by Rabbi Yair Hoffman for 5TJT.com

When an entire community comes out to vote in favor of a local school, it shows remarkable achdus.  Today’s crucial vote would decide whether the #5 school would be allowed to be sold to a developer, or whether Shulamith would be able to purchase the building to accommodate the education of the growing number of observant young women in the Five Towns.

The school is located at 305 Cedarhurst Avenue in Cedarhurst. Shulamith has leased the school for the past eight and a half years.  And now, due to the tremendous turnout in the election – they can purchase it.  The school was built in 1929 and is 97,000 square feet. The area of teh property is slightly over 2 and 1/2 acres.

In the aftermath of Parshas Yisro, where Rashi points out that Klal Yisroel were k’ish echad b’laiv echad, the election results really highlight the achdus in the community.  The question can be asked, however, why it was specifically at Matan Torah that this expression is employed.  Did not Klal Yisroel show achdus at Krias Yam Suf as well?

The answer is that it is easy to show achdus when we face troubles and vicissitudes.  At Matan Torah, however, the achdus was demonstrated even in times of joy and success.  By the same token, the vote for Shulamith comes at a time of growth in Torah as Shulamith now has not just a rented home – but a permanent one.  When people are b’shalom even in times that are not stressed – that is a show of true unity.

Previously, Shulamith had purchased a former fitness center for its high school at 158 Franklin Place in Woodmere. It is located 1.3 miles from its early childhood school, and lower division, and middle school at 305 Cedarhurst.

There were a number of previous purchases of public school in the Five Towns. Some 43 years ago, HAFTR purchased the Number Three School on Central Avenue, and the Number One School was purchased by a developer and is now the home of the Regency.

The community owes a very special thanks to Reb Jason Goldstoff of the team of Herrick, Feinstein, LLP.

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