Cover photograph by Allie Kheradyar, ‘28 (“Hands Project” from Mr Nizzani’s Photography class)
YULA Girls
Arts Magazine 2025
At YULA we encourage all students to explore their creativity, but more importantly to use that creativity to make a difference in the world. This year we have seen student voices speaking powerfully through a variety of art forms, from paintings that remember the Israeli hostages that were lost, to poetry that celebrates the unity and strength of the Jewish people
This magazine is a celebration of those voices, and a record of schoolwide projects that have brought us together around unified themes. One of the most memorable projects this year was our Yom HaShoah art project that centered around the image of hands. Students studied the famous war-time photograph of a seven-year-old boy with his hands raised in the Warsaw Ghetto, and then reflected on how hands can be used to send a variety of messages: from the surrender shown in that heart-breaking photo, to strength, defiance, togetherness, and joy. This project led to some extraordinary works of art, including photography, paintings, and even plaster casts of student hands.
You will find examples of all these in the 2025 YULA Girls Arts Magazine, as well as a range of exciting, thought-provoking, and beautiful work by individual students throughout the school Thank you to Mr Crossman and the student editors who put this magazine together, and we hope that you will be as inspired by the students’ creativity as we have been
Rabbi Arye Sufrin, Head of School
Arts Magazine
Faculty Advisor: F Crossman
Student Literary Editors: Tali Sims, Sophia Rosenberg
The Life Poem
In the life of the four girls
When the craziness starts It takes hold of our minds
Having a shadow that grows heavier, begins to spiral downwards
And the grades start to slip through my fingers
Everything that once felt scattered and broken finds a way to come together fixing all the chaos
And as the brain starts to shift
And your beating heart changes
And when you think you've fallen
With every fail and every crashout
That we have held onto
Because we were slowly breaking down
But we do not give up
Because we know that when we don't give up
To the evil and bad trying to tear us apart
It will get better and better
Happiness will come with no distractions
And it’s enough to get us on the right path
And not give up to finally be healthy and in a good place.
Yehudit Forer, ‘25
Levana Harkham, ‘27
Seeing Me
I became more devoted to my spirituality in Judaism after I had a sudden loss in my family As a little kid, I was very fascinated by my Jewish practices; I always loved attending bar and bat mitzvahs, going to shul, keeping kosher, and observing the high holidays Considering these factors, one would look at me thinking I was meeting the average expectation for Judaism and that I was fulfilled but I wasn’t When I would associate with Judaism, something felt off It was as if I was an astronaut floating in space, separated from a rope I was lost in thought and had nothing sustaining me from my true religious desires Even though I had these observations about my identity, I was still searching for guidance in my religion, and one day in December, I finally had a breath of clarity.
On December 23, 2023, I woke up to a normal Saturday. Even though I was tired from the long Shabbat dinner the night before, I still took myself downstairs to make a cup of orange juice and ate breakfast. The first person I saw was my mom. I went up to her, and I saw tears swelling up in her eyes. As they started falling down her cheeks, my mom’s eyes darkened and became even more bloodshot red. I then immediately rushed to her aid and comforted her. As I was told the news, I couldn't help but be in disbelief.
Tali Sims ‘25
Tali Sims, ‘25
I couldn't fathom how my cousin, who was only 45 and had no prior health conditions, could just die in his sleep. When I checked Instagram after Havdalah, reality hit me like a bullet train. So many people were mourning the loss of my cousin, including his two very young daughters who were going on vacation with him that same day. At that moment, my heart was shattered, and I began the search for meaning in my own life. While grief had approached my family in the following weeks, I woke up one day and decided that I was going to daven for his Neshama. When I finished Shemoneh Esrei, I held the Sefer up to me and started speaking with Hashem. In my first few moments speaking with him, I was angry. I started reciting, “God, how could you take him away with no warning? Why couldn’t you give him time to have a proper goodbye?” And like a lightning strike, I found myself saying words I couldn’t believe I was saying I started thanking Hashem I started thanking him for the fact that he had mercy on me and allowed me to live that day, for the things I have, for the people in my life, and for all the organs that were working to keep me alive Although the evening consisted of intense and somber emotions, this conversation left me with an entire shift in perspective
The next couple of weeks, I had the privilege of waking up in the morning to daven with Hashem. Every time I daven, it feels like food for my Neshama. My body craves the king before me and wants to spend every waking moment praising him. I thank Hashem every day for returning me and for letting me devote my life to him. In seeing me, I see my true identity in the eyes of Hashem.
