throws, and turned to taking three pointers.

Ramaz hit only one for seven of shots taken. The game resulted in a 43-54 loss against SAR.

Ramaz came to JEC with confidence and the intention to win. Only one team would come out of that game clinching a playoff seat. Ramaz started off the game strong, getting open shots and layups. They had great defense, and JEC’s shooters were locked down. At the end of the first and beginning of the second quarter, there was a four minute scoring drought for Ramaz, and it resulted in JEC inevitably coming out on top.

Ramaz watched as the shooters became more isolated to catch the ball and score with ease. Somehow, by the end of the third quarter, JEC was up 20 points. Ramaz benched its starting lineup, and the bench lineup began to cut the lead.

However, the lead was too much, and Ramaz still lost by 50-31.

Overall, many spectators, fans, and players think that with the talent the Ramaz JV Team has, they need to learn to finish games. So in the long term, if not JV, our upcoming Varsity team will have a chance in the playoffs and possibly the championship.

Historic Australian Open

Hannah Doft ’20

In the 2017 Australian Open, the first of four annual tennis Grand Slam tournaments, Roger Federer defeated Rafael Nadal to win his fifth Australian Open in a dramatic and emotional match. Cheered on by a loving crowd, Federer picked up his 18th, and possibly last, Grand Slam men’s singles title. The crowd clearly relished this unexpected opportunity to support Federer once again. Nadal put up a tough fight in this five-set match, which lasted three hours and 38 minutes, coming back from an early deficit but ultimately faltering in the final set. Powered by both a strong forehand and firm resolve, Nadal won the second and fourth sets to force a tie breaking set in the ninth Grand Slam final contest between these two competitors. Federer leads all men with 18 career Grand Slam singles championships.

Of equal historical importance was Serena William’s seventh Australian Open vic-

tory. Nobody was surprised that top-ranked Serena made the finals. What was surprising to all tennis fans worldwide was that her opponent and older sister Venus Williams was able to join the final match with her. Serena won her 23rd Grand Slam, leading all women in singles titles. Despite emerging on top, Serena credited her dear sister, Venus. "She's my toughest opponent - nobody has ever beaten me as much as Venus has," Serena Williams said. This match was not the first time that Serena and Venus met in a Grand Slam. They have been each other’s opponent in 28 professional matches in total, nine of which were Grand Slam finals. Venus Williams is now 36. She is the oldest women to reach an Australian Open final and the second oldest to play in a Grand Slam final.

Scores: Roger Federer Rafael Nadal

6 4

3 6

6 1

3 6

Venus Williams

4

4

Serena Williams

6

6

6 3

February 2017

The Rampage

Crossword 12

Crossword Sam Berman '17

Answers can be found on www.the-rampage.org

Across: 1. Up ____ (turn to hit in baseball) 6. Mineral that can be found in the Dead Sea 10. ____-tron (used to grade tests) 14. State one’s opinion 15. Use ____ (to garden) 16. Rival of Katniss in The Hunger Games 17. Bob Marley, e.g.

18. Response to: “Are you guys hungry?”

20. First part to one of Ramaz’s guidelines that can be seen in every room 22. “Solo” of Star Wars 23. ____-mo 24. Remote battery 25. U.S. spy org.

28. Negatives 29. Gif alternative 30. Type of ski lift 31. Precious stone 34. Signed a treaty, perhaps 36. Love of the holy land, in Hebrew or a continuation of 43-down 38. Hosp. scan

39. Capital of NC 40. Computer port 41. Moon lander, for short 44. Jakey Lefkowitz in choir, e.g.

46. Sound of shock 48. Seed: Prefix 50. Cons 52. Back-to-school mo.

53. Rainbow fish 54. “New York _____ Mind” (Billy Joel Song) or a continuation of 8-down with the words “for the” 57. R&Bers Ruff ____ 58. Tidier 61. Big name in acne treatment 63. Sabra’s home or a continuation of 54-across 64. Enter 65. Enthusiastic sentiment ending with it 66. Seven Hills of Rome, e.g.

Down: 1. First part of the Tanach or a continuation of 20-across 2. Shadowy, in Latin 3. Yellowstone animal 4. “Hatikvah” or “The Star Spangled Banner”, for short 5. Environmentalist group, perhaps 6. Made sure of 7. Noise made by Mr. Deutch to request silence 8. Something all parents should give to their children or a continuation of 36-across with the word “and” 9. Students at Ramaz, but not the faculty 10. “Beat it” 11. Tom and Jerry title involving flying explosives, perhaps 12. Chewed 13. A single 28-across, in Lyon 19. Airport stat.

21. They, in Paris 26. Where you may find Ms. Benel 27. Exist 28. Las Vegas st.

29. ____, gow (gambling game) 30. Golfer item 31. _____ Juice (smoothie store) 32. Mr. Elisha, colloquially 33. Triangle Shirt-____ Factory (location of famous fire) 34. Browning’s “______ Duchess” (sophomore poem) 35. Budweiser rival 37. Playground game 42. One of the factions in Divergent 43. Good deeds or a continuation of 1-down 45. Female best friends, slangily 47. Oozes 49. Rain or snow, for short 51. War horse 55. Singer Guthrie 56. Enemies 58. Nada 59. Language suffix 60. Ms. Rabhan class 62. Modin CIT