55.0°,
Overcast Commemorating, testing and playing tennis
The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns (HAFTR) High School commemorated the Holocaust on Holocaust Memorial Day with a school-wide assembly led by participants in the annual Abraham Scharf Memorial Mission to Poland.
Students Shoshana Bach, Ashley Baruch, Henny Berkowitz, Andrew Bokor, Nery Braver, Caleb Brown, Hannah Chaikin, Alyson Glaubach, Jason Glaubach, Kelly Goldman, Shaindy Goldsmith, Tali Hofman, Yoni Kastner, Deena Kopyto, Yisroel Mindell, Coby Neumann, Chaya Oppen, Ayelet Rosenbloom, Allison Scharf, Yehuda Segelnick, Arielle Sharafi, and Jeremy Solomon shared their experiences and thoughts with their classmates about their recent trip to Poland.
Yoni described the memorable meeting that he and the mission participants had with the amazing woman whose family saved his grandfather from the Nazis. Hannah recounted the group’s emotional visit to mass graves in the forest. It was a meaningful experience for everyone involved.
Test stress
Advanced Placement exams have arrived, and everyone is stressed out. In case you do not already know, AP classes are akin to freshmen level college course. The courses and tests are developed by the College Board, which is the same company that provides the SAT exam. The AP exam is graded out of five; one is no recommendation, two is possible qualified, three is qualified, four is well qualified, and five is extremely well qualified.
On May 2, the day students returned to school after the Passover break, the juniors took the chemistry exam. The seniors had English literature and composition on May 3 followed by calculus AB and BC on May 4. The sophomores took their first AP test, European history, on May 5, and the seniors took U.S. history. May 9 was the biology exam followed by U.S. government & politics: Students also completed portfolios for their AP art exams.
Fortunately, HAFTR has a generous policy that grants students a study day--a day off from school the day before the exam. Students have been very well prepared for these challenging exams by their AP teachers. One good thing about these tests: they signal that summer is around the corner.
Tennis anyone?
On a lighter note, HAFTR High School’s tennis teams are well into their seasons. The way a meet works is that there are five matches: three singles and two doubles. The team that wins three out of five wins the meet.
The girl’s team defeated Stella K. Abraham 4-1, downed Magen David 5-0, but lost to North Shore and Central by the identical score of 3-2. The boy’s team lost to North Shore 4-1, Magen David 3-2, and defeated Hebrew Academy of Nassau County and Yeshivat Darche Eres by the same 4-1 score.
