An intensive afternoon Jewish studies program for area high school students is being planned for next year.

Yoel Kaplan says the Community Talmud Torah that he plans to open in September will serve public school students and others who are not being served by the community’s yeshivah high schools.

“There should be alternatives for students who are not living up to their fullest potential with the current models of Jewish education,” he says. “There are a lot of students who could do better in an alternative program that addresses their individual needs and is a little bit less cookie-cutter.”

On January 1, 2012, Joe Frost turned 107.

Honored last year by the city of Clifton as its oldest resident, Frost has lived in that city since the age of 12.

“He was born in Passaic in 1905,” said Bill Frisch, Frost’s 80-year-old nephew, also a Clifton resident. “We have his birth certificate.”

His uncle, however, moved to the neighboring town as a child and is still there, albeit now at Daughters of Miriam.

Shmuely Boteach, who bills himself as “America’s Rabbi,” is not a candidate for Congress in the newly formed 9th district. That does not mean, however, that he will not be on the ballot come November.

The website http://www.politickernj.com and other sites have reported that Boteach is seeking the Republican nomination to run against either Rep. Steve Rothman or Rep. Bill Pascrell, who will face each other for the Democratic nomination in June. The report was based on the fact that Boteach sent a letter to the offices of the Bergen County Republican Organization informing it that he is considering running.

To be considered by the Republicans for the nomination, Boteach told The Jewish Standard, meant sending a letter of intent no later than Jan. 31. Boteach said he did so at the last minute, but has yet to decide whether to actually enter the race.

Stanley Fischman wants his students to do the right thing — and more.

Fishman, director of general studies at the Ben Porat Yosef day school in Paramus, has just published a book encapsulating the moral lessons he has been teaching fourth graders.

“Seven Steps to ‘Menstschhood’: How to Help Your Child Become a Mentsch” is designed to enable parents to use classic Jewish principles as a framework for discussing the real challenges of ethics and character that children face.

The man who brought Gilad Shalit home is an immigrant from New York.

Gershon Baskin was the crucial negotiator in the secret talks that brought the captured soldier back to Israel in October after more than five years of imprisonment by Hamas.

Baskin will be speaking about the negotiations and Shalit’s release Monday night at the Kaplen JCC on the Palisades, in an event also sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey and several area schools and synagogues.

“I made aliyah in the framework of Young Judea,” Baskin said in an interview. “One of the things we learned is that the primary goal is not only to make aliyah, but to make a difference to Israel,” he said.

She just had to do it.

That is how Haworth teen Micaela Mangot explains an incident that took place when she was a little girl, distributing food and toiletries to the homeless in Washington, D.C.

“My family was always big into philanthropy,” said the 16-year-old, a student at Northern Valley Regional High School in Demarest. “They taught me good morals and values — that you should always help people and treat them as you want to be treated.”

“I was around 7, and we were in Washington, D.C.,” remembers Micaela. “There was a lot of poverty there, and I got very upset. I saw the homeless standing above the subway grate for warmth. I went back to the hotel and took the candy and toothbrushes and soap and conditioner and gave them to them in pillowcases. I had to.”

Brushing her teeth one day last spring, Woodcliff Lake teen Paige Alenick had an epiphany. “I was thinking about the little things we take for granted,” she said. “But some kids can’t afford simple necessities like a toothbrush.”

Then 15, Paige decided to do something about her “small idea.”

After doing research on dental health around the world, “I started collecting toothbrushes and asking friends for donations. Then I started reaching out to dentists and suppliers.”