The Shalhevet Boiling Point

07/11/2021

Announcing the 2021-22 BP leadership team!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Benjamin Gamson

DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Liad Machmali

WEB EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Eli Weiss

Benjamin will be only the second 11th-grader in the history of the Boiling Point to take on the top post. He's written more than 50 published stories in his first two years and last year led the Community, Outside New and Torah sections all at the same time. He's also worked on videos and podcasts and won awards for stories, podcasts and photography. Benjamin is a true news addict and has millions of ideas. We know he's ready to lead ...

Liad has won awards in news and feature writing, managed our Snapchat presence and written some of our most sensitive unsigned editorials, making it look easy. Her connection with many different facets of Shalhevet's community -- including SAC, which she will be co-chair of this year -- will make it possible to bring to life her particular vision for making the Boiling Point relevant to all ...

And Eli has been running our website for the better part of two years, in which capacity he helped develop our groundbreaking home page design, produced or co-produced podcasts and news broadcasts, and has enhanced the appearance of stories by finding ways to add as much media as possible, from photo galleries to video and sound clips.

Visit shalhevetboilingpoint.com to see what we've been up to, and congratulations to Benjamin, Liad and Eli on assuming these challenging and important positions in our school community.

Announcing the 2021-22 BP leadership team!

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Benjamin Gamson

DEPUTY EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Liad Machmali

WEB EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Eli Weiss

Benjamin will be only the second 11th-grader in the history of the Boiling Point to take on the top post. He's written more than 50 published stories in his first two years and last year led the Community, Outside New and Torah sections all at the same time. He's also worked on videos and podcasts and won awards for stories, podcasts and photography. Benjamin is a true news addict and has millions of ideas. We know he's ready to lead ...

Liad has won awards in news and feature writing, managed our Snapchat presence and written some of our most sensitive unsigned editorials, making it look easy. Her connection with many different facets of Shalhevet's community -- including SAC, which she will be co-chair of this year -- will make it possible to bring to life her particular vision for making the Boiling Point relevant to all ...

And Eli has been running our website for the better part of two years, in which capacity he helped develop our groundbreaking home page design, produced or co-produced podcasts and news broadcasts, and has enhanced the appearance of stories by finding ways to add as much media as possible, from photo galleries to video and sound clips.

Visit shalhevetboilingpoint.com to see what we've been up to, and congratulations to Benjamin, Liad and Eli on assuming these challenging and important positions in our school community.

06/16/2021

Shalhevet Drama triumphs over Covid with live scenes set throughout the school

The scenes spanned the building and the audience moved in pods.

Gitty Rav-Noy and Dallas Corn were arguing on the outdoor stairwell at school. Except it wasn’t “school,” and it wasn’t actually Gitty and Dallas arguing — it was Veronica, a social media influencer, arguing with her husband Todd, an aspiring film director, outside a gala dinner at a ficti...

06/15/2021

https://shalhevetboilingpoint.com/top-stories/2021/05/21/walk-off-single-by-josh-harrison-lifts-firehawks-over-panthers-6-5/
First rivalry baseball matchup since 2019 went down to the wire.

https://shalhevetboilingpoint.com/top-stories/2021/05/21/walk-off-single-by-josh-harrison-lifts-firehawks-over-panthers-6-5/
First rivalry baseball matchup since 2019 went down to the wire.

06/08/2021

Firehawks fall just short of advancing to CIF Div. 3A championship, losing to Marina Vikings 76-74

But it was still historic for them to have competed this far at this level.

The Shalhevet Firehawks fell just short of advancing to the CIF Div. 3A championship, losing in a nail-biting game to the Marina Vikings 76-74 on Thursday night in the semifinals. An optimistic crowd of 80 Shalhevet fans had been provided bus transportation to the game, a 38-mile bus ride at the end...

06/03/2021

Firehawks advance to CIF Div. 3A semifinals as gym capacity rebounds from pandemic

Already historic.

The Shalhevet Firehawks advanced to the California Interscholastic Federation (CIF) Southern Section Division 3A semifinals after a win against the El Segundo Eagles 67-52 on Tuesday, marking the first time in California state history a Jewish Day School has reached the semifinals at this level of c...

05/30/2021

Amidst dancing and ‘pure happiness,’ alumni saw tragedy unfold on Israel’s Mount Meron

With photos and video, what it was like to be there, and what may have happened.

Around 1:15 a.m. on April 30, Sam Rubanowitz tried to make his way down an overcrowded, slippery exit pathway from the Lag B’Omer celebration at Northern Israel’s Mount Meron. Twenty minutes earlier, 45 people lost their lives, apparently in a forward crush of exiters who were unable to stop mov...

