News

It's another Chanukah miracle: a small group of Jewish men defy the odds and emerge victorious. The Maccabeats, 14 current and former students from Yeshiva University. Their hit song "Candlelight," a take-off on Taio Cruz's "Dynamite," has gone viral and reached over almost four million hits on YouTube.

The Maccabeats are everywhere these days. The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, CNN.com, the home pages of both MTV and AOL, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, the Today Show, CBS's The Early Show, radio stations all over the world, and on and on.. At one point, it was considered the 5th most popular song in the world.

Ari Lewis (son of Doug and Orly Lewis), one of singers and soloists of the Maccabeats, was interviewed by the New York based Jewish Press, among many other news outlets about the new found fame of the four year old, Yeshiva University based A Cappella group. The Jewish Press which noted that Ari hailed from Richmond, VA., asked his thoughts on the success of "Candlelight" which has been nothing short of meteoric, and mostly unprecedented for an Orthodox-themed song from an Orthodox group.

"I get e-mails saying 'you made me observe Chanukah for the first time in 20 years,'" said Julian Horowitz, the 23-year-old musical director of the Maccabeats.

"I must have answered 100 e-mails today," said Lewis. "And by the time I was done, there must have been another 100 new ones. It has been so phenomenal and we have gotten so much positive feedback, from parents about their kids, from teachers about their students, from Orthodox Jews, unaffiliated Jews, non-Jews, so many emotional comments. We feel so special that we were able to touch so many people's lives."

YVA had an impressive showing in its inaugural participation in the Yeshiva University - Sy Syms School of Business $100,000.00 Stock Market Challenge. Over 160 teams from 36 schools nationwide participated in this competition, and YVA had three teams finish in the Top 20, with the highest placing at #6 overall.

The competition consisted of each student team managing an imaginary $100,000 portfolio of stocks, mutual funds, bonds, and commodities over a ten week period. Trades were made over the internet using the StockTrak Market Simulation. Participants learned market trends and strategies, develop a sense of portfolio management, and received a taste of the modern business environment.

YVA’s Principal, Rabbi Hal Klestzick, recently served as Chairman of the 2010 National Convention of Torah Umesorah, the National Society for Hebrew Day Schools. Torah Umesorah is the largest organization of Jewish schools in the United States, serving over 700 schools with more than 150,000 students. This year’s convention brought over 1300 Jewish educators from around the world for four days of professional development, seminars, and networking.

During the convention, the leadership of Torah Umesorah was effusive in its praise of Rabbi Klestzick and Richmond's Jewish school system, lauding the school's recent growth from a tiny school with 20 students into four flourishing school divisions with over 150 students. The overwhelming sentiment from the national leadership was optimistic that all indications pointed toward even greater growth for Jewish Richmond in the future.

Rabbi David Nojowitz, President of Torah Umesorah, also publicly recognized the pivotal contributions that Rabbi Klestzick has made to the growth of Torah Umesorah and its numerous educational institutions throughout North America.