EDUCATION
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The Jewish Voice
New J’slm Program Aims to Improve US Jewish Schools Women Teachers Receive Stipends for Study in Israel Edited by: JV Staff
Cuomo Proposes Selling CUNY Building to 'Offset' State Support By: Conor Skelding
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atan, a Jerusalem based advanced Jewish studies program for women, has launched The Bellows Eshkolot Institute for Tanakh and Jewish Studies, an initiative to improve the level and quality of Jewish education in American Jewish schools in cooperation with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Offering full-tuition scholarships and living stipends of up to a total of $15,000, Eshkolot seeks to attract the "best and the brightest" women currently teaching or aspiring to teach in Jewish schools in the US. Participants commit to returning to North America to teach in Jewish schools for a minimum of two years upon completion of the program. The 12 month program combines intensive Beit Midrash learning and lectures in Tanakh, Parshanut, Oral law, Jewish Philosophy, as well as cutting-edge pedagogic resources, technological tools, classroom teaching and professional mentoring. Classes are taught by renowned scholars including Dr. Yael Ziegler, Rabbi Menachem Leibtag, Rabbanit Shani Taragin among others. Students also
JANUARY 27, 2017
Matan, a Jerusalem based advanced Jewish studies program for women, has launched The Bellows Eshkolot Institute for Tanakh and Jewish Studies, an initiative to improve the level and quality of Jewish education in American Jewish schools in cooperation with The Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
have the option to study for and receive an MA from Hebrew University. Currently, 15 students are participating in the fi st year of Eshkolot. Rabbanit Malke Bina Chancellor and founder of Matan explains that "Eshkolot was created to invest in talented women who are idealistic and committed to making a signific nt impact on the Jewish people. We see them as an elite group who will go back to the US and contribute to their classroom, their school and by extension the whole community. It is
an exciting venture!" Applications are now being accepted for the 2017 fellowship which begins in August 2017. For more information contact Dr. Dodi Fishman Tobin, Dean of Students at eshkolot@matan. org.il or visit www.matan.org. il. The new Eshkolot video can be viewed here: http://bit. ly/2idYLfr
About Matan
Rabbanit Malke Bina had a revolutionary dream to open See New J’slm Program , page 36
TUBING AND BONDING WORK
ov. Andrew Cuomo's executive budget calls for selling a building used by the City University of New York to "off et" a reduction in operating funds for the system's senior colleges. The building, at 450 West 41st Street, used to house Hunter College's Master of Fine Arts program. The college still uses it, but the state owns it. "The expected sale of certain CUNY capital assets will result in available resources to partially offset State support for CUNY," the governor's fin ncial plan stated. The plan, accordingly, includes a 5.2 reduction in state operating support for CUNY's senior colleges: from $1.21 billion in the 2017 fi cal year to $1.14 billion in the proposed 2018 fi cal year, down $63 million. If the state sells the building, up to $60 million of the sale's proceeds may be used to support senior colleges, provided that they "shall reduce the state's net operating expense liability ... in an equal amount," according to the governor's draft Education, Labor and Family Assistance Bill. The state may also provide CUNY with "an alternative amount [of the proceeds] as determined by the director of the budget." The state budget director, Robert Mujica, also is a gu-
Gov. Andrew Cuomo's executive budget calls for selling a building used by the City University of New York to "offset" a reduction in operating funds for the system's senior colleges.
bernatorial appointee to CUNY's board. According to the draft bill, the state could sell other CUNY property "not limited" to the Hunter building. The retically, this would not have a net effect on CUNY's FY2018 funding: money provided by general appropriations would instead by funded by a one-time sale of a building. Accordingly, the summary of senior college funding in the briefi g book does not include the 5.2 percent reduction in the financial plan, but a 2.5 percent increase. "If the asset is sold, the state would reinvest the funds into the CUNY system," Cuomo press secretary Dani Lever said in a statement. CUNY's faculty union expressed doubt about the proposal. "We are disappointed that the
proposed Executive Budget appears to decrease public investment in CUNY's senior colleges and appears to propose the sale of CUNY assets to 'partially offset State support for CUNY.' We await the details of the plan," the Professional Staff Congress said in a statement. A Hunter College spokeswoman deferred comment on the building to CUNY's central administration, which released a statement from Chancellor James Milliken that did not address the building's sale. "Governor Cuomo’s FY 2018 Executive Budget proposes signific nt investment in The City University of New York," Milliken said in the statement, which praised Cuomo's proposed Excelsior Scholarship Program among other proposals. (POLITICO.COM)
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