This week, we are honored to cast a spotlight on a terrific community partner: Sabatino Cimato, Superintendent of the Kenmore Tonawanda Union Free School District.
Sabatino formally began his collaborative relationship with Buffalo Jewish Federation in 2024, but his story of connection to our local Jewish community goes back much farther. Earlier in his career, Sabatino was a principal at Hutch Tech in the City of Buffalo. It was there he heard Holocaust survivor Joe Diamond – father of Wendy Weisbrot, Manager of Holocaust Education Resource Organization (HERO). Subsequently, in his time at Hutch Tech, Sabatino heard Joe’s story several times throughout the 2000s. He recalls Joe’s positivity despite the horrors he survived, and 20 years later, Sabatino still feels the impact Joe made.
Fast forward to now, Sabatino first met Lauren Bloomberg, Director of HERO, during a Mobile Museum of Tolerance (MMoT) demonstration for school district leaders. Shortly before this pivotal meeting, Sabatino had secured support from the Ken-Ton board to hire for a new position called the Director of School Culture. This role, Sabatino explained, would (and still does) work on issues such as suspensions, safety, restorative practices, and better awareness of the diverse cultures that make up the student body. Dina Ferraraccio filled that important role, and after being awed by the MMoT, Sabatino gave Dina the go-ahead to start scheduling it for Ken-Ton schools.
Since then, Lauren and Sabatino have established a strong professional relationship, one of humility and deep respect. When an antisemitic incident occurred at Kenmore West high school at the beginning of this academic year, Lauren knew she had the support to reach out to the school’s principal to offer guidance.
“The thing I love about Lauren and Federation is that there’s no agenda other than to help communities however they can,” Sabatino said, acknowledging that though the district has come a long way, there’s more work to be done.
And by offering that help to Ken West, the school administration is now equipped with best practices for reporting incidents, and most recently, the school hosted survivor Grigory Shershnevsky, his daughter, and his wife, who shared with about 300 students his story of survival thanks to the bravery of others.
This special story comes full circle when, earlier this year, Ken West’s theatre students performed the play “I Never Saw Another Butterfly,” a play derived from actual writings and drawings by children held at the Terezin Concentration Camp.
To inspire the student performers and help them understand the true history behind the play, they met with Wendy before their performances, where she told them her father’s story. The very same Joe Diamond who left a lasting impressing on Superintendent Cimato so many years ago.
The MMoT continues it tour around Ken-Ton middle schools and high schools, and HERO’s Kindness Suitcase initiative has already been in Ken-Ton’s elementary schools for a year – the very first district to embrace the resource.
Sabatino attended the Federation’s superintendents conference recently and noted the messaging shared by Federation staff was intentional and inspiring; he’s glad to have Federation and HERO as partners in his corner, and we’re equally thankful for our relationship with such an open-minded, deeply caring district leader.
