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APRIL 6, 2017 | The Jewish Home
Around the Community
YHT Educator Named “Young Pioneer” in Jewish Education
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rs. Sara Duani, who serves as Jewish Studies Curriculum Coordinator and a Jewish Studies teacher at Yeshiva Har Torah, was recently named a Jewish Education Project Young Pioneers Award winner for 2017. In awarding her the prestigious honor, the Jewish Education Project noted Mrs. Duani’s ability to employ a
unique, multi-modal approach, based on Howard Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence, in order to reach and inspire diverse groups of learner, all entirely in Hebrew. “Morah Sara” credits her parents, Rabbi and Rabbanit Manasseh, for raising her in a home that “emphasized educating and instilling high values in future genera-
tions.” She also credits her colleagues at Yeshiva Har Torah for encouraging her to take risks in her teaching and fostering a school-wide focus on collaboration and progressive education. Rabbi Gary Menchel, principal, called the award a “fitting tribute” to “one of a number of rising stars within our school who is being recognized for her extraordinary contribution to
Yeshiva Har Torah and to Jewish education.” Morah Sara will be honored along with four other Pioneers at a gala on May 17 in Manhattan. Nominees for the award come from institutions across educational settings and religious denominations. Recipients were chosen by a committee of lay leaders and educators in the field.
How the PEYD Team Traveled This Winter Vacation, Part 4 Family of Five to Los Angeles/Disneyland
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n our series documenting how the PEYD Team traveled this winter break using airline miles and credit card points to offset the cost of the airfare and hotels, we share our insider tricks, methods and best practices to help minimize any out of pocket expenses when planning one’s next vacation. In this series, we will focus on how Eli and his family took a vaca-
tion to sunny Los Angeles, which is always a great winter destination. With deluxe locations such as Disneyland typically part of the itinerary, it can also get quite pricy as there aren’t many discounts available for the Disneyland entrance fee, so the need to find cheap airfare and hotel options becomes even more necessary than other destinations or vacation options.
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Points Accrual Eli was able to make this trip happen without breaking the bank by racking up miles on his Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) credit card, opening new airline and hotel credit cards for him and his wife based on his everyday spending, with the intention of using these valuable miles and points towards his flights, hotel and overall travel. One of the greatest ways to maximize reward potential using SPG points is by utilizing point transfers. Certain SPG transfers of 20,000 points or more give you an extra 5,000 points when converted to airline miles and luckily, Virgin America is within that bonus tier. Airline Choice Virgin America has direct flights to LA and is an airline partner with SPG as mentioned above, and after researching flight options with numerous airlines, it became clear that Virgin America would offer the cheapest possible tickets for California during his preferred travel dates. With this in mind, Eli opened two new Virgin America credit cards in order to receive their 15,000 point bonuses after spending the minimum requirement. The 20,000 SPG points Eli had accrued plus the transfer bonus of 5,000 including the two 15,000 bonus miles he had earned with the Virgin America spending bonuses left Eli with 55,000 Virgin America miles to be used for his flights. Eli then booked his trip for 56,000 airline miles (he had 1k in his account already). As it grew nearer to his trip, Eli checked the airfare rates for his flights and noticed that the
mileage cost had gotten significantly lower than it had when he originally booked. Virgin America allows customers to cancel flights free of charge so within a matter of minutes Eli had cancelled and rebooked his tickets for a lesser amount of miles, saving himself 10,000 points in the process! Hotel Stay It was imperative for Eli and his wife that his kids to spend time near a water park and research was done to locate a hotel in the area that would accommodate these needs. There is a particular Howard Johnson in Anaheim, California, which has a great water park on premises and is just minutes from Disneyland. Howard Johnson is connected to the Wyndham hotel chain which happens to offer a credit card with a 30,000 point spending bonus... You can guess the rest! Two credit cards signups and 60,000 bonus points later, Eli had a four-night stay at this convenient hotel for free. Luckily, there was enough points leftover for Eli and his family to stay at a local hotel and “crash” by a Chabad program over Shabbos – the perfect ending to a wonderful family vacation! For more information about how you can take advantage of airline miles and credit card points and vacation in style without breaking the bank, please visit www.getPEYD. com. Readers should keep in mind that applying for and receiving CC is 10% of your credit score and closing them only impacts your credit line with that card.