Hebrew Academy For Special Children (HASC) is a Jewish non-profit agency in New York City, United States, providing a wide range of supportive services to children with special needs. The organization is best known for its summer camps and its annual A Time for Music benefit concert.
The HASC (Hebrew Academy For Special Children) Programs were established in 1963 by Rabbi Max and Blanche Kahn [1] to provide educational and clinical services to individuals from infancy through adulthood who exhibit developmental delays. [2] HASC is currently directed by Samuel Kahn.
HASC's services are geared toward infants, [3] children, and adults with speech, learning, or motor limitations and also children who have behavioral difficulties. There are currently 6 locations in the New York region serving over 1,000 children. In addition HASC provides programs and living quarters like Camp HASC and assisted living apartments throughout the New York city area. [4]
A school is located in Woodmere, New York with a student body of approximately 890 students. [5]
Programs are divided by approximate age ranges:
HASC is well known for its annual A Time for Music benefit concert. [6] These concerts have been held for the last 3 decades in venues such as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall and Madison Square Garden. The concert is viewed as a major event within the New York Jewish community. In the past it has attracted contemporary Jewish stars like Mordechai Ben David, Avraham Fried, Yaakov Shwekey, Matisyahu, [7] and Ovadya Yaish. A Time for Music is known to have a partnership with Yeshiva Boys Choir, and Eli Gerstner. A Time For Music (being produced by Eli Gerstner since 2016) is taking several members and soloists of Yeshiva Boys Choir on tour around the United States in the Chicago and New Jersey areas, and several more to be announced.
Camp HASC is one of the many organizations founded by Max and Blanche Kahn, in the year 1970. Now Camp HASC is a host to what most consider "Heaven on Earth" with over 300 special needs children. These children are given individual counselors to work, play, and care for them throughout the entire summer. HASC also provides experience for new nurses just out of nursing school. For 7 weeks in the summer newly qualified nurses are running the show just as much as the counselors. A challenging part of their job experience for the new nurses is devising clever ways to encourage the campers to take their medications. The Infirmary provides an aid for those in need, the campers and counselors alike. [8] [9]
The school found itself in the news in 1998 when it named a building after Senator Alfonse D'Amato and the senator used derogatory terms about some of his political opponents in his acceptance speech. [10]
The agency received a $430,000 federal grant in 2001 to establish a national service center for the disabled. [11]
A summer camp or sleepaway camp is a supervised program for children conducted during the summer months in some countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer camps are known as campers. Summer school is usually a part of the academic curriculum for a student to make up work not accomplished during the academic year.
Avraham Shabsi Hakohen Friedman better known by his stage name, Avraham Fried, is a popular musical entertainer in the Orthodox Jewish community.
Yaakov Choueka, better known by his stage name Yaakov Shwekey, is an Orthodox Jewish recording artist and musical entertainer. He is of Egyptian and Syrian Sephardic heritage from his father's side; and Ashkenazi from his mother‘s side.
Torah Umesorah – National Society for Hebrew Day Schools is an Orthodox Jewish educational charity based in the United States that promotes Torah-based Jewish religious education in North America by supporting and developing a loosely affiliated network independent private Jewish day schools.
Shloime Dachs is an American Orthodox pop vocalist. He is also the founder of the eponymous Shloime Dachs Orchestra, which plays at weddings, concerts, and benefits.
Jewish education is the transmission of the tenets, principles, and religious laws of Judaism. Jews value education, and the value of education is strongly embedded in Jewish culture. Judaism places a heavy emphasis on Torah study, from the early days of studying the Tanakh.
Camp Ramah in New England (CRNE), located in Palmer, Massachusetts, is one of the oldest Ramah summer camps, organized by a Jewish conservation center. The camp traces its roots to Ramah Connecticut in 1953, followed by Ramah at Glen Spey, and has evolved into Camp Ramah in New England.
For the purposes of this article, “contemporary” refers to the period from 1967 to the present day, “Jewish” refers to the various streams and traits of Judaism practiced. Many Orthodox Jews use the term “religious” to refer to a strict adherence to Jewish law. For the purposes of this article, “religious” refers to the content and context of the music itself: liturgical or implicit references to the divine.
Abie Rotenberg is a prolific Orthodox Jewish musician, composer and entertainer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has been producing music since the mid-1970s with a style which has been described as "soft and sweet" with a strong folk influence.
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Eliezer "Eli" Gerstner, is an Orthodox Jewish singer, songwriter and producer.
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Shloime Gertner is a British Hasidic Jewish singer from London, England. He achieved international celebrity with his first album, Nissim (Miracles) in 2007. He often performs at Jewish weddings, and in concert and benefit performances with other top-billed Jewish singers.
Yehuda Green (born 1959) is a Hasidic Jewish singer and composer, and hazzan at the Carlebach Shul on Manhattan's Upper West Side. Singing in the style of singer-rabbi Shlomo Carlebach (1925–1994), he has been called "more Carlebach than Carlebach", and is acclaimed for his heartfelt renditions of Carlebach's songs.
Ohad Moskowitz, known professionally as Ohad, is a Belgian-born Israeli Orthodox Jewish vocalist who is one of the superstars of the contemporary Jewish religious music scene. He rose to international stardom in 2003 with his first solo album, Vearastich, produced by Yossi Green.
Benzion Hakohen "Benny" Friedman is an American Hasidic Jewish singer and a non-pulpit rabbi. Professionally trained in voice, he rose to prominence on the Orthodox pop scene with his first album in 2009. Singing mainly in Hebrew, Friedman tours extensively and also appears in music videos. He views his music as a shlichus (outreach) tool, with the goal of drawing Jews closer to Judaism.
Ari Goldwag is an American Orthodox Jewish singer, songwriter, composer, and producer of contemporary Jewish religious music, as well as an author and teacher living in Ramat Beit Shemesh, Israel. He was a soloist for the Miami Boys Choir at age 10 and starred on five albums and three videos before his voice changed at age 14. He launched a music career after his marriage and move to Israel. He has released nine solo albums, and composes songs and produces albums for other artists.
Orthodox pop, sometimes called Hasidic pop, Hasidic rock, K-pop, Haredi pop, and Ortho-pop, is a form of contemporary Jewish religious music popular among Orthodox Jews. It typically draws stylistically from contemporary genres like pop, rock, jazz, and dance music, while incorporating text from Jewish prayer, Torah, and Talmud as well as traditional Jewish songs and occasional original English lyrics with themes of faith and positivity. The genre was pioneered in the 1970s by artists like Mordechai Ben David and the Miami Boys Choir, who incorporated secular pop and dance influences into their music in contrast to the more traditional Jewish music of the time, and has had continued success in the modern era with singers like Yaakov Shwekey, Lipa Schmeltzer, Baruch Levine, and Benny Friedman.
Shlomo Simcha Sufrin, better known as Shlomo Simcha is a UK-born Canadian Hasidic Jewish cantor and singer. Shlomo Simcha began his career in a small kollel in Montreal, where he was discovered by a local wedding band leader who brought him onto a project recording a series for children in the Satmar community called Besof Umachol. His work on the series caught the attention of Mendy Werdyger at Aderet Records, who introduced him to producer Sheya Mendlowitz, with whom he would create his first commercial album.
Dovid Trenk was an Orthodox Jewish Rabbi and Rosh Yeshiva of the Yeshiva Moreshes Yehoshua, in Lakewood, New Jersey. Prior to that, he was a Maggid Shiur at Talmudical Academy of Central New Jersey in Adelphia, New Jersey and Mir Yeshiva in Brooklyn, New York.
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