JLI Award Shimon Waronker

By COLlive reporter

Shimon Waronker, the former Principal of the Junior High School 22 in the South Bronx, was honored at the National Jewish Retreat in Greenwich, CT.

Waronker, a Chabad-Lubavitch Chasid, came to public attention because of his success in taking the failing school in a tough neighborhood and turning it around.

At a Wednesday dinner in the Hyatt Regency, a special video presentation was shown featuring Waronker’s remarkable achievements in the New York City Public School system.

The award was presented by Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’Inyonei Chinuch and head of the JLI – Rohr Jewish Learning Institute, for Waronker’s inspiring contribution to education and for being a “Light Onto the Nations.”

The dinner completed the retreats first full day of programming with a menu of more than 50 lectures, seminars and workshops on wide range of subjects.

Some of the intriguing topics were:

Where is G-d When It Hurts (Rabbi Yossi Jacobson),
Thoughts on Mikvah From the Deep (Mrs. Rivka Slonim)
Redeeming the New World Economy (Rabbi Asher Crispe)
The Land of Israel and its Pursuit of Peace (Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie)
Talmud with Training Wheels (Rabbi Levi Kaplan)
Tefilin: Decoding Black Boxes (Rabbi Yossi Jacobson)
Who Was a Jew? (Prof. Larry Schiffman)
The Jewish Pathology (Rabbi Moshe Bryski)
Ethical Dilemmas in Talmudic and Modern Law (Rabbi Shlomo Yaffe)
Reincarnation and Remediation (Rabbi Asher Crispe)
Do You Believe in Angels? (Rabbi Moshe Bryski)
Art and Soul (Michoel Muchnik)
355 Years of American Judaism (Prof. Jonathan Sarna)
Finding Faith in Adversity (Rabbi Dovid Eliezrie)
The Comedy of Marriage (Rabbi Yossi Jacobson)
7 Kabbalistic Steps to Highly Effective Parenting (Mrs. S.E. Crispe)