The Pros and Cons of Taking a Gap Year

Between high school and college, a number of students decide to take a year off. This is called a gap year. Reasons to take the time off include: to earn money, get work experience, travel the world, or volunteer. In the news recently, Malia Obama, the President's daughter, is taking a gap year before she attends Harvard in 2017. 

She knows she will be going to Harvard after her gap year because college plans can be put in place before you take a gap year. To do this, you apply to college on your standard timeline (your senior year of high school) before your gap year. Then you request a deferral, meaning you accept the admission offer but it's postponed for a year.

But gap years aren't for everyone. You need to think carefully about the upsides and downsides before making a decision.

How a Gap Year Can Help

For goal-oriented students, a gap year can be extremely beneficial for maturing and trying to figure out what you want to do with your life. Unless something extreme happens, most students are able to continue a successful academic path after the

Advantages of a gap year include:

• A chance to "recharge" after working hard to get through high school.
• Time to explore your academic direction and professional goals by working or volunteering.
• Impressive material for a resume through work experience, volunteer work, or doing something completely unique.
• Full-time work can help you save up for tuition and other college costs.
• New experiences that can make you better prepared for college, both academically and socially.
• A chance to learn new skills.
• Taking the longest vacation from ‘work’ you will probably ever be able to take in your life.

How a Gap Year Can Hurt

The gap year can be an unproductive experience for students who take it for the wrong reasons or fail to make and/or stick with a clear plan.

Disadvantages of a gap year include:

• The possible loss of academic focus and consequent inability to get back into an academic routine.
• Being a year behind the friends and classmates who moved on to college before you.
• Losing access to high school guidance counselors, peer support, and the scholarship resources that are available for students in high school.
• Travelling or taking part in an organized gap year program can be expensive.
• College courses or student financial aid packages can change during your year.
• Possibly forgetting a lot of what you learned in high school that could be useful in college.
• Not having a clear plan and wasting a year doing something like watching TV.

Plan for a Successful Gap Year

To make the most of a gap year, you should work with your parents and college counselor to develop a clear-cut plan before taking the time off. Do your research and make sure you analyze your goals and reasons for taking a gap year.  Also do your research before committing to an activity or activities. A gap year can have a major impact on your college plans and later career.

- Submitted by Jackie Rockman, College Guidance Counselor
- Adapted from the International College Counselors blog post, May 2016

Faculty Summer Programs

This summer, Nicholas Belotto (History) and Cory Laub (English) will attend the Holocaust and Human Behavior for Educators in Jewish Settings seminar in Brookline, MA. The five-day workshop examines the factors that led to the rise of Nazi Germany and the persecution of Jews and other targeted groups during the Holocaust, and allows participants to investigate Jewish identity and the impact of individuals on the world.  The workshop is sponsored by Facing History and Ourselves.

In mid-July, Miriam Taub (Jewish Studies), Cheyenne Oliver (History), and Eugene Davis (English) will attend the 2016 Great Jewish Books Teacher Workshop at the Yiddish Book Center, in Amherst, Massachusetts. During the week-long seminar, they will be exposed to new approaches to teaching modern Jewish literature and culture, while working with other committed educators and top scholars from across the country. The program is funded by the Jim Joseph Foundation.

Rosenblatt High School Featured in the Sun Sentinel!

Click here to read "Local Jewish High Schools Host Moot Beit Din."

Click here to read "Waserstein Selected as Bronfman Youth Fellow."

March Moments

You might think that what I'm about to say is going to be about my emotions during this trip or specifics about moments in the camps that made me want to throw up from sadness, but you're all wrong. I'm going to focus mainly about the thing all grandparents can't figure out, parents hate, and teenagers spend too much time doing: texting. 

On my third day of the March of the Living, I sent out three very memorable text messages (not just three since I am a teenager with a great International plan thanks to T-Mobile). That can hopefully help me explain my emotions and thoughts a little better. These three messages were "your Torah", "I love you", and "refuah shlema". 

Receiving a random text in the middle of the day just saying "your Torah" could be quite confusing without any context, so here is a story that will help my disorganized thoughts make sense. 

That morning we woke, got dressed, and packed our blue March of the Living backpacks with lunch and winter jackets. Instead of praying in the hotel, we drove all the way to a synagogue. 

