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Is College Expenses Not Deductible ?

Posted by Michael M.K. Monday, April 8, 2013 0 comments
Is College Expenses Not Deductible ?Is College Expenses Not Deductible ? - With less than two weeks to go to file your 2012 tax return, you
Today's question:
probably have questions. Whether you prepare your own tax return or pay someone to do it for you, we are here to help. Every day until April 15, members of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants have agreed to answer tax questions from USA TODAY readers. Submit your questions to taxadvice@usatoday.com.


Q: Our son is a freshman attending an out- of-state university. We are paying tuition, travel expenses, car expenses including insurance, books, dorm and meal fees and travel expenses for trips back and forth during holidays and other visits home. Tuition amounted to $25,000 for the fall 2012 semester, and with the additional expenses we easily spent $30,000 per semester for the 2012/2013 year. Can we claim the costs besides tuition as deductions on our taxes for 2012?

A: For purposes of the tuition and fees deduction, student activity fees and expenses for course-related books, supplies, and equipment can be considered qualified education expenses but only if they have to be paid to the institution as a condition of enrollment or attendance. For example, even if you buy your books directly from the institution, they will not be considered a qualified education expense unless they are required to be purchased directly from the institution.

Expenses for insurance, medical expenses (including student health fees), room and board, transportation, and personal living expenses are not considered qualified education expenses even if the amount has to be paid to the institution as a condition of enrollment or attendance.

It's also important to note that if you are married filing jointly and your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) is $130,000 or less, your maximum tuition and fees deduction is $4,000. If your MAGI is $130,001-$160,000 your maximum deduction is $2,000, and if your MAGI is over $160,000 no deduction is allowed.

The Tuition and Fees Deduction section of IRS Publication 970 gives all the details of the tuition and fees deduction.

Clare Levison, CPA
Blacksburg, VA

Previous questions:
Q: Help! I didn't file taxes in 2011 or 2012, I make a modest wage in a factory and am losing my house to foreclosure. What's the best way to "get right" with the government?

A: I would like to encourage you to file your 2012 tax returns, federal and state, by April 15 or at least file extensions by that date and pay as much as you can with the extension. The IRS charges a penalty for the failure to timely file of 5% per month (maximizes at 25%) of the tax required to shown on the return, less credits for withholding and estimated taxes paid. The penalty for the failure to file timely adds a huge burden to what you will eventually owe the IRS. Each state has its own penalty structure so I will not be commenting on those penalties.

You should file your 2011 tax returns as soon as possible even if you do not have the funds to pay the tax liability in full. The IRS encourages taxpayers to "get into compliance" by filing delinquent tax returns by mailing them to the same Service Center that you mail your 2012 return. If you owe taxes with the return there will be a Failure to Pay penalty (1/2 of 1% per month up to 25%) and interest will run on the tax and the penalty.

It sounds like you might not have the money to pay the taxes owed with the return. If you have the ability to pay monthly on an Installment Agreement you can file a Form 9465, Installment Agreement Request, with your return or separately. Also, you can get an "Online Payment Agreement" application at www.IRS.gov. If you owe $50,000 or less, the IRS will allow up to 72 months to repay your tax, penalty and interest. There is a fee to establish an Installment Agreement of $105 if paid by check, money order or credit card but is reduced to $52 with electronic fund withdrawal. This user fee is reduced to $43 by filing Form 13844 for low income taxpayers.

There are other options, such as filing an Offer in Compromise, if you cannot repay your taxes over the 10-year collection statute of limitations. Also, for taxpayers owing greater than $50,000 financial information is required when establishing an Installment Agreement. These are topics for another day.

Mary Lou Gervie, CPA
Watkins Meegan, Bethesda, Md.

Previous questions:
Q. I had deferred compensation from my previous employer which was not paid upon my retirement in June 2009 due to bankruptcy. The court system has determined all people will get their deferred compensation less legal fees. My deferred comp was mapped to a mutual fund's performance to determine actual payout amount. Can I claim a loss for the difference between what was originally due to be paid upon retirement and the final distribution amount received almost four years later? Or, can I claim a loss for the value of the deferred comp based on the mutual fund's performance over the four years since retirement and the actual value received.

