From the Desk of Susan Weintrob, RAVSAK President

Connections are an important part of our school lives, whether to Israel and the Jewish people, our students or our parents, crucial partners in creating an educational environment. As we begin our school year, we build our school communities—welcoming returning families and opening the door for our new families. This past year has been a challenging one for so many of us: lower enrollments, higher requests for financial aid and tighter budgets. Our communities are more important than ever.

Over the last few years, we at RAVSAK have strengthened other important connections at teacher workshops and seminars, at major and successful administrative professional development programs, such as Project SuLaM and at our annual RAVSAK conference. I look forward to seeing you at our conference in New York this January, together with our friends and colleagues from Solomon Schechter, PARDeS, and Yeshiva University.

Working together helps us all in this financial downturn and gives us the confidence to strengthen our schools from within and build the capacity of our communities with the vision of our leadership. We are extraordinarily pleased that RAVSAK’s vision will continued to be enriched through the leadership of our newly formed Board of Directors, under the stewardship of Arnee Winshall, our new Chair. We welcome Arnee and thank her for her faith and confidence in the future of RAVSAK and Jewish community day school education.

In The Gift of Asher Lev, Chaim Potok wrote: “When the soul of a man is in its darkest night, he must strive constantly for new light. When one thinks there is only an end, that is when one must struggle for the new beginning…I wish your journey will be to a light not only for yourself but for all of us.”

On behalf of the RAVSAK Executive Committee and RAVSAK staff, I wish you a wonderful opening of school this fall. May the New Year and fall chaggim take us on a journey to light for us and our families, and for our larger family: the Jewish people in Israel and around the world. ♦

Susan Weintrob is the President of RAVSAK and the Head of School at the Ronald C. Wornick Jewish Day School in Foster City, CA. Susan can be reached at [email protected].