SINAI Schools was created over 40 years ago to fill a gap in the Jewish education system. Previously, parents of children with disabilities faced an extremely hard decision of choosing a school that either provided their child with individualized, necessary resources or a Jewish education. Currently, SINAI Schools partners with eight schools in New Jersey and New York to provide children with disabilities an individualized education that meets both their specific needs and a Jewish education within a Jewish day school setting.
Once again, SINAI Schools is aware of a gap in the Jewish education system that needs to be filled. At the SINAI Schools Annual Dinner on Feb. 23, SINAI Schools announced that it will be opening Adir Academy, the first Jewish therapeutic high school in the United States for children with significant mental health needs such as anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, emotional dysregulation and/or a history of suicidal ideation or self-injurious behaviors. Parents in the tri-state area will no longer need to choose between their child receiving the therapy and individualized services they need on a daily basis and a Jewish education.
Adir Academy will be a stand-alone Modern Orthodox Jewish high school in New York City. Jewish children of all denominations will be accepted. Adir Academy will have an extended school year model so that students will be able to receive the resources they need throughout the entire year. Students will be admitted on a rolling basis with the goal of providing each child the tools necessary to return back to a mainstream Jewish day school at any point in the student’s high school career.
Dr. Rebecca Eliason, a licensed clinical psychologist, is the associate dean, Therapeutic Schools of SINAI and co-founder of Adir Academy. Previously, Eliason served as head of school and director of psychological services at Barnstable Academy, a college prep school that provides academic excellence in a warm and supportive environment designed to help students thrive. Eliason has a private practice in Bergen County and works as a consultant for schools and organizations in enhancing their programs and services, boosting enrollment and guiding them with new teaching, training and development practices.
“Dr. Eliason has the professional training, experience and humanistic approach necessary to lead our efforts to create Adir Academy. She has a passion for assisting children and an ability to connect with people,” said Rabbi Dr. Yisrael Rothwachs, Leo Brandstatter z”l dean of SINAI Schools.
A typical week at Adir Academy will include core academic classes, Judaic classes, group therapy and individual therapy. Students will have access to the therapists throughout the school day. The academics will be individualized to meet each student’s needs and capabilities. The key goal of the Jewish components will be to ensure that students feel connected with Judaism and have the skills to live a Jewish lifestyle. Additionally, students will be able to choose elective classes in Judaic studies as well as art, STEM and other topics.
Rabbi Rothwachs emphasized that Adir Academy will provide a rigorous academic course. “Adir Academy will provide the skills necessary for the students to continue their learning, general studies and Judaic studies as well, so they can matriculate back into mainstream high school, college or yeshiva or seminary,” he said. “Our goal is that when students come to us, we help them maintain and grow their skills so that when they leave, they have the skills to be able to continue their Judaic and general studies learning.”
At Adir Academy, each staff member will be trained on the school’s therapeutic approach and methodologies as well as given the skills needed to work with each student in real time throughout the school day. According to Dr. Eliason, this type of staff training is essential. “At Adir Academy, staff members will be kept aware of the key skills that each student is working on in individual therapy so the student has the opportunity to more readily practice their developing skills in a real life situation with staff support. For example, a math teacher may see a student about to have an anxiety attack during class so that teacher may prompt or encourage the student to a specific strategy the therapist has been working on with that student to help the student work through their anxiety while remaining in their class. The goal of Adir Academy is to give the students the skills they need to use in other environments to allow them to be successful in the future,” Dr. Eliason said.
Arielle Greenbaum Saposh, associate managing director of SINAI, explained that SINAI is the perfect organization to create Adir Academy. “We have extensive experience creating schools designed to meet the needs of students with diverse challenges. Over the past 40 years, SINAI has built an infrastructure that supports these schools in a manner that is affordable and sustainable within our Jewish community. We will leverage this experience in creating Adir Academy,” she said.
The need for Adir Academy came to Rabbi Rothwachs’ attention from speaking with parents of children whose primary challenges are mental health related and from observing students with mental health challenges in SINAI Schools who need different support than SINAI provides. Additionally, the need for a therapeutic school was evident to Rabbi Rothwachs because of his involvement with school leaders and professionals. They frequently say that local schools are struggling with providing the appropriate resources to help students with mental health challenges. SINAI Schools also conducted a needs-assessment survey among parents, professionals and school educators and results showed that there is a strong need for a Jewish therapeutic school.
“To a great degree, the support we will be providing is quite literally life-saving. There are times when adolescents don’t get the help they need and tragedy strikes. For many children it is a real struggle. That awareness will make a life-saving impact,” Rabbi Rothwachs said.
The name “Adir” comes from the Hebrew word meaning strength since Adir Academy hopes to enable each student to find the strength within themselves to accomplish everything they are capable of.
“Children are coming to our school to tap into that inner strength that every person has,” Rabbi Rothwachs said. “Sometimes it is covered by layers and hard to access, and part of our job at Adir Academy is to enable our students to access that inner strength to grow and shine and be able to be meaningful contributing members of the community. We want to ensure that they have a real appreciation of themselves and who they are.”
Since announcing that Adir Academy will be opening, Eliason as well as SINAI Schools have received significant feedback from families.
“Since SINAI Schools announced Adir Academy, families have contacted me expressing that they wish Adir Academy existed when their child was in high school or that they have a child currently in this situation. There is a really significant amount of children who need Adir Academy. Please God, we will have something to offer them that is helpful,” said Eliason.
In order to ensure that Jewish adolescents in our community receive the necessary support to attend Adir Academy, it will be affordable for all families. Adir Academy is looking for the support of the community to help make this possible. To find out more on how to help, please reach out to Tracy Rosenblatt at trosenblatt@sinaischools.org or go to www.sinaischools.org/support-adir-academy.