A. Unfortunately, you can't deduct income that you didn't receive and pay taxes on, which means that you are unable to claim a loss for the amount that you expected to receive but did not due to the bankruptcy. This is an example of the downside of deferred compensation, which is that when you made the election, you basically agreed to the risk of becoming an unsecured creditor of your employer.

A case could be made for taking a loss for the change in value of the mutual fund over four years based on the value you will receive, but that is a very specific case that would require the personal engagement of a CPA or tax attorney. May I also opine that considering the state of the stock market in 2009, there is a good chance that the mutual fund's value has only increased since then?

Kelley C. Long, CPA
Shepard Schwartz & Harris, Chicago

Q: I live in Washington state, where gay marriage is legal, we have no state income tax, and we are a community property state. My partner and I have been together for 12 years, but we have not yet converted our domestic partnership to marriage since it became legal in December. In previous years we have both filed our federal returns as single, but this year we bought a house together and we are wondering what the proper way would be for us to file our federal income tax.

A: Federal law does not treat same-sex or registered domestic partners (RDPs) who are married under state law as married. Thus, such couples may not file their federal income tax return as married filing jointly (MFJ) or as married filing separately (MFS). So, being married under state law will not change your filing status under federal law.

Because you live in Washington state though, being married or RDPs changes how much income you each report on your federal returns. The IRS will follow state community property laws and has provided guidance for RDPs and same-sex couples in three such states: California, Nevada and Washington.

Basically, spouses or RDPs in these states split their community property income, with each spouse or partner reporting half of it on their federal returns. The IRS has provided several FAQs, as well as Publication 555, and Form 8958, to help in determining how to report community property income (as well as deductions and credits) on each spouse's federal tax return.

You each still file a separate return (not a joint return). Note that there could be changes to the filing rules depending on the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision on the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

For the mortgage interest, if you are married or RDPs in Washington, you can show the split of the mortgage interest on Form 8598 (and report your share on your Schedule A, with a reference to "See Form 8958"). If you are not RDPs or a married couple in Washington, you each determine your share of the mortgage interest and you each deduct your share that you paid.

One of you likely received a Form 1098, Mortgage Interest Statement, with only one name and Social Security Number on it. The IRS suggests that the other payor attach a statement to their return explaining that they paid part of that Form 1098 amount and provide the name and address of the person who received the Form 1098, and how much of the mortgage interest each owner paid. On Schedule A, Line 11 for mortgage interest, add "See attached" so the IRS knows the statement explaining the interest amount is on the return (since the IRS does not have a Form 1098 for that owner). For details, see IRS Publication 936, page 9.

Annette Nellen, CPA
San Jose State University, San Jose, Calif.

PREVIOUS QUESTIONS
Q: I filed 2 state tax returns for 2011, one for Massachusetts and one for Rhode Island. I received $400 from Rhode Island, but paid $200 for Mass. I itemized on my federal return. Do I have to claim the $400 refund as income, or can I reduce it by $200?

A: I will answer the question in two parts:

• The $200 paid to Massachusetts can be claimed as an itemized deduction on your 2012 tax return.

• The $400 refund from Rhode Island will need to be reported as income in 2012 if you paid taxes to Rhode Island in 2011 and claimed the taxes as an itemized deduction on your 2011 tax return. The entire amount of the refund would be reported as income if the entire amount of Rhode Island taxes were paid in the 2011 calendar year. This would include withholding amounts, quarterly estimates, extension payments and balance-due payments.

A portion of the refund may be taxable if the Rhode Island taxes credited on the 2011 tax return were paid over two years. In other words, you need to determine if payments were made in the 2012 calendar year but were credited in the 2011 tax-reporting year.

These type of payments would include a 2011 fourth-quarter estimate paid in January 2012 as estimates are due January 15th. Another type of payment is an extension payment that was paid in April of 2012 but was for the 2011 tax return year.