Juliet Nesane,
‘26
Hannah Zelkha, ‘25
Throwing Yourself
It is really something when you get lost in a group of girls that you’re trying to be friends with and end up throwing yourself away with all your emotions and actions just to fit in because what if no one likes you then you would rather have someone hate you being someone else than you being you so you start to throw yourself away more and more and eventually end up losing yourself in someone who you are not and you know it's not fine but you just can't stop and now you don't even know who you were or who you are.
Minka Wittenberg, ‘28
Meital Steinlauf ‘26
What Would You Do?
What if you knew when your death date was?
The day, the hour, the minute. Would you still snooze your alarm each morning? Each precious moment drifting away without a thought
Would you say “yes” more?
Jumping at every opportunity and new experience Yes to the extra doughnut, yes to staying out late, Yes to missing school or not studying for a test
Would you stop saving things? That new dress with tags still on it, Shoes that you don't want dirty, Perfume you don't want to waste.
Would you be as angry?
Caring what every person said about you, Annoyed at that driver that cut you off, Upset about the one bad grade you got.
And if you knew what is that one thing you would do? Spend more time with those you love, Be off your phone and in the present, Make friendships and enjoy the world around you?
Or be alone, hidden in your room waiting for the day, that hour, that minute Spend the little time you have with no one but yourself
What would you do?
- Anonymous
The HANDS Project
As part of our Yom HaShoah commemorations this year, Morah Plattner initiated a project that encouraged students to consider the famous image of a young Jewish boy surrendering with his hands up in the Warsaw Ghetto There have been various claims as to who the boy is, but its power lies in its depiction of an innocent child surrendering to the power of the Nazi war machine
This led the students to consider the many ways that hand positions can send messages, from fear and resistance, to love, acceptance, and unity In their art classes and on our special day of commemoration, students created work that explored the theme of hands, and the messages they send.
We include a selection of examples on the following pages.
Aiden Pollak, ‘25
Chaviva Gottesman, ‘28
Plaster casts of students’ hands
Kaycee Villavicencio ‘25
Allie Kheradyar, ‘28
Allie Kheradyar, ‘28
Miriam Roysman ‘25
Rebecca Marciano, ‘25
Odelia Imanoel, ‘28
Atara Kaufman, ‘28
Doreen Zahir, ‘25
Beauty and the Beast
In December 2025, YULA Girls put on a full scale musical production of Beauty and the Beast. Directed by our talented theater director, Margy Horowitz, the performances were held at the Morgan-Wixson Theatre in Santa Monica and were a triumph of music, costume and dance! Photographs by Noam Nizzani.
Chaya Kohanbash, ‘26
Shira Grimberg, ’27
Yael Braum, ‘27
Kaycee Villavicencio
There was a time when a girl was alone And had no place to go
It was summer and the breeze was nice
She sat in her room writing a song
Holding her guitar in one hand and her pencil in the other
The day went by as she wrote her song The song was titled, “No One's Alone”
- Anonymous
Anaelle Kuppermann, ‘25
The Mirror is Broken
I look confusedly Through the mirror
I don't know whether I see
A beautiful strong confident girl
Or a weak small insecure girl
Or a girl who doesn't really know who she is
But what I do know is that it is me
Minka Wittenberg, ‘28
Kaycee Villavicencio ‘25
Jasmine Ganjian ‘27, CB Goldberg ‘27
Shoshana Helfand ‘26
i am
i am someone
i am no one
i am woman
i am zoom
i am cavewoman
i am in a zoo
i see moon in my room
our race announces, “wax or wane a moon, cavewoman”
i crave 2 announce, “no one cares”
Aimee Razi, ‘26
Kira Heumann ‘25
Mira Schulman ‘24
Anonymous
The Only Yiddish Word I Needed to Know
As a child, I wouldn’t be able to tell you what the word Yidden was Nor even what is meant, All I knew was that one word – “Yidden”
As I got older, I started to wonder what Yidden actually meant, Yidden, “so holy so pure so precious neshomos of Yidden”
The light of Hashem- Yidden
Before the world was even created, before we had a name- Yidden
Bnei Yisroel- Yidden
They fell, we rose, but we fought- Yidden
The Torah we got on Sinai- Yidden
Shema Yisroel Hashem Echad- Yidden
Walking in the path of Avraham, dreaming like Yosef, standing tall like Moshe- Yidden
In the ashes of Auschwitz, whispering- Yidden
Six million- Yidden
October 7th- Yidden
Fought for our home, with their own breath, every hand- Yidden
They wept, they bled, they d*ed, they did not stop- Yidden
They fell, they got injured, but they still stood, because they are a- Yidden
Fighting, rising, never stopping, because that’s what it means to be a- Yidden
So holy, so pure, so precious, forever and ever, I’m one of the Yidden
Batsheva Scheinfeld, ‘26
The Week of the Arts
Every year, YULA Girls celebrates student creativity with our Week of the Arts. Each day focuses on a different discipline, and this year was particularly colorful! The school became a living art exhibition, with a variety of student art work displayed around the campus, and large scale paintings were installed that students could add to as they walked between classes.
