Dear Parent of Hebrew Day School,

I am excited to invite you to a unique and innovative program for Jewish day schools. The New York office of The OU Advocacy Center—the non-partisan public policy arm of the OU—has developed the Schools in Session Initiative: Engaging Parents and Legislators in Jewish Education to create opportunities for New York State legislators to meet with Jewish day school parents and leaders and learn more about tuition affordability and other challenging issues that face the Jewish day school community.

Hebrew Day School of Sullivan & Ulster Counties will host a Schools in Session meeting with Senator John J. Bonacic at 8:45 AM on Thursday, January 30th, and will be held at 4718 State Route 42 P.O. Box 239 Kiamesha Lake, N.Y. 12751-0839.

In New York, OU Advocacy focuses on a single goal: identifying and securing creative, viable and constitutionally-sound government funding for Jewish education.

For OU Advocacy and its partners, 2013 was a banner year—leading to nearly $50 million for NY Jewish day schools through an increase in funding for the Comprehensive Attendance Policy (CAP) and Mandated Services Reimbursement (MSR) programs and security aid for non-public schools.

In 2014, OU Advocacy is pursuing the following legislative initiatives on behalf of the Jewish community:
• Repayment of the $226 million of CAP and MSR funds that the state owes private schools due to routine underfunding.
• Enactment of the Energy Parity Act, which would give private schools the same reduced electricity rates and energy efficiency programs that are currently offered to many NY public schools.
• Passing the Education Investment Incentives Act, which would allow individuals and corporations to send a portion of their tax liabilities to scholarship organizations that benefit our schools.

OU Advocacy’s Schools in Session is already bearing fruit for Jewish day schools. Our legislators value every opportunity to meet with constituents and the Schools in Session meetings gives them a chance to meet with parents and school leaders in an intimate setting and hear about the challenging issues facing the Jewish community.

We urge you to attend the Schools in Session program with Senator Bonacic on January 30th. Through the participation and support of the entire Hebrew Day School family, we will demonstrate our commitment to Jewish education, express the need for greater support from Albany and urge them to support our legislative agenda.

We look forward to seeing you on January 30th.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Menachem Fruchter
Dean, Hebrew Day School of Sullivan & Ulster Counties
For more information about Schools in Session and/or OU Advocacy, please contact:

Zehava Birman, Associate Director for New York Field Operations
212-613-8357
BirmanZ@ou.org
www.OUadvocacy.org

This Sunday, November 17th at 1:00 p.m., the musicians from Simple Gifts will be doing an exclusive women’s only performance at the Hebrew Day School, courtesy of Bethel Woods Center for the Arts.

Come and join us for an interactive performance including coffee, tea and eats.

Engage with the musicians and share your personal musical Jewish traditions. Touch and play with instruments from around the world!

Hope to see all the women of the Hebrew Day School, women friends, and women family members on Sunday at 1:00 p.m. Bring your girls with you.

Here is a video of Simple Gifts teaching the essence of klezmer music at today’s school performance.

The Catskill Edible Garden Project, (growing the next generation of food entrepreneurs), works with area schools to create vegetable gardens that will increase access to healthy local food. The program is complemented with educational initiatives related to food resources, awareness of nutrition and agricultural or food related career options.

The Catskill Edible Garden Project offers the opportunity for a hands-on youth development experience and exposure to food and agriculture as important aspects of our community, culture and potential career opportunities.

The Project will enhance youth understanding of the food web; raise awareness of the components of a local healthy food system and its connection to healthy communities and increase understanding of food systems as complex and interconnected aspects of community development.

The Catskill Edible Garden Project is a collaboration between Catskill Mountainkeeper, Center for Workforce Development, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Green Village Initiative and Sullivan Renaissance.

Dear HDS Parents,

We are off to great new year at HDS! Welcome back! A few items to keep you updated…

We are fortunate, thanks to Rabbi Fruchter, to now have a new student lounge. It’s a great comfy hang out for the kids, especially with the cold months approaching. We were able to get the carpet for the room from a past HDS parent at a great price, but if there are any donations that can be made toward the cost it would be a big help to the school. Any amount is greatly appreciated. We are a wonderful and unique school family and we have proven we can make great things happen to help our precious school.

Another exciting program coming to HDS is the Catskill Edible Garden Project, which is a collaboration between Catskill Mountainkeeper, Center for Workforce Development, Cornell Cooperative Extension, Green Village Initiative and Sullivan Renaissance. This program will be headed by our very own Mrs. Lickey. Parent and staff participation is extremely important to the success of this project. The first part of the project will be “The Build.” This will include getting the site cleared and prepped as well as building the raised beds for next spring. We will be starting “The Build” on October 3rd in the morning( specific time to be announced) PLEASE…WE NEED OUR MOMS AND DADS FOR THIS! And it’s going to be so much fun! Please contact HDS and let us know if you can make it.

Thanks! The PTO

Well, the day is finally here. Tomorrow is the Hebrew Day School’s graduation ceremony for Nursery through 8th Grades. The graduation will be held at 11:00 a.m. (June 19, 2013) in the auditorium. We will be dismissing all students right after the graduation. There will be no school after tomorrow so have a wonderful, safe summer and looking forward to seeing all those bright faces in the fall.

HEBREW DAY SCHOOL’S STUDENT has been chosen as the winner in the Black History Month Essay Contest.

Hebrew Day School’s 7th grade student, Avi Madnick was presented with a Certificate of Merit from Friends of Aileen Gunther, New York State Assemblywoman, for his essay about Harriet Tubman. Ms. Gunther chose Avi Madnick’s essay out of the area’s school districts, for his “insight of Harriet Tubman, a great leader who helped shape our country.”