Modern Orthodox
Modern may refer to:
History
*Modern history
** Early Modern period
** Late Modern period
*** 18th century
*** 19th century
*** 20th century
** Contemporary history
* Moderns, a faction of Freemasonry that existed in the 18th century
Philosoph ...
Jewish day school
A Jewish day school is a modern Jewish educational institution that is designed to provide children of Jewish parents with both a Jewish and a secular education in one school on a full-time basis. The term "day school" is used to differentiate s ...
located in
Paramus
Paramus ( Waggoner, Walter H ''The New York Times'', February 16, 1966. Accessed October 16, 2018. "Paramus – pronounced puh-RAHM-us, with the accent on the second syllable – may have taken its name from 'perremus' or 'perymus,' Indian for ...
, in
Bergen County
Bergen County is the most populous county in the U.S. state of New Jersey.New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
, United States. It educates students from
pre-kindergarten
Pre-kindergarten (also called Pre-K or PK) is a voluntary classroom-based preschool program for children below the age of five in the United States, Canada, Turkey and Greece (when kindergarten starts). It may be delivered through a preschool ...
through
eighth grade
Eighth grade (or grade eight in some regions) is the eighth post-kindergarten year of formal education in the US. The eighth grade is the ninth school year, the second, third, fourth, or final year of middle school, or the second and/or final ye ...
. The school's motto is "Stimulating the mind, Nourishing the soul." The school was originally established in
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.FTE basis), for a
student–teacher ratio
Student–teacher ratio or student–faculty ratio is the number of students who attend a school or university divided by the number of teachers in the institution. For example, a student–teacher ratio of 10:1 indicates that there are 10 students ...
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...
. Accessed September 1, 2020. Yavneh's graduating class of 2016 consisted of approximately 90 students.
Yavneh's principal is Rabbi Jonathan Knapp.
In 2006, the
SINAI Special Needs Institute SINAI Schools is an organization based in the New York metropolitan area that provides education for children and young adults with special needs. SINAI is the only Jewish day school for children with special needs that has received accreditation fr ...
, an educational program for Jewish children and young adults with special needs, opened its first full-time Jewish elementary school program in Northern New Jersey at Yavneh Academy.
History
Yavneh started in 1942 in
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.kindergarten
Kindergarten is a preschool educational approach based on playing, singing, practical activities such as drawing, and social interaction as part of the transition from home to school. Such institutions were originally made in the late 18th cent ...
, with classes held in a local kosher
delicatessen
Traditionally, a delicatessen or deli is a retail establishment that sells a selection of fine, exotic, or foreign prepared foods. Delicatessen originated in Germany (original: ) during the 18th century and spread to the United States in the m ...
. Two years later, it moved to 11th Avenue and 25th Street. It shared its space with the Paterson Talmud Torah, an older, part-time school, that had graduated its first confirmation class in 1925. The two merged in 1950. A few years later, the combined institution bought the Griggs estate and built a new campus, which it started using for the 1954–1955 school year.
Yavneh used that campus until 1981, when it took over a five-acre school campus in Paramus. In 1986, the
Paterson Public Schools
The Paterson Public Schools (PPS) is a comprehensive community public school district that serves students in pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade from Paterson, New Jersey, United States. The district is one of 31 former Abbott districts sta ...
district opened the Rosa L. Parks School of Fine and Performing Arts, a high school, on the Griggs campus.
One piece of the old Yavneh remains in Paterson. In 1971, the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey, successor to Paterson's Jewish Community Council, built low income housing for seniors across the street from the Yavneh Academy campus. The Yavneh Men's Club, forerunner of the school's parents' association, donated two if its Torah scrolls to the Federation Apartments for use in an on-site synagogue. That synagogue continues to function, using the same two Torahs, which were refurbished in 2016.
Awards and recognition
Yavneh Academy has received awards including: winning the Stock Market Game in New Jersey for middle school students in 1995, 1996, 2001, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2016. Additionally, for the town of Paramus’ 100th anniversary in 2022, Mayor Richard LaBarbiera visited to speak at the academy.
Athletics
Yavneh Academy has a basketball team and a hockey team. The hockey team won the Yeshiva League 2006 floor hockey Championships beating
SAR Academy
Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy, better known by the acronym, SAR Academy, is a coeducational, private Modern Orthodox Jewish day school. The school is located in the Riverdale section of the New York City borough of the Bronx.