Therefore, if a state tax refund is the result of payments paid in two different years, you make an allocation to exclude the portion of the refund that was allocable to the 2012 calendar year payment. Please note that the portion that was excluded from income is also an offset to your 2012 state tax deduction.

Don Zidik, CPA
McGladrey LLP, Boston
Q: I am 73 and I cannot itemize my deductions (I will use the standard deduction of $7,400). My question: I heard there was a way to deduct my property tax ($4,600) while utilizing the standard deduction. Is this still allowed?

A: Unfortunately, this is not still allowed, and there is no way to deduct your property taxes on your federal income tax return without itemizing.

Five years ago, Congress passed a bill allowing a single person to deduct up to $500 of property taxes on a primary residence in addition to their standard deduction. The limit was $1,000 for a married couple filing jointly.

Unfortunately, this provision was only put in place for 2 years, so for the years 2008 and 2009, a person could deduct at least a portion of their property taxes, even if they were not itemizing.

The Tax Relief, Unemployment Insurance Reauthorization and Job Creation Act of 2010 extended some tax breaks, but this tax break was allowed to expire and has never been reinstated.;

The instructions to for the 2010 Form 1040 on the IRS website lists expired tax benefits on page 6. For more information on itemized and standard deductions:

Frequently asked questions for itemized and standard deductions

Mackey McNeill, CPA
Mackey Advisors, Bellevue, Ky.
http://www.9news.com

Compares College Costs Regionally and Nationwide 2013

Posted by Michael M.K. Friday, April 5, 2013 0 comments
Compares College Costs Regionally and Nationwide 2013Compares College Costs Regionally and Nationwide 2013 - The cost of attending colleges and

Graduation rates, meanwhile, put regional institutions mostly in the middle of the pack nationally.

North Dakota University System Chancellor Hamid Shirvani, who has expressed concern with costs and graduation rates, said he thinks North Dakota institutions can do better.
The college scorecard is available through the White House website and helps students find colleges based on affordability, location, future occupation and other factors.

The site also allows students to see how a university compares to institutions nationwide that offer the same education level. For example, the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks primarily offers bachelor’s degrees, and it was compared with others that do the same.


universities in eastern North Dakota and northwest Minnesota are still mostly on the low end compared to similar institutions nationwide, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s new online “college scorecard.”

Better bang


Among four-year institutions around the nation, UND, North Dakota State University, Valley City State University and Minnesota State University Moorhead are all considered low-cost universities with medium graduation rates.

It cost a North Dakota State University student an average of $13,284 a year in 2010-11, including tuition and room and board. Of students who began in the fall of 2005, 53.7 percent graduated within six years with a bachelor’s degree. (see HERE)

The annual cost at MSUM was $11,684, while the six-year graduation rate was 44.7 percent.

For UND, the annual cost was $11,952, and the graduation rate was 54.3 percent.

At VCSU, the annual cost was $9,947, and the graduation rate was 42.1 percent.

Some four-year institutions in the three-state region boast better graduation rates.

Concordia College – a medium-cost institution at an annual price of $19,948 – ranked as having a high graduation rate, with 69.4 percent.

South Dakota State University is also low-cost at $12,815 but boasts a high graduation rate of 59.7 percent. The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, is medium-cost at $16,019 and has a high graduation rate of 70.2 percent.

Among two-year institutions, Lake Region State College in Devils Lake and North Dakota State College of Science in Wahpeton and Minnesota State Community and Technical College, which has a campus in Moorhead, are all considered medium-cost colleges. Lake Region costs $7,460, MSCTC costs $10,578 and NDSCS costs $9,365.

Lake Region and NDSCS both have what’s considered a high graduation rate among their peers: 52.4 percent of students graduate with an associate degree within three years at Lake Region and 52 percent and NDSCS. MSCTC has a medium graduation rate of 35.4 percent.