This synagogue was the Dabrowa Tarnowska, home to 7,000 Jews before the war and only 1% survived. Here we davened and listened to amazing stories about the community, but best of all we danced and sang Hebrew songs, expressing our love for the Torah. 

Then, they brought out a 250 year old Torah saved from Czechoslovakia generously restored by the Golish family. This Torah was hidden in a Russian library and hadn't been used for 80 years until we brought it with us to Auschwitz and gave the first aliyah to a survivor named Max. As the Torah writing was being finished by the survivor, a student, and a staff member to honor them, I quickly snapped a few pictures and videos then sent it to Rosa Golish captioned, "your Torah."

The text "I love you" gets sent so many times a day for all types of reasons. I'd like to think this one will change the way I word my loving text messages from now on. After the Torah celebration we continued our emotional roller coaster of a day with a children's toy. 

"I hope the kids really like my bear. I loved this when I was younger," a friend of mine said to me on the bus. I realized he thought we were going to an orphanage and didn't know what we were about to experience. I wasn't going to burst his bubble. I let the grave site do it. 

We walked through the woods to the very spot 1,500 children weren't "worth the bullet" our guide said, so Nazi soldiers would drink two rations of alcohol and smash children's heads against rocks. "They never got to really have a favorite toy," we were told. "We will give them one right now." 

"They don't have tombstones," we were told. "Their tombstones are in our hearts weighing us down with the weight of carrying on the Jewish faith in their honor." 

"They didn't have anyone to say Kaddish for them," we were told, "so we will say Kaddish right here." After we said Kaddish one of the group leaders shared with us a heart-wrenching letter from a mother who heard about these monstrosities and sent her daughter away the morning the last group was being collected. The letter was so powerful and moving that it really got me thinking. G-d forbid I was that child and my amazing mother was in my position. What would she do? I knew the answer immediately. My life was too precious, I'd be on the last available kinder transport, so that my mom would get the maximum amount of time to love and nurture me, before I could even realize I'd never see her again. I became nauseous with sadness, took out my phone and texted my mom "I love you."

"Refuah shlema" is a prayer for the sick. I've sent this text multiple times in my life either talking about someone who is sick or talking to someone who just needs any type of healing. This time, though, it wasn't about the text I sent saying refuah shlema. It was about where I was when it was sent and what I did with my new information. 

After the children's graves, we took a long bus ride to the Ramah Shul in Kraków right where the Kraków ghetto was. Next to this Shul is the old Jewish cemetery of Kraków where the Ramah himself and many others were buried. We sat in the main sanctuary, listening to a great story told by Rabbi Plotkin and then we all sang the Kraków niggun. 

As we were finishing the tune, a friend of mine texted me saying her mother was going to have emergency surgery and to please pray and keep her in mind. Now here I am in an over 800 year old shul in Kraków, Poland, where people prayed for all sorts of things unimaginable, but I received a text that deserved a prayer. Quietly and off the top of my head I said the prayer of refuah shlema but once I finished I was met with the roaring sound of "amen" said in unison from my entire travel group. I then texted my friend "refuah shlema."

These memories and the texts messages I sent are filed in my brain categorized as "March Moments." Moments I would not have had on just any Poland/Israel program. Later on in my life I know sending similar texts will trigger my memory and bring me right back to those exact moments. The key to March Moments is to categorize them in a sequence of events and not by individualizing each emotion. This is because another major component to the March of the Living that makes it so special is the emotional roller coaster you are sent on. On this particular day I went from feeling joy, to sadness, then gratitude.These are only a few of my many March Moments that I will treasure forever and keep filed in my brain. 

Thank you,
Lena Stein, Class of 2016

March of the Living 2016: Lessons Learned

My name is David Abady and I'm a senior at Donna Klein Jewish Academy. I would like to thank Rabbi Broide, Rabbi Plotkin, and all of the staff members and educators that accompanied me on the March of the Living. Your passion and dedication really showed throughout this trip. A big thanks to Rabbi Goldberg and Rabbi Moskowitz for everything they do in this community. I would also like to thank my parents for raising me in a Jewish home and sending me to Jewish day schools throughout my entire life. They did a great job in preparing me for such a meaningful trip. 

I would like to share with you a couple very meaningful and emotional moments that I experienced while in Poland and in Israel. After touring Auschwitz and Berkenau and hearing and seeing the horrors that occurred in these places, it was finally time to go on the March. 

