By:Andrew Coen
The all-girls yeshiva recently lost a two-year legal battle to move from Young Israel of Hewlett, where it had operated during its seven-year existence. In late June the Town of Hempstead Board of Zoning Appeals rejected an application from the school to relocate to the former site of the Long Island Gymnastics Academy, at 1199 Railroad Ave. Had the application been approved, the yeshiva high school would have increased enrollment from 50 to 200 students.
According to Reenas Bais Yaakov Executive Director Rabbi Ari Ginian, late last week the school was in contact with all of the families of students who were enrolled, informing them of the decision to close.
In a phone interview Tuesday morning, Ginian said there were many factors in the decision to close, but he would not give specific reasons. "We're working on trying to place all the students into other schools, and that is our focus now," he said.
Ginian said that the students from the now-defunct yeshiva are looking into enrolling at other local yeshivas, such as the Stella K. Abraham (SKA) High School for Girls in Hewlett Bay Park.
"We have been inundated with calls," one SKA official said, adding that seven families from Reenas Bais Yaakov have enrolled so far. "We stayed late one night to accommodate the parents of the children with interviews."
Before learning last Thursday about Reenas Bais Yaakov's decision to close, SKA, which is affiliated with the Hebrew Academy of Long Beach, had 292 students enrolled for the 2004-05 school year, compared with 310 last year, according to school officials.
With the additional students, the school now has about 300 students, school officials said.
Neera Kimmel, who taught chemistry part-time at the yeshiva, said the 25 faculty members are disappointed in the school closing, since they enjoyed the close-knit atmosphere. "It was a nice environment to work in," said Kimmel. "It's hard to lose a job when you enjoy the environment so much and when you really enjoy the girls you are teaching."
Kimmel said that she believes a major reason for the closing was the parents' concerns over the uncertainty of getting a new building in which to expand once the Railroad Avenue property was rejected by the zoning board. "[The administration] was put in a tough position, so we feel bad this had to happen," she said.
Kimmel said that most of the former Reenas teachers are part-time, but that the administration is working with them to find other teaching jobs.
The space at Young Israel of Hewlett that was used by the yeshiva will now likely be set aside for the increased membership of the synagogue, which has doubled in the last year, according to the synagogue's spiritual leader, Rabbi Heshy Blumstein. A meeting was scheduled at the synagogue on Tuesday, after press time, to discuss what to do with the extra space.
With Reenas Bais Yaakov now gone, the only other all-girls yeshiva high schools in the Five Towns area besides SKA are the Torah Academy for Girls (TAG) in Far Rockaway and Gamla High School for Girls at Temple Israel in Lawrence.
According to the yeshiva's rejected plans, the Railroad Avenue location would have undergone construction of a new hallway, seven classrooms, a computer lab, a multi-purpose room, a cafeteria, a science lab, a library, administrative offices and a lecture room for assemblies and prayer by students. The school purchased the property from the storage facility, Ellman International, in January 2003 for $2.7 million.
During a town BZA hearing, the school argued that as a religious and educational institution, it could operate on a site as a matter of right. But a copy of the town's decision rejecting the yeshiva's bid pointed to many previous cases that refuted that argument.
One, cited during the hearing, was a 1988 case in which the Holy Trinity Greek Church in Hicksville was denied a 50-space variance by the Town of Oyster Bay BZA because of safety concerns. Ironically, that case was also handled by the yeshiva's attorney, William Cohn, and Hewlett Fire Department attorney Howard Avartine. The fire department and Hewlett-Woodmere School District joined forces to oppose the operation of the school at the Railroad Avenue site because of safety concerns.
The June decision also referred to the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act passed by Congress in 2000, part of which reads, "The establishment or expansion of a religious use may be curtailed if such limitation is predicated upon a compelling government interest."
Another reason for the application's rejection, according to the BZA's written decision, is that no parking spaces would have been available on the Railroad Avenue site. The town's Building Department had initially ruled that the yeshiva would need a variance to waive a requirement of 74 parking spots, but Cohn had argued that the school would need a variance for a requirement of only 15 spaces.
Cohn claimed the yeshiva needed one spot per 25 students, or eight spaces, and one spot for every 2 of the 13 employees, or seven spaces. In its decision, however, the BZA determined that the total number of spaces required would be 74, and not 15.
