By Mayer Fertig
Issue of July 10, 2009 / 18 Tammuz 5769
The inaugural class of Shalhevet High School for Girls wraps up the school’s first year with a march up Fifth. Photo courtesy Machon HaTorah
Parents of girls who expected to attend Shalhevet High School for Girls in September, as incoming freshmen or returning 10th graders, were stunned on Tuesday to hear that the HAFTR board of trustees, which has been funding Shalhevet, voted overwhelmingly on Monday night to stop doing so. In all likelihood the decision will shut the school down after just one year of operation, though some parents expressed hope that it could be saved.
“Shalhevet is a victim of the tumultuous economic times that many not-for-profits, as well as yeshivot, are experiencing,” said Mark Honigsfeld, the incoming co-president of the Hebrew Academy of The Five Towns and Rockaway.
Shalhevet has been operating at a deficit “like any start-up school,” Honigsfeld said. Shalhevet was created to complement the all-boys Rambam Mesivta, which together with HAFTR, is operated under the banner of Machon HaTorah.
“HAFTR brought real estate and finances to the cooperative agreement. Rambam brought educational leadership,” explained Yaron Kornblum, the other incoming
Shalhevet High School for Girls students rallying at the United Nations.
co-president. Rabbi Yotav Eliach and Rabbi Zev Friedman of Rambam lead the various principals and administrators of the Machon. “It was HAFTR’s responsibility to fundraise and pay the deficit of the startup,” Kornblum said.
“HAFTR’s decision was a unilateral decision, made over our forceful objections,” Rabbi Friedman told The Jewish Star. “We believe it was unnecessary and unfortunate. It was very painful.” Shalhevet parents are searching for ways maintain the school he said, but, “Right now my focus is making sure these wonderful girls have a home for next year.”
“We have a fiduciary responsibility to our parents, especially in these times — we have a lot more people out of work, asking for tuition assistance — to use our resources to help people within the HAFTR family,” Kornblum said. The fact that few HAFTR eighth graders chose to attend Shalhevet apparently factored into the decision.
HAFTR will continue to fund the Machon, the co-presidents said, and through that, Rambam. They declined to comment about what they termed “ongoing negotiations” but stressed that further changes to the Machon HaTorah relationship at this time would be for Rambam to decide.
“I’m devastated and I’m hoping that we’ll be able to muster the parents together to continue in an independent form,” said the mother of an incoming 10th grader. She
Building a sukkah for someone else can be much more than a chesed project. Rabbi Steve Moskowitz, a rebbe at Shalhevet High School for Girls, used this sukkah his ninth graders built at an Ohel Bais Ezra residence for women in Woodmere as a hands-on tool to teach the halachot of constructing a sukkah. (L-R) Devora Eisenberg, Michelle Weisblum, Deena Warshaw, Shoshana Wagman, Zahava Moskowitz and Rabbi Moskowitz. (Photo courtesy of Machon HaTorah)
didn’t want to be named, citing concerns about placing her daughter in another school, if need be. “I personally hope that we can somehow make it continue.”
“It’s an exceptional school. She took Arabic. She can now read and write Arabic after one year. She took advanced math. The Ivrit was excellent. The Limudei Kodesh was excellent. College bowl, debate team. It is an excellent school.”
Robbie Zeitz, the father of an incoming freshman, who was apprised of the decision this afternoon called it “unconscionable.”
His daughter, an eighth grader at Shulamith School for Girls in Brooklyn, went through “trauma and turmoil” there this year. Shulamith will not have a ninth grade in September. “We found Shalhevet and knowing it was part of Machon HaTorah, we felt secure and reassured,” he said. “40 girls were set to go and now, without warning and with less than two months until school starts, their future and their security has been pulled right out from under them by an unconscionable act.”
“We recognize the extreme issue as far as placement,” Honigsfeld said. “We are mitigating that by offering seats in our high school at the same economic terms.” HAFTR’s tuition is significantly higher. “Alternatively, administrators from both Rambam and HAFTR will assist getting these students placed in other all-girls yeshivot in the metropolitan area,” he said, and “any advance payments of tuition will be fully refunded, one hundred percent.”
“We already have at least one prospective child who has contacted us,” about attending HAFTR High School, said Ruben Maron, the executive director. “We have at least one who is registering, we’ve had other inquiries.”
Shalhevet “was a great concept but bad timing,” Kornblum said.
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This article presents the results of the merger as having been unfair and damaging to the Shalhevet students. Meanwhile, for the past three years, HAFTR parents have apparently taken on the finanical responsiblity of starting a new school. HAFTR programs have been cut, enrollment has declined and teachers have been dismissed or reduced. The impact of this odd decision to have merged the schools has been much wider than this article implies.
Why did the HAFTR board agree to hire this administration under such unusual conditions, and why have Rabbis Friedman and Eliach not been held accountable?
[...] The Jewish Star also reports that Shalhevet High School for Girls, an offshoot of HAFTR, is closing after opening last year. [...]
A agree 100% with miriam27. The Jewish Star–usually the gold standard for Jewish journalism in the Five Towns–is missing a BIG story here. This is major, major for the community. There is a flame war going on over the HAFTR entry on wikipedia and a lot of blogging on other sites (it is difficult to blog on here because one needs a separate WordPress account). Mayer, PLEASE look into how this ill-fated partnership came about; the damage that was done to HAFTR teacher, parent and student morale by Rabbi Friedman; the teachers who lost their Parnassa because Rabbi Friedman diverted HAFTR funds to Shalhevet; etc., etc.
[...] HaTorah, a three-school organization that was formed three years ago. The HAFTR board two weeks ago voted to stop funding the Shalhevet deficit, citing extreme financial pressures facing HAFTR [...]