Over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, the Weston police depart-

ment called Chief Financial and Administrative Officer Chris-tine Miller to inform her of two parties hosted by Gann students that occurred over the weekend. At both of these parties there was evidence of alco-hol; one so much so that several Gann students became danger-ously ill, forcing people at the party to call 911.

In response to these events, the Gann administra-tion took several steps. First, the students responsible for host-ing the parties were sent to the Va’ad Hamishpat. Second, Head of School Rabbi Baker emailed the entire Gann community in his weekly email to make every-one aware of the incidents and inform the community regard-ing Gann’s policies on parties and next steps.

This week’s extended Hakhel became Gann’s way of address-ing the issue of binge drink-ing and parties to the school community. At Hakhel, Rabbi Baker introduced the issue and described the incidents as well as how the school became aware of them. All three of the three students mentioned in the

police report gave personal tes-timonies of their experience and why they regretted their actions. Finally, Dean of Students Laila Goodman gave a presentation on the science behind the ways that alcohol and marijuana af-fect the teenage mind and body.

The Hakhel was followed by grade level meetings, in which students discussed the inci-dents with an eye towards their grade’s concerns, followed by advisory lunch to continue the conversation.

We on the Shevuon edito-rial board feel that the Gann administration delivered their message in the most effective way to date. Rather than resort to threats or ultimatums, the ad-ministration gave an informative presentation about the dangers and science of binge drinking. Instead of discussing morals or preaching Jewish values, they gave us the information critical to making responsible choices.

The other unique aspect of the presentation was hearing from our peers. Hearing from students who had been at the parties made the student body listen in a way that hearing it from the administration never does. Breaking the student

body into grade level meetings was also a wise decision that enabled the issue to be discussed in an age and developmentally appropriate way.

However, the school’s response was not without its issues. De-spite Rabbi Bak-er’s assurances

that the students were speaking of their own volition, we are not confident that the student body completely believed their reflec-tions to be genuine. Whether or not they intended to be sincere, the fact that the students were bracketed by administrators and were delivering the administra-tion’s message left students with doubt the student body were speaking their own words. Furthermore, Goodman’s threat to have future offenders speak in front of the community as a deterrent from drinking rein-forced our skepticism.

As stated previously, the scientific information was in-valuable

In Here• On Wednesday, Student

Council hosts the second-Clubs Fair this year.

• Students, faculty and staff retake photos for the yearbook.

• Assistant Dean of Students Rachel Arcus releases a survey to acquire information on how much time students spend on homework with a two-night homework log.

• The Shevuon holds an informational meeting for new writers and contribu-tors.

Out There• Multi-platinum legend

Whitney Houston dies at the age of 48 amid suspi-cions of drug abuse.

• Apple hires an outside company to inspect and audit their production factories in China.

• A federal judge sets a November 5th court date for the trial of infamous Boston mobster Whitey Bulger.

• A report released on Tuesday reveals the disorganized state of the federal voting registra-tion roster, prompting immediate action to im-prove accuracy, includ-ing creating an online registration database.

Love Shabbatonim?While shabbatons used to be planned by JSL, they are now planned almost entirely by students.

The Patriots’ Second MotherRead about Myra Kraft and her impact on New England and the New England Jewish community in Hebrew.

Shevuon Hat chon שבועון התיכוןFriday, February 17th, 2012 • כ״ד בשבט, תשע״ב • Shabbat: 5:01 - 6:32 • Volume 14, Issue 24

Page 3 Page 6

The first slide of Laila Goodman’s Powerpoint presentation at Tueday’s special extended hakhel program.

Administration Delivers Program on Dangers of DrinkingEditorial

Credit:Laila Goodman

continued on page 6

Shevuon hatichon, Friday, February 17th, 2012 • כ״ד בשבט, תשע״ב Page 2

After the Trichit-zah Shacharit minyan at the recent Junior Shabbaton ended early, Rabbi Baker posed a controversial pluralistic question to all minyan attendees.

He asked everyone in attendance whether it was encouraging or discouraging that only 20% of the students attending the Shab-baton chose to pray at a traditional minyan from a traditional prayer book, while the remaining 80% of attendees chose to attend a variety of prayer options ranging from percussion to arts to discussion groups.

