News

All it took was a little magic to rev us up for the Spring semester after winter break disappeared. The Amazing Alex Mehl was up to the task and, as the saying goes, we could not believe our eyes. Among the highlights:

It was the first time the Super Bowl was played in NY/NJ, in a cold weather outdoor stadium, but Super Mishmar was a return in Queens, in the warm beis medrash at LCM. While some watched the disappointing game, many headed to the beis medrash. Mimon Mamane says the turnout was awesome, and the room was packed. Rabbi Meir Shalem’s shiur on “Halachos of Gambling” was a great success and especially apt with active fantasy football betting pools nationwide. Rabbi Moshe Crystal gave his navi shiur on Sefer Shmuel Alef about Eli who would travel to the mishkan for the regel.

As finals dwindled down, Lander Men headed off campus for a couple of weeks vacation. Some traveled home to see family, some stayed local, some continued learning at Lander, and some set off in search of sun or snow (yes, despite the winter we’re having, snow).

The first thing every prospective LCM student ought to know is that he will receive a top-notch education. But as 75 students who came to the recent melave malkah in Israel learned, they can also expect Torah, chevra, ruach and a whole lot of food.

Aaron Benia won the Lander College Stock Market Challenge. Again. This is not a recording.

Benia, a psychology major, has now won three of the last four contests, this time coming out on top with a ridiculous 28 percent return on investments.

The First Annual South Florida Reunion took place last week at RARE Steakhouse in Miami Beach. Thank you to event chairs Ben Tabaria and Mordy Landesman for organizing the get together, which was both fun and tasteful (both meanings apply, but we’re really talking about the food). Jordan Lahav, Yoshua Attia, Yakov Hill, Jeff Malley, Gavi Berman, Johnny Chames and Josh Fox, in addition to Ben, Mordy and LCM Director of Alumni Affairs Aryeh Young, met up at RARE to reconnect, catch up and fill up. We’ll X off the days until next year’s reunion and stay in touch in the meantime!

Sure, it’s not March Madness, but we can still hoop it up. The team of Ezra Bookbinder, Avraham Young, Jonathan Yousefzadeh, Ilan Attar, Shlomo Shasha, Yosef Zelka, Nachum Twersky and Joseph Gomez emerged victorious during the annual LCM intramural basketball tournament, coming back from a 38-point deficit with just over six minutes left in the finals and winning 62-38 in overtime.

Dr. Yitzchak Goldstein is a graduate of Lander College for Men and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and currently a third-year pathology resident at Montefiore Medical Center. Einstein's pathology department recently featured his research in their Department of Pathology Newsletter. Using a software called Clinical Looking Glass (CLG), a proprietary analytics software program developed by researchers and clinicians at Montefiore Medical Center, Dr. Goldstein can track  thousands of patients who had a lab test performed, following them over time to see if, and when, they develop a clot. Reprinted with permission. 

The Psychology Club welcomed Avi Golden to speak about Aphasia, a disorder in the part of the brain that controls language. In 2007 the then-33-year-old Golden suffered a stroke that left him unable to speak. Through a rigorous schedule of rehabilitation—including six hours in speech therapy every day—Golden regained the ability to speak, though with great difficulty and several limitations. For instance, Golden cannot remember names, at least as they pertain to speech itself. That is, other than members of his immediate family, if he sees someone, even a close friend, he can’t say their names. The information is still in his brain but trapped in the pathways between his memory and his ability to speak, so he could still write the name down on a piece of paper and then read it aloud. About 40 guys came to hear Golden, who still enjoys snowboarding and horseback riding as he did before the stroke,  talk about his condition and recovery.