Frisch School Explained

Frisch School
Motto:Cougars Run Together
Established:1972
Founder:R. Menachem Meier and Alfred Frisch
Principal:Rabbi Eli Ciner[1]
Enrollment:923 (as of 2021–22)
Ratio:9.8:1
Us Nces School Id:00868382
Teamname:Cougars
Colors: Red and
white
Newspaper:The Paw Print
Address:120 West Century Road
Zipcode:07652
Country:United States
Pushpin Map:USA New Jersey Bergen County#USA New Jersey

The Frisch School, also known as Yeshivat Frisch, is a coeducational, Modern Orthodox, yeshiva high school located in Paramus, in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was founded in 1972 by Rabbi Menachem Meier and Alfred Frisch. The school primarily serves the Jewish communities of northern New Jersey and New York.

The school is named for founder Alfred Frisch, who owned the land on which the original campus was situated prior to the school's inception in 1972. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools since 1992. Its accreditation expires in 2029.[2] Over the last ten years, under the current administration, the student population has grown from 580 to nearly 1000 students.

Frisch School is located at 120 West Century Road in Paramus. The campus has 41 classrooms, a learning center, six science laboratories, gymnasium, library, music and art studios, a Beit Midrash, a makerspace (fab lab), and a publications room. Outdoors, the campus has a softball field, tennis courts, a basketball-hockey, and a soccer field encircled by a running track.[3] The campus is named in honor of Henry Swieca, who donated the campus.

History

Founded in 1972 by Rabbi Menachem Meier and Alfred Frisch, the school had been located at E. 243 Frisch Court in Paramus, on a 7acres plot of land.[4]

For the 2007–08 school year, Frisch moved to 120 West Century Road in Paramus. Frisch purchased this site, 14acres of land and an 115000-2NaN-2 office building, and renovated what had been an office building, constructing an 25000-2NaN-2 addition.[5] The campus is named in honor of Henry Swieca, who donated the campus. The former Frisch building was sold in 2015 to the school Ben Porat Yosef.[6]

Academics

Frisch offers a dual curriculum of Judaic and secular studies. Incoming students choose between eleven specialty tracks: Art; Beit Midrash; Culinary Arts and Food Science; Engineering; Entrepreneurship; Medical Sciences; Music; Philosophy, Politics and Economics; Sports Management and Business Analytics; World Languages; and Writing. Each track provides specialized academic/vocational training.[7]

The school was re-accredited by the Middle States Association Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools in 2020 and is now accredited through January 2029.[8] [9]

Student population

Most of the students are from the Jewish communities of northern New Jersey and New York, with some commuting from Central New Jersey.

As of the 2021–22 school year, the school had an enrollment of 923 students and 94 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 9.8:1. The school's student body was 99.2% (916) White, 0.7% (6) Asian and 0.1% (1) Black.[10]

Co-curricular programs and activities

The school says it has over 100 student clubs, in areas including the arts, languages, sciences, leadership and other interests.[11] [12]

Sports

There are 25 athletic teams and seven athletic clubs in total. More than 70 percent of students participate on one or more of the sports teams and clubs. There are four basketball teams, one baseball team, two boys floor hockey teams, one girls floor hockey team, and one boys wrestling team, which consecutively won five Wittenberg wrestling titles. There are three volleyball teams – the girls volleyball teams have won the most championship games of any yeshiva volleyball team - three soccer teams, two swimming teams, three softball teams, one bowling team, and two track teams, among others. Frisch also has the first-ever yeshiva ice hockey team, which, in its first year of existence, qualified for the NJ state tournament.[13] Frisch competes in ice hockey under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association.[14] [15] In 2016, half of Frisch's Yeshiva League sports teams qualified for the championships, and six teams won the championships.

The baseball team won three consecutive Metropolitan Yeshiva High School Athletic League titles (2014, 2015, 2016),[16] [17] [18] and won the Columbus Baseball Invitational yeshiva high school tournament, dubbed the "Jewish World Series", in each of 2016 and 2017.[19] [20]

In 2015, Frisch won the Red Sarachek Tournament hosted by Yeshiva University for the first time. After losing in the championship game in 2013 and 2014, they defeated the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway by a score of 75–73 in triple-overtime to claim the title.[21] In 2017, Frisch came back and won the Sarachek Tournament, defeating the Shalhevet Firehawks (of Los Angeles) by a score of 49–47 in the tournament final.[22]