Junior Max Fineman was discouraged by the low attendance of the Trichitzah minyan, claiming that “if it wasn’t for the faculty,” there would not have been a min-yan comprised of “people who wanted to be there,” showing that most Gann students “are not particularly interested in involving themselves deeply in Jewish ritual” and taking responsibility to help ensure that the minyan can take place. Junior Elie Lehm-ann, who also attended the minyan, agrees with Fineman, saying, “it is sad that only seven students showed up” to the Trichit-zah minyan that combined both “Mechit-zah and Egalitarian” minyanim and wish-ing that more people would choose to come

so a minyan would not have to be made of people who “don’t want to be there.”

The fact that only 20% of Shabbaton attendees took part in traditional minyan raises controversy over whether Gann’s non-traditional prayer options are environ-ments conducive to prayer and whether Gann should offer such options in place of traditional prayer. According to senior Harrison Shecter, Gann’s alternate prayer options are counterproductive to exposing students to prayer and help “students find haven from” praying rather than “opening [students’] minds” and helping them pin-point methods in which they prefer to pray. Rabbi Bard offers a similar perspective to Shecter’s, claiming that the activities alter-nate to the prayer options involve preoccu-pying students with disciplines other than prayer, and that traditional minyan options at Gann allow students “more freedom” to relax while providing students with an en-vironment that is more conducive to prayer should they choose to pray.

In contrast to Shecter and Bard’s views, there are those students who believe that alternate minyan options might help stu-dents find a prayer method that would work better for them. Junior Missy Kintish, who attended the Trichitzah Minyan, claims that many students “do not believe in” what the traditional prayers say or “have difficulty

following along” with the prayer service and thus choose to attend alternate prayer options. Kintish believes that rather than providing students respite from prayer, alternate prayer options allow students to “explore what kind of prayer they like and relate to” and thus find a better way to relate with prayer and Judaism. Kintish claims that while the Trichitzah minyan was conducive to her personal prayer ex-perience, others might have found the “in-tenseness, speed, and focus” of the minyan less fulfilling. Thus, Kintish is not bothered by the fact that 80% of student Shabbaton attendees chose not to attend minyan, because students “may have found other prayer options that are more suitable” for the kind of prayer experience they would prefer.

Shecter agrees, claiming that the “fact that 20% of juniors chose [to] daven with a siddurim type option” simply shows that 80% of juniors prefer another mode of prayer. Bard even finds it encouraging that 20% of the grade came to minyan, for “looking on the bright side,” it shows that there is a fair number of students who choose to use their prayer time to help make a minyan or to try to focus on prayer alone.

Parshat Mishpatim discusses a whole slew of laws. Most of the Parshah discuss-es involve interpersonal relationships, such as laws on slavery, punishment, behavior and monetary laws. However, some of the laws are also laws between man to G-d, such as laws on the Shemita year, sacrifices and worship. After the long list of laws that Moshe tells Bnei Yisrael that they must follow, Bnei Yisrael agree to these com-mandments and Moshe ascends Mt. Sinai to receive the Ten Commandments.

In Parshat Mishpatim, we see the fa-mous quote, “But if there shall be a fatality, then you shall award a life for a life; an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, a hand for a hand, a foot for a foot; a burn for a burn, a

wound for a wound, a bruise for a bruise” (21:22-25). At first this quote seems to be very gruesome, and raises the moral issue of whether or not it is permissible to hurt someone who has hurt you. What does the Tanakh mean by this?

To learn what the Tanakh is saying here, we looked at Bava Kamma 83b-84a, which says that the perpetrator must pay for the damage caused by the physical pain to the victim, but not have his own eye or foot or hand be hurt. The Rambam has a differ-ent interpretation to how this can morally make sense. He says that although the re-sponsible party’s eye should not physically be hurt, the perpetrator, according to G-d, deserves to lose his own eye, and therefore

monetary payment alone does not cover the damage, but the responsible party also needs to do Teshuvah and atone for his sin.

Although we do not intentionally hurt one another at Gann Academy, this law helps us to understand the importance of taking responsibility and paying for any harm that we have caused others. Even though at first glance, the Tanakh seems to be saying that one should get back at some-one who injures them by injuring the ag-gressor, it is actually saying that the victim does deserve compensation, but it does not help anyone if two people’s eyes are taken out instead of one person’s. As Mahatma Gandhi famously said, “An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.”

