by Marla Cohen The Jewish Federation of Rockland County will allocate nearly $100,000 in grants in the upcoming campaign year to a variety of organizations and synagogue programs. The money will support an array of community projects, varying in scope from a school startup, to home care for elderly Holocaust survivors, to synagogue outreach initiatives […]
More than 48,000 people can’t be wrong. Can they? Apparently the International Olympic Committee (IOC) thinks so. Its president, Jacques Rogge, delivered that message in the form of a resounding “no” to Israel’s request for a minute of silence in memory of the Munich 11 at the London Olympics this summer. Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister […]
Mayim Bialik proves you can do it all, if what you do is different To watch Mayim Bialik accept a tiara is to watch a wallflower blossom. As she segues from the words “transparently manipulative,” to the sing-song, “Ooooh, it’s a tee-ah-rah,” when she sees the gift, you cannot help but laugh. Her knees go weak, […]
Remembering a childhood of fear and separation by Marla Cohen & Sara Gilbert It was 1990, and New City resident Lola Kaufman was reading an article in New York Magazine that caught her breath. Organizers of a conference were looking for “hidden children,” those youngest Holocaust survivors who had spent the war years sheltered and ultimately […]
When I was growing up, I remember going to SMU homecoming football game against the University of Texas. We were asked to” bow our heads in the name of Jesus Christ” and offer a prayer. I didn’t like it, and I didn’t bow my head; but I also did not bat an eye. This was, […]
by Marla Cohen Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School had no sooner announced that it would be closing, than the Rockland Jewish Academy heralded its arrival. The new school, which is proposed to be housed in the Rockland Jewish Community Campus in West Nyack, will be an early childhood to fifth grade school run in partnership with […]
I had gone to Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School to give a talk to Fallon Coffield’s 8th grade social studies class. I spoke about my career in newspapers and magazines, gave a short overview of how you structure a news story and then let the students interview one another, write a lead for a profile […]
This year to be Gittelman’s last Virginia Feldman stood before the crowd in a room that serves as Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School’s gym, cafeteria, and auditorium — a room that had staged middle school plays, siddur and chumash ceremonies, basketball games and graduations. As president of Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School’s board of trustees […]
I can remember the taste of a cherry Popscicle, mingled with chlorine from the pool water that dripped from my hair to my lips. It was the taste of summer, and it was delicious. Summer was flavored with more than the synthetic fruit of the icy treat, of course. Summer meant no school, blinding hot […]
by Marla Cohen Holocaust survivor and education services, Israel education, youth leadership development, Jewish unity and senior programming are just a handful of needs that will be funded this coming year through a new grant program of the Jewish Federation of Rockland County based on “compelling needs.” The board of directors voted in late May […]