15,000 plus marchers gathered together to march from Aushcwitz to Berkenau. I could not believe my eyes. As we were leaving Aushcwitz, all I could think about was the people that entered this camp but were never given the opportunity to leave. I felt a sense of pride walking hand in hand with thousands of Jewish people out of the concentration camp. Once we arrived at Berkenau, my emotions shifted. I burst into tears. 

Sitting on the train tracks, I reflected on the lives the prisoners of the Holocaust were forced to live. I could not imagine what they had to go through every second of the day, separated from their families and homes. I thought about Holocaust survivors that I know and have spoken to. This made my emotional connection even stronger. My mind shifted to my family and my home. I thought about how grateful and thankful I should be for the family and friends I have and the community I live in. At that very moment, I so badly wanted to give my parents a huge hug and thank them for everything they have ever done for me. I then understood that I have to show my gratitude more often and I have to appreciate all the little things I have in my life that prisoners of the Holocaust so undeservingly lacked. 

After a few days of reflecting, it was time to shift gears and head to Israel. Getting off the plane in Tel Aviv, a sense of extreme happiness came over my entire body. This is my home. This is a place that prisoners of the Holocaust would have killed to have. I have to cherish this as a place that will always welcome me even if other countries wouldn't. Once I got to Israel, I was looking forward to one event in particular: the March to the Kotel with all the other marchers. 

Surprisingly, the actual march to the Kotel was not the most meaningful part of that day. However, the period right before the march was more meaningful to me. During this hour and a half or so, all 15,000 plus marchers were gathered together outdoors in an enclosed area singing and dancing to Israeli songs. We all united in circles and started singing songs that we have avoided singing for as long as we could remember. I would always feel embarrassed singing songs like Am Yisrael Chai, Tov Lehodot, and songs alike, but not this time. I felt extremely proud singing and dancing along with all my brothers and sisters. Together, we celebrated life and freedom.  

The March of the Living reminded me that I can never forget where I come from. I am a Jew and I'm happy and proud to be one. I promise to never be embarrassed to represent the Jewish people. I now realize more than ever that the number of Holocaust survivors is dwindling very rapidly. These survivors will not be able to tell their stories for much longer. We are the generation that has to tell their story and share their memories. I promise to always do so. As much as I learned about the Holocaust in the classroom, there is truly nothing that compares to visiting the camps firsthand. I recommend this trip to everyone. I believe it is something everyone has to experience.

Thank you,

David Abady, Class of 2016

Never Again: March of the Living Reflections

My name is Sarah Haar and I’m a senior at Donna Klein Jewish Academy.

While learning about this week’s parsha I found many parallels between my trip to Poland and the principles of Kiddush and Chillul Hashem.

On the first day we arrived in Poland, we were granted the opportunity to daven in a boxcar in Lodz. Given that none of us had slept during the nine hour flight, I found it challenging to focus on where we were and what we were doing.

As the mincha service was coming to an end, I decided to close my eyes and focus on the words we were saying.

As we began to sing Aleynu, I found it almost impossible to sing along.

My eyes filled with tears and my heart filled with emotion as I realized where I was; davening in a place where people died Al Kiddush Hashem.

In this week’s parsha we learn in one of the chapters about the several responsibilities of the Kohanim and the extreme care they must take while serving Hashem in the Beit Hamikdash.

Rabbi Jonathan Sacks adds that “it was theirs, the Kohanim’s task, to preserve the purity and glory of the Sanctuary as God’s symbolic home in the midst of the nation.”

So too, it is our responsibility, as witnesses of the camps, as human beings, and most importantly as Jews, to preserve the purity and glory of Israel as G-d’s symbolic home, but also our home as well.

We must also continue the Kiddush Hashem, the sanctification of G-d’s name, by proving Holocaust deniers wrong, continuing Israel advocacy, and remaining faithful to the Almighty.

I would like to end with this: From my 16 years of Jewish education I was always taught that we were created betzelem elokim, in the image of G-d. The March of the Living connected me to Jews from all walks of life.

Whether Reform, Conservative, Orthodox, or even Atheist, Hitler wanted us all dead simply because we were Jewish. Yet we were able to continue something our grandparents never thought could one day be.

This trip not only proved his hopes to have failed, but unified us as Jews and reassured us that never again means never again!

Sarah Haar, Class of 2016

Yom Hazikaron and Yom Haztzmaut

This week, we observed Yom Hazikaron and celebrated Yom Haatzmaut.