Parshat MishpatimBy Naomi Lieberman, Jackie Finkielztein and Samantha LevinD’var Torah

20% of Students Attending Minyan at Junior ShabbatonBy Gil ProppStudent Lounge

Credit:Brittany Gellerman

Shevuon hatichon, Friday, February 17th, 2012 • כ״ד בשבט, תשע״ב Page 3

One Sunday evening every February, the stars of Hollywood’s music industry all dress up in their finest designer apparel and head to the Staples Center in Los An-geles for a night of singing, dancing and award-giving in honor of their peers. This major televised event is commonly known as the Grammy Awards.

While the number of Grammy viewers has been steadily increas-ing over the past four years, the overall level of satisfaction with the provided entertainment seems to have decreased. After the ceremony Sunday night, bloggers took to the Internet expressing their dissatis-faction with the Grammys’ voting decisions of “familiarity over risk” (nytimes.com). All signs point to a growing gap of age and taste between viewers, and misdirected attempts to redress the issue.

While watching the awards ceremony Sunday night, English teacher Mrs. Shapiro was shocked by pop singer Nicki Minaj’s outrageous exorcism stage number. She

was so appalled, in fact, that she “went to turn the TV off.” Her student, sophomore Sophie Klein, was also watching the show. She agreed that Minaj’s presentation was

“really weird” but liked it because “[Nicki] actually pulled it off.” She was also im-pressed by R&B singer Chris Brown’s Michael Jackson-esque dance moves, an attempt to bridge the generation gap that went largely unnoticed because it came wrapped in a white-jacketed hip-hop pack-

age. The effort to integrate two generations of music listeners was also apparent in awkward pairings such as classic rockers The Beach Boys with California pop band

Foster the People.Sophomore Harry Kosowsky

also expressed strong dissatisfaction with the awards’ lack of musical diversity: “The people who vote aren’t all the people who listen to music, just a small percent… What defines good music isn’t the quality, it’s how many people listen to it.” He was outraged by the “unfairness” of the Grammy voting process, and consequently wasn’t invested in the awards ceremony because he wasn’t supporting a particular nominee. His sentiments were echoed by freshman

Gabe Kagan, who only stuck around for the introduction ceremony before changing the channel. There was also a percentage of students who ignored tradition altogether in favor of other pursuits, citing an abun-dance of homework and general disinterest.

This rise in

מיירה קראפט - השראה לכלמאת: שירה להמן ואילנה שכטר

עברית

Credit:The Guardian

מיירה ובוב קראפט.

Grammy Awards Receive Mixed Reactions By Ellie PasternackIHOT

British artist Adele wins six Grammys at the 2012 Grammy Award show on Sunday night.

continued on page 5

Credit: The Kraft Family

Shevuon hatichon, Friday, February 17th, 2012 • כ״ד בשבט, תשע״ב Page 4

 

WallInfoPhotosFriends

February 17th, 2012

Sagittarius

Your emotions balance out strongly on the positive side today-most likely all that good energy is fueling the fires of joy and excitement! Make something great hap-pen to spread the feeling.

Horoscope

Share: Quote of the Week

Because the time we already spend on Facebook isn’t enough,

here is gannbook...

To be featured in gannbook, send your submissions to

Alana Windmueller ‘12

Home Profile Account

 Birthdays:

 

Joke

World LanguageEdited by Rahel Nessim

Ilana Rosenbluh

Melyssa Canonico 2/17Macia Pinkwas 2/19

Mackenzie Goldwasser 2/21Hannah Vaitsblit 2/21Harry Kosowsky 2/23

Jacob Slater 2/23Eilon Applbaum 2/23

Oron Propp 2/23Caroline Rourke 2/26Matt Zackman 2/27

Michael Zanger-Tishler 2/27

Haley Cashman

Joe Sandperl

shine.yahoo.com

Julia Saxe 2/18

Alana Windmueller

Jonah Kriger 2/24

Sabias que?

Los tiburones tienen dientes reemplazables, y se disponen en fila

unos detrás de otros, de manera que cuando se pierde un diente, uno nuevo se mueve hacia adelante y lo sustituye.

The Patriots have failed us; all we have left is the

robotics team.

Teacher Fun Fact

Question: What did the stamp say to the envelope on Valentine’s Day?Answer: I’m stuck on you!

Rachel WolfmanSudoku

Sudoku.com

Gil Propp

Ilana Rosenbluh met the Dalai Lama in India.

Cool Facts

 

You can plot a heart on a graphing calcula-tor with the following equations (try it!)

