As society evolves, institutions become more complex. Administering a Jewish day school has become a very complicated endeavor. At one point in the not-too-distant past, a principal hired teachers, maintained educational standards, and kept children, parents and Board members content. Today the job description has

“My child has low muscle tone and fatigues easily. She struggles to make it through her school day and is coming home with tons of homework. She is physically unable to get through her written homework, even with my help. I am trying to balance making sure she completes all of the homework so that she is learning and seeing to it that

Over 500,000 Jews Worldwide Join in Special Day of Tefillah and Unity

It felt like Neilah on Yom Kippur! Tens of gedolei Yisrael pouring their hearts out in tefillah. Venerated rabbanim, reciting the 13 middosof rachamim,the words “ Hashem,

A Monday afternoon car crash on Route 17 in Sullivan County, New Jersey, killed Morris and Beth (Pitem) Faitelewicz, of the Lower East Side of Manhattan, as well as their future son-in-law Yehuda Bayme z”l, son of Dr. Steven and Edith Bayme, of Riverdale, NY. Yehuda was engaged to the couple’s daughter, Shani Faitelewicz, 27, who was

Devarim: 29: 9-14

It was a beautiful late August day.

They sat on the shoreline, father and daughter, twenty feet from their beach umbrella and sand-covered chairs, and ten feet from the surf. They brought their sandcastle gear, and they were ready to get

Rabbi of Congregation Shaarei Orah, the Sephardic Congregation of Teaneck

The Jewish people love performing mitzvot just as, in the words of Shlomo Hamelech in Kohelet, one who loves money is never satisfied with the amount of money he possesses. The Jewish people are naturally drawn to mitzvah

For the past 15 years, I’ve been davening on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur at a vasikin minyan, which is my teshuvah for what time I wake up for Shacharis the rest of the year.

I also happen to be the gabbai pesichos. The rav, who is also the chazzan, chose me the very first year because he was looking

Another year has come and gone. I am trying to figure out how that happened. Here we are and it is Rosh Hashanah time again. And then it will be Yom Kippur and then Sukkot and then, before I know it, I will be hoarding five-pound boxes of matzah again (which will end up on one of my dining room chairs, but I digress). So in this

All good things must come to an end, the saying goes. That’s certainly true. By the time you read this, summer vacation will be over; everyone in my generation will have begun another school year. Yet for me and many of my friends, this new school year marks another sort of “end” as well. We’re beginning our senior year of high

With the Yamim Noraim (High Holidays) fast approaching, we’re entering into a period during which the focus is on personal reflection and introspection. For those of us who are religious, great importance is placed on doing teshuvah (repentance) for the wrongdoings we’ve committed. This is a journey that, by necessity, is a

Many people assume that Shmitah, the Torah-mandated sabbatical year during which planting, harvesting and other agricultural activities are prohibited in the Land of Israel, is a 12 month endeavor, beginning with Rosh Hashanah of the seventh year and concluding with Rosh

Teshuvah is on the forefront of our collective minds as we near Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish year. Our sages tell us that those who seek to engage in teshuvah are actively assisted from above (Shabbos 104a; Yoma 38b). Nothing can stand in the way of the remorseful soul that seeks to return, particularly on Yom Kippur, which