In 2016, Frisch began hosting the Wittenberg Wrestling Tournament, after Yeshiva University announced that it would no longer host the annual event.[23]

The ice hockey team won the McMullen Cup and Monsignor Kelly Cup in 2018.[24] The team won the McMullen Cup in 2021 after defeating Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School by a score of 2-1 in the tournament final.[25]

Chesed

A Chesed Society coordinates community projects throughout the year.[26] Frisch students run a winter camp for children with special needs who have off from public school during the winter break week.[27]

Notable alumni

Controversy

In 2018, students were invited to participate in a voluntary letter writing campaign thanking President Trump if they "believe[d] that the president's decision was correct" regarding the relocation the U.S Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. They were informed of the letter-writing campaign by the school's then-director of Israel education and faculty adviser of the school's Israel advocacy club, Rabbi David Sher. However, the letter-writing campaign itself was initiated by the Israel Advocacy organization NORPAC. Instructions for participating in the campaign included a reminder to "sign your name at the bottom," while NORPAC's boiler-plate letter praised the president's "courageous leadership" for the embassy decision.[45] Sher's email stated twice that the campaign was voluntary.[46]

The email was sent to students without prior parental consent, and some parents at the school lodged complaints in private forums, stating that the move was "sycophantic" and that the school should be "apolitical" and not attempt to "normalize Trump."[47] Journalists at Ha'aretz and Newsweek got wind of this disapproval, and published articles implying that the school forced or strongly urged all students to write letters praising Trump.[46] [48]

The school principal, Rabbi Eli Ciner, noted that these private conversations were leaked to the press also without parental consent.[49] Ciner acknowledged that parents who did not agree with Trump complained, though stressed that the campaign was "completely voluntary" and that expression of different political opinions was an expression of democracy [50] In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Ciner stated, “As a religious Zionist school, we encourage our students as civic minded American citizens to write to the administration when they agree or disagree with the government’s policies regarding the State of Israel. In this particular case, many of our students strongly supported the president’s decision recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.” [46]

A columnist for Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote regarding the letter writing campaign press coverage that "behaviors considered typical going back decades" were "distorted by their proximity to the 45th president" in this particular case, commenting that:

Missing in much of the reporting was the fact that like much of the mainstream Jewish community, most Jewish schools see teaching about and advocating for Israel a central part of their mission and a key to instilling Jewish identity. If anything, Israel advocacy training has increased as Jewish organizations invest more resources in fighting the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement aimed at Israel.[46]

