The Message Behind Frisch's The Alumni

The following posting by Rabbi Tzvi Pittinsky, our Director of Educational Technology, is cross-posted from his blog, techrav.blogspot.com.

I have been in the midst of helping to coordinate our get-out-the-vote drive for the Avi Chai Foundation's Jewish Day School Video Academy Awards: Alumni Edition. ---Here's my PSA: If you have not already done so, please vote for our entry in this contest by going to video.frisch.org and giving Frisch's The Alumni a "Thumb's Up".--- What I have learned is that this contest is not just a great lesson in digital storytelling and the art of social media but has also been a tremendous boost for our school spirit and a great model for our student's of all the values that we hold dear.

Let me explain. Frisch's entry Frisch's The Alumni is another first class production from our team of talented faculty alumni filmmakers, Rabbi David Goldfischer and Rabbi Jonathan Feldman who in the past have produced such popular hits as The Fiddler on the School and The Sound of Ruach. When you watch the current video side-by-side with the Avenger's Assemble movie trailer it is spoofing- I have embedded both videos below- you realize how clever this video truly is. However, it is much more...

By featuring twelve alumni who have chosen to rejoin our school as Frisch faculty, this video is a tremendous model for our students of the importance of service and giving back to the Jewish community. The values we preach, we teach and follow ourselves. Full disclosure: I am NOT a Frisch alumnus although many of my friends in high school went to Frisch (I was kind of jealous of them), I have taught in Frisch for eleven years, and now I am the proud parent of two current Frisch students.

During our drive Thursday to get our students to vote, I realized how remarkable a message this is. "Please support your Frisch faculty alumni by voting for our video because one day you will be a Frisch alumnus and they might make a video about you and how you are giving back to the Jewish community!" What an incredible message! And the kids responded and voted and voted. Over 250 student voters in one hour. (The candy we were handing out didn't hurt.) But what our kids were truly voting for was their deep respect for their alumni teachers and their desire some day, in some way to follow in their footsteps.

So please share this video below with your friends and family. Not because we want your vote- although we do, don't forget video.frisch.org- but because in its over-the-top, funny way, it shares such an important message that our Modern Orthodox Jewish world needs now more than ever; the importance of giving back to our Jewish community. This is the ultimate way that we can show our hakarat hatov, thankfulness, for all those who have given so much to make us into committed and thoughtful Jewish individuals.

Below is Frisch's The Alumni:


And the Avengers Assemble trailer that it is spoofing. Enjoy the videos and the message!