Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School (SAR High School) is a Modern Orthodox

Jewish day school A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide children of Jews, Jewish parents with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full-time basis. The term "day school" is used to differentiat ...

located in the Riverdale section of

The Bronx, New York The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County to its north; to its south and west, the New York City bo ...

. It was founded in 2003 by

Rabbi A rabbi (; ) is a spiritual leader or religious teacher in Judaism. One becomes a rabbi by being ordained by another rabbi—known as ''semikha''—following a course of study of Jewish history and texts such as the Talmud. The basic form of t ...

Naftali (Tully) Harcsztark. The school is affiliated with SAR Academy, which is also in Riverdale. The high school's founding and current principal is Rabbi Tully Harcsztark. In fall 2019, previous assistant principal Rabbi Jonathan Kroll, returned to the school to serve as its Co-Principal. As of the 2017–18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 539 students and 121.0 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a

student–teacher ratio The student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio refers to the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers or staff in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that ...

of 4.45:1.

Extracurricular activities

Students have the opportunity to contribute to a wide variety of publications including ''Ruach Searah'', the Dvar Torah newsletter; 'SAR Broadcasting club' where students learn how to work cameras how to set up a broadcasting setup and broadcast sting/games played at the school. ''The Buzz'', the official school newspaper; Modern Affairs, the school's geopolitical and current events newspaper; The Science Journal; ''Math Mag'', an award-winning publication; the literary journal, ''Euphrates''; The Israel Activism Committee's ''HaOketz'' covering Israel current events; "House Divided", the first student-run publication dedicated to political and historical dialogue; SARcasm, the school satire magazine, and the Global Awareness and Action Committee's (GAAC) publication. Clubs include

Model United Nations Model United Nations, also known as Model UN (MUN), is an educational simulation of the United Nations, which teaches students about diplomacy, international relations, global issues, and how the United Nations is run. During a model UN confe ...

Debate Debate is a process that involves formal discourse, discussion, and oral addresses on a particular topic or collection of topics, often with a moderator and an audience. In a debate, arguments are put forward for opposing viewpoints. Historica ...

, Mock Trial,

College Bowl ''College Bowl'' (which has carried a naming rights sponsor, initially General Electric and later Capital One) is a radio, television, and student quiz show. ''College Bowl'' first aired on the NBC Radio Network in 1953 as ''College Quiz Bowl'' ...

, the Humanities Colloquium, and countless others. SAR also has many charity clubs, including the Cookies For A Cause Club, which has won multiple grants and awards, including the Optimum Charity Champions grant in 2015. In 2019, SAR's Economics Club won the National Championships in the Personal Finance Challenge, beating over 18,000 other students nationwide. In February 2021, The EPG (elections, politics, and governance) club held a town hall for the New York City mayoral election. Several candidates, including Andrew Yang,

Eric Adams Eric Leroy Adams (born September 1, 1960) is an American politician and former police officer who has served as the 110th mayor of New York City since 2022. Adams was an officer in the New York City Transit Police and then the New York City P ...

, and Maya Wiley, were in attendance.

Sports

All of SAR's teams are members of the

Metropolitan Yeshiva High School Athletic League The Metropolitan Yeshiva High School Athletic League (MYHSAL), or Yeshiva League, is a high school athletic league consisting of 36 Modern/Centrist Orthodox and two pluralist Yeshivas in the New York Metropolitan Area. It includes the sports of ba ...

, which is composed of many of the Jewish day schools throughout the New York metropolitan area. SAR teams compete in baseball, softball, hockey, soccer, Swim, volleyball, basketball, track, tennis, and wrestling. SAR's College Bowl team was featured in the 2012–2013 season of MSG Varsity's the Challenge. They were the Bronx/Brooklyn champions but lost in the following round. SAR also has a Fencing Team that competes once a year with other Jewish day schools.

History

The Salanter Akiba Riverdale (SAR) Academy was founded in 1969 with the merger of the Salanter Yeshiva, Akiba Hebrew Academy, and the Riverdale Hebrew Day School. In 2003, SAR High School was established. SAR High School is considered among the more liberal Modern Orthodox day schools in the United States. In 2013, the school granted permission for two female students to put on

tefillin Tefillin (Modern Hebrew language, Israeli Hebrew: / ; Ashkenazim, Ashkenazic pronunciation: ; Modern Israeli Hebrew, Modern Hebrew pronunciation: ), or phylacteries, are a set of small black leather boxes with leather straps containing scrolls o ...

during morning prayers, becoming what was believed to be one of the first Modern Orthodox schools to do so. In 2014, the school created a yearlong Jewish Sexual Ethics course for 10th graders that combined Jewish textual study with comprehensive sex education.

COVID-19 related shutdown

On Tuesday, March 3, 2020, an email was sent out to the SAR Academy and High School announcing that school would be closed due to a parent in the community having contracting

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. In January 2020, the disease spread worldwide, resulting in the COVID-19 pandemic. The symptoms of COVID‑19 can vary but often include fever ...

, becoming one of the first schools in the United States to close for the

pandemic A pandemic ( ) is an epidemic of an infectious disease that has a sudden increase in cases and spreads across a large region, for instance multiple continents or worldwide, affecting a substantial number of individuals. Widespread endemic (epi ...

. The parents of students were asked to remain calm while no other cases were reported. The sister schools responded rapidly to the closing of classes. Within 24 hours, the schools had set up a plan for

remote learning Distance education, also known as distance learning, is the education of students who may not always be physically present at school, or where the learner and the teacher are separated in both time and distance; today, it usually involves online ...

for their students, using the platform Zoom.

Notable alumni

* Talia Lavin — American journalist * Shabbos Kestenbaum — antisemitism activist

External links

SAR High School Home Page

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sar High School Educational institutions established in 2003 Private high schools in the Bronx Modern Orthodox Jewish day schools in the United States Riverdale, Bronx 2003 establishments in New York City Jewish day schools in New York (state)