Yeshivas join forcesHAFTR and Rambam HS to pool resources

Starting this fall, however, the two Five Towns yeshivas will share more than just proximity. On Thursday, officials from HAFTR and Rambam were scheduled to finalize plans for an educational partnership beginning in the 2006-07 school year that would be called the Torah Institute, which translates to Machon HaTorah in Hebrew. The HAFTR elementary and middle schools would continue to function as they are.
The new arrangement is not a merger between the two yeshivas. The Torah Institute would have two divisions: Yeshivat Chof-Daron (Yachad for short), which would be housed at HAFTR High School and continue to be coed, and the Rambam Division, which would remain all-boys, at the current Rambam Mesivta facility. Officials from the two yeshivas also said they plan to open an advanced yeshiva program for girls to go along with the boys' at the Rambam Division, which would be located at a third facility.
"It's a cooperation agreement," said HAFTR Executive Director David Shapiro in a phone interview the day after the plan was finalized at a closed board meeting. "The wonderful part about the new partnership is students in eighth grade ... can now have a choice [between a coed and all-boys yeshiva]."
Shapiro said that the yeshivas' agreement to pool resources would be a win-win for the students, parents and communities of both facilities, whose fund-raising efforts have slowed in recent years, according to yeshiva officials. While the idea of the partnership has been on the table for a few years, serious discussions began only in the last few months, according to Shapiro. "Our campuses are very close to each other - within walking distance - so [the partnership] works out very nicely," Shapiro said, adding that he was unaware of any other agreement between two yeshivas in the New York City area.
The announcement of the new partnership was made on the last day of school before the Passover vacation. No parents or students could be reached for comment, but Adam Steiner, a 1999 Rambam Mesivta graduate who has taken an interest in the partnership, said he thought it could work, though he is skeptical, since the two yeshivas have different religious philosophies. "I see a partnership between two schools with differences in religious orientation as being very hard to implement, but doable," said Steiner. "If they can successfully pull it off, there is a lot of upside potential."
The partnership would mean administrative reshuffling in both yeshivas. The Torah Institute would be headed by the current leaders of Rambam Mesivta, Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman, the dean, and Rabbi Yotav Eliach, the school's principal. "We want our students to view Torah as a mission to the world and to see themselves as the bearers of that mantle," said Friedman in a prepared statement. Rabbi Zbi Bajnonm, who has been part of HAFTR High School's administrative team for 30 years, since it was called the Hebrew Institute of Long Island, will not return next year. However, yeshiva officials said his departure is not related to the planned partnership.
The mission statement of the Machon HaTorah, according to a press release, is to "produce Torah observant modern Orthodox Jews who integrate Torah study and values into their daily lives, future professions and community activities."
Yeshiva officials also said the Machon would offer students in both divisions the best elements of the other program, including a wide array of college prep and A.P. courses, electives, special research programs in the sciences, literature and arts, and special classes in Jewish history and Zionism. The two divisions would also combine programming when appropriate, officials said.
HAFTR Principal Stanley Blumenstein and Assistant Principal Naomi Levenbrown, as well as the coed yeshiva's administrators, Aliza Kadosh, Joan Parmett and Rabbi Gedaliah Oppen, will lead the Yachad Division in roles similar to their current ones, according to Shapiro. The Machon will also bring in new blood to help lead the Rambam Division, with Rabbi Peretz Hochbaum, the former dean of the Yavneh Academy in Paramus, N.J., and now the principal of the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County's Plainview campus, being added to the staff as associate principal.
Rabbi David Leibtag, the current educational director for all of HAFTR's schools, will serve as a liaison between the Torah Institute and HAFTR's elementary and middle schools. "The goals and objectives that have been articulated by Rabbis Friedman and Eliach are consistent with our vision for HAFTR's elementary and middle schools," said Leibtag. "I look forward to collaborating with them to ensure the successful integration of our students into this new and challenging environment."
While HAFTR and Rambam will not be merging from an educational standpoint, the two yeshivas will share both athletics and extracurricular activities. Officials said they hope to have a new state-of-the-art sports center completed for the 2008-09 school year, somewhere in the vicinity of the various Torah Institute campuses. HAFTR officials initially planned to build a new basketball gym in front of the high school campus, but a slowdown in fund-raising prevented the project from moving forward.
Shapiro said the sports center could still be built at the HAFTR High School site, but other locations are being considered, including the site of the former Nassau Herald building on Central Avenue. In 2006-07, the Rambam and Yachad divisions will have separate athletic teams, according to yeshiva officials.
Comments about this story? ACoen@liherald.com or (516) 569-4000 ext. 210.