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Joseph Rafalowicz and his wife Karen Price Rafalowicz sent their boys Benjamin and Adam to Westchester Hebrew High School on the grounds of the old Arnold Constable estate in Mamaroneck.
Benjamin (now in graduate school at Touro University following an undergraduate degree from Rutgers University) and Adam (a sophomore at Boston University) have moved on, but Joseph and Karen have not. They raise money; they pursue grants. A capital campaign for building upgrades, Joseph pointed out, "presents lots of dedication opportunities." The Annual Fund seeks $100,000, a sum Joseph Rafalowicz, school co-president and treasurer, acknowledged will be difficult to reach in the current economic climate.
On a cold late March day, Joseph Rafalowicz sat at the back of the school's synagogue in the hour before the hundred-strong student body would stream in for 3 p.m. prayers and explained why he and his wife have worked for the school since 1995, a year notable not just because it designates 14 years of service; it was also a year before their first child, Benjamin, walked through the door as a freshman.
"It's about a strong commitment to Jewish education," Rafalowicz said. "The future of Jewish survival, especially in the U.S., is Jewish education. It's hard to be involved and to practice if they don't have the knowledge."
The Westchester Hebrew High School regimen features individual attention - "No one slips through the cracks," Rafalowicz...