Teaneck–An enthusiastic, good-natured crowd of over 300 enjoyed the mental gymnastics performed by Marc Salem, the “mentalist,” a man expertly schooled in the art of non-verbal communication, on November 15th at Congregation Rinat Yisrael. All the proceeds from the event benefitted P’TACH’s scholarship fund. The committee chairs and event organizers were happy that so many folks turned out on a busy Motzei Shabbos to support the organization, which is dependent on donations for its programming.

Started in 1976, P’TACH runs special education programs in yeshiva day and high schools (such as MTA, the Yeshiva University High School for Boys, and Central, the Yeshiva University High School for Girls, Chaim Berlin and Bais Yaakov). The organization’s programming directly benefits many families in Bergen County, and many of them were at the evening’s event.

Joel Dickstein, an educational consultant for P’TACH, said the organization directly runs programs and use P’TACH’s educational models and materials in their affiliate programs in Baltimore, Israel and Chicago, extending P’TACH reach deep into the Jewish world. “Our goal is to assist students who are mainstreamed in yeshivas and day schools, who have learning or attention differences and other special needs, and integrate those programs. We can address their special needs and different learning styles.”

Because P’TACH only serves students with learning issues, not developmental or physical issues, the students who need the program might “look just like everyone else,” and can sometimes be mistaken simply for poorly performing students. A video shown at the event underscored this point, as several former students explained that before being identified and helped, they felt they just “didn’t fit in,” or said that “it takes me awhile to understand certain kinds of things.”

Without P’TACH, said Dickstein, “They might be going to yeshivas and then might fall between the cracks. Others would end up in public schools where there are services, but they wouldn’t be part of the Jewish community and have Jewish friends in the same way,” he said.

“That was the issue with my son,” a P’TACH parent told JLBC, who asked to remain anonymous. “On the outside, he is your typical 16-year-old, very outgoing, very social, very active. But on the inside, he needs to move at a slower pace,” she said.

P’TACH kept him in the culture and environment he’s been comfortable in at day school, by easing his transition as an MTA high school student. “That’s the beauty of P’TACH. P’TACH says ‘you are an MTA student.’ He is self-contained for some classes, as he was in day school, and mainstreamed for some academic subjects. Teachers are monitoring what’s going on and keeping him comfortable,” she said.

She also noted that her family was initially very fearful that his community and peer group would be disrupted in the incredibly formative years of high school if he had to go to public school, but P’TACH enabled him to attend MTA with his friends, and that was important for his self-esteem.

Steve Fox, a Teaneck resident and the organizer of the evening’s event, told the audience that his passion for P’TACH and raising funds for its programs came from a very personal place, as he first started raising money as a family member of a student. His cousin has been passed forward in day school and simply considered a poor student, but was not accepted to high school. The school informed the family that he would need assistance with learning issues to move forward. The only program available to him was P’TACH.

His aunt needed financial assistance and Fox offered to help. “I was single, I didn’t know anything about the yeshivas, so I made a deal with them. I said ‘give him a deal and I will help raise money.’ The first year I raised $1,000 from my father and $1,000 from myself, and I thought, ‘there’s got to be a better way.”

Fox started a young leadership arm of the organization and did two functions a year for many years, raising thousands upon thousands of dollars for the scholarship fund. The event in Teaneck is just the latest in a long line of successful fundraisers organized by what is now the Bergen County Friends of P’TACH. Fox has been a member of P’TACH’s board for over 30 years.

For more information or to give an additional donation, visit http://www.Ptach.org.

By Elizabeth Kratz