It was a struggle for the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study to build its new educational wing in 2000. For some three years it had to confront a lawsuit from protesting neighbors, a challenge from Milwaukee’s Historic Preservation Commission and a fight in the city’s Common Council.
That struggle is not completely over yet. As Rabbi Yehuda Cheplowitz, one of the school’s three deans, pointed out, the cost of the construction was some $5 million; but the whole project cost some $2 million more because of legal fees, public relations fees, three different architectural renditions, plus the need to fulfill “historical preservation” requirements by using the same kind of brick for the addition as was used in the original mansion.
While the school has raised $5 million, it currently is paying a $2 million mortgage because of the unexpected costs, said Cheplowitz.
But if the project has had difficulties, it also has some very good friends, in Milwaukee and outside it. One of the latter group and his family will be honored on Sunday, June 15, when the school celebrates its 23rd anniversary and holds its high school graduation ceremony for this year.
Rabbi Morris Esformes of Chicago is a managing general partner of a consortium of senior health care centers. But before he became a businessman, said Cheplowitz, Esformes was himself a Jewish educator, and he now seeks via philanthropy to support Jewish education in the Midwest and throughout the world.
In that capacity, Esformes made a major gift to WITS. Cheplowitz did not want to say exactly how much, but did say it was “well into six figures” and was one of four major gifts that brought $3 million to the school.
Esformes did not want to be interviewed by The Chronicle nor to have his picture appear in the newspaper. But Barry Ray, a Chicago businessman who is WITS’ “national vice president” (i.e., representative of the non-Wisconsin students and their families on the school’s board of governors), knows Esformes well.
Ray told The Chronicle that Esformes had a son who attended WITS for a short time, plus has friends and colleagues who have sent sons there. Therefore, he has had “a long-standing affinity” for the school and is “familiar with its history.”
Aware that the school is in “deep financial distress” because of the struggle to get the addition built, Esformes made his gift to the school, which is naming the addition after three of Esformes’ uncles. After June 15, it will be called the Eformes Family Bais Medrash Building.
This is not all the school will be celebrating. In honor of Rabbi Esformes, his friends and family have commissioned the writing of a new Torah scroll for WITS. This scroll will be completed at the celebration by Rabbi Betzalel Schur, a WITS graduate and the son of Rabbi Tsvi G. Schur, the former Milwaukee Jewish community chaplain. It will then be “danced into the building” in a processional, said Cheplowitz.
In addition, a number of the students in this year’s high school graduating class (WITS also has a post-high school program) have earned particular distinction. Reuven Garrett of Pittsburgh received a perfect 800 score on the verbal portion of his Scholastic Aptitude Test. Ezra Cheron of Cleveland received the same score on the mathematics portion.
Finally, Garrett, Baruch Feinstein of Philadelphia and Akiva Zigun of Milwaukee are National Merit Scholarship Finalists. Together, they constitute about one-eighth of the 25-member graduating class, which Cheplowitz said is an unusually high proportion of a senior class to earn such a distinction.
The schedule of events includes the high school graduation at 10:30 a.m.; the procession with the new Torah scroll at 1:30 p.m.; the dedication of the new addition’s name at 2:15 p.m.; and the banquet at 4 p.m.
Guest speaker will be Rabbi Yaakov Perlow, known as the Novominsker Rebbe, spiritual leader of Agudath Israel of America, the national Orthodox organization.
For more information, call the school, 414-963-9317.
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