Earlier this week, Shirvani said he believes graduation rates can be improved with the statewide education reform plan he introduced last year, which aimed to pair students with institutions they are most suitable for. He stressed the importance of students at four-year institutions graduating in four years, particularly for the state’s two research universities, UND and NDSU.

The college scorecard does not show how many students graduate in four years, but Shirvani said Thursday that 23 percent of UND students and 22 percent of NDSU students do so compared to 47 percent of U of M students.

Student debt


Student debt was considered medium at the majority of colleges and universities in the region. After completing or leaving school, former UND students pay a median $197.02 per month. For former NDSU students, it’s $182.98, and for those who attended MSUM, it was $175.50.

Loan payments for former VCSU students were deemed low at $151.53.

Concordia’s monthly loan payments were ranked as high at $272.44.

Former Lake Region students pay $77.68, considered low. Median monthly loan payments for former students at MSCTC were $109.33, while it was $123.62 for former NDSCS students.

The median monthly payments were based on an interest rate of 6.8 percent and included all federal loans borrowed by a student who graduated or withdrew in 2010-11.

The cost of higher education in North Dakota has skyrocketed in recent years, with total student debt at the Bank of North Dakota alone reaching $1.68 billion at the end of 2012.

Shirvani said the college scorecard data is evidence that UND and NDSU have avoided charging high tuition adopted by other public colleges and universities in the mid-1990s, and he expects the state’s two research universities to keep costs low. (see HERE)

“Given the state’s newfound wealth,” he said, “we would expect both our institutions to steer clear of what has become a national embarrassment with so many low- and middle-income families choosing to opt out of postsecondary educational opportunities due to the high level of debt from borrowing.”
Source : www.inforum.com

American Liberal Education (The Decline and Fall)

Posted by Michael M.K. 0 comments
American Liberal Education (The Decline and Fall)American Liberal Education (The Decline and Fall) - Liberal education once stood for something grand Conservatives have complained of this for decades, with little effect. A slew of books over the past 25 years have exposed what goes on in the ivory towers, from Allan Bloom's treatise "The Closing of the American Mind" to Dinesh D'Souza's polemic "Illiberal Education." But none had provided a careful, in-depth study of a single school until the National Association of Scholars (NAS) this week released its 360-page report "What Does Bowdoin Teach?"

and good: the study of the arts, humanities and sciences with the aim of improving the mind through the acquisition of knowledge and the pursuit of truth. But some of America's most elite colleges and universities have all but abandoned this goal. Instead, many selective schools favor the faddish, the politically correct and the dogmatic, all the while proclaiming their devotion to promoting "critical thinking" and tolerance.

Bowdoin College is a small private "liberal arts" school in Brunswick, Maine. Its admissions standards are demanding. Bowdoin accepts fewer than one in five who apply (though the school admits about a third of black and other "underrepresented" applicants to satisfy its commitment to "diversity"). The cost of tuition, room, board and fees for the school's roughly 1,800 students is hefty: $56,128 for the 2012-13 academic year, a sum that exceeds the annual income for half of all American households. (See HERE)

The school was founded in 1802 and boasts a distinguished cast of graduates, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and U.S. President Franklin Pierce. But as the report's authors, Peter Wood and Michael Toscano, demonstrate, Bowdoin is not the school it once was. Nor does it provide the education, I venture, that most parents who send their children there believe they are getting, nor one most donors to the school's nearly $1 billion endowment would approve.

Bowdoin requires all freshmen to take a first-year seminar, which is supposed to provide the gateway to the "critical thinking" skills the college purports to value. Among the 35 courses from which students must pick, easily half are either frivolous or, worse, tendentious exercises in identity politics. The titles alone tell the story: "Fan Fiction and Cult Classics," "Beyond Pocahontas: Native American Stereotypes," "Racism," "Fictions of Freedom," "Sexual Life of Colonialism," "Prostitutes in Modern Western Culture" and "Queer Gardens," to name a few. The latter course "examines the work of gay and lesbian gardeners and traces how marginal identities find expression in specific garden spaces." One can only infer that the college deems such knowledge a necessary building block to every student's intellectual development.