Its name de ...
, and were the runners-up in the 2007 league losing to
SAR Academy
Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy, better known by the acronym, SAR Academy, is a coeducational, private Modern Orthodox Jewish day school. The school is located in the Riverdale section of the New York City borough of the Bronx.
Its name de ...
, and making it to the championship game in 2008, against
Moriah School
The Moriah School is a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school located in Englewood, New Jersey. It educates nearly 800 students from nursery through eighth grade.
As of the 2013-14 school year, the school had an enrollment of 692 students in grades ...
of Englewood. The girls' basketball team won the 2003 championship, going undefeated. Now, they also have a girls' hockey team.
Yavneh's boys' hockey team beat Ramaz in the championship in 2012 by the final of 7–3.
In 2013–14, Yavneh's boys' basketball team finished with a 9–1 record in the regular season. Having secured home court advantage, Yavneh went on to beat Ramaz in the quarterfinals in a 58–44 victory and defeated Moriah 59–39 in the semifinals to make it to the championship game. They lost to the undefeated SAR Sting in the championship game.
In 2013–14, the boys' soccer team had an undefeated championship season in the first year of the middle school yeshiva soccer league.
Chesed
In addition to hosting Chesed Fairs for its students, Yavneh Academy arranges Chesed outings for its students. One such example is Yavneh's participation in the
Hebrew Free Burial Association
The Hebrew Free Burial Association (HFBA) was established in 1888 as a free burial society serving the residents of Manhattan's Lower East Side. It was incorporated as a non-profit organization with the name of Chebra Agudas Achim Chesed Shel Eme ...
Salute to Israel Parade
Celebrate Israel Parade (originally Youth Salute to Israel Parade then Salute to Israel Parade) is an annual parade in support of Israel that takes place along Fifth Avenue in New York. The parade travels north on Fifth Avenue from 57th Street to ...
on
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
's
Fifth Avenue
Fifth Avenue is a major and prominent thoroughfare in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. It stretches north from Washington Square Park in Greenwich Village to West 143rd Street in Harlem. It is one of the most expensive shopping stre ...
. Two years ago the theme that Yavneh was given was "Holidays Enlighten Our Lives", and the theme for last year was "60 Years of Patriotic Pride".
Notable alumni
*
Naftali Bennett
Naftali Bennett ( he, נַפְתָּלִי בֶּנֶט, Transliterated: , ; born 25 March 1972) is an Israeli politician who served as the 13th prime minister of Israel from 13 June 2021 to 30 June 2022, and as the 3rd Alternate Prime Minist ...
(born 1972), Prime Minister of Israel went to Yavneh in 2nd and 3rd grade.
*
Eitan Bernath
Eitan Bernath (born April 25, 2002) is an American celebrity chef, entertainer, author, social media influencer, TV personality, and entrepreneur. As of January 2023, Bernath has eight million followers across his social media accounts. He is t ...
(born 2002), social media/television personality and chef.
*
David Remnick
David J. Remnick (born October 29, 1958) is an American journalist, writer and editor. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1994 for his book '' Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire'', and is also the author of ''Resurrection'' and ''King of th ...
(born 1958), editor of ''
The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''.
*
Adam Szubin
Adam Jacob Szubin () is an American lawyer and former government official. Szubin served as the Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and the Acting Secretary of the Treasury of the United States. He served as the ac ...
, politician who has served as the Acting
Secretary of the Treasury
The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
Jewish Standard
The ''Jewish Standard'' is a newspaper based in Teaneck, New Jersey, USA, that primarily serves the Jewish community in Bergen County and Northeastern New Jersey. The ''Jewish Standard'' was founded in 1931, and is the oldest Jewish weekly in ...
'', October 15, 2015. Accessed January 28, 2017. "Mr. Szubin (the initial S in his name is irrationally silent, so when it's said aloud it begins with the Z) is Teaneck born and bred; he went to Yavneh Academy until high school, when he commuted across the river to Ramaz, the modern Orthodox day school on Manhattan’s Upper East Side."
National Center for Education Statistics
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is the part of the United States Department of Education's Institute of Education Sciences (IES) that collects, analyzes, and publishes statistics on education and public school district finance ...