Sinai celebrates its success at nurturing kids with special needs

It's always been about the kids. The kids with physical, mental, emotional, or learning disabilities who could not have received a full Jewish education were it not for the Sinai Special Needs Institute. The kids whose numbers seem to grow with each passing year.

Rabbi Yisroel Rothwachs and Michael from Fair Lawn take a look through one of Sinai's microscopes.

At the same time, it's always been about the money. A highly individualized secular and Jewish educational program for just one child with special needs costs about $50,000. That number, too, seems to grow with each passing year.

So for the past quarter century, the leadership of Sinai has extended its hands to the North Jersey Jewish community in a simultaneous gesture of giving one kind of aid while seeking another.

This year is no different.

From left, Tuviah from Passaic, Harrison from West Orange, and Lonny from Teaneck keep up with their school work.

"Our tuition is double what it is to send a child to a Jewish day school, and it really only covers a fraction of our cost," said Sam Fishman of Fair Lawn, a former Sinai parent and now its consulting managing director.

"For every child we take in, beyond what we receive in tuition, we need to raise about $18,000 per child, or about 40 percent of our budget. We're granting very significant financial aid because most families cannot afford that amount for one child, and some of our families have multiple children in Sinai," said Fishman. "People don't really get it fully, and when I have the opportunity to lay out the numbers they do respond to it. That's what our dinner is all about."

Sinai's Guitar Club jams away.

Sinai's annual benefit dinner is scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 10, at the Marriott Glenpointe Hotel in Teaneck. Last weekend was designated "Sinai Shabbat," and area rabbis were asked to speak about Sinai's work from the pulpit.

It's not difficult to find something praiseworthy to say about Sinai, which was founded in 198' through the efforts of educator Laurette Rothwachs of Fair Lawn and Rabbi Dr. Wallace Greene — then principal of what is now Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy in Livingston and the current director of Jewish Educational Services for UJA Federation of Northern New Jersey.

From left, Josh from Passaic, Rabbi Rothwachs, and Shlomo from Teaneck review texts.

At present, serving 109 youngsters and young adults from the age of 5, Sinai has become a national model for special Jewish education and gets referrals from schools across the metropolitan area. Most of its pupils live in North Jersey; some families have moved from as far away as Canada and Holland to take advantage of Sinai.

"Even though Jewish schools are now offering more for children with special needs, there is still a large segment of the population whose needs can't be met in existing schools," said Rothwachs, the institute's dean. "Our ability to help children on an individual basis goes farther than many other programs."

Yoshie from Teaneck.

As demand increases, Sinai faces a space crunch in addition to its constant financial crunch. That's because it was never envisioned as a stand-alone venture. Each Sinai program is housed in a yeshiva day school or high school where its students have daily possibilities for social and academic mainstreaming.

"We need to plan for continued growth, to continue to maintain the quality we offer, and also to grow according to need," said Rothwachs. "We must grow in Bergen County despite the fact that practically all the Jewish schools here have run out of space."

Shlomo from Teaneck shoots a basket.

Almost half of Sinai's students who live in Bergen County attend programs outside the county, either in Essex or Union. A two-year-old elementary program housed at space-strapped Yavneh Academy in Paramus can accommodate '5 youngsters; many more are on a waiting list.

Despite its challenges, the institute — now based in Teaneck — has been responsible for hundreds of success stories.

Sometimes "success" means giving a seriously dyslexic child the tools to make it through graduate school. Sometimes it means affording a teenager with Down Syndrome the promise of semi-independent living and a steady job. Sometimes it means simply getting an autistic kindergartner to make eye contact.

But it always means imparting at least a basic Jewish education to kids at every point on the spectrum. This is another reason for the school-within-a-school model, the benefits of which go both ways.

From left, Chaim from Passaic, Shalom from Brunswick, Sarit (now in Israel), and Julia from West Orange.

Recently, a student at Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck — host for Sinai's boys high school program — wrote about a morning when he was moved to tears by the sight of a severely limited Sinai student standing with his father and brother to read from the Torah for the first time.

At a third-grade play at Kushner to honor rosh chodesh, the beginning of a Jewish month, a wheelchair-bound 9-year-old boy took the stage to sing with the other pupils. The father of one little girl later confided to Fishman that his daughter had been more excited about the disabled child's participation than any other aspect of the play.

"He thanked me for having Sinai at Kushner, because there was no other way his daughter would learn the reality that this is part of life," said Fishman. "It's not always a natural fit, but the kids at [the host schools] figure out how to include the Sinai kids. What that does is foster community education, sensitizing the greater community to the fact that kids are kids."

"By being in so many local schools, we've made tremendous strides in the general Jewish community vis-?-vis the special-needs community," said Rothwachs. "I feel that today it's a more inclusive community in general. They offer Shabbat hospitality to the young men and women in our residential homes; they offer jobs to our kids in high school and beyond. They are really reaching out to us as opposed to in the past, where we had to reach out to them."

One happy byproduct of increased exposure has been a recent influx of young leaders — not all of them parents of Sinai students — eager to find solutions to the problems of space and finances, said Rabbi Mark Karasick, chairman of the board and father of two Sinai alumni.

"We are especially gratified that at this year's dinner we have the ability to honor three young couples who represent the future of the Jewish community and the future of Sinai," said Karasick. "This generation has grown up with institutions such as Sinai and HASC [Hebrew Academy for Special Children, a New York-based special-needs network] and so they understand the population that needs these services."

The honorees include Moshe and Arianne Weinberger and Mendy and Nomi Schwartz of Teaneck, Jason and Chani Teigman of Englewood, and Carol and Peter Weissmann of Fair Lawn.

For more information, see http://www.sinaidinner.org

Milestones in The Sinai School history:

198'

The Learning Disabilities Program of Metropolitan New Jersey opens at the Hebrew Youth Academy of Essex County (currently the Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy) for Jewish children and young adults.

1989
The first class graduates from Sinai's elementary school at Kushner Hebrew Academy.

1989
Teaneck's Torah Academy of Bergen County begins hosting what later is named the Rabbi Mark and Linda Karasick Shalem Program for high-school-aged students.

1991
The network of schools becomes known as The Sinai Special Needs Institute.

1995
Sinai's first girls high school program opens its doors at Bruriah High School in Elizabeth.

1996
Sinai's Gesher program is formed to serve as a transition for graduates who needed more skill development for independent living and gainful employment.

1996
Sinai's second girls high school program opens at Ma'ayanot High School for Girls in Teaneck.

1998
The Sinai (Supervised Housing Environment for Living Independently) Program is established for young men who want to live away from home on their own. It is housed in the Nathan Miller home in Teaneck.

2004
Sinai becomes the first special-education yeshiva to receive formal accreditation from the Middle States Association of Colleges & Schools.

2004
Sinai opens Maor Boys High School Program at the Mesivta of North Jersey in Newark, for high school boys with mild to moderate learning disabilities. (Maor moves to the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in '006.)

2006
Sinai at Yavneh opens its doors in Paramus at Yavneh Academy, becoming North Jersey's first preschool, elementary, and middle school program for children with learning and developmental disabilities. The yeshiva program is subsequently named the Riva Blatt Weinstein Sinai Judaic Studies Program.

2007
Sinai opens a Sinai full-time residence in Teaneck for young women.