Our High School students partnered with the 7th grade to put on a meaningful Yom Hazikaron program for 4th-11th grade. At the end of the ceremony, Rabbi Lesack shared the words which were expressed by President Reuven Rivlin at the Western Wall the evening before:

“For more than 68 years, we have been fighting the same war, the war for our independence — an ongoing campaign that changes its face and form. It is a painful battle that perpetually adds fresh scars to the body and spirit of this ancient and robust people. Inherent in the stones behind me, the stones of the Western Wall, the “wall of tears and hope,” is the testament that we are not people of war. We do not go into battle hungry for war, but with the desire for peace, with a lust for life, and a hatred of death. But we realize the bitter and horrible truth: there is a terrible price — which you have paid — to be a nation determined to protect its citizens and its independence. We will stand strong against anyone who dares to put our resolve to the test in any way.

You, who did not have the chance to finish bestowing love…It is thanks to you that we can love. You, who did not manage to see your children grow up. It is thanks to you that our streets are filled with life, with boys and girls playing. You, who did not manage to fulfill your dreams. It is because of you that we can dream.”

A big thank you to Morah Lydia, Morah Eilat and Mrs. Dahoah for their help in crafting the program.

Yesterday, as a High School, we celebrated Israel’s independence with a special program at the Sandler Center.

We watched the film, Beneath the Helmet, which tells the story of 5 soldiers (ages 18-21) who have made their transitions from high school into the IDF. Thank you to Jerusalem U for giving us the opportunity to screen the film with our students.

Following the film, we had the honor of hearing from Colonel (Res.) Bentzi Gruber, who is also the founder of the non-profit “Ethics in the Field.” Colonel Gruber spoke to students about the reality of being a soldier in the IDF and fighting against terrorists and others fighting against Israel. He used real-life examples, along with video and stories, to highlight the decisions which everyday soldiers have to make and the extent to which the IDF defends Israel while also honoring the lives of innocent civilians. Thank you to RHS parent, Laura Sherry, and to JNF, for giving us the opportunity to hear from Colonel Gruber.

Our program ended with an Israeli meal of falafel, pita, hummus, fries and salad.

Am Yisrael Chai!

Rabbi Lesack, HS Principal

The Forest: Day 5

The most emotional part of this trip for me was the forest...The forest was a children's grave. The Nazis took hundreds of innocent kids from their parents and killed them one after another...

All those kids that were murdered will never be able able to grow up and live their lives like we can...

These kids were prisoners and they died prisoners...

We put the toys down on their graves for those children who never got to play...

After seeing and hearing about such a horrific event in history you have to be grateful for being free ... to be able to grow up with a Jewish family... to proudly call yourself Jewish and grow up to get married and have kids. Things that those kids will never be able to do, all because they were Jewish. 

Submitted by:

Loren Ben-Shushan,

Class of 2016

Am Israel Chai: Day 4

Yesterday I had the opportunity to march alongside Jews from over 40 countries around the world for the March of the Living. This was one of those rare moments in life that forever leaves a mark inside of you. One of those rare moments that rattles your very core and is forever seared in your memory.
     
Walking on the March of the Living I felt part of something greater. No longer were we a sea of thousands of different people from different places, speaking different languages, thinking different thoughts. Yesterday we were one. One people. One nation. One purpose.
    
Hand in hand with those we knew and those we did not, we all marched together along one ride, bearing a single flag on our backs. Never in my life have I truly appreciated the simplicity and beauty of the Israeli flag as I did yesterday. Never before have I so clearly felt the purity of the white, the bliss of the blue, the strength of the each line, and the power of each triangular point. Each point unique but recognizably the same. That is us, the Jews -- each comprising a part of a whole. All different individually but so potently powerful when we are connected as one. I have never felt so proud to be one in a number and so proud to be part of the eternal Jewish nation.

Am Israel Chai.

Daniella Wirtschafter,
Class of 2016

March of the Living: Day 3

Hi, I'm Lena Stein and I'm a DKJA student. This trip has been very impactful already and it's only the third day. 

The hardest part about this trip so far is being in the camps and thinking, "Wow, this is a beautiful place..." Who expected a place known for darkness and death to be still and peaceful? Definitely not me or my other school friends who have spent countless hours and classes studying about each individual detail of the camps. It made most of us feel upset and completely disconnected from the the experience. 