Wood and Toscano do more than catalogue the obvious excesses of the modern academy, however. Wood brings his training as an anthropologist to the examination of campus life and culture, painstakingly researching the college's records, including minutes of academic meetings, to reveal how Bowdoin's mission changed over the past 40 years. In a series of appendices and within the actual report, the authors document the decision-making process that has transformed Bowdoin into the school it is today. (see HERE)

The study also looks at the college's implicit promotion of sexual promiscuity and the "hook-up" culture among students, which begins during first-year orientation. A play called "Speak About It," which all incoming students must attend, includes what its authors say are autobiographical sketches from current and former Bowdoin students. The play depicts graphic on-stage sexual encounters between heterosexual and gay couples -- complete with simulated orgasms. Paradoxically, the Bowdoin community also seems obsessed with preventing sexual assault, which administrators seem to believe is rampant on campus despite the low incidence of reporting alleged attacks.

If Bowdoin were unique in its abandonment of traditional liberal education, this study might be of no more than passing interest. What the authors found at Bowdoin, however, exists to some degree at many if not most elite colleges and universities. This study deserves widespread dissemination and discussion -- first among Bowdoin's alumni, donors and the parents of current and potential students. But anyone interested in the future of higher education in America should take note.

Our colleges and universities shape the next generation of leaders and citizens, for better or worse. And the country's most elite schools will influence disproportionately who we become as a nation and a people in the future. What has happened to Bowdoin College should matter to all of us. Examiner Columnist Linda Chavez is nationally syndicated by Creators Syndicate.
Source : http://washingtonexaminer.com

Watch Out for Student Debt Time Bomb 2013

Posted by Michael M.K. Thursday, April 4, 2013 0 comments
Watch Out for Student Debt Time Bomb 2013Watch Out for Student Debt Time Bomb 2013 - The American dream of a college education is turning into a nightmare for too many people. More jobs require a college degree, yet the percentage of unemployed and underemployed college graduates age 25 and younger is at its highest in 11 years.

Meanwhile, college costs are soaring, in part because cash-strapped states have less to give to public universities. And parents who’ve lost jobs or home equity after the financial crisis can’t support their children’s college costs as they planned.

The average total student debt load increased to $27,253 in 2012, a 58% jump during a seven-year period when debt as a whole rose 16%. More than 1 million adults have student debt exceeding $100,000.
Furthermore, student debt as a percentage of household debt has gone up to 8.5%, nearly three times what it was in 2003. The $870 billion now outstanding in student debt (which includes federal lending) outpaces that of auto loans ($730 billion) and credit card lending ($693 billion).

“We tell young adults, if your four-year-degree debt is going to exceed the average price of a midsize car, you need to look for a less expensive solution so you don’t start your first job behind the financial eight ball,” says John Coyne, a member of the board of trustees at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Md., and vice chairman of Brinker Capital, a $13.5 billion investment management firm that provides advisory services to financial advisors. (see HERE)

Coyne says families can lower higher education costs if their children first live at home and go to a two-year community college. Later, they can complete their degree at a four-year institution.

He notes that professors laid off from four-year institutions are now teaching at two-year schools either full time or part time, bolstering the community colleges’ reputations.

To help keep costs down, colleges are condensing some four-your degree programs into three years.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has come out with a Web-based tool kit called “Paying for College” (www.consumerfinance.gov/paying-for-college) to help student borrowers facing high payments and lacking alternative repayment and finance options. The site includes an application for financial aid and advice on choosing a loan. There is also a worksheet that allows students to compute how much they would need for particular colleges with different aid packages.

Undergraduate and graduate students should maximize federal student loan borrowing because the plans offer repayment and loan forgiveness advantages that private loans and federal Parent PLUS loans don’t, says Fred Amrein, a Philadelphia-area, fee-only financial consultant specializing in college education funding.

