Volume 67, Issue 8

Tennis Table Team Marks the Latest Addition to Yeshiva Athletics
Freshman Class Gets Active
Rabbi Sobolofsky Appointed MYP Rosh Yeshiva
Super Bowl Party Draws Numerous Students
Student Directory Now Available by Phone 

Tennis Table Team Marks the Latest Addition to Yeshiva Athletics

Yeshiva athletics’ fans have a new sport to cheer for this month, as the University prepares to enter the National Collegiate Table Tennis Association (NCTTA). Three Yeshiva freshmen have taken the initiative to form a university tennis table team, pointing to the aftereffects of a resoundingly popular Ping-Pong tournament as evidence that the school is ready for the next step in the popular sport.

Yeshiva Freshmen Shmulik Rosenberg, Baruch Redfern and Joshua Sclar have combined efforts with Associate Professor of Mathematics Dr. Wenxiong Chen to help Yeshiva join the Manhattan division of the NCTTA.

“After realizing that Yeshiva had a lot of interested table tennis players through the annual table tennis tournament, we decided to start a more formal setting for table tennis play,” says Redfern. Redfern noted that in previous years, the tournament’s organization consisted of “a sheet being placed outside the athletics office for people to [sign up and] play one another haphazardly.” Now, comments Redfern, things are different. “This semester, real table tennis will be played.”

Team selection took place with tryouts conducted during the first week of February, but even those who did not make the team are still active members of the club. “Though my skills don’t match those of elite NCTTA competitors, being in the club enables me to continue to practice, hopefully one day reaching the level that Shmulik, Baruch, and Joshua have set for me,” says table tennis aspirant, Sy Syms sophomore Shmarya Gasner.

The club expenses, which include equipment, travel, and NCTTA admissions fees, have been sponsored by the Yeshiva clubs discretionary fund. 

Freshman Class Gets Active

Though the smallest class on campus with a measly 107 students, the freshman class has managed to forge an identity in recent weeks, thanks to numerous activities organized by the freshman officers, funded by the Yeshiva Student Union.

On Monday, December 16, more than 65 students went to Dougie’s. This included first-year students from Yeshiva and Stern College, and according to Freshman Class President Ryan Khordipour, the event was “our most successful this year.”

At the beginning of this semester, on Motzaei Shabbos, January 25, twenty students went to Lazer Park in Times Square. Like the Dougie’s event, the trip cost only $10 per student, with the remainder covered by the undergraduate student councils. Unlike the dinner trip, this event was only for Wilf Campus students.
Khordipour says that upcoming events include the Freshman Shabbaton and trips to New York City landmarks, as well as continuing academic advisement sessions specifically geared towards freshmen.

Rabbi Sobolofsky Appointed MYP Rosh Yeshiva

Rabbi Zvi Sobolofsky, an instructor in Talmud at Yeshiva’s Stone Beit Medrash Program for the past seven years, has been appointed a Rosh Yeshiva at the Yeshiva Program/Mazer School of Talmudic Studies.

Rabbi Sobolofsky, rabbi of K’hal Adath Jeshurun in Paramus, graduated from Yeshiva College in 1987, from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1990, and from the Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration in 1996.  During his tenure at RIETS, he studied in the Marcos and Adina Katz Kollel and the Gruss Kollel Elyon.

Super Bowl Party Draws Numerous Students

Super Bowl Sunday has become a nationwide excuse for getting together with friends and eating greasy food, and the same could be said at Yeshiva. Though the game between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Oakland Raiders developed into a blowout victory for the Bucs, hundreds flocked to Weissberg Commons to watch the game on a big screen, but more importantly, to get food.

During the first quarter chicken wings and spicy French fries from Dougie’s were served, and at halftime, hot dogs and baked beans were added to the menu, with soda accompanying the food. Refreshments came courtesy of the undergraduate student councils and the Office of Student Services, who sponsored the event.

Over two hundred students and alumni attended throughout, in addition to the hundreds who came for the food and then left. Though the on-field action resulted in the crowd leaving much earlier than it had the last two years, the event was still well-received by most students. “The game itself wasn’t great, but during the commercials people were silent in awe,” remarked Sy Syms junior Michael Ackerman. “And of course, the food was always plentiful.”
 

Student Directory Now Available by Phone 

The Yeshiva University student directory can now be reached over the phone. In addition to the Guide Part II, which should be out shortly, and the online guide available at YUstudents.org, the directory can now be accessed via the telephone. 

Those interested in finding a Yeshiva student can call 1-800-555-TELL, and when prompted, should enter Yeshiva’s code, which is 1-YESHI (93744).

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