 

Shevuon hatichon, Friday, February 17th, 2012 • כ״ד בשבט, תשע״ב Page 5

Last month in Israel, Channel 2 began to air a show called “The Voice,” a program similar to the American version, in which contestants sing before esteemed judges in the hopes of becoming famous. Haaretz reported that Channel 2 bought the rights to this show from the original American copyright owner, believing that the show’s format would be popular in Israel. The sta-tion was right; the show has become so popular in Israel that Channel 2 is now airing the show twice a week during primetime.

The American ver-sion of the show and the Israeli version are very similar. In both adapta-tions, judges sit in over-sized chairs with their backs to the contestant and judge the con-testant purely on the qualities of his or her voice. The Israeli version lacks Christina Aguilera, Adam Levine, Cee Lo Green and Blake Shelton, but it does have a cast of Israeli superstar judges.

In fact, many of Israel’s hit TV shows are copies or remakes of successful shows from other countries. Israel has a version of

Dancing with the Stars called “Rokdim im ha Kockavim.” Haaretz reported that Yuval Cohen, an editor of the program, is the new editor in chief of Israel’s “The Voice.” Another popular Israeli television show is

“Kockav Nolad,” a show that is close in style to ‘American Idol.’ Both American Idol and Kockav Nolad are based on the original British version of the same show. There is even a spin-off of the American “Real Housewives” series, known as ‘Meusharot’ or ‘The Riches.’

The idea of format-sharing within the television industry has become common-

place. Many popular shows in America are based off of other successful foreign shows. A famous example of this is NBC’s “The Office,” which is based on a British version bearing the same title. Now there

is an effort underway to adapt successful Israeli shows for American audiences. According to Ynet News, Israeli-born Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan has recently signed a deal with Israel’s ADD Con-tent Agency to begin using Israeli formats on American television.

Junior Aaron Jaeger commends the use of format-sharing, stat-ing, “I think that it is a smart business move,

because people [in differ-ent countries may] have similar interests.” The proliferation of these format sharing examples is proof that, yes, it is a smart business move to replicate a successful show across borders.

Information taken from Haaretz, Chan-nel 2 Website, Channel 10 Website, Ynet News.

Many popular Israeli television shows are based off of successful American shows.

From Hollywood to HaifaBy Sloane GrinspoonIsrael

Congratulations to the next editors of the Shevuon Hatichon!Editor in Chief - Sloane Grinspoon

Managing Editor - Jonah KrigerAssistant Editors - Rachel Brody, Jordy Gardenswartz & Matt Zackman

If you are applying for a position on the Shevuon staff this spring, please submit your article to Sloane Grinspoon by Monday, February 20th.

Grammy Awards Receive Mixed Reactions continued from page 3

viewers coincides with a decrease in the annual number of viewers watching the Academy Awards, the movie industry equivalent of the Grammys. The Academy Awards underwent a change in 2009, per-

mitting more movies to be nominated for Best Picture. Rather than attracting a larger audience as hoped, the number of viewers went down. If the Grammys continue to change so drastically as well, history in-

dicates they will be delegated to a bygone relic, a Hollywood spectacle that lost its charm.

Facts from The New York Times.

Shevuon hatichon, Friday, February 17th, 2012 • כ״ד בשבט, תשע״ב Page 6

Four weekends a year, one grade stays at school for a sixth day to celebrate its grade shabbaton. According to Dean of Students and frequent shabbaton attendee Laila Goodman, the purpose of shabbatonim is “to have a chance to have a spiritual bond-ing experience that will both facilitate a deeper connection between members of the class and between students and faculty. It will create a deeper personal con-nection to celebrating Shabbat for each individual.” Associate Dean of Students Rachel Arcus-Goldberg adds, “Part of our goal is to have Jewish experiences to-gether and Shabbat is a big part of the Jewish experience. To be able to celebrate it together is really awesome.”

Shabbatonim have not always been the way they are now. As Associate Head of School Dr. Golden shares, “There used to be ‘bou-tique’ shabbatonim where students could choose from a wide range of choices at area synagogues and communities of Gann members. Students were asked to pick 2-3 a year. “ These boutique shabbatonim were the prototypes of shabbatonim like the JSA shabbaton and Dramaton. Additionally, Dr. Golden says, “There used to be an all-school shabbaton every year.”

