By Zeke Miller (’07), DRS Student Editor in Chief

Last Thursday DRS once again had its fantastic Chanukah Chagiga. The annual chagigah brings together DRS students and staff for a morning of fun. This year like last began with the Chayainu Raffle drawing, which was followed by the amazing G.O. Chanukah Goods and Services auction. This year the auction boasted an unprecedented four pieces of autographed sports memorabilia. Other prizes included an iPod Nano as well as prizes donated by the staff. Some faculty-donated prizes were a tie from English teacher Mr. Deutsch, and the ever popular “Andre Challenge,” in which the winner played Andre in a game of basketball to win $50 The Auction benefited both the G.O. as well as the charity Otsar, with over $800 donated to this important organization. .

Following the auction, DRS Senior Rebbe Rabbi Willig addressed the school regarding the importance of appreciating Chanukah in the spirit of Chanukah. Afterwards there was DRS style (a.k.a. insane) dancing in the gym with an amazing band. Following this the students were treated to a special lunch featuring latkes and soda. Everyone loved it!

Perhaps everyone’s favorite part of the chagiga, the annual Faculty-Varsity Basketball game, occurred next. This was not even a contest with several key elements of the faculty team on the disabled list. Rabbis Kaminetsky, Balsam, Lebowitz, and Klapholtz all sat out the game and the Rebbe team lost by a score of 68-38. Though there was a large scoring discrepancy the Rebbes put up a strong fight with the game neck and neck through the first half. This chagiga is one not soon to be forgotten by DRS students.

Click on the link below for a photo gallery from the DRS Chanukah celebration, and be sure to click in the “Quick Links” section for a exciting video highlights, courtesy of the DRS Media Department!

By Josh Zucker (’07)

Chanukah, what a great and amazing holiday! First we beat the Greeks, and then the menorah stays lit for eight days on a small bottle of oil when it was only predicted to last one. But aside from those miracles, or maybe because of those miracles, we get to throw Chanukah parties at our Rabbeim's houses! The tradition of the Lightsfest Chagiga continued at Rabbi Emerson’s house this year with the usual grab bag and Dougie’s. Everyone gathered around for the lighting of the menorah, sang, and heard a dvar torah from Yosef Ginsberg. However this was the first year where they had a hysterical shiur video produced by the incredibly creative Yosef Ginsberg, Jojo Goldsmith, and Eitan Graber.

Rabbi Storch kicked off his Chanukah party with a hilarious grab bag. The grab bag featured items like: a Yeshiva Boys Choir tape, a tablet refresher, a real lobster, a cow femur, and the final prize was $100 that was won by Yoni Bryk (not supplied by the Rabbi). But what would a Chanukah party be without some words of torah from Rabbi Storch discussing the relationship between the torah and the Menorah.

Meanwhile, across town, Rabbis Gralla and Balsam were hosting their own Chanukah celebrations. Talmidim at Rabbi Gralla’s enjoyed dancing by the menorah, and divrei torah from Kivi Schwartz and Josh Zucker, and they topped it all off with a 10 foot hero and fresh brownies. Over at Rabbi Balsam’s party there was some serious foozball tournament action going on, on “Balsam Field,” the brand new Balsam foozball table. They ate fried chicken covered with grease to remember the miracle of the oil and festive blue and white cookies. Somewhere among all of their foozball playing and chicken eating the shiur found time to hear some words of Torah from their Rabbi to remind them why they were eating fried chicken greased in oil.

The DRS Machshava program is well known within our school family. Each year, every Senior participates in a comprehensive year long course designed to impart knowledge on many core Jewish philosophical issues. The curriculum is masterfully taught by Rabbi Elly Storch, who is always looking for contemporary events to utilize as a window into the exploration of timeless Jewish ideas.

Recently, as part of a unit on Anti-Semitism and the State of Israel, Rabbi Storch presented the Seniors with a showing of “One Day In September,” the award winning HBO documentary that chronicles the Munich Olympics massacre, in which nine Israeli soldiers were brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists. In addition to presenting important concepts that were relevant to the course, the viewing allowed the students an opportunity to see the real historical facts as they occurred, in contrast to some of the misleading notions currently being advanced in the movie “Munich” and in the popular media.

By Zeke Miller (’07), Student Editor In Chief

DRS students are no strangers to chesed projects and community outreach. Much of the focus of DRS Chesed centers on the local and larger Jewish community. Over the past several weeks, DRS has begun a brand-new program for Juniors and Seniors, the DRS #6 School Mentoring Program. What makes this program unique is that it pairs up DRS students with our neighboring school, the #6 public school. Twice a week, DRS students take the walk down Ibsen street to tutor 1st through 5th grade students who simply need some extra help in their studies or who come from homes in which English is not the primary language. This program groups one DRS student with two public school students at the #6 school’s after school programs.

This program is the brainchild of DRS Principal Mr. Harvey Feldman and student program co-chairmen Pinny Kantowitz (’07), Mordy Fenster (’07) and Zeke Miller (’07). He and Mr. Angelo Siconolfi, the Principal of the #6 School, have been planning this program for several weeks, and so far it has received rave reviews. All parties involved, DRS students, Public Schools students and the Public school teachers are very happy with the way the program has progressed. The DRS students are particularly pleased at the opportunities for Kiddush Hashem this program presents. We look forward to the continued success of this program.