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://frisch.org/about-us/from-the-principal/ Message from the Headmaster and Principal
  2. https://www.msa-cess.org/school-profile/?oId=0065e00000B8S7A&typ=school-profile Frisch School
  3. http://www.frisch.org/Content.asp?Id=31 Our New Campus
  4. Goldrich, Lois. "Bat Torah headed for Paramus", Jewish Standard, May 2, 2008. Accessed June 23, 2008. "While Bat Torah, which Bak said 'has very high academic aspirations', will rent the whole building, the school hopes ultimately to share the facility with other groups. 'We'll want to remain small', said Bak, indicating that she would not want more than 40 students per grade."
  5. http://www.frisch.org/Content.asp?Id=31 Our New Campus
  6. Roth, Ruth. "Ben Porat Yosef Reaches Major Milestone With Building Purchase", Jewish Link, April 23, 2015. Accessed June 20, 2022. "April 15 marked an historic day for Ben Porat Yosef (BPY). On that day, the thirteen-year-old school completed the purchase of its permanent home - a 72,000 square foot facility set on a seven acre cul-de-sac which it had been renting from the Frisch School, concluding an agreement that was struck between the two schools five years ago."
  7. Listed on the "Academics" drop-down menu of [www.frisch.org]
  8. Staff. "Frisch Receives Middle States Re-Accreditation", The Jewish Link, December 23, 2020. Accessed November 20, 2023. "Yeshivat Frisch has been recommended for re-accreditation by the Middle States Association Commission on Elementary and Secondary Schools for another seven-year term, in a glowing report commending the school’s student-centered educational approach, values-infused environment, extraordinary warmth and exceptional leadership."
  9. https://www.msa-cess.org/school-profile/?oId=0065e00000B8S7A&typ=school-profile Frisch School
  10. https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&ID=00868382 School data for The Frisch School
  11. Web site: Opportunities Outside the Classroom.
  12. Web site: Over 100 Co-Curriculars Highlighted at Yeshivat Frisch Club Fair.
  13. Web site: The frozen chosen.
  14. https://www.njsiaa.org/schools/frisch-school Frisch School
  15. https://www.njsiaa.org/sites/default/files/documents/2020-10/2020-2021-lc-officers-schools.pdf League & Conference Officers/Affiliated Schools 2020-2021
  16. Web site: Frisch Cougars Win Baseball Championship.
  17. Web site: The Jewish Link of New Jersey - JewishLink.
  18. Web site: Cougars Bring It Home.
  19. Abramovitz, Mark. "Frisch Cougars Top TABC Storm in Columbus Invitational Tournament", Jewish Link, May 26, 2016. Accessed October 1, 2020.
  20. Abramowitz, Mark. "Frisch Cougars Are Columbus Champions", Jewish Link, May 25, 2017. Accessed October 1, 2020.
  21. Staff. "Frisch Wins Sarachek in Triple OT", Jewish Link of New Jersey, March 26, 2015. Accessed November 10, 2016. "It took three grueling, extra periods for the 2014–15 Frisch Varsity Cougars (the 3-seed coming into the tournament having been reseeded from the top spot after losing a flukey heartbreaker in the Yeshiva League semifinals) to finally dispatch the top nationally ranked HAFTR Hawks by final score of 75-73.... HAFTR's last-gasp fling fell short and the Red Sea of Frisch fans parted onto the Court to celebrate Frisch's first Sarachek championship."
  22. Torok, Ryan. "Wild finish thrills Milken Wildcats' faithful", The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, March 7, 2017. Accessed October 8, 2017. "Meanwhile, Shalhevet, which also qualified to compete in the CIF state playoffs, elected instead to travel to New York to compete in the March 2–6 Red Sarachek Basketball Tournament at Yeshiva University in New York. The Firehawks lost, 49-47, in the championship game to the Frisch School Cougars of Paramus, N. J."
  23. Nussbaum, Jake. "Frisch to Host Wittenberg Tournament", Jewish Link of New Jersey, February 11, 2016. Accessed October 8, 2017.
  24. https://www.njsiaa.org/sites/default/files/documents/2020-11/20-ice-hockey-history.pdf NJSIAA Ice Hockey State Championship History
  25. Patti, Ryan. "Boys ice hockey: Frisch edges Scotch Plains-Fanwood 2-1 in McMullen Cup final", NJ Advance Media for NJ.com, March 5, 2021. Accessed March 6, 2021. "Ezra Csillag and Max Petak each netted a goal in the first period for second-seeded Frisch in its 2-1 victory over top-seeded Scotch Plains-Fanwood in the McMullen Cup final at Warinanco Ice Skating Center in Roselle."
  26. https://frisch.org/outside-the-classroom/community-service/ Community Service
  27. Staff. "Friendship Circle of Bergen County Offers December Mini-Camp for Students With Special Needs", Jewish Link of New Jersey, December 15, 2016. Accessed October 8, 2017.
  28. News: Meet teen chef Eitan Bernath: Drew Barrymore's foodie guru . The New York Post . 2020-12-11 . 2021-02-11 .
  29. Mooney, John. "2 Rhodes Scholars, So Far -- A Tradition Of Excellence In Education Challenge", The Record, February 6, 1997. Accessed November 11, 2015. "A year ago, the scholarship went to Jeremy Dauber, Class of '90, now in his first of two years at Oxford."
