Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway

Infobox Secondary school
name = Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway

accreditation =
established = 1978
type = Private secondary
principal =
faculty =
students =
city = South Shore, Long Island
state = New York
country = USA
website = [http://www.haftr.org www.haftr.org]
grades = PreK-12
address = 389 Central AvenueThe Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway, or HAFTR, is a centrist Modern Orthodox Jewish day school on the South Shore of Long Island in New York serving students in preschool through twelfth grade. It is a private school, with its lower school located in Lawrence, and its high school in Cedarhurst, two of the Five Towns. Students study Jewish and secular subjects in a dual curriculum.

The pre-school, kindergarten, elementary school, detention facility and middle school are located on one campus on a number of buildings with entrances on Washington Avenue, Central Avenue and Frost Lane in Lawrence. The high school is located on Central Avenue in Cedarhurst; the building being a former elementary school of the Lawrence Public Schools, built in the 1920s, predating the other buildings by about 40-60 years. Compared to other Jewish schools in the Five Towns, HAFTR is considered more centrist Orthodox than other local Jewish day schools and yeshivas, such as Hebrew Academy of Long Beach or Rambam Mesivta.

HAFTR was established in 1978 as the result of a merger between two schools on the South Shore of Long Island: The Hebrew Institute of Long Island (HILI) in Far Rockaway, Queens, which had served the Rockaway and Five Towns community since 1936; and the Hillel School, which was founded in Lawrence in 1957. [ [http://www.haftr.org/haftrschool/alumni.html HAFTR Alumni Association] , accessed December 13, 2006]

In both its middle school and high school buildings, HAFTR gives space to the Kulanu Torah Academy, a special education school.

The school is a participant in the Salute to Israel Parade

On April 7, 2006, HAFTR announced that it would be joining with Rambam Mesivta (which is across the street from its elementary school) in an "educational partnership." The new partnership is called Machon HaTorah, and began operation at the commencement of the Fall 2006 semester, under the leadership of Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman and Rabbi Yotav Eliach. An all girls school, named Shalhevet, opened in 2008. The school currently has an attendance of 14 girls. The school is located on 650 Broadway.

Notable alumni

*Lee Bienstock (born 1983), contestant on the fifth edition of the NBC reality show "The Apprentice", where he was the runner-up to winner Sean Yazbeck. [ [http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=16755769&BRD=1601&PAG=461&dept_id=479855&rfi=6 Proud of Lee] , "Nassau Herald", June 8, 2006]
*Joseph Stern, British Marshall Scholar, 1999. [ [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50B14F93C590C778DDDAB0994D0494D81 "Marshall Scholarships Given For Further Study in Britain"] , ""The New York Times", December 14, 1998] Author of Euler's Triangle Determination Problem [ [http://forumgeom.fau.edu/FG2007volume7/index.html FG2006index ] ] , Forum Geometricorum [ [http://forumgeom.fau.edu forumgeom ] ] , Vol. 7 (2007)

References

External links

* [http://www.haftr.org/ HAFTR homepage]
* [http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/pss/privateschoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&SchoolID=00937337&ID=00937337 Data for Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway] , National Center for Education Statistics
* [http://www.romach.blogspot.com/ For blog info on the merge]