Amrein warns that the federal government is starting to go after the Social Security checks of parents who fail to keep up payments on the PLUS loans, which are typically used to meet tuition and fee expenses underfunded by student loans. (see HERE)

MassMutual financial advisor Marlene Dattilo says that before parents or grandparents cosign a private student loan, they should find out what their risk is for nonpayment and how it affects their credit rating. They should also ask: If the student becomes disabled or dies, is the loan still there and who is responsible for payment?

Dattilo says the family member preparing to cosign should bring the student along for this conversation. “Many times, the parents and grandparents have not discussed money matters at all [with children],” she says. “This is a great time to start.”

Is a College Degree Still Worth the Cost for 2013

Posted by Michael M.K. Wednesday, April 3, 2013 0 comments
Is a College Degree Still Worth the Cost for 2013Is a College Degree Still Worth the Cost for 2013 - Much has been written lately concerning the rising

During the last generation, college costs increased 6.8 percent annually, while medical costs increased by a much more criticized 4.9 percent per year.

Also, state governments require families to pay a higher proportion of the total cost at state universities than they did for the previous generation.
Many students used to get grants for much of their college costs. Now, scholarships are less generous, and students must borrow much more. College graduates in Kentucky now start out with an average student loan debt of $23,000.

If you are in high school, you (and your parents) may be asking, “Is college really worth it?”

Yes, it is worth it.

Something has to give regarding the increasing cost of college education. But this is a separate issue from whether or not you should go. It is sad that you may graduate with the equivalent of an expensive auto loan and not have the car.

But in the long run, a college education is the smartest investment you can make.

Consider:

• A bachelor’s degree is the best “anti-poverty insurance” you can buy. Fewer than 4 percent of college graduates are poor. Kentucky’s overall poverty rate is 19 percent.

• It may not be as expensive as you think because most colleges still offer some financial aid. www.Collegecost.ed.gov can tell you what your true cost will be at any college once you deduct what you are likely to receive in scholarships.

Furthermore:

• The unemployment rate for people with a college degree is 4.2 percent vs. 9.1 percent for people without a college degree.(see HERE)

• 4.7 percent of college graduates do not have health insurance coverage, but 15.5 percent of those with just high school degrees are uninsured.

• The median annual income for someone with a bachelor’s degree is $50,360, compared to $29,423 for one with only a high school diploma.

• Of people with an annual income above $150,000, 82 percent have a bachelor’s degree; just 6.5 percent have no more than a high school diploma.

• You will probably earn twice as much money over your lifetime if you get a bachelor’s degree.

It is especially valuable to have a college degree in a recession.

You will be much less likely to be laid off or suffer a significant cut in pay. College graduates during tough economic times are much more competitive in the job market.

Remember, recessions come and go, but you will probably work for at least 40 years after getting your bachelor’s degree.

After graduation, you will eventually get a job that pays at least $30,000 a year. Entry-level jobs for your high school counterparts, at best, are going to be paying in the $11 an hour range, or less than $23,000 per year.

Your salary will increase faster because of your degree. Even in low-paying professions such as teaching or social work, you will eventually earn an annual salary in excess of $50,000.

Without a college degree, you are not likely to earn this kind of money, unless you get an associate’s degree in a lucrative field or complete an apprenticeship in a skilled trade. Both alternatives are worth consideration. Of course, the quality of your life, not only the amount you earn, will be enhanced significantly should you enter an intellectual environment for the next few years. (see HERE)


cost of college, student debt, and the impending bursting of the education bubble. The Enquirer carried a major piece last month laying out the financial reality.
Source : http://news.cincinnati.com/

Programs foster Israel education in North America 2013

Posted by Michael M.K. 0 comments
Programs foster Israel education in North America 2013
Programs foster Israel education in North America 2013 - An ​"Israel Throughout The Year" The eucalyptus tree tale is just one of the many stories that are the focus of a new curriculum developed by Bar-Ilan University’s Lookstein Center for Jewish Education, with support from Dr. Shmuel and Evelyn Katz from Bal Harbour, Fla. As the 65th Israel Independence Day approaches, JNS.org takes a look at two recently launched programs, the Lookstein Center’s “Israel Throughout The Year” and the Israel Institute in Washington, DC, both of which work to educate and engage scholarship about Israel.

