Yashar Programme
Year 12 and 13 boys took part in an engineering workshop run by Dyson
90 Have Fun in Phasels Wood
The Year 7 girls returned late on Wednesday evening from a very successful Achdut Trip to Phasels Wood. They enjoyed six different activities, ate a shop’s worth of nosh and ended the day sitting around a beautiful campfire singing before eating pizza and chips (express delivery from Golders Green- who knew that kosher pizza could be delivered to Kings Langley!) The campfire was created by Mr Tutty and Mr Sharpe – thank you.
The trip was led by our informal educators Miss R Wagner and Miss S Rabson. Staff who volunteered to join the girls included Mrs Brice, Miss Liley, Mrs Waugh, Mrs Epton, Miss Gelley, Miss Simonsson, Mrs Berg and Mrs Rand. The Year 12 madrichot: Tova, Chayale, Chana, Racheli, Ariella and Ella put in a huge effort to ensure that every Year 7 girl felt included and were superb role models.
Interfaith Arsenal
On Friday 1st November some of the Hasmonean students went to an Arsenal in the Community Interfaith Day. Nicola Green from PAJEs remarked that the girls were, without exception, friendly, polite, interested and attentive. It was a pleasure to see them engage with girls from Islamia School. One of the students has written about her day below.
Teams of a different sort met at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium last Friday. Twelve of our Year 11 and Year 12 girls took part in an Arsenal in the Community Interfaith Day in partnership with Islamia Girls’ School. Each group consisted of two girls from each school and they were given one of the six major religions in the UK to research. They then had to prepare a presentation based on each respective religion’s main festival, whilst linking Judaism and Islam to other dominant national religions and their practices. This was all in preparation for Monday 11th November when each group will give over their presentation to local Jewish and Muslim primary school children.
Each group thoroughly enjoyed working together regardless of religion or age, and look forward to sharing their presentations next week.
By Ariella
Year 12
Chessington World of Adventure
Once again, Aviva Rowe and Hasmonean’s PTA organised discounted tickets for Chessington World of Adventure on Chol Hamoed. Despite the rain, a wonderful day was had by the hundreds who attended. It was a great social success, and everyone benefited from shorter queues for all the rides!
The PTA is a vital part of school life, raising much-needed funds for our school. If you would like to find out more information about how you can get involved in future events, please contact Aviva Rowe on 07940 888051
Yashar Programme – Goldman Sachs
As part of Hasmonean’s Yashar Programme, some of our lucky Sixth Formers were able to spend a day with Goldman Sachs employees. The focus of the day was for the employees to help our students with their employability skills, CV writing and career orientation. In addition, it was a great opportunity for our students to network with people who work in different departments at Goldman Sachs.
It was an incredibly rewarding day and there is no doubt that the students who participated in the day are richer for the experience. As the Yashar Programme grows from strength to strength, we already have visits scheduled from Dyson and PwC in the coming term, which will be open to Sixth Formers.
Sergeant Uriel Goldberg, Paul Young and Jackie Herman
On Tuesday 24th September, the Year 9 boys were treated to a presentation from Sergeant Uriel Goldberg of the IDF. He is currently the Liaison Officer for the Magen David Adom which is the first response ambulance service in Israel. He is also an alumnus of Hasmonean Boys’ School.
He shared footage of one of his military operations in Lebanon as well as explaining to the boys how some technology devised by Magen David Adom is now being sought after here in the UK.
The boys were glued to every word he said and asked pertinent questions about the laws of conflict. It was a most uplifting experience and we look forward to welcoming Sergeant Goldberg back very soon.
On the same day, the Year 10 boys were addressed by two incredible individuals: Paul Young and Jackie Herman who were born exactly on the same day and year as each other – one in Vienna and one in Austria.
When Jackie was two and half years old, he was liberated from the Theresienstadt death camp: he was one of the youngest survivors. He lost his entire family in the Shoah. He was sent to England and the Herman family lived in the apartment next door.
The two boys went to the same school, the same Shul and they even had their Bar Mitzvahs on the same day.
