Rabbi Yitzchak Newman

Hebrew Academy in Huntington Beach, Calif., might only have 300-odd students, but when it comes to community outreach, it seems to have no trouble harnessing the power of social networking to press its cause.

The pre-K through 12th grade institution, which attracted nearly 150,000 votes in a national contest for public and private schools, topped the Jewish institutions on a list of schools to win $500,000 each from Kohl’s Cares, the philanthropic arm of Kohl’s department stores. As part of a “Giveback” promotion in honor of its 10th anniversary, the retailer pledged to donate $10 million — a cool half-million-dollars to each of the top-20 vote-getters on the schools’ Facebook applications. The contest began July 7 and ran through Sept. 3, and collectively, schools accrued more than 11 million votes, according to the Facebook application page.

“This has been very exciting for us — obviously winning the money, but in addition to that bringing our parents together in a way that they’re excited and very proud of the school,” said Rabbi Yitzchak Newman, dean of the Hebrew Academy. “It has done a lot to get our message out and to understand our mission, which is providing Jewish education.”

As of this week, Kohl’s had yet to release the official list because it must individually approve each of the winners’ grant applications.

“Those schools’ votes and each school’s proposed programs are currently being verified by the third-party partner to ensure school submissions and budgets comply with contest terms and conditions,” said Vicki Shamion, Kohl’s senior vice president of public relations and community relations. “Once completely verified, all winners will be announced. Until that time, we are not commenting on the winning schools.”

But on an unofficial tally board from the last day of the contest, it seemed that as many as 11 of the top 20 candidates were Jewish schools, most of them affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, according to a screenshot posted by the Marquette College Educator blog (http://marquetteeducator.files.wordpress.com/2010/09/kohls-winners.jpg).

If that holds true, Hebrew Academy placed fifth place overall with more than 148,000 votes and trailed the first place school by roughly 15,000 votes. Among the nine winners who were not Jewish schools, the majority were Christian day schools. One of the only New York winners, Silverstein Hebrew Academy in Great Neck, L.I., received more than 139,000 votes, while the only Jewish school in Charlotte, N.C., received over 143,000 votes.  Continue reading…