On Thursday, October 4th, students in Mrs. Reichardt's Holocaust Studies class were privileged to hear a talk by Mrs. Rosa Sirota, a Holocaust survivor and noted educator in Bergen County. Mrs. Sirota was born in Lvov, Poland, and her story is one which our students found most inspiring. She spent one class period detailing her experiences with students and yet another for a Q and A, which both she and the students enjoyed tremendously. Although Rosa says that she takes no credit for being "smart" in order to ensure her survival, and attributes it to luck, one student had a different view which he shared in his thank you letter to Rosa:"To be honest, I don't believe in luck, but I do believe in Hashem and I saw him at every twist and turn of your story."

One other student in the class expressed the feelings of most students when he ended his letter by saying,"I don't see you as a victim at all, for you are a true survivor."

Students in this class will be working throughout the year on an interdisciplinary project where they will be using the stories of the survivors they meet to create an original work of theater entitled, "Bare Witness."

In this class we attempt to bridge the gap between a typical history class and a theater production. In addition to learning about the history of the Holocaust, racism, genocide and World War II, students will spend months bonding with survivors and getting to know one another while hearing the survivors' experiences firsthand. Over the course of the school year, students will continue to build relationships, bridging the gap between generations. Students will use journaling, play writing, poetry and visual art to process their feelings, thoughts and insights while working collaboratively to create an original play which will incorporate the survivors' stories in order to bring their experiences to life on the stage. This inter-generational storytelling aims to create new "witnesses" to the Holocaust.

This project will use hands-on experiential learning through the Project Based Learning method, PBL. This method has been shown to truly engage students in a whole learning environment. Students "own" the learning and it becomes a part of who they are.This program is essential at this time as our students are the final generation to have the opportunity to meet and interact with the Holocaust generation. Our students have the responsibility to bear witness for future generations, hence the creation of this new initiative, "Bare Witness", an original student theatrical production.

This past Sunday, the STORM track team headed over to Van Cortland Park for a scoring hot 5k race at the inaugural Yeshiva league Cross Country season where they earned a first place victory. Leading the way for TABC, Junior Captain Ezra Seplowitz ('20) took first overall place with a time of 22:19. In 3rd place overall was Senior Captain Yonah Schneier ('19) with a time of 23:21. In 5th place was sophomore Benjy Grin (23:43). In 10th place was Yehuda From (26:23). In 11th place was Senior Captain Gabe Greenberg (26:26). In 14th place was Daniel Grin (26:53). In 15th place was Yosef Kryzman (27:29). In 19th place was Shlomo Jacob (28:43). In 21st place was AJ Seplowitz (29:38). In 23rd place was Elisha Levin (30:02). In 24th place was Luzzy Junger (30:36). And in 31st place was Yaakov Suldan (35:15). This race was the first race for new coaches and previous captains alumni Zachary Greenberg '16 and Jonah Ganchrow '16. TABC opened up the new season by STORM!