Although the structure of shabbatonim have changed, says Dr. Golden, “The core of the shabbaton has been constant: meals

together with singing, afternoon education-al program [and] free time on Shabbat.”

Looking forward, shabbatonim seem like they are approaching a new change. Dr. Golden explains, “I have been very excited to see a renewed spirit of student leader-ship in organizing the shabbatonim - I look forward to the continuation of this trend!” In fact, for the junior and senior shabba-

tonim, student leadership was more than it had been in recent years. Experiential Educator Simcha Cohen asserts, “Never have students stepped up the level that the juniors and seniors have in these past two shabbatonim.” The juniors and seniors, un-like in years past, “have taken on the whole shabbaton and have just owned it,” says Cohen. They were the ones who envisioned what the shabbaton would look like, made announcements and planned programming.

Junior Grade Representative Liat Deen-er-Chodirker explains, “We came up with

the theme and thought of ways to incorpo-rate it into the shabbaton, came up with the grade bonding activity, came up with the fishbowl question with [Goodman], helped throughout the shabbaton and made a lot of announcements.” Cohen adds, “They got up and were the ones saying what was going on next, whereas in other shabba-tonim it was always me saying what was

happening.” Although students have had the chance to take on such leadership roles in the past, says Cohen, “They never really wanted it.”

This “renewed spirit of stu-dent leadership” is an opportuni-ty for students to plan meaning-ful events for themselves while honing their leadership skills. Cohen asks, “If we’re able to have students gain skills from planning a shabbaton, why not?

They can learn what it means to be a leader, to frame a program, to speak in front of a group.”

How will shabbaton student leadership continue? Cohen dreams, “It would be re-ally cool if there [were] a group of people in the school [that] loves shabbatonim and wants to plan them for the entire school. There could be a group of 30 people who all plan the shabbatonim together—fresh-men with sophomores, juniors, and seniors. The students can plan for the students.”

Shabuya Shabuyaton!By Jordy GardenswartzSpotlight

The traditional first gathering at this year’s Junior Shabbaton.Credit: Jonah Wagan

to the student body. Yet, the fact that the biology teacher presenting the information also the lead disciplinarian at the school causes her to lose credibility as a source for purely factual information about alcohol and the body. There are other teachers at Gann qualified to deliver the information that don’t carry the same connotation of a disciplinarian.

The final issue we take with the presen-tation is the fact that students didn’t walk away feeling that they could call 911 for help without facing disciplinary action by the school’s leadership team. The admin-istration did not assure amnesty for those

who would take action to protect the lives of their friends by calling the police. While we acknowledge that underage drinking is illegal and is deserving of punishment, the school’s first priority should be to encour-age students to call for help. Even though the administration emphasized the fact that the consequences of trying to avoid punishment are much worse than those as-sociated with calling for help, the fact that it still punishes any student it knows to be involved weakens its case. Disciplinary actions are implemented with the explicit goal of deterring students from acting in a certain manner. Though the adminis-

tration’s good intentions, it is inherently discouraging students from calling 911 and potentially saving a life by maintaining disciplinary consequences for students who choose to do so.

Despite these imperfect aspects of Tuesday’s presentation, we hope that the administration’s message gets across, and that students consider the facts and dangers of alcohol and learn to make informed and responsible decisions. Furthermore, despite any consequences you might face in school, we strongly advise anyone to always call 911 when someone’s safety is in jeopardy.

Administration Delivers Program on Dangers of Drinking continued from page 1

Shevuon hatichon, Friday, February 17th, 2012 • כ״ד בשבט, תשע״ב Page 7

WritersRachel Brody ‘13, Lily Cohen ‘13, Tyler Crane ‘12, Harrison Dale ‘15, Eden Diamond ‘14, Jordana Gardenswartz ‘13,

Josh Goldstein ‘12, Annika Gompers ‘14, Sloane Grinspoon ‘13, Jake Katz ‘12, Jonah Kriger ‘13, Sarah Newman ‘14, Ellie Pasternack ‘14, Eliana Perlmutter ‘12, Rebecca Pritzker ‘13, Ezra Porter ‘12, Gil Propp ‘13, Abby Schwartz ‘13,

Jackie Teperman ‘13, Hannah Vaitsblit ‘12, Rebecca Wihl ‘14, Matt Zackman ‘13Editor in Chief Jeremy Jick Managing Editor Sarah Kusinitz Layout Editor Emily Dale

