THANK YOU
A Collection of Words of Gratitude for Your Generosity
Dear Jewish Community Response and Impact Funders, This book is about you. This book is full of notes of gratitude from school leaders who needed you. This book is a reflection of the extraordinary work you have done to allow day schools to feel secure in a period of uncertainty. This book is a small token of Prizmah’s appreciation for the partnership between day schools and the Jim Joseph Foundation, Maimonides Fund, the Shusterman Foundation, and the Paul E. Singer
62 SCHOOLS
Received Emergency Funding
Foundation, funders who understand the imperative of Jewish education in securing Jewish peoplehood and building a strong Jewish future. Though some of these letters may be addressed to Prizmah, they each reflect the deep impact that your foundation has made on Jewish day schools. Your gift allowed the
104 CHILDREN
of Jewish Communal Professionals supported
$3 MILLION
in funding for emergency tuition relief
children of Jewish communal professionals to remain enrolled in their schools. Your gift allowed children across North America to return to schools better equipped to keep them safe, keep them learning, and keep them connected to the Jewish community. Your gift allowed families to receive scholarships that would tide them over until such time as the pandemic would no longer interfere with their lives or livelihoods. We hope that your experience working with Prizmah and the Jewish day school community has been as meaningful to you as it has been to the board and staff of Prizmah. Our work together has strengthened the field and strengthened Prizmah’s place within it, and for that, we are grateful. We are blessed to have had this opportunity and honored to continue to serve as a connector between day schools and your foundation. You have given a gift to the day school world that we hope this book honors well. Thank you for allowing us to present this book to you... it’s a book about you.
Yehuda Neuberger
Hannah Olson
Paul Bernstein
Yehuda Neuberger
Hannah Olson
Chief Executive Officer
Chair, Board of Directors
Vice President of Development
We wanted to sincerely thank you for your support this summer. Dealing with a sudden significant loss of income is difficult during the best of times, let alone during such unprecedented ones. We really feel that you have gone above and beyond to make our son’s continued participation at the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island a possibility. We can only imagine the research and work you had to put in to secure this grant for us. Also, please extend our many thanks to Prizmah. It is wonderful to know that they are there creating programs to support both the Jewish day school community and Jewish communal professionals such as we who have been impacted by the COVID-19 crisis. This grant has made it possible for us to continue as part of the JCDS family while we sort out what’s next. Once again, our sincerest thanks. Zachary and Joie Warwick, RI A message from the parents at the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island
Your timely email simply moved me to tears. Never has receiving a grant meant so much to us as this one that you are providing during an unprecedented crisis that has shaken our world to its core. This support will help us absorb the requests from many of our families for increased tuition assistance this coming year. Timing is everything, and please convey to your tireless staff and generous donors that this support is exponentially more helpful than during a typical time. Our donors are more stretched, and our stakeholders are more wage stressed and therefore less able to currently assist our fundraising efforts. More parents were able to afford full or close-to-full tuition last year, and it is the best thing for Jewish continuity for us to do what we can to retain struggling families in our day schools. On behalf of our board, faculty, and families, thank you again, and may you be blessed with a deep reservoir of strength during this trying time for our people and our world. Sincerely, Rabbi Elisha Paul Addlestone Hebrew Academy
I hope this note finds you and your family well. l was sitting in my office at Barrack on Friday afternoon, alone in the building, save for the guard, bemoaning the fact that it was the third day of what would become a five-day power outage for me. Lo and behold, I received a phone call and then had the pleasure of Zooming with Hannah Olson, Prizmah’s new development director. Never did I expect that Barrack had a fairy godmother with a money wand, who would help see to it that our deserving students would be able to remain at our school even in the face of this economic downturn precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We have been working tirelessly to raise money for our Emergency COVID Relief Fund, and the amazing and unexpected gift from the Paul E. Singer Foundation will help us fulfill our promise to our families that no child will be turned away because of finances at this time. I told Hannah that in about 1960 there was a show on television called “The Millionaire.” Each week, a man named Michael Anthony would show up at someone’s door with a milliondollar check from a millionaire named John Beresford Tipton. The rest of the half hour of this fictional show would depict how lives were changed by the gift. I look forward to thanking the Foundation personally, but in the meantime, please tell their representatives that many amazing young people will benefit from their gift. Please thank Dan Perla
Sending our gratitude to all of you who have
Thank you so much! Hillel Academy is incredibly
worked so hard to make this happen in a timely
grateful for this JCRIF grant, and I am especially
manner. The funds will be a great help.
thankful for the upcoming coaching I will receive!
forward to seeing you soon… in person!
