Please share this information with family or friends who do not have email or internet access.
If you, a family member, or friend would like to receive emails from the Agudah email reception@agudah.org. | | July 29, 2020 - 8 Av 5780 News from the Agudah:
- Agudath Israel of America, upon consultation with its rabbinic leadership, issued a statement regarding participation in the 2020 Census expressing the importance of participating in the census for the good of the community. Please see below or click here to read the statement.
- Agudath Israel of California, working hard on reopening schools, issued a statement in regard to this- see below or click here.
- Bnos will be having a special virtual Tisha B'av event for Bnos leaders and high school girls tomorrow from 2:00-3:15 pm EDT. See below for more details.
- Ari Weisenfeld, our Development Coordinator, who is leading Agudah's census efforts was interviewed yesterday on the Zev Brenner Show about the importance of the 2020 Census. You can listen to a recording of the show here.
- This Tisha B'Av, Bnos will be having a Chesed Creativity Contest. Do a creative chesed and you will be entered into a raffle. Call our Bnos hotline at 641-715-3800 access code 666212# for more details. You can send in your creative chesed entry to Bnos@agudah.org or mail it to 930 East County Line Road, Suite 203, Lakewood, NJ 08701.
- Lastly, We wish everyone a healthy and meaningful fast. May we be zoche to the geula sh'leima b'miheira b'yameinu, amen.
| | Agudath Israel Statement Regarding Participation in the 2020 Census | | Agudath Israel of America, upon consultation with its rabbinic leadership, issued the following statement regarding participation in the 2020 Census: Every 10 years the United States Government is required by law to conduct a census of everyone living within its borders. The 2020 United States Census is currently underway. It is of the utmost importance for the good of the community that we fully participate in this project. Filling out the census form should take only a few short minutes, but its impact could be felt for years to come. The results of the census directly impact our communities in a variety of ways. Over three hundred Federal Government programs (such as Medicare, SNAP and Unemployment Insurance, and a variety of federal education programs that benefit nonpublic schools including yeshivos) have their funding levels determined at least in part based on the results of the census. Additionally, our community's representation in Congress and in state and local legislative bodies may be directly tied to our population size based on census data. The only way we can ensure our issues are prioritized in government is through adequate representation. Agudath Israel highly encourages all who care about our community, its growth, and its representation, to participate in this year's census. | | Agudath Israel of California Statement on Schools | | Agudath Israel of California represents the Orthodox Jewish community in the State, including more than 25 Orthodox Jewish day schools with over 7000 students in an effort to reopen K-12 schools for face to face learning in the fall. The Orthodox Jewish community fully understands the threat of the COVID -19 virus in the State of California. We place safety first in any action we take.
During the first months of the pandemic our community experienced hospitalizations, the need for long term ventilator care, and even death. Our community took strong action to follow governmental guidelines. In May we were able to reopen synagogues adhering to the state and county protocols. In July, we opened day camps, again following state and county guidelines. To date, we have had no infection traceable to our synagogues or day camps.
Sadly, we have not been able to reopen our schools. From March until the end of the academic year, our students, like all students throughout the State, participated in distance learning only. Each of our schools invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in a heroic effort to obtain the necessary technology, set up and train users, and to implement a robust distance learning program.
Despite these efforts, our educators feel, as do educators throughout the State, that the distance learning model was not successful. The thought of limiting instruction to home based computer learning in the coming academic year is untenable. The model is an academic failure and a financial impossibility. Many prominent physicians, including pediatricians, agree that schools can be safely opened for face to face learning if proper guidelines are followed.
We applaud the Governor's inclusion of a waiver option in the State guidelines that would allow an elementary school to petition to reopen. We strongly contend that the waiver process should be expanded to secondary grades. There is no conclusive science to make such an arbitrary distinction. It should also be possible for a consortium or group of schools to batch their applications and submit them together.
Agudath Israel of California wants all Californians to stay safe and healthy. Part and parcel of that is to enable our children to learn. It is imperative to allow those willing to take the necessary steps to ensure a safe learning environment, the ability to reopen schools for the coming academic year, for face to face instruction. | | Bnos Agudath Israel Presents a Special Virtual Tisha B'Av Program | | The three weeks are times of mourning, times when Klal Yisroel reflects on all the devastation this Galus has wrecked on our nation. On Tisha B'Av our mourning peaks, as a nation we unite to relive the sorrows of the former years while yearning for the Geulah that we hope will be here soon.
In order to enhance this time for our teenage girls, this Tisha B'Av at 2:00 pm, Bnos Agudath Israel will host a unique program designed to inspire and uplift our teens in this journey towards the final redemption. Mrs. Devorah Goldberg will begin the program with an uplifting story of triumph, followed by Divrei Chizuk from Mrs. Nechama Demo.
We daven that this event will be the last of its kind and that next year we will be celebrating this time in Yerushalayim Ir Hakodesh.
To participate in this event call, 425.436.6277-Access Code 244274 | | | | | | |
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