Shalhevet High School

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Shalhevet High School is a co-ed, college-preparatory, Modern Orthodox Jewish high school in Los Angeles, California. It is a division of Shalhevet School, the only Modern Orthodox K-12 school in California. In the high school, boys and girls follow the same Judaic curriculum,including Talmud, which is unusual for Orthodox Jewish high schools, and a full program of visual arts, music, drama and athletics is offered in addition to the dual curriculum of secular and Judaic studies. Founded in 1992 by Steve Bailey, Ph.D. and Jerry Friedman, Ed. D., the school developed a modified model of the Kohlberg "Just Community." A fundamental principle is that moral development can be taught through the presentation of "moral dilemmas," which create in students cognitive dissonance that leads to moral growth. Shalhevet has about 400 students as of 2007-08 and is led Dr. Friedman, General Studies Principal Phu Tranchi, and Director of Judaic Studies Rabbi Avi Greene. Dr. Friedman has announced that he will retire at the end of the 2007-08 school year and Rabbi Elchanan Weinbach has been named his replacement, effective July 2008.

Sixteen years old as of 2007-08, Shalhevet is unique because of its somewhat democratic nature and its emphasis on moral development. The high school holds an hour-long, weekly, student-led Town Hall at which current events, school issues and other controversies are discussed. These meetings occasionally have outside speakers, such as U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), and have ranged over topics from Darfur and Tookie Williams to Kanye West's controversial music videos. A school constitution empowers an Agenda Committee, which sets the Town Hall agenda, manages elections, and oversees the other committees; a Student Activities Committee, responsible for pep rallies, movie nights and other social events; a Fairness Committee, where students can, for example, challenge faculty decisions; and a Constructive Consequences Committee, responsible for consequences as called for by the Fairness Committee. All committees have student, faculty and administrative representation.

Shalhevet's debate teams, led by Mr. Christopher Buckley, Mr. Keith Nadel, Ms. Melanie Berkey, and Mr. Tranchi, have won many awards in Model Congress and Model UN events around the U.S. It has twice-yearly drama productions led by Ms. Emily Chase, a fall mainstage production and a spring production consisting of one-act plays written and directed by students.

Shalhevet's award-winning student newspaper is The Boiling Point, published seven times per year. It is written, edited, and laid out by students of the high school, with help from Mrs. Joelle Keene, the paper's faculty advisor. It has won awards from the National Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and Quill & Scroll International Honorary Journalism Society.

[edit] Shalhevet Athletics

Shalhevet offers numerous athletic teams for students, including Boys and Girls Soccer, Boys and Girls Basketball, Girls Volleyball, Boys Baseball and Girls Softball. It has so far won one championship, the Harbor League championship for baseball in the spring of 2005.

Shalhevet's school colors are black red and white, and its masΩcot and team name is the Firehawks.

and flower picking

[edit] Notable Faculty

Rabbi Aaron Parry, author of The Idiot's Guide to Understanding the Talmud, and The Idiot's Guide to Hebrew Scripture

Rabbi David Rue, senior justice of the Los Angeles Beit Din (rabbinic court) and reverand jacob butler

[edit] Notable Alumni

Coby Linder, the drummer of the alternative rock band Say Anything, is a graduate of the 2003 class.

Zvika Krieger, national political correspondent, The New Republic; former Middle East correspondent, Newsweek, Shalhevet High School Class of 2002