SAR High School

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Salanter Akiba of Riverdale High School
Address
503 West 259th Street Bronx, New York City , New York United States
Coordinates	40°54′26″N 73°54′16″W / 40.90722°N 73.90444°W / 40.90722; -73.90444
Information
Type	Private high school
Motto	It's not just what you learn, it's who you become
Established	2003
Locale	Residential area
Principal	Rabbi Tully Harcsztark Rabbi Jonathan Kroll
Faculty	117.0 FTEs[1]
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	593 (as of 2019-2020)[1]
Student to teacher ratio	4.6:1[1]
Color(s)	Black and yellow
Team name	SAR Sting
Newspaper	The Buzz
Website	saracademy.org

Salanter Akiba Riverdale High School (SAR High School) is a Modern-Orthodox Jewish day school located in Riverdale, New York City. It was founded in 2003 by Rabbi 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 of 4.45:1.

Extracurricular activities[edit]

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^{[citation needed]}; 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, Debate, Mock Trial, College 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^{[citation needed]}, including the Optimum Charity Champions grant in 2015.^[2] In 2019, SAR's Economics Club won the National Championships in the Personal Finance Challenge, beating over 18,000 other students nationwide.^[3]

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, and Maya Wiley, were in attendance.^[4]

Sports[edit]

All of SAR's teams are members of the Metropolitan Yeshiva High School Athletic League, 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^{[citation needed]}. SAR also has a Fencing Team that competes once a year with other Jewish day schools.

Tefillin controversy[edit]

In 2013, SAR High School made news by allowing female students to put on tefillin during morning prayers, becoming one of the first Modern Orthodox schools to do so.^[5] This decision was generally supported by most conservative people; however it did cause the school to receive significant backlash from the more traditional community.^{[citation needed]}

COVID-19 related shutdown[edit]

On Tuesday, March 3rd, 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, becoming the first school in the United States to close for the pandemic ^{[citation needed]}. The parents of students were asked to remain calm while no other cases were reported.^[6] The sister schools responded rapidly to the closing of classes. Within 24 hours, the schools had set up a plan for remote learning for their students, using the platform Zoom.^[7]

External links[edit]

• SAR High School Home Page

References[edit]