Thousands of Israeli school teachers registered here to teach in New York public schools for a year or two. They were answering an advertisement in Israeli newspapers, asking those interested with at least a bachelor’s degree, to come and be interviewed by Richard Wollin, principal of the Taft public school in The Bronx.
He said today his school and other New York schools needed only 100 teachers, but he was surprised by the results of his press notice. “At about 11 a.m. Wednesday we already had about 50 people waiting who had been standing outside the Sinai Hotel for two hours. So we began to do some interviews, as I wanted to speak to each applicant personally.
“By about 1 o’clock we found we had about 600-700 already, and we lost control of the situation. We began making up lists outside the hotel, asking for documents and phone numbers. I saw about 1,000 applicants,” Wallin said. Most had their first degree, some had their Masters and one had a doctorate.
Wallin said he thought the large number of applicants for the $15,000 a year job was because of the bad economic situation in Israel, where teachers and others are threatened by unemployment. He said that none he had spoken to said they wanted to leave Israel permanently. They all said they would like to teach in New York for a year or two, and then return to Israel when the economic situation improves.
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