Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy, better known by the acronym, SAR Academy, is a coeducational, private Modern Orthodox Jewishday school. The school is located in the Riverdale section of the New York City borough of the Bronx. Its name derives from the three schools which merged to form it, Salanter, Akiba, and the Riverdale Academy, all Orthodox yeshiva day schools. The three schools merged in 1968 and adopted the current name. The school is situated on the former estate of the Italian operatic and symphonic conductor Arturo Toscanini. The land for the school was purchased in 1968. The school moved into its new building in 1974. Designed by Caudill Rowlett Scott, the building was given the prestigious Albert S. Bard Award in 1975. The school's founding principal was Rabbi Sheldon Chwat, who was followed by former Assistant Principal Rabbi Yonah Fuld, who was then succeeded by then assistant principal Rabbi Joel Cohn, all of whom subsequently moved to Israel; the principal since the 2005–06 academic year has been Rabbi Binyamin Krauss, who is helped by associate principals Alana Rifkin Gelnick, Sharon Richter, Beth Pepper, and Rebecca Ostro Nagata. The school is closely affiliated with SAR High School, which is headed by the former assistant principal of the Academy, Rabbi Naphtali Harcsztark. Slightly more than half of the High School's student body is made up of students from the elementary school. SAR requires students to take a dual curriculum, taking both General Studies courses as well as Judaic Studies. General Studies classes include Math, Science, English and Social Studies. The Judaic Studies courses are Hebrew language, Mishnah, Talmud and Bible studies. During the 1991–92 school year, Salanter Akiba Riverdale Academy was recognized with the Blue Ribbon SchoolAward of Excellence by the United States Department of Education, the highest award an American school can receive.
Controversies and Investigations
Systemic Sexual Abuse
Stanley Rosenfeld, assistant principal
Stanley Rosenfeld, a convicted sex offender, was an assistant principal and English teacher at SAR. Nearly 40 witnesses have testified that while they were students there, Rosenfeld would invite children to his home on shabbat for a sleepover, and sexually abuse them while they slept. There are also allegations of physical abuse. When other faculty alerted the principal, no actions were taken. Even after he was dismissed from the school, he was brought back to teach language arts, years later. In a documented report, it's noted that administrators were aware of his actions even when he was hired back.
Rabbi Sheldon Schwartz, teacher
Schwartz, formerly a Judaics teacher at SAR, was also named in reports of systemic sexual abuse at SAR. Former students reported that he assisted Rosenfeld in recruiting students for sleepovers, stayed with them overnight as well, and told students that their abuse had been a dream. He was employed until his dismissal in 2018.
Production of Child Pornography
Rabbi Jonathan Skolnick was the associate principal of Judaic Studies, until he was arrested by the FBI in September of 2019 for the production of child pornography, on charges of "charges of child enticement; production, receipt, and possession of child pornography; and sending extortionate communications" with the students of SAR. US Attorney Geoffrey Berman of the Department of Justice wrote:
“As an associate principal of a Bronx private school, one of Jonathan Skolnick’s primary responsibilities was the well-being and education of students. Instead, Skolnick allegedly preyed on his underage victims in a heinous plot to fool them into sending him nude photos of themselves. Skolnick allegedly falsely identified himself as several different teenage girls – and when his victims refused to continue to send more photos, he unconscionably threatened to publicly release the ones they had already sent. This arrest exemplifies law enforcement’s ability to detect those attempting to use the ‘anonymity’ of the internet to prey on young children.”
The current FBI investigation has revealed some evidence that Skolnick had a known pattern of such behavior prior to his appointment at SAR.
