As Ramaz continues to re-implement its live school events and emphasize a return to pre-pandemic practices, the yearly Upper School open house will take place inside the building once again for the first time since 2019. The open house will be held on Saturday night, November 12th, but its preparations and logistics, overseen by Ms. Shara Lipson, Director of Admissions, and Ms. Aviva Lieber, Associate Director of Admissions, have been in the works for months leading up. Both Ms. Lipson and Ms. Lieber are excited—and, as they admit, also anxious—about the live event and look forward to welcoming prospective Ramaz community members into the building.

Unlike in years past, the live open house will be a program geared solely toward prospective parents. Students, on the other hand, will be able to explore Ramaz through other programs, such as taking part in sample classes during a virtual “PanoRAMa” night or spending the day at the Upper School on November 17th, where they will be able to experience the day-to-day life of a Ramaz student in the building itself. Ms. Lipson described that there were pros and cons to hosting a virtual open house for the past two years and emphasized that “I think, in the big picture, what we really learned in recent years is that we should trust who we are [as a school].” As in years past, the open house will be designed to highlight the diversity of the Ramaz academic and co-curricular offerings; however, it will also try to show the prospective parents what truly differentiates Ramaz from other modern Orthodox day schools in the area. 

Both Ms. Lipson and Ms. Lieber view students as the best representations of Ramaz and its values as a school. Ms. Lipson explained, “We know that parents want to hear from the students more than anything else.” As a result, the open house will largely revolve around students’ voices and perspectives through a panel of nine students and three student speakers. The student panel will answer general questions from parents about Ramaz and its student experience in a live discussion moderated by Rabbi Joshua Lookstein ’88, Associate Head of School, and Ms. Esther Buterman, Chief Communications Officer. The panel comprises three seniors (Ari Porter ’23, Joyce Salame ’23, Aaron Green ’23), one junior (Aviva Schilowitz ’24), three sophomores (Rachel Buller ’25, Noa Essner ’25, Leo Eigen ’25), and two freshmen (Judah Gerber ’26, and Delilah Weiss ’26). Meanwhile, the student speakers (Emily Vayner ’23, Bobby Sigoura ’25, Abby Gurwitz ’23) will provide their personal insights into the life of a Ramaz student, and focus on more specific opportunities they have pursued at the school.

In addition to the student panel and speakers, the open house will also allow attendees to meet Upper School faculty and administrators. Mr. Jonathan Cannon, Head of School, and members of the leadership team will speak, and there will also be an assortment of sample classes offered to parents taught by teachers at the school. 

When trying to coordinate all of the different elements of the open house, Ms. Lipson and Ms. Lieber acknowledged that there were a lot of moving pieces, which was not as much of a concern when it was conducted virtually. At the same time, they also place great importance on the return of the live open house. As Ms. Lieber described, the opportunity for parents to be “coming into the building and walking around, seeing our spaces and…all the student helpers with their energy…” simply cannot be replicated.