Hebrew Academy of Long Beach eighth-graders know their history

The Hebrew Academy of Long Beach held its fifth annual History Day Fair last month and had 14 eighth-graders in three different categories with winning projects.

The fair is a part of a national history competition known as National History Day. Students present their historical projects and compete against each other in diverse categories.

More than half a million students come compete annually.
Each year the topics changes. This year it was “Debate and Diplomacy: Successes, Failures, and Consequences.”

Students are given the freedom to choose whichever moment in history they would like, and even the type of project they would like to do such as an exhibit, a performance or a research paper.

HALB’s student projects consisted of documentaries, exhibits and websites. The winners advance to the Long Island History Fair competition.

Through the projects, the students learn how to develop and expand time management skills, organization, research and collaboration, along with the about the importance of debate, and the various types of diplomacy that exist to foster relationships between nations.

Under the guidance of social studies teacher Kristen Waterman, the students have worked for the past five months on their projects. They researched historical events from the 1840s and the 1970s.

Winning Documentary: “The Auschwitz Protocols: Creating a Debate and Sparking Diplomatic Action” by Isaac Cohen, Dovid Feldhamer, Sammy Rosenblatt, Yehoshua Wiesel and Daniel Wohlgelernter.

Winning Exhibit: “Mary Surrat – Innocent Victim or Criminal Mastermind?” by Anya Fischman, Ariella Gast, Dahlia Singer and Yaira Steinman

Winning Website: “A Failure of Diplomacy at Evian” by Yehoshua Fogel, Michael Freund, Aaron Hackel, Joshua Lampert and Noam Lazar.