“I think there is a negative prejudice and attitude towards Israel in the press and in the universities,” Rabbi Yonah Fuld, educational director of the Lookstein Center School of Education at Bar Ilan University in Ramat Gan, told JNS.org. Five years ago, the Lookstein Center “set out to create a curriculum” about Israeli history meant to be “charming and
enticing” for North American Jewish school children up to middle school, according to Fuld. For this purpose, the center created “Israel Throughout The Year.”

In this program, 32 booklets target 1st through 8th grade. For every grade there are four booklets. Each booklet contains four lessons and is dedicated to one holiday, Tu B’Shvat (the New Year for trees), Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day), Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day), or the 10th of Tevet fast day.

The booklets include “challenging and exciting activities” that are not intended to function as traditional homework assignments or exams, but instead as “pleasant learning,” Fuld said. “Everything is there, a teacher simply has to read what’s there and adapt it,” he added. Schools in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, Michigan, North Carolina, and other states have signed up to use the booklets.

In Riverdale, NY, SAR Academy Principal Rabbi Binyamin Krauss told Israel National News in February that the school “is delighted with the new Israel curriculum developed by the Lookstein Center.”

“Connecting our students to Israel is central to the mission of our school,” Krauss said. “This spiraled program fosters and deepens that connection through engaging discussions, important facts put into context, creative activities, and descriptive pictures and graphics.”

The program does acknowledge Palestinian claims in the 8th grade booklet. Fuld told JNS.org the Lookstein Center “tried as much as possible to be as fair as possible, to say what the issues are,” but that the goal of the initiative is to teach Jewish kids “Ahavat Zion” (love of Israel), and it wasn’t not possible to be completely “values free.” Also, the center “tried not to take a religious stand one way or the other” through the program, Fuld said.

The Lookstein project’s booklets focus on historical figures like Eli Cohen with “interesting and age appropriate details about the people being featured,” Fuld said, including Israeli prime ministers Golda Meir, Yitzhak Rabin and Ariel Sharon, the poet Rachel, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel Natan Sharansky, Astronaut Ilan Ramon, and others.

While the Lookstein program is focused on children, the Washington, DC-based Israel Institute focuses on offering and helping with “all kinds of opportunities for scholars,” Executive Director Ariel Ilan Roth told JNS.org. The program offers doctoral and post-doctoral fellowships on a topic related to Israel, scholarships to the University of Haifa and Tel Aviv University’s English-language Israel Studies programs, and research grants on topics such as Israeli history, politics, economics and law.
Click photo to download. Caption: Itamar Rabinovich, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and president of Tel Aviv University, is heading the new Israel Institute. JNS.org looked at programs fosterin Israel education in North America for Israel Independence Day. Credit: Courtesy Israel Institute. (see HERE)

​Click photo to download. Caption: Itamar Rabinovich, former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. and president of Tel Aviv University, is heading the new Israel Institute. JNS.org looked at programs fosterin Israel education in North America for Israel Independence Day. Credit: Courtesy Israel Institute.

Launched at the end of 2012 and initially funded by the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation, the institute officially rolled out its programs in late February this year. Itamar Rabinovich, who served as Israeli ambassador to the United States and as Israel’s chief negotiator with Syria under Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government, is the institute’s president.

Jewish philanthropic organizations such as the Schusterman Foundation have attempted to positively shape the discourse on Israel by promoting Israel Studies programs as an alternative to Middle East Studies at American universities. The Israel Institute is “strongly focused on planning and facilitating with universities” and “will take an overview [of Israel Studies] and will work with practically everybody in the field,” Rabinovich told JNS.org in February.

