Yavneh Academy (New Jersey)

The Yavneh Academy is a Modern Orthodox Jewish day school located in Paramus, in Bergen County, New Jersey, United States. It educates students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade. The school's motto is "Stimulating the mind, Nourishing the soul." The school was originally established in Paterson, New Jersey.

Yavneh Academy
Location
155 North Farview Avenue, Paramus, New Jersey 07652

United States
Coordinates40.930296°N 74.065143°W / 40.930296; -74.065143
Information
Established1942
NCES School ID02043348[1]
PrincipalRabbi Jonathan Knapp
Faculty108.5 FTEs[1]
GradesK – 8
Enrollment786 (as of 2017–18, plus 60 in Pre-K)[1]
Student to teacher ratio7.2:1[1]
Color(s)  Red and   white
Team nameRedhawks
Websitewww.yavnehacademy.org

As of the 2017–18 school year, the school had an enrollment of 786 students (plus 60 in PreK) and 108.5 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 7.2:1. The school's student body was 100% White.[1] Yavneh's graduating class of 2016 consisted of approximately 90 students.

Yavneh's principal is Rabbi Jonathan Knapp.[2]

In 2006, the SINAI Special Needs Institute, 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.[3]

History

Yavneh started in 1942 in Paterson, New Jersey, but has roots going back at least seventeen years earlier. Initially, it had a six-child kindergarten, with classes held in a local kosher delicatessen.[4] 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.[4][5] In 1986, the Paterson Public Schools 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,[6] built low income housing for seniors across the street from the Yavneh Academy campus.[7] 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.[8]

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. [9]

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, and were the runners-up in the 2007 league losing to SAR Academy, and making it to the championship game in 2008, against Moriah School 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's Cemetery Clean-Up Project (Pictures of Yavneh Students cleaning Silver Lake Cemetery). Another example is the JCC Sukkot program. Yavneh also participates actively in the Salute to Israel Parade on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue. 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

References
  1. School data for Yavneh Academy, National Center for Education Statistics. Accessed September 1, 2020.
  2. 5767 - Yavneh Academy Board of Education - 2007-2008, Yavneh Academy. Accessed April 3, 2008.
  3. Goldrich, Lois. New resource for special needs youngsters, Jewish Standard, September 14, 2006.
  4. Wilson, David (2012-01-01). Jews of Paterson. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. p. 28. ISBN 9780738597508.
  5. "Jewish Education". kehilalinks.jewishgen.org. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
  6. "Jewish Federation". kehilalinks.jewishgen.org. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
  7. Goldrich, Lois (August 2, 2013). "Seniors find a haven in Paterson". Jewish Standard. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
  8. Matkowsky, Lisa (May 7, 2015). "Fair Lawn Residents Salvage Torahs in Paterson". Jeiwsh Link of New Jersey. Retrieved 2017-03-03.
  9. Legend Mikey Pollack in 2009 came second place in law fair Search on "Yavneh" "Stock Market Game", Google News Archive. Accessed August 28, 2007.
  10. Yudelson, Larry. "When Israel’s prime minister lived in Teaneck Remembering Naftali Bennett’s two years as a Jersey boy", The Jewish Standard, June 16, 2021. Accessed January 2, 2022. "And now there is Naftali Bennett, Israel’s latest prime minister, who lived with his family in Teaneck for two years. He was a student at the Yavneh Academy, which moved from Paterson to its current Paramus address during his time there."
  11. Bratt, Heidi Mae. "Eitan Bernath’s sizzling career From Teaneck kitchen to television, viral videos, and an empire of his own", The Jewish Standard, August 25, 2021. Accessed January 2, 2022. "But he is mindful to keep himself grounded and steeped in the values that he learned from his family and his education at Yavneh Academy and Yeshivat Frisch."
  12. Remnick, David. "Paul McCartney Doesn’t Really Want to Stop the Show", The New Yorker, October 11, 2021. Accessed January 2, 2022. "Even now I can remember riding in a van, at five, six years of age, headed to Yavneh Academy, in Paterson, New Jersey, and listening to 'She Loves You' on someone’s transistor radio."
  13. Palmer, Joanne. "Who was that with Cory Booker? Adam Szubin, Iran deal defender, on loving Israel and growing up in Teaneck", Jewish Standard, 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."
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