School News

When Rabbi Yisroel Arye Gootblatt’s father passed away earlier this year, the longtime mechanech at LEC wanted to do something special in his memory.  “My father, Mr. Leonard (Eliezer, or Lazer) Gootblatt, a”h, had a passion for music and used it as a powerful tool of connection,” says Rabbi Gootblatt. “He had a special way of being genuinely curious about others—especially young people.” Music. Youth. Rabbi Gootblatt knew just the thing. And so was born Lazer’s Music Lounge at Klurman …

Friday was supposed to be an ordinary day at Miami’s Lubavitch Educational Center for Yaakov Anderson. The usual davening, classes, and mac and cheese lunch. Why should it be any different? He knew his classmates wouldn’t have known that it had just been his birthday. They certainly wouldn’t have guessed it was his thirteenth, his bar mitzvah. Sure, it had been a special day for him personally, but without a grand bar mitzvah party to invite his friends to, he …

It was hard to tell who was more enthusiastic at the third annual Hachanasa L’Cheder – Arainfirnish ceremony at Miami’s Lubavitch Educational Center—the 47 boys, grinning as they licked honey off their Alef-Beis charts, their beaming fathers on whose laps they were sitting, or their mothers and grandparents glowing with nachas as they took in the adorable scene. “My son didn’t stop smiling the entire time,” says Mrs. Mindy Wolff, whose 4-year-old son Gavi participated. “It was just so beautiful.” …

Florida Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Byron Donalds visited Lubavitch Educational Center on Monday and met with fifty rabbis, community activists, and representatives of the South Florida Jewish community and its local Jewish schools.  The congressman was joined by his wife, Erika Donalds, who works for the US Secretary of Education, Miami-Dade County Sheriff Rosie Cordero-Stutz, and community activist Barbara Feingold. “As the largest Jewish school in the US outside New York, Congressman Donalds’s visit here is a powerful affirmation of …

Saul Dreier never got to finish his education in Krakow, Poland before the Nazis dragged him off to concentration camps. The sole survivor of his family, he rebuilt his life in Florida and even founded the Holocaust Survivor Band. But his Jewish education remained cut short. Saul’s stolen youth can never be returned. But a few years ago, the students of Miami’s Lubavitch Educational Center gave him a little back when they bestowed upon him the title of Honorary Student …

US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon paid a historic visit to Lubavitch Educational Center in Miami on Tuesday afternoon, just two weeks after taking office, speaking to over 400 of the school’s students and staff members and visiting some of the preschool classrooms. It was her first trip to a Jewish school. The visit began with a prayer for return of the hostages led by the boys Elementary School principal, Rabbi Moshe Stern, and a welcome by LEC’s Head of …

Over sixty principals, heads of schools, and administrators from across the US visited Lubavitch Educational Center in Miami and toured the school as part of a two-day kinus organized by the Menachem Education Foundation.  Escorted by LEC’s principals, participants visited classrooms and spoke with educators in the school’s twenty-eight boys classes in grades one through eight, where they learned about their systems, special programs, and educational philosophies. Following the tour was a special session featuring workshops by several LEC staff. …

In honor of the 70th birthday of LEC’s dear Morah Leah Barouk, of blessed memory, her family generously dedicated classroom 101 and named it “Morah Leah’s Classroom” in her honor. Morah Leah will forever be remembered as a longtime and beloved educator in LEC’s Preschool where she lovingly educated generations of students for over 30 years. What a beautiful and meaningful tribute! Thank you, Barouk and Steinberg Families! …

Alumni of Lubavitch Educational Center Salute Mrs. Shevi Sossonko Raizy Gersh Iskowitz now lives in Israel, but she flew to her once-hometown of Miami, Florida just to say thank you to her former teacher. “I joined Landow Yeshiva, now Lubavitch Educational Center, from public school at the end of 1995,” she remembers in a video shown at LEC’s Gala Dinner in February. Iskowitz says her home life was chaotic and unstable, her and her siblings ending up in various foster …