Gan Yeldanu

First let me start off by saying that this place works under the books. The only reason why I don’t give them a zero stars is because the staff deserves 10 stars! They regrettably do not have any faults as they are very nice, friendly, kind and loyal to the children. If you send your kids here just know that the workers will treat the children as their own but in private, each one of the workers are exploited. Every month they add in a person to fill in, promise to compensate them and then subsequently after the workers of depart and go their way, the intermediary time spent of that worker the general manager will give excuses and state some flaws that worker had during the week only to then not compensate you for the time worked.
Management solely base their decisions by personal opinion only and not by whats in real life or how any tasks at hand are completed. Just to state one of the issues happening, a woman was told to have some time off due to a medical problem and they added a new staff member during that week. Subsequently after the person on medical leave found out this happened and as any individual would, they went out of their way to see if he/​she was losing her job to the new staff member. The manager stated no and never told the intermediary person that they were even an intermediary.
They still wanted to keep the intermediary person working (surely enough without compensation, with hopes to land a career taking care of these beautiful children) yet without compensation.
For the people whom get an opportunity to work here, make sure you record each conversation had with management before you render your services to them. Have everything documented stating that you will get paid and most importantly know your laws/​statutes when it comes to medical leave/​absences and having a secure job when you return.
Hope this helps those in the job hunt and most importantly not to get scammed…

My husband and I send our daughter to Gan Yaldenu in Bergenfield. It is wonderful. The facility is new, the staff is warm, caring, and educated, and the woman who runs it, Eti, has been running the older kids program in Teaneck for 25 years or more. It is Israeli Orthodox. The kids in the program are warm as well. My daughter has been there since we switch from another place and well, we noticed the difference right away. At the other place, she was not being fed properly and the staff made fun of her because she was a slow walker. Now, she is running around (all kids develop at their own rate and this school gets that) and well she loves everyone there. She asks to go to school. She feels very close to her Morah and the other kids at school. I can’t speak enough about it. They have a video camera online with a special password for parents so you can watch your kid from work/​home. Also, they serve lunch and have a music program at the place. They only have a dairy lunch though, however, apparently most daycares no longer serve a meat meal at all during the week. They are open 7:30−6, so whatever hours you need they can accommodate. Another positive is that unlike most Jewish daycares, they aren’t closed yeshiva break week and they aren’t off for most secular holidays (however, they are closed the last 2 weeks in August, which is annoying). My daughter has learned so much there. She comes home every shabbos with a list of what they covered, art projects, and new Hebrew songs. Morah Phyllis is especially wonderful and Katie really loves her 3’s class. It is wonderful to hear her sing zmirot at the shabbos table. The only draw back to the Bergenfield location is that most of kids end up going to YNJ, so your kid may be the odd one out if you end up sending anywhere else for elementary and preK. However, I think the warm environment and hands on attention more than compensates. The cost has gone up in the past few years substantially, but apparently is in line with the other area Jewish daycares who aren’t open nearly as many days a year as this one.