Rebecca Hersh

Stories from Rebecca Hersh

Raritan Ave. vandalism targeted Jewish businesses
Rebecca Hersh
Thursday, December 1, 2011

Hours after five Raritan Avenue businesses were vandalized in the pre-dawn hours yesterday, prosecutors announced that a New Brunswick man was charged with criminal mischief in the incident.

Because the attacks targeted five Jewish-owned businesses – Jack’s Hardware, Trio Gifts, Judaica Gallery, Park Place restaurant, and Jerusalem Pizza – the prosecutor’s office referred to the crimes as “an apparent bias related incident.”

Tikun Olam opponents invite state Ed. Commissioner to a Town Hall
Rebecca Hersh
Wednesday, November 23, 2011

At a public forum next week, the citizens of Highland Park, Edison, and New Brunswick will air their views on the proposed Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School.

A number of public officials on all sides of the issue, including Acting Commissioner of Education Christopher Cerf and State Senator Barbara Buono, have been invited. Representatives from the three public districts affected will also be in attendance. All three school districts have been vocally opposed to the charter school.

Local artisans keep Farmers Market humming into winter
Rebecca Hersh
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Looking to un-plug more of your holiday shopping this year -- locally, sustainably, and sanely? Now you don’t even have to wake up at the crack of dawn.

Inspired in part by the long-running Union Square holiday market in New York, the Highland Park Artisan Market will open on Black Friday, November 25, and continuing Fridays through December 23 in the municipal paved lot at 222 Raritan Avenue, .

Small plates, clear drinks, and warm company
Rebecca Hersh
Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Bons vivants in the area who seek a fresh take on solid and liquid refreshment are in luck this week. The stars align on Friday night -- 11/11/11 -- as Highland Park resident Marlon Pando hosts a “pre-launch” party of his plans for a tapas and pisco lounge.

Artisan foods and meaty visuals
Rebecca Hersh
Monday, November 7, 2011

Do you like art, food, and supporting local small business? If so, you’re in luck this Thursday, November 10. Twenty of Central Jersey’s top emerging gourmet entrepreneurs are doing show-&-tell-&-taste in a Gourmet Food & Art Show, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Lotus Studios, 431 Raritan Avenue in Highland Park.

A $10 ticket will get you admission and more than your money’s worth of delicious food samples, all the while taking in the local art on display.

Arts in the Park returns for lucky number seven
Rebecca Hersh
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
For the seventh year in a row, downtown will be given over this weekend to a celebration of all things artsy. Arts in the Park, Highland Park’s annual arts festival, will be held from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. this Sunday, September 25, along Raritan Avenue between Second and Fifth Avenues.

The showcase of Highland Park as “Rutgers’ Left Bank Community” (as James McCrone of Main Street Highland Park is fond of saying) will offer paintings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, textiles, photos, food, music and more.

Five residents contest four slots on H.P. school board
Rebecca Hersh
Tuesday, March 15, 2011

On Wednesday April 27, Highland Park residents will vote to fill four slots on the district’s school board. Two incumbents are standing for reelection -- Greg Deatz, who just finished his first three-year term; and Chandra Pointer-Titus, a 2010 interim appointee running to fill that seat's remaining two years -- and two other seats will be open, due to the upcoming retirement of board president Wendy Saiff and the March passing of three-term member Dave Muschinske.

H.P. schools considering a waiver to 2% tax cap
Rebecca Hersh
Sunday, March 13, 2011

Armed with a slight increase in state aid over the 2010-2011 school budget, the Highland Park school board will be hammering out its budget for the 2011-2012 fiscal year during its next two meetings, scheduled for March 21st and March 28th at H.P. Middle School.

The total state aid coming to Highland Park Borough for the 2011-12 proposed budget is $3.12 million, an increase of $245,000 over 2010-11. According to schools superintendent Dr. Frances Wood, this increase amounts to a one-fifth refund on what was cut from the budget last year, when state aid was slashed to below $3 million.

 

Schools budget season begins with palpable relief
Rebecca Hersh
Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Last year, the Highland Park Public Schools district thought of its budget situation as a glass half-empty -– with steep cuts in state aid and the state-imposed cap on tax increases.

This year, in the aftermath of the previous two years' aid reductions, the district can anticipate an increase in state aid over the 2010-11 fiscal year.

Hebrew language HS denied for Highland Park, Edison
Rebecca Hersh
Tuesday, January 25, 2011

To the surprise of many in Highland Park and Edison, the Tikun Olam Hebrew Language Charter High School was not included among the new charter schools approved by the New Jersey Department of Education last week.

A record 23 new charters were approved, increasing the state’s total number of charter schools by a third.

Comin' from the land of the ice and snow
Rebecca Hersh
Tuesday, December 7, 2010

On a bitterly cold dark night last week, Dr. Deborah Kaple spoke to a full room at the Highland Park Public Library about a place much colder and much darker than any of the audience members could ever imagine: the Gulag, the Soviet Union's infamous system of prison camps.

Merchant's missteps bring angels out of the woodwork
Rebecca Hersh
Sunday, November 14, 2010

If you walked down to Raritan Avenue during the last week of October looking to shop at the toy store, you’d have been out of luck. For two days -- October 26 and October 27 -- Highland Park’s local independent toy store, Over the Moon Toys, was closed.

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