Posted on 04/16/25
| News Source: Arutz-7
The students of the Lapid Bnei Akiva Yeshiva High School in Modiin will forfeit the final rounds of the international FIRST Robotics Championship in the United States to observe the Shabbat and the holiday of Passover.
The students reached the final tournament after excelling in the "community impact" category due to many activities over the year for the sake of the community and spreading science and technology among various populations.
The school's robotics team, which consists of 20 students, three alumni mentors, two teachers, and a chaperone parent, will present the judges and the other teams from around the world with the robot they worked on over the past few months. However, the team forfitted first place ahead of time since the final rounds of the competition will take place over the weekend, which is the seventh day of the Passover holiday.
"It's a bit upsetting, but on the other hand, there's a feeling that we're sactifying G-d's name," Motti Avraham, the delegation coordinator and a teacher in the school, explains. "We want to show everyone that we could reach these levels, but that our values, those of the Jewish people, are more important. We prepared a nice poster explaining why we aren't participating in part of the competition."
Regarding the achievement, Avraham notes: "'If you worked and achieved - believe it.' The students worked hard and professionally, they didn't give up, and everything was done calmly, with love and dedication, and there's no doubt that they deserve to represent us."