Assistant Editors Ellie Deresiewicz, Anna Fasman & Aaron Goodtree Copy Editor Maya Feldman Photography Editors Liam Gandelsman & Maya Warburg Faculty Advisor Shoshanah Zaritt

Hebrew Editor Ilana Rosenbluh Faculty Consultants Deb Carroll, Matt Conti & Jonah Hassenfeld

It’s Monday morn-ing when the Newton-Brookline “bus kids” stumble off the bus. Alighting from the last step, I stomp off toward the archway, iPod in hand, one headphone in ear, the

other dangling, swinging precariously back and forth. Perhaps in protest, I don my “I hate the world” face, slide my fingers too rapidly across the glossy screen––freak-ing out my overused device––and flip to my angriest Eminem song. Dialing up the volume way past a reasonable limit, I tear open the front door of school, jamming the second headphone against my eardrum just before anyone has time to utter “good morning,” or much less smile in my formi-dable direction.

It’s the “don’t bother me until 8:10 a.m.” aura––unbreakable in its intensity, fierce in its unfriendliness. I’ve done nothing for myself––only contributed to a certain future deafness and continued to enable an unforgivable potty-mouth. Taking the headphones out is painful; it requires an acknowledgement of leaving an imaginary world of spunky Gaga lyrics to the real world of schoolwork, class, the generic early morning “what’s ups” and complaints about gargantuan quantities of homework. Is it really worth it to give up “You and I” for that? Instead I falsify a sense of being occupied––entrenched in a fantasy microcosm of “edges of glory” and other fun things––making it clear that I am not “alone”; my loyal companion is iPod and he is my friendly metal and plastic compos-

ite sidekick. Later in the day, I conduct an entire

conversation with a friend who stares at her cell-phone, texting away, her fingers moving without even hitting the keys. Then another friend approaches me, tells me about something serious, maybe a family funeral, and I struggle to lift my eyes from a scintillating computer screen and junk-mail filled inbox. Step aside, concentration, distraction is the next best thing and media multitasking is the norm. “Alone time” and personal non-technologically adulterated thoughts are, themselves, a distant consid-eration in most minds.

Inspired by a conversation in English class in which we tackled the conundrum of our technological dependence, I have decided to address this issue in our com-munity. My very first article (unpublished) was about the pervasiveness (and invasion) of the Blackberry at Gann Academy. Now it’s the iPhones, iPads and Kindles. It’s kind of scary that even books––the tradi-tional escape from technology––are now leaving us in a current state of adhesion to megapixels and power buttons. Farewell face-to-face conversations! Now they’re called “chats” and texting chains. Emo-tions are waning away from our interac-tions, sliding slowly beneath the keyboard keys. Maybe we should just videochat our way into class––more economical, isn’t it? There are no more play-dates, just phone-dates and movie nights. All of the informa-tion is at the request of Siri; the fun of a collaborative experimental discovery has evaporated.

But most troubling––and I have found myself falling into this same inexcusable

pattern as well––is that we use our devices to avoid a kind of socially unacceptable “aloneness.” How many of you have flipped open your laptop and pretended to do homework, clicking the same buttons obsessively just to have something to do? And do you ever find yourself incessantly glancing at your cell-phone, flipping it open and closed (if that still applies to you), even if just to check that the reassur-ing time-stamp is still there––desperately avoiding the unbearable confrontation of the eerie quiet of being alone or uncom-fortable? Maybe you’ve been bored in the library and, unaccompanied during a free period, you’ve sat down and fake-checked your email on the school computers (even though you’ve already checked it 300 times that day). Then maybe, like myself, you have walked around the school aimlessly, looking for some sort of “occupation,” but have found yourself returning to the same addictive electronics time after time.

Is it reversible? Can we ever really revert to genuine human-to-human interac-tions, or are we forever stuck in this cold world of metal and robotic communication and impersonal, bored lifestyle? I wish I had a solution, but even as I write this, my eyelids droop from the brightness of the computer screen and my ears ring from the echoes of an overplayed, over-digitized, mainstream song on repeat. Whatever happened to the rewind button? Or maybe we just need one called “slow down,” so that we can, even if for just a tiny minute, experience the world purely-maybe even alone–rather than virtually.

