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Shalhevet news online: When we know it, you'll know it

The Boiling Point

Shalhevet news online: When we know it, you'll know it

The Boiling Point

Shalhevet news online: When we know it, you'll know it

The Boiling Point

Benjamin Zaghi

Benjamin Zaghi, Senior Editor

Benjamin Zaghi has been on the Boiling Point all four years of high school. He was a staff writer for the first two, then was the editor of multiple sections, and now is Senior Editor. Benny leads the Sephardic Minyan and plays on the Boys Varsity Basketball team. If he isn't writing stories, you would probably see him shooting in the gym.

All content by Benjamin Zaghi
RESPECT: Ramie Smith, a graduate of Yeshivat Maharat, has also taught prisoners. She said she follows the same principles whoever her students are.

Something a little calmer for a teacher who dives with sharks

By Benjamin Zaghi, Senior Editor
September 18, 2017
You may not see new Judaic Studies teacher Ramie Smith every day, because she’s teaching just one class this year, 10th Grade Talmud.  She’s also developing a sex education curriculum with Rabbi Block, which will be taught to all grades, not just seniors.
PIONEERS: Members of the class of '17 prepared to board the Scarlett Belle for a two-hour cruise in Channel Islands Harbor. They are the first Shalhevet seniors to forego prom for a chaperoned, alcohol-free culminating event.

‘Senior Soiree,’ school’s first-ever non-prom, takes seniors north for fine food, cruise and overnight

By Benjamin Zaghi, Sports Editor
June 5, 2017
Chaperoned, school-sponsored event replaces tradition of student-run prom and after-prom
WARMUP: Members of the Elitzur Petach-Tikvah basketball team from Israel practiced in the gym Nov. 9.

Glouberman goes global as Israeli teams join second annual basketball tournament

By Benjamin Zaghi, Opinion Editor
November 9, 2016

When the Elitzur Petah Tikvah team arrived in Los Angeles today, Shalhevet’s Steve Glouberman basketball tournament went from...

FIREMAN: Senior Sammy Ellenhorn stands in front of firehouse 63 in Venice where he worked this summer training to become a cadet.

Job hunt uncovers a passion for firefighting

By Benjamin Zaghi, Opinion Editor
October 18, 2016

Sammy Ellenhorn, now In 11th grade, looked for a job last summer but ended up finding a passion for a career that he might later...

SUPPORT: New Educational Support Specialist Jen Hurvitz, a close friend of the department's director Ms. Ashley Evins, is looking forward to working with students one on one instead of in large classes.

JEN HURVITZ: Through winding journey, a passion for helping kids

By Benjamin Zaghi, Opinion Editor
August 30, 2016
Ms. Jen Hurvitz, new Educational Support Specialist, discovered a growing passion to help kids when she was studying sociology at UC Santa Barbara.
COACH:Junior Nathan Benyowitz, ranked 100 in tennis among 18-year-olds in California, plays a match as head of the Firehawk tennis team.

Without a coach, student takes the lead and leads tennis team to its best season yet

By Benjamin Zaghi, Staff Writer
June 14, 2016
They lost their coach just as the season was starting and after some negotiation, settled on a team member to lead them. But the Firehawk tennis team still managed to surpass last year’s five wins and four losses with a 7-3 game record this season.
CANVAS: Outside in the parking lot, students spray-painted and decorated a large white wall in honor of Israel’s 68th year of independence.

Spray paint, dancing and kavanah to celebrate Yom Haatzmaut

By Benjamin Zaghi, Staff Writer
June 7, 2016
When you see Israeli flags waved in the air, kids jumping up down and listening Israeli music being blasted in the gym, you know its Yom Ha’atzmaut at Shalhevet. March 12, students wore blue and white, matching the blue and white balloons and paper streamers that covered the decorated gym, and forgetting the competitive Just Community elections that had been consuming the student body that week.
BUSY: Israeli  Minister of Science, Technology and Space,  Ofir Akunis, spoke to an all-school assembly Feb. 8, as Consul General David Siegel looked on.  Minister Akunis was in the U.S. to work on research and space agreements.

Israeli Cabinet Minister tells assembly of joint stem cell research with California

By Benjamin Zaghi, Staff Writer
April 13, 2016
Feb. 8 was a busy day for Israel’s Minister of Science and Technology, Mr. Ofir Akunis. In the afternoon, he signed an agreement on stem cell research between Israel and a California bio-tech firm. After that, he was heading to Washington, D.C., to meet with NASA in hopes of sending an Israeli astronaut to Mars. But before that, he had a date to speak with the student body at Shalhevet.
INNOVATION: Founder Seiji Shaw works with team members to build the base of the robot.  Club several times a week to prepare for the competition that will take place March 10.

Junior transfer student spearheads first robotics team

By Benjamin Zaghi and Rose Lipner
February 7, 2016
With $20,000 in its budget from Google and other grants, Shalhevet’s first-year robotics team plans to jump over entry-level meets and compete with more experienced teams like Beverly Hills High and Milken Community High School.
Chem and Physics teacher Amy Sirkis says courses will be hard

Chem and Physics teacher Amy Sirkis says courses will be hard

By Benjamin Zaghi, Staff Writer
September 6, 2015
Watch out! New science teacher Ms. Amy Sirkis considers herself to be hard teacher. And make sure to walk fast, because slow walkers are one of her pet peeves.
MESSAGE: Students and Judaic Studies teacher Mrs. Ruthie Skaist, fourth from left, together 
analyzed a poem written by a Holocaust survivor.

With readings, Yom Hashoah program builds empathy through narrative

By Benjamin Zaghi, Ninth Grade
May 5, 2015
The JCC auditorium was quiet last Thursday as an elderly man spoke of a childhood spent criss-crossing the world.
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