By Andrew Coen
The Kulanu Torah Academy (KTA), a yeshiva devoted to special-needs children that operates out of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway Middle School, dedicated the torah to Friedman, a founding board member of the school, who died Feb. 23. The torah was donated to the children of KTA, which was founded in 2001 and operates as a "school within a school" at HAFTR, giving its students a school experience similar to that of other yeshiva students. The torah will be used by the KTA minyan for children with special needs in their bar mitzvah preparations and celebrations, which are usually held at HAFTR.
After a dedication ceremony at Congregation Beth Sholom, the torah was completed. Next came a procession down Broadway and Frost Lane to HAFTR Middle School for a collation and celebratory brunch. The Friedman family allowed KTA to use this event as a fund-raiser to provide important therapy and other services to the yeshiva students.
Friedman's son David remarked during the dedication ceremony that his late father, who served as Temple Hillel's principal rabbi for 33 years until his retirement in 1996, when he became rabbi emeritus, would support Kulanu if he were still alive. "[Kulanu] really excited him in his later years," said David of his father's passion for the organization. "In Kulanu he really found something that was really exciting and vibrant."
While Friedman was a conservative rabbi at Temple Hillel, he had deep respect for the Orthodox of the Five Towns, which was evident in his decision before he died to hold his funeral at Congregation Beth Sholom, to show that the different denominations of Judaism could come together as one. Friedman was also well known for bringing Temple Hillel, on the North Woodmere-Valley Stream border, into the national spotlight in October 1984, when President Ronald Reagan addressed his congregation before Friedman hosted Reagan for lunch at his home. It was the first visit by a sitting American president to a temple since one made by George Washington in 1791.
Rabbi Moshe Teitelbaum, spiritual leader of Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst, who was very close to Friedman, and spent many of his friend's final days with him at the hospital, gave the keynote address at the dedication. "When Rabbi Morris Friedman left this world, his tree of life did not die," said Teitelbaum.
KTA High School student Yoni Olenick expressed his gratitude for the torah dedication during the ceremony. "I am so proud to be a part of this beautiful dedication," said Olenick.
Kulanu now serves 40 students in its full-day program and 30 students in its after-school Talmud Torah program. Among them are children with Asperger syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and Tourette's syndrome, as well as other developmental and attention disorders, learning disabilities and physical challenges. KTA accepts students with learning challenges that are best handled through placement in self-contained or mainstream classes with modifications. The faculty comprises special educators for classroom and inclusion experiences, occupational and physical therapists, speech and language pathologists, and mental health professionals in social work and psychology.
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