Moment of Silence Continues to Make Waves in New York

The Moment of Silence movement has continued to bring about change across New York City, with more schools having just recently joined the program.

The Moment of Silence movement has continued to bring about change across New York City, with more schools having just recently joined the program.

A positive, working relationship with the NYC BD. Of ED. has been created over the past year.Working together with Rabbi Avraham Frank, two new schools have entered the program. A NYC school superintendent was involved in creating registration protocol to create a pilot program for the Moment of Silence. PS 13K and MS419, both in Queens, have practiced Moment of Silence and are very happy with the results.

Ms. Gillian Smith, executive director of Health and Safety for the NYC Bd. of Ed., has also been working with Rabbi Frank, and is enthusiastic about the positive results. Ms. Smith is in the process of expanding the program to more schools.            

On June 22, 2023, Moment of Silence held an awards assembly at MS419 in Queens where students who wrote letters were awarded with honorary certificates and prizes- and the principal and guidance counselor were presented with honorary plaques for their work.

In more recent developments, two meetings were held with Deputy Chancellor, Dan Weisberg, of the  NYC Bd. of Education.  After reading several letters from students entitled: “What Does the Moment of Silence Mean To Me?”, Mr. Weisberg said: “This is tremendous”.

He then asked to send him an instruction sheet to give out to teachers which I did and he agreed to start circulating this amongst superintendents and principals.