They have shared their stories with countless schools – Jewish and Non-Jewish – aiming to arm teenagers with more knowledge of the horrors of the war and the subsequent hope for a brighter future. The entire Year 10 group were spellbound for the entire presentation.
May Hashem give these two living legends the strength to be able to return to Hasmonean many more times in good health.
Lawrence Shenkin
The following article was written by Lawrence Shenkin, one of our Sixth Form students
Over the summer, I participated in the National Citizen Service. During the three weeks I participated, I met with new people of multiple faiths, including Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism. I also participated in work experience in the BBC and at Sajid Javid’s office, and on the final week, I helped to launch the charity Burst The Bubble UK. JLGB invited me to a Jewish community celebration event at the Roundhouse in Camden to talk about my experiences in front of an audience of 1200, which included high profile guests such as the Chief Rabbi and The Lord Levy. The charity I helped to set up, Burst The Bubble UK is ongoing and we release bi-weekly podcasts on Spotify, Youtube, SoundCloud, Itunes and Apple Music. Burst The Bubble is a youth organisation that runs events in mosques to destroy the misconceptions Muslims may have about the Jewish community, and events in shuls to destroy misconceptions about the Islamic community and try and promote conversation between all faiths. We have primarily been able to do this through our podcast, which has been fairly successful so far. In the podcast, we get high profile members of the Jewish and Islamic communities to converse and discuss their ideologies. My role in the charity is as the Project Coordinator, Secretary and I’ve hosted a couple of episodes on the podcast.
JLGB Award Ceremony
On Wednesday 18th September I was privileged to take part in the JLGB evolve award ceremony at the Camden Roundhouse, London.
I was asked to present the Yoni Jesner section of the ceremony, to over 1,200 people who came to the event, and I was very proud to be representing our school for this.
Yoni Jesner was sadly killed in a suicide bombing in Israel in 2002, so a foundation was set up in his memory to inspire young people to do more and care more, as a legacy to the kindness and dedication that he showed in his life. They give annual awards to young people who spend at least 20 hours of their time volunteering and giving to the community, and I was very proud to explain what an amazing person Yoni was.
There are two awards, for spending 20 hours and 50 hours of volunteering in the past year, and I managed to complete both awards and many additional hours, by volunteering at my local Brownies, helping GIFT and being a leader at a summer sports camp.
However, the highlight of the evening for me was a performance by Craig David. As a presenter during the evening, I was honoured to meet him personally backstage. I am very appreciative of the wonderful work done by JLGB to encourage volunteers within our community at all the various stages of high school be it Yoni Jesner or all levels of the Duke of Edinburgh awards.
Achdus Trip
On Wednesday, all of the Year 7 boys spent the day at Phasels Wood Activity Centre. The event was designed to help the boys get to know each other better. They experienced a full day of team building and bonding exercises.
The boys were split into 6 teams, ably led by their team leaders: Rabbi Amar, Rabbi Feingold and Year 7 Year Leader Rabbi Obermeister, together with Mr Kessler, Mr Woodthorpe and Dr Alexander-Passe. Our very own Year 12 Madrichim, Messrs Rosenberg-Whyte, Taylor, Hannuna and Hollander were exceptionally helpful. The fun and frolics were all successfully overseen by our new Informal Education Organiser, Mr Benji Shebson.
The boys had an exceptional experience and the weather was absolutely glorious.
What a wonderful way to get the boys to spent time together and bond as a unit!
Rabbi Josef Mendelevich
On Tuesday morning, the 200 Beis students were privileged to have Rabbi Josef Mendelevich, the ex-prisoner of Zion and former Russian Refusenik come in and speak to them. He was freed by the now defunct Soviet regime in 1981. Rabbi Mendelevich shared his experiences of his time in custody and his life afterwards. He expressed his desire to live as a proud Jew in a country where it was nearly impossible to practice Yiddishkeit without fearing for one’s life.
Every single boy and Rebbe alike was spellbound for the 35 minutes of Reb Mendelevich’s address.
When he described having to daven under those circumstances, and how lucky we are today where we can prepare for Yomim Noro’im in perfect security, it brought home the reality of our comfortable life. We should appreciate living in a country where people of all faiths are free to worship without fear.