05/26/2021

Amidst dancing and ‘pure happiness,’ alumni saw tragedy unfold on Israel’s Mount Meron

How it felt -- and feels -- to have been there in person

Around 1:15 a.m. on April 30, Sam Rubanowitz tried to make his way down an overcrowded, slippery exit pathway from the Lag B’Omer celebration at Northern Israel’s Mount Meron. Twenty minutes earlier, 45 people lost their lives, apparently in a forward crush of exiters who were unable to stop mov...

05/16/2021

Debate for local Assembly seat finds differences on BDS, homelessness and other issues

If you're observing Shavuot, today's your last chance to vote since Election Day is Tuesday. Here's report on a Bnai David-and AJC-sponsored debate for this open State Assembly seat.

“What is your view on U.S-Israel relations, California-Israel trade, and BDS, the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement?” When the two most prominent candidates running for state Assembly were asked this question May 3, Heather Hutt said the answer is simple — she opposes BDS and believes Isra...

05/07/2021

Glouberman basketball tournament likely will happen in Los Angeles, not Phoenix

In LA after all?

The Steve Glouberman Basketball Tournament, postponed from last November due to Covid and then planned for May 23-27 in Phoenix, will most likely be played in Los Angeles after all, school officials said tonight. In addition, information was provided on six teams expected to attend the tournament, w...

05/05/2021

First Agenda Chair debate in two years focuses on role and style of Town Hall

Democracy in the time of Covid

Adina Kurzban stressed a commitment to fairness while Jack Sanders emphasized his long experience planning Town Halls as Shalhevet students congregated in the gym yesterday for the first Agenda Chair debate in two years. Standing behind podiums about 20 feet away from the first row of the audience,....

04/23/2021

A guide for where there is no map, Rabbi Lau writes on how to be Jewish and LGBTQ

A summary, with Shalhevet reaction

There is no map in Judaism to guide an LGBTQ person in family life, but Rabbi Benny Lau has tried to create one, blending what he describes as the disparate worlds of Torah ideals with the reality of the lives of real people. Rabbi Lau, an Israeli rabbi and social justice activist who leads the...

04/21/2021

Teachers must grade work within three weeks or not assign tests and projects, Town Hall votes

Democracy in action at Shalhevet

Town Hall decided the very first proposal of the year April 9, voting overwhelmingly that teachers should, unless taking a leave of absence or chaperoning a school trip, grade all work or tests within three weeks of when students submit it. If work is not graded by then, the teacher may not assign a...

04/07/2021

OPINION: Four views of a year

Four views back on a year of school with Covid

In a few decades, numbers and data might be the main vehicles through which people look back on the Covid-19 pandemic — numbers of deaths, jobs lost and school on Zoom. But there’s something else they may want to know: How did it feel? Now that it’s been a year since the pandemic arrived, we.....

04/05/2021

Essential workers, essential work: How local food banks learned to protect staff from Covid and still feed the hungry

More heroism from the year of Covid

Almost exactly a year ago, Los Angeles schools, businesses, travel, and just about everything else shut down to keep people safe from the coronavirus. The city’s Jewish food banks didn’t have that option. The stakes for their clients were too high. Unlike most other businesses, these and other f...

04/02/2021

It’s official: Rabbi Block is Head of School as Rabbi Segal steps aside

As planned and previously announced:

Rabbi Ari Segal, who began a gradual departure as Head of School more than a year-and-a-half ago, signed off in what he announced was his last weekly newsletter to the Shalhevet community, sent last Friday, March. 25. As planned and previously announced, he turned over his position as planned to Rab...

03/23/2021

For victorious Firehawks’ after their first game in a year, the bigger win was getting to play

Basketball is back!

Shalhevet basketball is back! After a long hiatus due to the pandemic, the Firehawk boys varsity team roared back to action in a hard-fought game against the Bulldogs of Buena High School of Ventura Thursday evening in the Shalhevet gym. That gym looked different. Instead of being packed with the no...

03/16/2021

Town Hall offers view of what it’s like to be Jews who are Black

Examples and insights from those who know

  Racism against Black Americans exists in the Jewish community too, according to four Black panelists — two of whom are Jewish — who spoke at Town Hall on Feb. 5 in honor of Black History Month. Interviewed together during the schoolwide meeting on Zoom were Shalhevet faculty Mr. Fred Leach, D...

03/11/2021

Just blocks from school, doctors searching for U.K. variant of Covid-19 discovered California’s

And CAL-20C variant, identified at Cedars-Sinai Jan. 3, is probably not resistant to vaccines, says doctor whose team found it.

California is known for the beach, movie stars, fashion, and now for its very own coronavirus variant. Originating in Southern California, this variant — called CAL.20C, or the California variant — has now spread to 19 other states, Washington D.C., and six other countries, including Israel. Sci...

