by Debra Rubin
NJJN Bureau Chief/Middlesex

April 22, 2008

The Solomon Schechter Day School of Raritan Valley raised $150,000 during an April 9 fund-raiser featuring Dr. Ruth Westheimer. The event also recognized those who have brought financial stability and broadened academics at the institution.

“We feel extremely happy about the money raised and about the 400 people at the Dr. Ruth program,” said school president Mickey Kaufman.

He added that the school’s Shomrei Torah program had collected another $110,000 in donations this year.

Kaufman said tuition costs do not cover annual school expenses. Moreover, Schechter gives out more than $250,000 in tuition assistance each year to “make sure every single family that wants a day school education can get it for their children.”

Introducing the program at the East Brunswick Jewish Center, where the school is housed, Kaufman identified Lynne B. Harrison as one of two donors who had given the school $1 million.

Last May, the school announced it had received an unsolicited donation of more than $1 million, the largest in its history.

That first contribution toward the school’s scholarship fund was made by a woman from outside Middlesex County who remains anonymous. Harrison, the grandparent of a current student, last summer offered Schechter another $1 million if it could raise an equivalent amount on its own.

Harrison, who is also from outside Middlesex County, is the owner of Harrison Research Labs in Union. She also has funded the Lynne B. Harrison Science Center at the New Jersey Y camps.

Kaufman announced that Schechter had received four $100,000 donations toward Harrison’s challenge from Michael and Helen Kaplan of Highland Park; Steve and Jodi Reich of East Brunswick; the Livingston, Wiesenfeld, and Lewis families; and from the school’s collective board.

Harrison, who agreed to have her name revealed to give impetus to the $1 million drive, said part of her inspiration came from a trip she took to Buenos Aires. There, she witnessed American college students who were Hillel members doing tzedaka work, including rehabilitating a synagogue and working with Jewish children.

“Friday afternoon they had baked a hallah for the kids and they came to this equivalent of a Solomon Schechter school,” recalled Harrison. “The American students didn’t speak a word of Spanish and the little day school children definitely did not speak a word of English. But the little kids started singing “Shalom Aleichem” and the American kids took it up. It was a chills-up-my-spine moment and I really realized what it means when we say the Jewish people are one.”

Harrison also said she “could not imagine a world where my grandchildren are alone as Jews.”

“This is part of my legacy to my grandchildren,” she added.

The school gave awards to Jason Cury and Judy Lebovits, president and director, respectively, of the Center for Initiatives in Jewish Education of the Caroline and Joseph S. Gruss Life Monument Funds, Inc. The foundation provides funding for yeshivot and day schools in the metropolitan area for initiatives to improve secular education.

The fund provided the school with a fully equipped and staffed math and language lab this past school year.

This coming year, head of school Dr. Howard Rosenblatt said the foundation is funding a state-of-the-art science lab that is “far better than the science labs at most elementary schools and better than nearly all middle school labs.”

A VIP dinner held before the program honored Linda and Henry Salmon of Edison. Henry is immediate past president of the school and continues to serve on its board. Linda has spent her career helping children with special needs. She served for four years as a member of Schechter’s education committee.

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