Frisch School


The Frisch School, commonly known as Yeshivat Frisch, is a coeducational yeshiva high school located in Paramus, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1972 by Rabbi Menachem Meier and Alfred Frisch, it adheres to the tenets and practices of Modern Orthodox Judaism. Most of the students are from the Jewish communities of Teaneck, Englewood, Fair Lawn, and Monsey, with some commuting from New York City and Central New Jersey.
The school is named for founder Alfred Frisch, who owned the land on which the original campus was situated prior to the school's inception in 1972. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 1992. Its accreditation expires in 2022.
As of the 2015–16 school year, the school had an enrollment of 637 students and 85.8 classroom teachers, for a student–teacher ratio of 7.4:1. The school's student body was 99.7% White and 0.3% Asian. In the past five years, Frisch has grown from a population of 549 to 861 students during the 2019-2020 academic year.

Values

Frisch's core four values are intellectual inquiry, religious growth, pursuit of passion, and creating a community of kindness. The school's formal curriculum and extra-curricular programming are geared toward fostering these ideals.

Campus

For the 2007-2008 school year, Frisch moved to 120 West Century Road in Paramus. Frisch purchased this site, of land and an office building, and renovated what had been an office building, constructing an addition. The campus includes 41 classrooms, a learning center, six science laboratories, a state-of-the-art gymnasium, a two-story library, music and art studios, a Beit Midrash, a makerspace, and a publications room. Outdoors, the campus has a softball field, two tennis courts, a basketball-hockey, and a soccer field encircled by a running track. Indoors, the building is wired for a modern computer network and cutting-edge technology. The campus is named in honor of Billionaire Henry Sweica, who donated the campus.
The school formerly resided at E. 243 Frisch Court in Paramus, on a plot of land.

Academics

All students at Frisch complete a rigorous, dual-curriculum of general and Judaic studies. The school has multiple academic tracks, allowing students at all levels to challenge themselves and thrive within the classroom.
Incoming students choose between seven specialty tracks: Beit Midrash, Engineering, Entrepreneurship, Humanities Lab, Music, Visual Arts, and World Languages. Each track provides specialized academic/vocational training, and multiple opportunities throughout the year for students to apply their skills.

Student government

The school has a powerful student government. The Student government consists of two chambers: the executive board and the regular student council. Seats in government are very competitive, and elections are held at the end of each school year.
The executive board is composed of four members, including both the president and vice-president of the school. The president is the person who wins the most votes, and the vice-president is the person who wins the second most votes.
The student council is composed of eight members, two from each grade.

Co-curricular programs and activities

Clubs

Frisch currently has over 100 co-curricular activities, including: Art Club, Biophysics Club, Drama Society, Film Club, Photography Club, Poetry Club, Sewing Club, Chessed Society, Chess Team, Chidon HaTanach, College Bowl, Debate Team, Federal Reserve Bank Challenge, Math League, Model Beit Din, Torah Bowl, Robotics Club, Coding Club, Girls Who Code, Science Olympiad, Choir, Jazz Ensemble, Performance Ensemble, America Israel Student Action Committee, Mock Trial, Model Congress, Model United Nations, Student Council, Frisch Torah Journal, Foreign Language Journal, Kalliope, Yearbook, American Sign Language Club, Cougar Nation Network, Dance Club, Finance Club, Frisch Farm, Lacrosse Club, Intramural Sports, Improv Club, Outdoor Soccer, Memory Club, Peer Tutoring, Pre-Med Society, Environmental Club, Ocean Preservation Society, and Ski Club.

Sports

There are 25 athletic teams and seven athletic clubs in total. More than 70 percent of students participate on one or more of the sports teams and clubs. There are four basketball teams, one baseball team, two boys floor hockey teams, one girls floor hockey team, and one boys wrestling team, which consecutively won five Wittenberg wrestling titles. There are three volleyball teams – the girls volleyball teams have won the most championship games of any yeshiva volleyball team - three soccer teams, two swimming teams, three softball teams, one bowling team, and two track teams, among others. Frisch also has the first-ever yeshiva ice hockey team, which, in its first year of existence, qualified for the NJ state tournament. Frisch competes in ice hockey under the supervision of the New Jersey State Interscholastic Athletic Association. In 2016, 50 percent of Frisch's Yeshiva League sports teams qualified for the championships, and six teams won the championships.
The baseball team has won three consecutive Metropolitan Yeshiva High School Athletic League titles, and won the Columbus Baseball Invitational yeshiva high school tournament, dubbed the "Jewish World Series", in each of 2016 and 2017.
In 2015, Frisch won the Red Sarachek Tournament hosted by Yeshiva University for the first time. After losing in the championship game in 2013 and 2014, they defeated the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway by a score of 75-73 in triple-overtime to claim the title. In 2017, Frisch came back and won the Sarachek Tournament, defeating the Shalhevet Firehawks by a score of 49-47 in the tournament final.
In 2016, Frisch began hosting the Wittenberg Wrestling Tournament, after Yeshiva University announced that it would no longer host the annual event.

Chesed

A Chesed Society coordinates community projects throughout the year. Frisch students run a winter camp for children with special needs who have off from public school during the winter break week.

Shiriyah

Each year, students at Frisch take part in Shiriyah, a week-long extravaganza of creativity and camaraderie based around a Torah theme. Students create artistic murals, Rube Goldberg machines, "stomp" dances, music, skits, Escape the Room games, decorate the hallways, and more. The week provides an opportunity for every student to shine at something they excel at, or try their hand at a new skill. The week of Shiriyah culminates in a school-wide event during which the students present their work to family, friends and faculty.

Notable alumni

The students were urged to write letters to President Trump, praising his decision to relocate the U.S Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. This was done without consent of the parents. The school's spiritual leader, Rabbi David Sher, sent an email to students, telling them to write to Trump and express admiration for his "courageous leadership." The students were further told to "remember to sign your name at the bottom."
Dozens of parents at the school lodged complaints, stating that the move was "sycophantic" and that the school should be "apolitical" and not attempt to "normalize Trump."
The school principal, Rabbi Eli Ciner, claimed that a reporter leaked this information to the press without parental consent. Ciner, in an effort to protect himself, further stated that only parents who were not happy with Trump complained and that the press had exaggerated the number of complaints.
Jason Greenblatt was invited to speak at an assembly at Frisch, where he repeatedly told students that any allegation or investigation against Trump is to be considered "fake news." Parents claimed that there was no "letter-writing campaign to thank Obama for the Iron Dome," only criticism, and that "Schools can't say we're apolitical so we're not going to address the president's bullying and lying and racism, and at the same time ask the kids in your school to write emails of gratitude for faithful service to the country. Something's wrong with that. The message to the kids is that all those things don't really matter because all we care about is that Jerusalem is the capital. If that's all Judaism is supposed to be about for our kids, we're really making a mistake. It has the potential to turn off a lot of kids from Judaism totally. And a lot of adults."
Former Frisch alumnus claimed that Frisch's "support for Trump is, and opposition to Obama was, rooted in racism.".