(Courtesy of SINAI Schools) SINAI Schools will hold its annual benefit dinner on Sunday, February 26, at 4:45 p.m. at the Marriott Glenpointe Hotel in Teaneck. This year’s honorees are Dr. Michael Stifelman and Dr. Jill Zimmerman, Tzvi and Erica Solomon, and Judi Karp. The dinner will also include a memorial tribute to Leo Brandstatter, z”l, SINAI’s founding president, and will feature parent and student speakers Annie and Julia Miller.
Drs. Michael Stifelman and Jill Zimmerman are accomplished physicians who embrace a mission of helping heal those less fortunate, which is why SINAI’s mission resonates so deeply with them. They are ardent champions of SINAI who have encouraged others to support SINAI and its children with the refrain “Supporting SINAI is nothing short of supporting miracles.”
Tzvi and Erica Solomon are working to expand SINAI’s donor base and leadership pipeline to include a younger demographic. They have been instrumental in hosting parlor meetings and encouraging dozens of their friends to follow their lead and become ambassadors for SINAI. Tzvi, who developed numerous friendships with SINAI Karasick Shalem High School students while a student at TABC, joined SINAI’s board of directors in 2017 and has been an executive board member since 2019.
Judi Karp, SINAI’s associate dean and director of SINAI at Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy (JKHA), will receive SINAI’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Over the course of more than 25 years, she has helped to change the face of SINAI, developing curricula, standards and staff development programs, and helping strategize SINAI’s growth at every stage. She has been a mentor to scores of educators at SINAI, and has directly and profoundly impacted the lives of many hundreds of students and their families.
SINAI will present a memorial tribute to Leo Brandstatter, z”l, SINAI’s founding president and former chairman of the board. Leo and his wife, Dossy, lobbied for SINAI’s creation in 1982, and he was instrumental in its growth from a fledgling class of five children into the network of eight schools it is today. His legacy lives on through the generations of children whose lives have been made better by SINAI.
Julia Miller and her parents, Annie and George Miller, have graciously agreed to share their SINAI story with the community. Julia, a SINAI student for many years, currently attends SINAI’s Karasick Shalem High School at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls. Annie and Julia look forward to sharing their SINAI story as parent/student guest speakers.
At the dinner, SINAI Schools will also premiere its newest feature documentary, “Finding Her Voice,” which tells the amazing story of Racheli and her dedicated parents, Levi and Jill Friedbauer.
SINAI, which operates eight inclusive special education schools across New York and New Jersey, provides an outstanding Jewish and secular education to children with a wide range of developmental, intellectual and complex learning disabilities. SINAI is renowned for its excellence in special education, providing highly individualized programming and extensive therapies to meet each child’s needs. SINAI is able to serve the community with its life-changing work because the community is there to support SINAI.
Donations and reservations online at www.sinaidinner.org.
