Back to school guide 2011: local news briefs

New middle school opens in Great Neck

A sizable Reform temple campus will be hosting a yeshiva starting this September, a nod to the growth of the Chabad-run Silverstein Hebrew Academy and a symbol of interdenominational cooperation. “This is a beautiful campus that needs people. My grandfather looks at all the Jews and connects them together,” said Great Neck resident Michael Leventhal, touring the school with grandfather Stanley Silverstein, after whom it is named.
A founder of the high-end Nina Shoes company, Silverstein keeps close ties to local Orthodox, Conservative and Reform leaders, securing the classroom space from Temple Beth El for the new middle school division of the school. “We are up to our sixth grade and we were running out of space. Even our offices were being used for classrooms,” said general studies principal Gilda Tesser. The middle school will host grades six through eight.
Besides the new facility, Rabbi David Leibtag, who served as the director of HAFTR for 15 years, will direct the middle school. As the educational director, Rabbi Leibtag will instruct teachers on using smart boards and iPads in the classroom, taking inspiration from Chabad’s online teaching methods. “Chabad is at the forefront of online learning. Their shlichim are sophisticated in getting their children to learn,” describing how children of Chabad emissaries in isolated regions used online classrooms for their studies. “Many of the apps are amazing in addressing math problems,” Rabbi Leibtag said.
Designed for families with nonobservant and traditional backgrounds, the school will also offer lessons in communications, bar and bat mitzvahs, and lectures related to adolescence. Its secular subjects aim to compete with local public schools in exam scores. “As Chabad’s philosophy says, it’s to stimulate the minds and warm the hearts,” Rabbi Leibtag said. Each class will hold 15 to 18 students, with the gym space of the nearby Young Israel of Great Neck used for recreation.

Backpack collections in North Woodmere and Jericho