  30. Web site: Matthew. Kassel. 2020-07-17. She fled Tehran at age 4. Now 44, Tali Farhadian Weinstein is running for Manhattan DA. 2021-05-12. Jewish Insider. en-US.
  31. Siemaszko, Corky. "Eerie Links Between 2 N.J. Women", New York Daily News, February 26, 1996. Accessed October 8, 2017. "The New Jersey women killed yesterday in a bus bombing in Jerusalem followed in the tragic footsteps of a former classmate Alisa Flatow. Sara Duker was one year ahead of Flatow at the Frisch Yeshiva High School in Paramus, N.J."
  32. Kratz, Elizabeth. "Jewish Center of Teaneck Welcomes Rabbi Daniel Fridman", Jewish Link of New Jersey, September 8, 2016. Accessed October 8, 2017. "Rabbi Fridman was raised in Teaneck and educated at Yavneh Academy, the Frisch School, Yeshivat Har Etzion and Columbia University."
  33. Moss, Linda. "Pieces of Penthouse founder's erotic collection in Englewood up for bid", The Record, November 9, 2013, backed up by the Internet Archive as of March 4, 2016. Accessed October 8, 2017. "As a product of the 1980s, Frommer, who attended the Frisch School in Paramus, was well acquainted with Penthouse. As a teenager, he would ride his bike to the local convenience store and try to coax older youths to buy him copies of the magazine."
  34. Park, Pearl J. "He Learns Political Science From Firsthand Experience -- Frisch Senior Is Lobbyist", The Record, October 16, 1991. Accessed February 20, 2008. "Frisch School senior Ryan Karben has strong political convictions -- and an equally strong desire to advocate them."
  35. http://www.cbst.org/About/Leadership/Religious-Leadership/Rabbi-Sharon-Kleinbaum-Senior-Rabbi Rabbi Sharon Kleinbaum, Senior Rabbi
  36. Hyman, Vicki. "Ivanka Trump to convert to Judaism to wed Jared Kushner", The Star-Ledger, November 5, 2008. Accessed September 2, 2011. "Kushner, a graduate of the Frisch School, a coed Jewish high school in Paramus, was raised in the Orthodox Jewish tradition, which frowns -- to put it mildly -- on intermarriages."
  37. News: Life in the Fishbowl for Jared Kushner. Peters. Jeremy W.. June 24, 2011 . The New York Times. April 19, 2017 . 0362-4331.
  38. Yellin, Deena. "Arthur Lenk", The Record, May 3, 1998, accessed April 16, 2007. "I grew up in Teaneck and graduated from Frisch Yeshiva High School in Paramus."
  39. Leichman, Abigail. "North Jerseyan named JTS dean", The Record, February 8, 2007. Accessed November 11, 2015.
  40. Staff. "Behind the Jewcan Sam controversy: Controversial Plastic Surgeon Offers Free Surgery To Jewish Singles", South Florida Jewish Home, March 29, 2012. Accessed August 26, 2015. "I went to A.S.H.A.R. in Monsey, Moriah in Englewood, NJ; spent freshman year of high school in Public School (Tappan Zee High School), where incidentally I was teased pretty regularly for my 'big Jewish Schnoz'; then went to the Frisch Yeshiva High School in Paramus, New Jersey."
  41. [Gary Rosenblatt|Rosenblatt, Gary]
  42. Dickter, Adam. "Sofer Sex", The Jewish Week, September 19, 2003. Accessed September 2, 2011. "It's not a likely career path for a former student of Achei Temimim, a Lubavitch grade school in Massachusetts, or the Frisch High School in Paramus. Sofer's father, Martin, is an Orthodox rabbi, as anyone who peruses her online biography or recent media interviews will learn."
  43. Bloom, Nate. "Noshes: Worth Checking Out", The Jewish Standard, June 29, 2007. "Spektor... went to middle school yeshiva in New York and, for her first two years in high school, she went to the Frisch School in Paramus."
  44. Engelmayer, Shammai. "A dream come true", The Jewish Standard, October 26, 2007. Accessed November 11, 2015. "One of the most interesting from a sectarian perspective is Yashar Books, located in Brooklyn and the brainchild of Gil Student, who grew up locally and who graduated from the Solomon Schechter Day School and the Frisch high school."
  45. Yudelson, Larry "Was a thank-you note a breach of etiquette?", Jewish Standard, January 25, 2018. Accessed December 12, 2020.
  46. Silow-Carroll, Andrew "Jared Kushner’s Jewish high school wants students to advocate for Israel. That’s a bad thing?", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 19, 2018. Accessed December 12, 2020.
  47. Maltz, Judy. "Kids at Kushner's Old High School Were Urged to Write Letters Sucking Up to Trump ñ and Parents Are Fuming", Haaretz, January 18, 2018. Accessed January 29, 2018.
  48. Moore, Jack. "Jared Kushner's High School is Making Children Write Lettres of Support to Donald Trump", Newsweek, January 17, 2018. Accessed January 29, 2018.
  49. Levine, Cecilia. "Frisch Principal Reveals More On Controversial 'Letters To Trump' Campaign", Paramus Daily Voice, January 17, 2018. Accessed December 12, 2020.
  50. Sommerfeldt, Chris. "Jared Kushner's old New Jersey high school encouraged students to sign letter praising President Trump", New York Daily News, January 17, 2018. Accessed December 12, 2020.

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