American Jews and Higher Education: This series will explore the experience of American Jews in higher education, and consider some of the challenges raised in recent years by shifting campus culture and changes in law and policies around admissions, discrimination, and free speech on campus. As a school committed to the "grand conversation between Torah and the world", the majority of whose graduates continue on to secular college, how are we thinking about some of these issues, and what work do we need to do to prepare our graduates to engage them? Episode 1: Past is Prologue In this episode ..read more

In this episode, Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz speaks with two individuals who understand how to gather and use data to offer insight into schools' successes and areas for improvement. Her first guest is Rabbi Joseph Beyda, principal of the Yeshivah of Flatbush Joel Braverman High School, who discusses his use of data to take the measure of his school community and assess the effectiveness of its programs. Her second guest is Jake Trumbo, project coordinator at Bach Harrison, who oversaw the three administrations of the survey gathering data about substance use among Modern Orthodox adolescents. He ..read more

For the past six years, Machon Siach has been working to understand the scope of the substance use problem among Modern Orthodox adolescents, and to identify and implement evidence-based interventions to address that problem. This eventually led to the implementation of the Guiding Good Choices parenting program for all 9th grade parents. In this work, we have been guided by Dalene Beaulieu, an expert from the University of Washington's Social Development Research Group. Listen as we explore what we learned from her, and what she learned about our community, over these years. This is the first ..read more

In this episode, Rabbi Harcsztark and Dr. Sarit Kattan Gribetz discuss Dr. Kattan Gribetz's book and research on ​Time and Difference in Rabbinic Judaism. Key questions include: What do we learn from how the rabbis conceptualized time and how can we translate some of these insights and values to our high school students? How do we deepen our understanding of gendered time including the differences between men and women in Jewish law rooted in the conceptualization of time? What is the relationship between the academic study of Talmud and the religious engagement of Talmud Torah ..read more

This special episode of the Grand Conversation, recorded at the end of October, is devoted to important, complex, and ongoing issues being discussed in our community in this Post-October 7th world: How can we meaningfully connect with and support our alumni on college campuses, and how are we helping parents and current SAR HS students navigate the college guidance process? Our guest host is Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz, Associate Principal of SAR HS and Director of Research and Program Development at Machon Siach. Our two guests are leaders of SAR High School’s College Counseling team, Mr. Mich ..read more

This special episode of the Grand Conversation emerged from the meaningful UJA mission to Israel that our Founding Principal Rabbi Tully Harcsztark was fortunate to join. On that mission, Rabbi Harcsztark ran into Effie Shoham- Shteiner in Jerusalem, an historian specializing in Medieval Jewish History. He is an associate professor at Ben-Gurion University in Be’er-Shevah. Since October 7th, Effie has not been pursuing his academic interests. Instead, he has been volunteering around-the-clock on behalf of the citizens of Medinat Yisrael, especially those from the south who were most directly i ..read more

In this episode of The Grand Conversation, Rabbi Tully Harcsztark Rebecca Wolf, and Yossi Ben-Harush discuss several important questions about Israel Education at S.A.R. High School, including: How has our approach to teaching Modern Israel evolved over the years? How do we navigate critical discussions of Israel current events in our history classrooms? How do we educate our students to participate in difficult discussions about Israel as insiders? What role does advocacy play in Israel education ..read more

In this episode of The Grand Conversation, Rabbanit Lisa Schlaff joins Rabbi Shmuel Hain to discuss the goals of high school gemara education, recent trends in gemara education in post high school yeshivot and midrashot, and how teaching Torah Shebe'al Peh at S.A.R. High School has changed since the school's founding twenty years ago ..read more

In this episode of The Grand Conversation, Dr. Jeffrey Rubenstein and Rabbi Tully Harcstark join Rabbi Shmuel Hain to discuss methods and tools which are valuable in teaching gemara to high school students, including both academic and conceptual/lomdus approaches ..read more

In this episode of The Grand Conversation, Ms. Chana Krasnjanski joins Rabbi Shmuel Hain to reflect on the importance of authenticity and spirituality in the classroom. They discuss the distinction between personal and private information as well as the potential differences and parallels between the secular studies classroom and the Judaic studies classroom ..read more