The South Florida Chapter of the American Sephardi
Federation (ASF) in conjunction
with the Sephardi Educational Trust, is delighted to announce
two new programs at the Brauser Maimonides Academy
of Hollywood-Ft. Lauderdale Florida: a new Sephardic Studies
program and a Sephardic Scholarship Fund.
The Brauser Maimonides Academy is a modern Orthodox day school.
It services over 300 students from nursery to 8th Grade. Under
the sponsorship of the ASF-South Florida Chapter, it has recently
integrated a comprehensive Sephardic heritage program into its
general Judaic curriculum for its elementary and middle school
students. Within this framework, we believe all the students
will receive a more complete understanding of their Jewish history
and identity.
Until the involvement of the ASF –South Florida Chapter
and the Sephardi Educational Trust, almost nothing pertaining
to Sephardic halacha, history, music, literature, or customs
was taught, in spite of the fact that approximately 30 percent
the student body is made up of Sephardic children. Now, with
the cooperation of the school administration, we are implementing
all these components of Judaic studies through the direction
of Rabbi Marc Saada, the school’s newly appointed Sephardic
studies coordinator.
Rabbi Saada also leads and teaches a newly established morning
Sephardic minyan for Sephardic students in 4th through 8th grades.
Several fathers and grandfathers of students also participate
and help conduct the services. Thanks in large part to the efforts
of Dr. Armando Franco— education chairman and past president
of this chapter and a member of the board of directors of Brauser
Maimonides Academy— and a committee of parents—
including Miriam and Jacob Amselem, Dr. Lori and Marc Ben-Ezra,
Miriam and Daniel Bengio, Bonnie and Joseph Betesh, Rica Dray,
and Marcy and Joel Suissa— both Sephardic and Ashkenazi
students will have a more inclusive understanding of their history,
rituals, and traditions. The second part of our initiative
is our scholarship fund. A good Jewish day school education
is expensive. We want to help provide a Jewish education to
Sephardic children whose parents cannot afford the full day-school
tuition. Therefore, we are establishing an American Sephardi
Federation-South Florida Chapter scholarship fund.
All of us at the South Florida Chapter believe
that this project merits your special attention. Our tradition
teaches us that it is the responsibility of the entire community
to support Jewish education. As president of the ASF-South
Florida Chapter and as a grandparent of five Jewish day-school
students, I feel a personal accountability to our future.
It is only through the continuing efforts of all of us that
we can meet the educational needs of our children. Please
support our scholarship fund so that you can become part of
our team dedicated to the development of young minds and to
safeguard our heritage for the future .To make your donation
or to receive more information on how you can help, please
feel free to contact me:
Isaac Ben-Ezra,
951 N.E. 167th Street, Suite 106,
North Miami Beach, Florida, 33162
e-mail: Isaac@fcllaw
Telephone: 305-651-0702
or contact Dr. Armando Franco,
10185 Collins Ave., #307,
Miami Beach, Florida 33154
e-mail: Armandofranco60@hotmail.com
Telephone: 305-866-6078
Isaac Ben-Ezra is the president of American Sephardi Federation-South
Florida Chapter |