Students made casts of their hands, and videos of school theatrical performances played on screens By the end of the week, students could dress as any character from their studies in English or Judaic studies.
Although it is a very special week, it is also a time when we can reflect on all the creativity that happens around YULA Girls on a daily basis We are extraordinarily lucky to have such a talented and adventurous group of students at YULA Girls
School bells turned into blasts of classical music, and on Tuesday lunchtime a live performance by students and an ensemble of teacher musicians took place in the courtyard.
A Shakespeare competition led to costumed and entertaining recitals, and poetry boards became the sources of student-led poems
Juliet Nesane ‘26
Racheli Adler, ‘25t
Miriam Roysman, ‘25
Throwing My Clothes
It is really something I do on a daily basis with frustration or exhaustion throwing my clothes just feels so much easier than putting them away one by one because at a point it feels like you’re pouring with sweat and breathing heavily as you’re pulling empty hangers out of your closet hanging each piece of clothing one by one again and again you say to yourself I’ll never let my room get like this I will start putting my clothes away before letting it pile up but the moment the sun rises again and you wake up the next day thinking it’s going to be different this time like you told yourself but once again you come back from work exhausted and drained and find yourself throwing your clothes all over again and it feels like a never ending cycle
Chloe Noorani, ‘25
Miriam Roysman, ‘25
Hannah Zelkha, ‘25
Hannah Zelkha, ‘25
Kaycee Villavicencio, ‘25
Kaycee Villavicencio, ‘25
The World Is Broken
The world is broken
Truly, it is–I look desperately
Through newspapers on the daily I do not know whether I will see Good news, or bad
When will our people be brought home; Delicate souls, stolen from our land
Hundreds of hostages taken
Families ripped apart; homes destroyed
Horrific images creeping in at night
The horrors of October 7th haunt us all Our home is at war
Please oh please bring them home, bring them home to our family.
Anonymous
Doreen Zahir, ‘25
Dear Music, Thank you.
Thank you for supporting me In my highs and lows.
Thank you for providing me With comfort And with joy.
Thank you for giving me perspective Guiding me through life.
From helping me in school To listening to you in the car with family I am beyond grateful.
The loud guitar Or the slow, quite piano
The vocals of many talented artists Everything together ties in and makes ecstasy in my veins.
Once the sound waves start bumping through the speaker Or once the ear buds hit my ear I already feel the happiness of the songs in my body.
Scop, ‘28
Anonymous
Noa Sitton, ‘25
Adena Wilson, ‘26 (Unfinished)
The Friendship is Broken
Sadly, I look unhappy
Through my blurred vision
I do not know whether I see a ghost
Floating around school; Or whether I see a panther
Running away from me; Or I see a stranger who used to be a part of me And me.
Shani
Aharon, ‘26 Anonymous
Sarah Garfield, ‘26
The Nation is Broken Sadly–
I look concernedly
Through the television screen
I do not know whether I see Hamas’s rockets going through the sky Israelis getting grabbed from their homes Or screams and cries
A sound no one should ever hear Or the damaged houses
The families pulled apart
And a Jewish nation no longer one And me
Aliyah Zendehdel, ‘26
Hadassah Miller, ‘26
Hadassa Elishis ‘26
Leora Elishis ‘26
Mr Nizzani’s 9th Grade Photography Class
For this project, students experimented with “dragging the shutter” using slow shutter speeds to create light trails. Students photographed neon signs, adjusting exposure and moving the camera to capture dynamic motion effects.
Gabriella Zargari ‘26
During the Week of the Arts we had a display board with magnetic words where students could create poems communally and anonymously Many of the resulting pieces, like the one above, were strangely powerful and moving
