Thanks to a recent anonymous gift being administered by the Helen Bader Foundation, a “new spirit of collaboration” has arisen this school year in the north building of the Karl Jewish Community Campus.
This structure, the Kohl Education Building, houses three educational institutions: the Jewish Beginnings Lubavitch Preschool; and the Academy (Hillel) and the Milwaukee Jewish Day School, both K-8 Jewish day schools.
That last sharing is distinctive. Milwaukee’s is one of the few Jewish communities in the country in which two different Jewish day schools share the same building, according to Sheryl Primakow, director of community planning for the Milwaukee Jewish Federation.
But all three institutions are now sharing even more than a location. An anonymous grant of $600,000 was made this past summer for the express purpose of “looking at ways to strengthen the three schools, increase enrollment, and assist with collaborations,” said Primakow.
Among the fruits of this endeavor have been:
• Creation of a basketball team made up of boys from both day schools. Said Jeffrey Rosen, education advisor to the Helen Bader Foundation and the person overseeing the administration of the grant, “This is a first, for the schools to come together and form one team,” and “the kids are very excited about it.”
• A collaborative sukkah built and decorated by the schools this past autumn for the Sukkot festival, culminating in all of the children joining in and “basking in the festive nature of the holiday,” said D. Devorah Shmotkin, principal of the Academy and director of Jewish Beginnings.
• A soon-to-be-completed collaborative art project under the direction of local artist Marina Lee, who is “well-known in school circles for her exciting and innovative work with children,” said Shmotkin.
In these ways, the initiative born of the gift have “already positively impacted the climate in the north building,” said Brian King, MJDS head of school. “There is a new spirit of cooperation and collaboration among the schools that is built on the premise that a rising tide lifts all ships.
The process of implementing the initiative began after the grant was received and the Helen Bader Foundation appointed the administrator.
Representatives of the three schools, the foundation, and the Milwaukee Jewish Federation attended a retreat Aug. 11-13 at the Daniel M. Soref Education and Retreat Center in Fredonia that “went spectacularly well,” said Rosen.
“A brand new way of looking” at the work in the Kohl Building came out of the retreat, said Primakow. The three schools will go beyond promoting themselves individually to “marketing the building” as a center for Jewish education, she said.
The resulting project is “giving us an amazing opportunity to push forward an initiative that had a modest start within the building,” said Shmotkin. “It helps give us focus and vision for the north building collaborations.”
Planned collaboration in the spring semester will include cooperative charitable activities to benefit Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, said Rosen.
The initiative at present is scheduled to last only this school year. Rosen and Primakow said it is not yet certain whether it will continue. “We are hoping for another year or two, but we don’t know for sure,” said Primakow.
Leon Cohen
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