Leave Me Alone, Cell Phone! By Hannah VaitsblitOpinion

Credit:Maya Warburg

Shevuon hatichon, Friday, February 17th, 2012 • כ״ד בשבט, תשע״ב Page 8

After a close game on Tuesday night against The Learning Center for the Deaf, the boys of the Boys Varsity Basketball team ended their season feeling a little disappointed, but proud of how they per-formed throughout the season. Senior cap-tain David Roberts comments, “I am disap-pointed that we didn’t win the league but overall, I think it was a successful year.” Co-captain Zach Shwartz agrees, saying, “While at first our team struggled to work together and be successful, I am proud of my teammates for continuing to work hard and finishing the season well.”

Going into the season, the boys were really focused on using their speed and conditioning to achieve victories. While the members of this year’s team may not have been as tall as their competitors, they were able to outrun and outwork many of their opponents, finishing their season with an overall record of 10-12.

Senior Gary Baker explains, “We had a good season. It had its ups and downs,

but overall, even though we didn’t win the league championship, we had some great wins during the rest of the season.” It is

also important to keep in mind that several of team’s strongest players were inhibited from playing due to injuries.

One of those players, senior captain Alex “Benzi” Dagi, explains, “On the one hand, it was great to see some other players on the team step up and make huge con-tributions in my place…on the other hand, though, I love playing and was dying to get into the game. It’s heartwrenching to feel like, had you been playing, the game would be totally different, and the team might be in a completely different spot.”

While it may have been hard for Dagi and fellow senior Josh Goldstein to finish their final season at Gann on the sidelines, it did provide opportunities for younger players to step onto the court and prepare for next year. Shwartz comments, “I am ex-cited to come back for the alumni game and see the improvement of the team under the strong leadership of next year’s seniors.”

After three months filled with Sunday morning practices, long bus rides to away games and a few team wide illnesses, the girls’ varsity basketball season is finally wrapping up. At the very start of the sea-son, Coach Goose told the girls that he has two goals for the season: to be number one in defense in the league and to win the IGC playoffs. As for the first goal, the girls came out number two in defense, and they were only second to one of the best teams in the league. The second goal was to be determined by how the girls played in this past week’s playoffs. Nothing prior to this past week mattered.

The playoffs kicked off on Monday with a home game against Landmark. Despite having beaten Landmark twice this season, both Coach Goose and Coach Foote stressed that Gann cannot play down to Landmark’s level. As soon as the game began, the girls were missing their layups. Realizing that the offense was “off”, the girls made an extra effort to at least play tough defense. Senior captain Tami Pearl-stein made up for the team’s missed layups on defense, taking three charges and tightly

guarding Landmark’s best player. The final score of the game was 44-32. Even with a score closer than it should have been, a win is a win the girls were qualified for the semi-finals of the playoffs.

On Tuesday, the girls traveled to Quincy to play #2 seed, Woodward, in a cold, poorly lit gym. Gann lost to Woodward twice this season, but proved in both games that Woodward and Gann were of equal caliber. Even by the second time playing Woodward, Gann was better prepared to stop their leading scorer, who is also one of the leading scorers in the league. Hav-ing lost to Woodward in the semi-finals last

year, the Gann girls hoped to redeem them-selves and make it to the finals. The game was neck and neck, with the girls giving it 100% for 32 minutes, they managed a few clutch baskets in the last 16 seconds to se-cure a spot in the finals. Sophomore Sarah Litwin says, “We really came together as a team and used our skill since we didn’t have size.”

Finally, Gann was up against #1 seed Montrose. Within the first three minutes, Gann was already trailing by eight. With a 15 point deficit at the half, Gann attempted to make a comeback, but could not get their offense going, nor could they stop Mon-trose on the fast break. Their nerves got the better of them and the IGC league trophy was presented to the Montrose team.

Despite a loss in the finals, the Gann Girls’ Varsity still has a chance of making the NEPSAC playoffs. They plan on prac-ticing hard over vacation in order to pre-pare to play an even higher level of teams. Best of luck, Girls’ Varsity Basketball, and congratulations on a successful season!

Close, But No CigarBy Jackie Teperman

Boys Varsity Basketball Season Comes to an Abrupt EndBy Anna Fasman, Assistant Editor

MVP of the Week goes to

Rachel Nieves for scoring a clutch shot with

only 12 seconds left and securing the

Girls Varsity Basketball team’s

victory on Tuesday.

SCORE REPORT

By Rachel Nieves and Miriam Silverman