[YWN VIDEO & PHOTO LINKS BELOW] Brooklyn, NY — New York City Council Member Simcha Felder (D-Boro Park, Midwood, Bensonhurst) was joined by Mayor Bloomberg at Barkai Yeshiva yesterday to announce a program that will give thousands of Yeshiva students access to free tutoring services. The announcement follows a successful year-long pilot project in three Yeshivas. The expanded program provides free small group remedial instruction in reading, writing and math to over 14,000 students in 46 Yeshivas. The program, with an estimated annual value of $24 million, comes at no cost to parents, Yeshivas or the City thanks to millions of dollars in federal funding through the No Child Left Behind Act.

“With so much emphasis on updating classrooms with the newest technology and computers, it is easy to forget that nothing can replace the value of sitting down with a student and walking them through difficult material,” said Felder.

Felder thanked Mayor Bloomberg and the Department of Education for their cooperation with a coalition of major Jewish organizations including the Sephardic Community Federation (SCF), UJO of Williamsburg and Agudath Israel. David G. Greenfield, Executive Vice President of the SCF and UJO President Rabbi David Niederman were on hand for yesterday’s announcement. Felder cited the pilot project’s success at Bais Yaakov of Boro Park, Yeshiva Toras Emes Kaminetz and Yeshivat Ohr Haiim as reason to be excited.

YWN VIDEO & PHOTO LINK: Click HERE for video #1, and HERE for #2 – & click HERE for photos by Hillel Engel for YWN.

(YWN Desk – NYC)