My SAR Story | Volume 2
COOKI LEVY | Former Faculty and Current Grandparent
“I began my teaching career at Riverdale Jewish Day School in 1968, and was part of the faculty the following year when we merged with two other schools to become SAR. I taught the 7th Grade that year, and recall walking with my class of fewer than a dozen students to the Young Israel of Riverdale on 239th Street as there was no room in the Riverdale Jewish Center for an additional class as the school grew. I had the privilege of working with Rabbi Yitz Greenberg, who was my mentor, and worked with him as I began teaching one of the first courses on Holocaust history to Jewish Day School students.
My family left Riverdale in 1973 and moved to Montreal, Canada. Today, my son and his wife, Rabbi Dan and Debra Levy, are residents of Riverdale and Dan is on the faculty of SAR. Two of my grandchildren, Eliana and Zachary, are students at the school. Our family has come full circle and I couldn’t be more proud.”
“I always loved the end-of-year countdown. Everyone would gather on the endless staircases and count down the last minute of school at the end of each year. It was such an amazing tradition! We all used to look forward to that moment; yet it was also bittersweet when it ended, as we knew we had to wait all summer to be back at SAR.
SAR was always so much more than a school; we loved being there each and every day. It was such a rare blessing to grow up in that environment and I cherish my memories from when I was a student there.”
AVIGDOR GARGY | Parent of Alumni
“In 1994, we moved to Riverdale. Over the first weekend living here, we walked down the block and saw the SAR building and wondered what was this place. I later learned that it was a school and when my son Michael was 3 years old, he started at the ELC, finished 8th Grade at SAR Academy, and then SAR High School in 2009. Ever since then, I have been involved with SAR in many ways; SAR is part of my life, as family and home. The faculty and staff were always nice, warm, and supportive. SAR is one of the reasons that I’m still living in Riverdale today.”