NYC Jewish schools welcome Israeli families after October 7

When Stephanie Cramer left her home in southern Israel for New York City three days after the October, 7, Hamas attack desperate to seek safety, she also had to find a school for her three-year-old daughter.

Luckily a friend told her that Rabbi Arthur Schneier Park East Day School on the Upper East Side was offering to enroll children from Israeli families — and Yarzen, 3, found a classroom, with the school waiving her $30,000-a-year tuition.

She was not alone.

At least 168 Israeli students have been placed in 22 private Jewish day schools in New York City, Westchester and Long Island following the Hamas massacre, according to the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropy of New York (UJA).

And Jewish day schools across the country have seen a historic uptick in enrollment as more than 1,000 temporary Israeli students sought safety, according to the Enrollment Trend Report released earlier this month by Prizmah, Center for Jewish Day Schools.

The schools have also seen an uptick in demand from US parents transferring children from public schools since the Oct. 7 attacks, with 32% of those who moved children saying it was because of their previous schools’ response to the terrorist attacks.

Cramer, 30, who is also a U.S. citizen, left her husband, Erez, 30, who was deployed to Gaza to fight in Israel and brought their daughters Yarzen and 1-year-old Arava, to stay with her father in Hell’s Kitchen and feared finding a place for Yarzen would be difficult.

“I assumed it would be more complicated to find them a school mid-year,” said Cramer, who met her husband when they both served in the IDF.

“The moment I reached out they returned my call. The following day we came to see the school and the next day my 3-year-old started class in the early childhood development program.”

Rabbi Arthur Schneier Park East Day School (RASPEDS) welcomed 22 students from Israeli families following Oct. 7, after it sent out a memo to parents alerting them to their Open Doors Policy to Displaced Israeli Families.

“A lot of the schools [in Israel] had shut down right after the war began. Parents didn’t want their kids to be in lockdown again like during COVID,” Debbie Rochlin, principal of Rabbi Arthur Schneier Park East Day School, told The Post.

“Some parents felt they wanted to come to New York and have their children in a safe place.

“Our doors were open, and we were ready to provide a warm, nurturing environment for these students, ensuring that they can continue their academic journey without interruption.”

Rochlin says her faculty streamlined the admissions process by waiving all fees as well as tuition, and providing mental health counseling to students in need. Third grade, she noted, saw a particular uptick in Israeli students transferring in. 

“It’s difficult in general for children to enter any school mid-year, let alone a foreign one, but our teachers and students embraced them,” Rochlin said.

Other schools which have enrolled Israeli children include Manhattan Day School on the Upper West Side, The Ramaz School on the Upper East Side, Luria Academy of Brooklyn and Westchester Day School.

Among the complications are that the Israeli arrivals, like Cramer’s daughter, speak Hebrew as their primary language.

“She was learning a lot – her English improved. She could express herself [better] – it was a great place for her to be,” Cramer said.

Cramer returned to Israel to reunite with her husband who was released from the Israeli Defense Force in November, but the family are keen to move back to New York and re-enroll their daughters in a private Jewish day school. 

Westchester Day School, a modern Orthodox Jewish private school for toddler through eighth grade in Mamaroneck, Westchester, was a refuge for Elana, who asked The Post to leave out her last name for privacy reasons, and her four kids aged 17, 14, 11, and 8.

With schools closed in Israel, the family left to stay with family in Scarsdale, New York on Oct. 12, and started her elementary aged kids after Thanksgiving.

“I said, ‘I have to get them enrolled in something.’ They were home doing nothing. We didn’t know what was going on with the war. Our kids were out of school for a month,” Elana told The Post.

WDS waived tuition fees — which are up to $29,700 a year— and bypassed requests for transcripts, she said.

She and her family are back in Israel, but hope to return to New York permanently.

“Personally when you’re displaced it’s a dark time for you,” Elana told The Post. “This gave us that light in the dark time.”