Yeshivah of Flatbush Alumni

Happy Graduation Day to our seniors! They will be joining a legacy of nearly 90 years of Jewish American Yeshivah of Flatbush grads, and we welcome them to our incredible alumni community. Swipe to see the rich history of Flatbush graduations from the 1930s-1990s!

Alumni repping YOF at the 2024 Israeli Day Parade! 💚

🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱 Happy Israeli Day Parade! 🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱

Swipe 👉 for some throwbacks from over the years!

Our incredible “olim” celebrating Yom Ha’atzmaut with their families at the SY Picnic BBQ organized by ! It’s amazing to see how many of our alumni have been inspired to make Aliyah to Eretz Yisrael 🇮🇱

YOF alumni families celebrating Israel’s Independence Day last week at our Yom Ha’atzmaut concert with 💙🇮🇱

🇮🇱🇮🇱🇮🇱 Happy 76th birthday to Israel!! Yom Ha’atzmaut is definitely one of the best and most memorable celebrations organized by the Yeshivah! Here are some YOF photos dating all the way back to 1975 🕺

Today is Yom Hashoah. We remember and honor the 6 million lives that were lost in the Holocaust. We also remember that “All Jews are Responsible for One Another” and are reminded of this vital task when reading seven harrowing letters written by Yeshivah of Flatbush Elementary School students in 1942. These are the only letters of such a nature from Jewish organizations and Jewish schools in the State Department files.

Scroll to read these moving pieces of children’s voices crying out to President Roosevelt to aid their Jewish brethren in Europe. We are proud of the Yeshivah’s long tradition of teaching its children “All Israel is responsible for one another” — which is borne out in these tender letters and continues till today through programs like Witness Theater, rally’s standing in solidarity with Israel and its citizens, and school-wide support for our IDF soldiers. We must and always speak up.

This Sunday, May 5th, YOF students will be performing in our annual Witness Theater, where they portray real life stories of Holocaust survivors with whom they have worked closely with throughout the academic year. This project is led by JBHS Director of the Arts and YOF alum, Sally Grazi-Shatzkes (ES ‘95, HS ‘99), who recently published a chapter on “Witness Theater: The Power of Embodied Storytelling” in the book “Theatre Responds to Social Trauma: Chasing the Demons.” Sally’s chapter gives a detailed glimpse into the process of Witness Theater in theory and in practice. It includes many anecdotal stories about students and survivors, highlighting the unique relationships that have been formed over the last 12 years of facilitating the program. Kol Hakavod Sally, we are so proud of your dedication and commitment to this important project!👏

Passover is just around the corner, so we’re throwing it back to 2009 HS Pesach packaging! Tag your friends :)

Recap of this past Sunday’s 50th reunion! We were thrilled to welcome back the Class of 1974. The classmates were so excited to see one another and schools transformation since their last visit. Thank you to our hardworking and dedicated reunion committee for making it such a memorable event!

🌸 Last night we welcomed back so many alumni mothers at our Mother Daughter Bat Mitzvah Celebration for 6th grade girls. The evening was “Shabbat” themed, and consisted of arts and crafts, dessert, dancing and kumzitz. We loved seeing these familiar faces!

Thank you to our sponsors, Randi & Phillip Green, Mimi & Jack Senior, and Erica, Nathan & Sally Rose Dweck.

🎉 Happy 101st birthday to one of our oldest alums and WWII veteran, Robert G. Stone (ES ‘36)! Mr. Stone has expressed how proud he is to have gone to the Yeshivah, especially in its early years. He recalls fondly his teacher and founder of the school, Dr. Joel Braverman, who he says was the “father of the students” and told a young Mr. Stone to comb his typically disheveled hair saying “I hope when you come back [from summer break], you will have learned to comb your hair.” Mr. Stone remembers the exchange with Mar Braverman to this day and still laughs about it nearly 90 years later, saying that “every time I comb my hair I think of him!”

Mr. Stone is amazed at what the school has become “it [YOF] started from a little nothing and it has blossomed incredibly.” His only disappointment was when he learned that a high school had been created 14 years after he graduated, and regrets that he was not able to attend a YOF high school! Mr. Stone now lives in Arizona, but was invited to take a tour of the Yeshivah in 2021 with classmate Dr. Deborah Eiferman. The former classmates were so excited to take a tour of the elementary school and met with a small group of eighth grade students who asked about their experience at YOF and their lives growing up in the 1920s and 30s. After that, they visited Morah Ettie Yaday’s Kindergarten class and the children regaled them with a number of Hebrew songs and dancing.

The school has truly blossomed, and we are grateful to graduates like Mr. Stone for sharing memories of its humble beginnings. Thank you Mr. Stone for telling us your stories and regaling your love for the Yeshivah and Judaism. Wishing you good health, happiness, and many more joyous birthdays!