03/10/2021

Dr. Sam Gomberg, former principal and architect of Just Community at Shalhevet, has died at age 74

Dr. Sam Gomberg, former principal and architect of Just Community at Shalhevet, has died at age 74

Dr. Sam Gomberg, former Shalhevet Principal and Director of Moral Education and an integral contributor to the school’s Just Community, passed away at age 74 March 2 at his home in Crest Hill, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. The cause was a heart condition, according to Shalhevet founder Dr. Jerry Frie...

03/09/2021

‘Shalhevet Scottsdale’ plan foresees Phoenix-area students attending LA school via Zoom with next year’s freshmen and sophomores

New desert satellite?

Shalhevet hopes to open a partner school in Scottsdale, Ariz., next fall, taking advantage of virtual teaching technology made familiar during Covid to help a growing but small Jewish community near Phoenix jump-start Modern Orthodox education there. The school is being called Nishmat Adin-Shalhevet...

03/04/2021

Moving screens, louder voices and ‘breakout’ committee rooms as debate teams move online

High school debate in the time of Covid

Shalhevet’s Model Congress, Mock Trial and Model UN teams have all competed virtually this year due to Covid-19. And though students miss the camaraderie of traveling together, getting to know their opponents, and the being in a real courtroom, perhaps surprisingly, there have been some pluses. .....

02/17/2021

COVID TRACKS — FEB. 16, 2021

Everything you want to know in one place: From case positivity in Shalhevet neighborhoods and vaccinations in Shalhevet families to news on the LA variant from Cedars-Sinai, and much more. Juliet Wiener reports.

Editor’s Note: Welcome to the second edition of the Boiling Point’s bi-weekly column on the Covid-19 pandemic. Compiled by BP science reporter Juliet Wiener from official government websites and briefings along with national news sources and original reporting, Covid Tracks is published on the o...

02/16/2021

Two days after rioters invade U.S. Capitol, Town Hall seeks lessons through questions

Two days after rioters invade U.S. Capitol, Town Hall seeks lessons through questions

  Editors’ Note: Because of the national climate of violence surrounding this issue, and to ensure the safety of students and their willingness to speak at Town Hall, this story gives only the first name, last initial and grade level of students quoted. Our intention is for members of the Shalhev...

12/23/2020

Same breath that carries the music now quiets the choir

Keira Beller reports on Covid and the Choirhawks

Nothing is the same for the Shalhevet Choirhawks, who are now completely barred from singing together, unable to have even just a little of what they used to as the school’s touring, concertizing, and Chanukah-caroling co-ed Jewish a capella group. Since the coronavirus outbreak in March, the Fire...

12/14/2020

Chanukah: It’s not just the oil

Happy Chanukah from the Boiling Point!

Of all Jewish holidays, Chanukah is one of the most well-known to non-Jews. Holidays like Yom Kippur, Purim, and Sukkot seem to go unnoticed, but Chanukah is different, perhaps because it’s easy to lump it in with Christmas. Stick a fake menorah or a dreidel at the edge of the abundance of Christm...

12/13/2020

Exciting, live and ‘weird,’ in-person school reopens outside in tents

Back to school, 2020 style

In the thousands of years that Jews have studied in chevruta, probably never before have partners been forced to learn from six feet apart while almost shouting to hear each other’s voices. “I don’t think so,” said Rabbi David Block in an interview this week. “Can’t imagine there would b...

12/04/2020

School stays open but Open House is cancelled as Mayor Garcetti issues new orders to fight Covid-19

School stays open but Open House is cancelled as Mayor Garcetti issues new orders to fight Covid-19

As Covid cases hit another all-time high in LA County tonight, Shalhevet cancelled its second open house for prospective students until further notice, according to an email sent by Admissions officials to student volunteers. The email, sent  at 7:18 p.m by Director of Institutional Advancement Mrs...

12/02/2020

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, ‘master of thought’ and a Rashi for our time, has died at age 71

A eulogy from students and rabbis who share his words daily.

Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, former Chief Rabbi of the United Kingdom, author of more than 30 books, and the one to thank for the introductions and commentary in the Koren Siddurim and Machzorim, passed away from cancer at the age of 72 on Saturday, Nov. 7, in London. During a school-wide Zoom assembl...

12/01/2020

After delay, in-person school to start tomorrow with one grade at a time instead of two.
https://shalhevetboilingpoint.com/top-stories/2020/11/30/after-delay-in-person-school-to-start-tomorrow-with-one-grade-at-a-time-instead-of-two/

11/27/2020

Partial reopening of in-person school is cancelled after LA Covid cases spike

Partial reopening of in-person school is cancelled after LA Covid cases spike

UPDATED Nov. 24 — At a meeting that lasted less than an hour, school officials decided Sunday to cancel yesterday’s scheduled reopening of on-campus Judaic Studies classes because of a sudden steep spike in local cases of Covid-19. The decision, made by administration and the school’s Medical ...