Best regards,
L’shalom,
Sharon Levin
Helene Kaufman
Allison Oakes
Director of Administration
Head of School
Bronfman Jewish Education Centre
Hillel Academy of Tampa
for helping to arrange this, and I look forward to speaking with Daniel Bonner from the Singer Foundation so that we can discuss more of an ongoing relationship. Please stay well, and I look
Head of School Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy
Thank you so much for informing us that we will be a recipient. We appreciate your support and are so very grateful that we will be able to support families who have had to make some very tough choices during this difficult time. Thank you again! Brenda English On behalf of Calgary Jewish Academy families and the community we serve
Thank you so much! It is an honor and a privilege to have been chosen as a recipient of the emergency funding for tuition assistance. On behalf of every student in our school, please accept my deepest thanks. It is a testament to your work that specifically in these dark times of crisis Prizmah has doubled down
On behalf of the Beth Am Day School community,
on ensuring that every Jewish
I want to thank you for Prizmah’s generosity
Thank you all so much—that is really wonderful
child has access to a quality
during these hard times. Prizmah and you have
news, and I know how happy the school is to
Jewish education.
been extremely supportive of me personally and
receive this generous grant. Prizmah has been
professionally, and I look forward to our continued
doing outstanding work during this challenging
work together. With warm wishes, deep gratitude,
time, and we are very grateful.
Sincerely, Rabbi Shloime Denburg Director of Development Hebrew Academy Community School
and prayers for continued health! L’shalom.
Marlyn Jaffe
Nora Anderson
Associate Director; Director Planning and Evaluation
Incoming Head of School
Jewish Education Center of Cleveland
Temple Beth Am
On behalf of Austin Jewish Academy, we thank you and your team for such a timely grant. As you know, more families than ever are reaching out to our corner of Austin’s Jewish community for support at this time. With tuition assistance higher than we anticipated, this grant comes as a relief to our school community. We are looking forward to the coaching and to the further work in the holy community that Prizmah has helped to nurture, particularly among its smallest schools. Again, I thank you, and I wish you a healthy, happy rest of the summer. Chris Aguero Principal Austin Jewish Academy
Thank YOU! I remain humbled by the support Prizmah has provided my peers and me during the last 100-plus days. In a moment in time, when isolation has dominated so many of our lives and we work around the clock to build community within that framework, I have relied heavily on the support of Prizmah. You have been the main connector, and as I tell you over and over, I am so grateful. This grant for tuition assistance will allow our Jewish day school to push forward, to keep our doors open and even to grow during a crisis. The provision of coaching in finance and enrollment planning is a welcome addition. On behalf of the entire Lehigh Valley Jewish community, thank you. Shabbat Shalom, Amy Golding Head of School Jewish Day School of the Lehigh Valley
This wonderful news came at just the right time. We’re so appreciative for the work of you and Prizmah and the various foundations that are leading the efforts to support and sustain Jewish education in these most challenging times. I have been saying to all my constituents—Jewish education must find permanence in a volatile world. Your efforts are doing just that. We at BMA are so deeply appreciative and humbled by your generosity. Our school is in an exciting phase of its expansion, and nonetheless we experience the challenge of making Jewish education affordable and accessible to our families. This grant will change lives and will directly assist those families who may have been at risk of leaving the Jewish day school world due to financial hardship. We cannot thank you and the Paul E. Singer Foundation enough for supporting our families. With deepest appreciation, Rabbi Fein Head of School Brauser Maimonides Academy
Thank you so much for your thoughtful
Thanks to the Prizmah team for all that you’re doing to strengthen
consideration. We appreciate all that you do!
day schools and yeshivas during these trying times!
Sincerely,
Best,
Susie Stern
Chavie N. Kahn
Director of Development
Director of School Strategy and Policy
Greater Miami Hebrew Academy
UJA-Federation of New York
This award will be incredibly helpful, and we are honored to have
Thank you! On behalf of the schools and the whole community, we’re so deeply grateful for your support in
been chosen.
making this come to life and helping the schools weather this storm.
