(Courtesy of JKHA/RKYHS) The Joseph Kushner Hebrew Academy/Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School takes great pleasure in announcing the celebration of its 70th annual dinner and Israel’s 70th anniversary honoring Barrie and S. Simon Jacob, Jodi and Dr. Steven Reich, and Rabbi Richard Kirsch on Thursday, May 24, at Factory 220 in Passaic. Each of these deserving honorees has transmitted a love for Torah and Israel and made an important difference in the lives of JKHA/RKYHS students.
Barrie and Simon Jacob are important builders of JKHA/RKYHS. Their involvement with the school spans more than five decades, with Simon graduating from Hebrew Youth Academy of Essex County, the predecessor to JKHA, and with their alumni children attending JKHA and RKYHS from the early 1980s until 2016. Simon served as a president, chairman and member of the board of trustees. He remains deeply involved in the school and after his presidency served on both the executive board and as the chair of the High School Board of Education Committee. The visionary leadership of the Jacobs and their family established the Sephardic minyan that continues to grow and thrive today at RKYHS. Simon and Barrie remain committed stakeholders at JKHA/RKYHS and have been key supporters of Sephardic programs and culture at school.
Jodi and Dr. Steven Reich have been enthusiastic supporters of JKHA/RKYHS ever since joining the school community in 2010. They are proud members of the JKHA/RKYHS ATID SOCIETY and host parlor meetings at their home in East Brunswick. As a dinner chair, Jodi has actively promoted support for the JKHA/RKYHS annual campaign. Steven has been a “visiting professor” to discuss spinal surgery with his daughter’s science courses. Jodi and Steven are both dedicated not only to the importance of Jewish education but also to supporting other local Jewish institutions and advocating for the safety and security of Israel.
Rabbi Richard Kirsch is the RKYHS director of athletics and has been a member of the RKYHS faculty since 2000, teaching Judaic studies and sociology and serving as a guidance counselor. Rabbi Kirsch is widely lauded for his dynamic engagement and mentorship and for creating and leading countless experiential educational and extracurricular programs that have a lifelong impact on students. From organizing the Student Educational Enrichment and Development (SEED) Speaker Program, which exposes RKYHS students to diverse speakers on a wide-range of perspectives, to advising the Muslim-Jewish Exchange Program, RKYHS Homeless Awareness Club, Habitat for Humanity, RKYHS Blood Drive Committee and other student clubs, Rabbi Kirsch provides students with tangible leadership experience and transformational experiential “real life” learning opportunities. He also serves as the faculty adviser of the RKYHS AIPAC club, for which he has won the prestigious AIPAC faculty Early Engagement Exemplar Award twice.
The Annual Dinner is the most important fundraising event of the year for JKHA/RKYHS and the cornerstone of its annual campaign. Given that tuition and fees cover less than 70 percent of the costs of a JKHA/RKYHS education, the school relies on the community’s support of its annual campaign to hire top-tier faculty and offer a cutting-edge STEM program, an exceptional Judaic studies curriculum and diverse opportunities in theater and sports, while remaining affordable and accessible to school families.
To place an ad in the virtual journal in honor of the distinguished honorees or to reserve your tickets to attend the event, visit http://www.jkha.org/dinner or contact Lauren Shapiro, director of development, at 862-437-8192 or [email protected].
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