“Our goal is to spread the knowledge of Israel Studies, we don’t do advocacy,” Rabinovich said. “We are about building Israeli studies centers everywhere. We don’t think politics should be brought into the academy.” The Israel Institute “opposes efforts to “politicize anything that has to do with Israel,” Rabinovich added, explaining his belief that “people can be critical of certain policies, but the Jewish people are entitled to their own national ideology (Zionism).”

In October 2013, the Israel Institute is organizing a conference on Israel Studies, and is already working to link the Jewish and Israel studies programs of American and Israeli universities. Beyond North America, the institute is also planning to bring Chinese scholars to Israel this summer with the goal of increased collaboration between Chinese and Israeli universities. Project organizers also plan to send Israeli professors to Oxford University and the University of Munich in the next academic year.(see HERE)

“It is our task to develop Chinese-Israeli academic relations,” Rabinovich said in February. “We want to help create a cadre of Israel experts in China. China is becoming an increasingly important global power. Our task is to help people in China learn Hebrew and understand the complexities of Israel.”

The Israel Institute also took over the existing Schusterman Visiting Artists Program, which brings Israeli artists to North America for residencies at universities, museums and other cultural institutions.

With its goals of supporting and promoting research and scholarship in Israel around the world and matching scholars interested in Israel and policy with relevant think tanks, the Israel Institute fulfills a “a growing appetite for knowledge about Israel beyond the news of the day, and the Institute is responding with scholarship, teaching and research,” University of California President Mark G. Yudof said in a statement.

For the Lookstein Center’s “Israel Throughout The Year” program, the goal is simpler.

“Whatever we talk about the child will hopefully say, ‘Wow, I want to know more’ or ‘wow, I want to see that place,’” Fuld told JNS.org.

program educational booklet. JNS.org looked at programs fosterin Israel education in North America for Israel Independence Day. Credit: Lookstein Center.
Israeli spy Eli Cohen worked for the Mossad in Syria, he suggested that Syrian soldiers plant eucalyptus trees near army fortifications in the Golan Heights. He told Syrian officials this would make Israel think the area was unfortified and would help Syrian soldiers stationed there survive the heat. Shortly after, he conveyed the locations of the trees to Israeli officials, helping the Israeli army know exactly where the Syrian bunkers were.

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Source : Alina Dain Sharon/JNS.org

Which Better Payday Loans or Pawn Shops?

Posted by Michael M.K. 0 comments
Which Better Payday Loans or Pawn Shops?Which Better Payday Loans or Pawn Shops? - Payday loans can be beneficial to you and a temporary finance-saving help to turn to when you are having a crisis. But on the other side it can turn into a horrible financial or debt-trap as many pawnbrokers have become to their customers. However, payday loans online are completely different from pawnbrokers, although the similarities are great.

Pawnbrokers would usually ask for your property as collateral to guarantee your loan. Usually the amount of money you are applying to borrow is only a fraction of the property’s value. To easily understand this, you may bring in your car as collateral which is valued $3,000 but you only receive $1000 as a pawn loan. The pawn shop will charge you interest on the loans which is usually a short term loan that lasts for one month. By the end of the month you are expected to pay back the amount of money you borrowed plus the interest that the loan has accrued.(see HERE)
Should you fail to repay the loan and interest on time, the lender will sell your property in order to get the money back but then also earn profit as the value of the property is significantly greater than the money they lost by lending to you. Pawn shops would usually not send you any reminders to repay the loan and will just sell the property without notice when the loan term is up and no payment has been made.
Payday loans online, however, does not require you to have a collateral to be eligible for a loan. The application for a loan is easier as you can do it online from home. All you need to do is to prove that you earn money which is directly deposited into a bank account. A legitimate payday loans online company will then verify this information.(see HERE)
Once you are approved to get a loan, the money will be available to you within about 24 hours. You are usually given a little time to repay the money without having any interest accrued to the loan. Usually payday loans companies give you 2 weeks to repay it. If after 2 weeks you are still unable to pay, then the interest will begin accumulating.
Before deciding where to get your loan from this time, make sure you ask a lot of questions first . Payday loans are usually competitive with one another and it is best for you to consider a few companies first before making any decisions.

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