Shabbat shalom,
Daniel Held
Beth Null
Executive Director
Head of School
Julia and Henry Koschitzky Centre for Jewish Education
The Lerner School
I would like to thank you, on behalf of OROT, for the wonderful and generous grant we received. As a small organization, this truly helps us meet the financial needs of our students, thus allowing us to stay true to our mission. We are grateful and facing today with verve! We look forward to working together. Warm regards, Carole Miller Director of Development OROT
On behalf of the Board of Directors, parents,
Words cannot express how thrilled we were to
and faculty, we want to sincerely thank you
receive notice of our receipt of the Emergency
for supporting our school with the Emergency
Funding for Tuition Assistance grant from Prizmah.
Funding for Tuition grant. This incredible display of
This will go a long way in ensuring that impacted
generosity and support will go a tremendous way
families can continue to receive a TABC education
not only in helping us retain our families attending
while taking some pressure off our budget as
our school, but also in assisting us to properly plan
we absorb the costs of pandemic-related safety
and manage our resources in the longer term.
measures. Our community is truly blessed to
Many of our families are facing unprecedented challenges to pay tuition costs and provide the Jewish education they believe is of critical importance to their children and their future. The effects of COVID-19 have impacted youth in numerous ways, and enabling them to continue their high school years with their classmates, teachers, and friends brings a sense of normalcy to their lives. During this unusual pandemic period, this is essential to their growth. It is truly because of your generous support with this relief aid and coaching from Prizmah that we will be able to continue helping Bnei Akiva Schools and the broader Toronto community face the hardships and unparalleled current realities. Wishing you and your family health and happiness. Sincerely, Rabbi Dr. Seth N. Grauer Head of School/Rosh Yeshiva Bnei Akiva Schools, Toronto
have a resource as valuable as Prizmah, and my colleagues and I are forever grateful for its leadership and guidance through these uncharted waters. Here’s to our continued partnership on behalf of our children! Shabbat Shalom, Rabbi Shlomo Adelman Head of School Torah Academy of Bergen County This is amazing news. I cannot express how grateful
Thank you for this grant. At this challenging time,
we are for this gift. The stresses of reopening alone
this grant will enable us to continue to provide a
are so great, and with financial distress on top of
meaningful education to those families who are
it, we day schools are struggling. Knowing that the
truly struggling. This is my third week as head of
Jewish community is making it possible for us to
school, and I am bolstered by the compassion and
continue this holy work with the kids of our Jewish
strength of both the Yavneh community and the
professionals is an enormous relief. Thanks for
greater Jewish community. Prizmah is essential to
having our back at this incredibly difficult time.
the success of Jewish day schools.
Warmly,
In gratitude,
Cheryl Maayan
Cindy Schlesinger
Head of School
Head of School
Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School
Yavneh Day School
Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful news with us. Prizmah’s support through all the trials and tribulations these last few months has been invaluable. It was through our learning with Prizmah and the networking with schools that we were well prepared to offer our students a stellar distance learning program. This grant will allow us to support our families who find themselves in difficult circumstances, and for that we are so grateful. Warm regards, Marnie Stein We just received word that we received a tuition grant to help
Co-Head of School & Principal
a Jewish communal professional family where a parent is not
JPPS Elementary
working due to COVID-19. Thank you for making these types of grants available to schools nationwide and recognizing the cultural (school culture and communal culture) importance of taking care of our Jewish communal professionals. And many, many thanks for making this grant available to us. It will have a tremendous impact. Hoping you and yours are all safe and
On behalf of our students, faculty, parents, and board of directors, we want to express our profound gratitude to you for your generosity to Berman Hebrew Academy. Your gift allows us to continue to inspire our wonderful students during these challenging times. Thank you for including us in your tzedakah, which will allow us to provide the best tools and opportunities to our children. Because of you, more Berman students will walk through the world with a deep love for Eretz Israel, Am Israel, and Torat Israel. On behalf of current and future Berman students, thank you for the thoughtful gifts you bring to our community.
well during this strange and uncertain time.
With our deepest gratitude,
Susan Kardos
Rabbi Dr. Yossi Kastan
Shmarya Gasner
Chief Strategy and Advancement Officer
Head of School
Executive Director
Abraham Joshua Heschel School
Berman Hebrew Academy
Berman Hebrew Academy
כל העושה צדקה ומשפט כאילו מילא כל העולם כולו חסד Whoever practices charity and justice fills the world with loving-kindness. — SUKKAH, 49B:12