The Yeshiva Octogenarian Podcast

Students in both campuses participated in an interdisciplinary project overseen by Mr. Krause, Mr. Ruebsteck, and Mrs. Rittri. Students listened to samples from a variety of  podcasts to identify the elements that add up to provide an engaging and informative experience. They took note of these, and then turned to the content research. 

Each decade since Yeshiva’s founding was divvied into smaller units of focus: world history; events in the Jewish world; Chabad history; Pittsburgh history; events in Pittsburgh’s Jewish world; and Yeshiva’s history. Students gathered in teams to research each of these subunits, taking notes, interviewing people, and reading archival material found in databases and local newspaper repositories. 

These notes were then turned into a script, with each decade receiving its own feature. Episode scripts were further edited for uniformity, so that there was consistency in tone. Students took a brief look at the technical side of podcasting, and learned how and where to record their portions of the episode.

Students in each building took turns recording portions of the script, which was then stitched together. Finally, Mr. Krause recorded the introductions to the sessions, and our technical team uploaded them to our school’s YouTube channel!

This project brought together history (world and local, along with Jewish history, Chabad and Yeshiva history), English Language Arts, Twenty-First Century skills, as well as the crucial softskills of communication, team-work, planning, research, and flexibility. Learning about our history in the context of world events and Jewish events brought students a new appreciation for our place in the story of Jewish education in America, and as a link in the chain of chinuch from the Rebbe Rashab right to our very day.