As part of our ongoing effort to improve our curriculum, Rabbi Kaminetsky has enlisted the help of Rabbi Allan Schwartz to develop a comprehensive four year Navi curriculum. Rabi Schwartz’s incredible knowledge of Tanach is complimented by his mastery of gemara. He is a respected Bible professor in Yeshiva University, and the Mora D’asra of Congregation Oheb Zedek in the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

In addition to developing the curriculum, Rabbi Schwartz has been meeting with our ninth grade Navi rebbeim, Rabbis Gralla, Yudin, and Lebowitz, to train them in the proper implementation of this most ambitious curriculum. After an intense two hour meeting in Manhattan last month, Rabbi Schwartz visited DRS this week. He taught two of our ninth grade classes and was as impressed with our boys as they were with him.

All of the ninth grade Navi rebbeim observed the class in order to see a working example of how we will implement this exciting new program. After the classes, Rabbi Schwartz met with Rabbis Gralla, Yudin, and Lebowitz for close to three hours. All of the rebbeim are excited about the opportunity to raise the level of the Navi education offered at DRS, and to truly strive for excellence.

The DRS Student Activities office actively encourages, perhaps more than anything else, the importance of involvement in Chesed. Chayainu, the Israeli division of Chai Lifeline, contacted Student Activities Director Rabbi Brazil to repeat the very successful tzedaka campaign run last year that raised over $5,000. The money was used to buy presents and make a Chanuka party for children with cancer in Israel. Last year, DRS students Jason Strauss and Zeke Miller (’07) ran a raffle in DRS and sold tickets to people throughout the New York area. The grand prize was a mini-iPod.

This year as Juniors, Zeke Miller and Jason Strauss, in addition to Dani Ross (’06) conducted a similar raffle, with even greater results. $6,000 was raised for the party in Israel, which was attended by DRS alumni who handed out the gifts and brought smiles to the sick children’s faces. Tickets were sold in DRS, HALB Elementary School and the Five Towns Area. Tickets in HALB Elementary School were sold by 7th graders Jennifer Strauss and Ayelet Lerner, selling nearly as many as the high school students did. The collaborated effort was highly successful. We would like to thank Chayainu representative Robbie Schonfeld for all his help in putting this together.

To gain popular interest, the prizes in the raffle, held at DRS’s Chanuka Chagiga, were even better than before. Prizes included, a USB Flash Drive donated by PC University, an Amici gift Certificate of $50 donated by Amici, a Dell Printer donated by Atlaz International, Nets tickets donated by Excalibur Land Services, Nike sunglasses donated by Dr. Schrier, and a grand prize choice of an XBOX 360 or an IPOD Video donated by First Response Ambulance.

The party in Israel was attended by several DRS alumni led by Yoni Weinberg, DRS ’05. He and several former students studying in Israel for the year went to a Tel Aviv hospital and brought smiles to the children’s faces. A troupe of clowns, along with the alumni handed out Chanukah presents and cheered up those who were too sick to attend the main party. Following these individual visits, they and the clowns went to the main party room and danced with the kids. It wasn’t just the kids who were having a great time, the adults had a great time too. Yoni Weinberg remarked “it was amazing”. Perhaps that is the only way to describe the great mitzvah they did.

This great Chesed opportunity is only one of several that are always going on at DRS including the weekly Kulanu Mishmar as well as the weekly JEP Program, just to name a few. It is part of the very nature of DRS students to give of themselves to help others, and the Chayainu Raffle is just one wonderful example of that.

By Sammy Salamon (’08)

This past Tuesday night, DRS students, parents and members of the broader community were privileged to hear Divrei Torah from world-renowned speaker Rabbi Yissocher Frand. Many students had heard Rabbi Frand at last year's Siyum Hashas and on various other occasions. Many in attendance regularly attend Rabbi Frand's weekly Thursday night videoconference broadcast from Baltimore and were excited to hear from him in person.

The presentation topic Tuesday night was hakarat hatov and how important it is to thank someone. "Our entire Yeshiva heard Rabbi Frand speak to thousands at the Siyum Hashas last year, and it was an amazing experience for all of us to hear him up close and personal in our own Bet Midrash", remarked Director of Student Programs Rabbi Dov Emerson. This was truly a special experience for DRS students and we look forward to hearing more inspiring words of Torah from Rabbi Frand as well as our other guest speakers. The Yeshiva is particularly grateful to our sponsors, Mr. and Mrs. Moshe Smith, the TCN network, and and Mr. and Mrs. Nachman Goodman and family.

By Jason Strauss (’07)

This past week was a great hockey week with both the JV and Varsity Wildcats coming away with victories. Tuesday night, the Varsity defeated Rambam 7-3, with Daniel Elsant (’06) in goal and a hat-trick by Yitzi Lederman (’06). The JV also played Rambam on Wednesday night, and a great shot by Avi Jacobowitz (’09) and a 6-2 victory led to a seventh victory for the undefeated Wildcats. Both teams are in great position to make the playoffs and hopefully dominate.

The basketball program has been a on a roll as well, as the Varsity Basketball Wildcats beat the Rambam Ravens by 23 points last Wednesday night here at the Greenhouse. Evan Cohen (‘06) lead the Wildcats with 17 points, and Yoni Pasternak (’06) contributed 13 points. Shimmy Pianko (’06) dominated the boards with 8 rebounds.

This past week, Rabbi Stern’s ninth grade shiur visited the Woodmere Rehabilitation Center to bring the simcha of Chanukah to the residents there. The students sang and played games with the residents, enhancing the Chanukah experience for all who participated.