Soon, though, we came up with a solution to fix our discomfort with the unexpected beauty. All of a sudden there was an imaginary watch on my wrist that, once I twisted it, I could travel in time. Everywhere I went I took out my imaginary time traveling watch, closed my eyes, and felt myself go back in time to the tragedies and feel like one of the many heroes who endured all of it. Standing together packed tight in a cattle car, walking next to a gas chambers in Auschwitz, touching the train tracks in Birkenau, feeling the presence of the children who passed in the cemetery and even more. My handy dandy time travel watch helped me connect and feel as one. 

But the best part about my very special imaginary watch is when I turn it off I'm not sad or angry or even emotionally drained anymore. I become happy. So happy that we survived. Happy to be a Jew. Happy that they failed and we're still here. I literally started dancing and singing "am Israel chai" in the front of Birkenau. 

The entire trip has been an emotional roller coaster from sad to happy between the children's death and finishing the Torah and I can not wait for more of these moments all the way to our El Al flight to the most amazing place in the entire world.

Lena Stein,
Class of 2016

Marching the Torah out of Auschwitz

It has truly been a privilege to travel with 48 Rosenblatt High School students and to serve as one of the three Rabbis for the 180 students from the Southern Region. 

Yesterday we went to a synagogue in Dobrowa Tarnow. It is a museum that stood for more than 500 years and was destroyed with the Jewish community in 1939, and then rebuilt in 2006. 

We finished writing (fixing) a 250 year old Sefer Torah that was stolen during the war and then found in Russia and restored. 

I had the honor along with four survivors to write a letter and as we finished the Torah all the students danced together in celebration singing "Am Yisrael Chai". It was an epic moment. 

The inspiration continued this morning as we called one of the survivors for an aliyah and he read from the Torah for the first time in more than 80 years. We then took the Torah to Auschwitz today, proudly carrying it, each student taking a turn, and matching the Torah to Birkenau for the Yom Hashoah service. 

Last year on the March, Rabbi Meir Lau, the former Chief Rabbi of Israel, held a Torah during his speech saying the reason he was doing such was that both he and the Torah were survivors as the Nazis tried to eliminate both. 

We had the opportunity to share our experience with restoring the Torah with Rabbi Lau at this March and were honored to march a Living Torah out of Auschwitz. This truly was a March of the Living. Beyond inspiring. 

Shabbat Shalom,

Rabbi Plotkin

Auschwitz and Birkenau: Day 2

This morning we went to Auschwitz. 

I was very surprised by the way it looks; there are trees and flowers that make it look innocent and beautiful. However, nothing could prepare us for the horrors that we would see inside and the stories that we would hear. 

We walked into different buildings that had exhibits that portrayed the quantity of belongings that people had and the amount of lives lost. There were rooms full of shoes, luggage, eyeglasses, silverware, pottery and more. 

The exhibit that stuck out to me the most was the one that was full of human hair. The hair was all different colors and there were even braids that remained intact. 

It was a hard thing to witness and for me it put the Holocaust into perspective. The people did not understand that their pictures were worthless and that they would never see their personal belongings again. 

We went to Birkenau where we went inside the barracks and explored different buildings in the camp. The camp is much bigger than I imagined and there were local people biking through it as if it was a normal park. It is hard for us to comprehend that there were people who knew this was happening but did nothing about it. 

Today I learned how important it is to keep the Jewish faith alive and to make sure that everyone knows what happened and how we as a people suffered. 

Submitted by:
Eliana Colman
Class of 2016

March of the Living: Day 1

Day 1: We have arrived!

As we walked into Lodz after an eight hour flight, an hour bus ride, and no sleep, I was amazed at the sight of 70+ students, teachers, and survivors reciting the afternoon Mincha prayer in a cattle-car.

When the first words of Kaddish were recited I broke down into tears. The first thought that came to my mind was, "I wonder how many times the Mourner's Kaddish was recited on this car?" 

And then I realized that the question was unimportant at the moment. What matters is that in their name, not only do I have the privilege, but everyone marching beside me, whether religious or not, is here because of them. Because without them I wouldn't be here. Without my friends' great-grandparents, I wouldn't have any shoulders to cry on. Without the survivors marching with us I wouldn't have any stories to listen to.

Sarah R. Haar
Class of 2016