Several new developments in Jewish educational offerings are in store for the coming 2013-2014 academic year and are available to Wisconsin Jewish students.
They range from the creation of a new Jewish high school in Milwaukee to tuition grants in Madison to an expanded Hebrew program to a new opportunity for high school students to go to Israel.
The new school is Hillel High School, a day school under the auspices of Lubavitch of Wisconsin that is scheduled to start classes Thursday, Aug. 22. The school will meet in a former office building at 2629 N. Downer Ave. in Milwaukee.
The school’s interim principal, Rabbi Yossi Bassman, told The Chronicle he expects 17 students in the first group, though that could change after this Chronicle issue goes to press.
Bassman said the school will be a “community high school” that will “cater to the broad spectrum of the Jewish community.” He said he envisions two types of students “that want a Jewish high school experience.”
One group will have graduated from local Jewish day elementary schools and want to “take their Jewish education to the high school level.” The other will come from public schools and have had some Hebrew and Jewish education for their b’nai mitzvah ceremonies, but want more, Bassman said.
At present, two Orthodox Jewish day high schools exist in the Milwaukee area, the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study for boys and the Torah Academy of Milwaukee for girls.
There have been previous attempts to start Jewish schools, supplementary and day, for Milwaukee-area Jewish high school students beyond the Orthodox community, but all eventually had to close. (This writer graduated from one of them, the supplementary Midrasha Hebrew High School, which existed in the 1960s and 1970s.)
Bassman and Rabbi Mendel Shmotkin, executive vice president of Lubavitch of Wisconsin, both said they believe this school “has a better shot” at success, partly because LOW has committed itself to fund, lead and get it started, partly because of the relatively low tuition — $6,500 — and partly because of the innovative and personalized education the school’s leaders intend to provide.
The general studies curriculum will be provided in partnership with eAchieve Academy charter school, which describes itself on its website as “a tuition-free online middle school and online high school of the School District of Waukesha.”
The Judaic part will take place in classrooms with teachers, with boys and girls classes separate, plus field trips and Shabbatones, and at least one hour a day of one-on-one learning focused on specific skills; and this will be based on “a personalized educational plan for each student,” Bassman said.
“Our real focus is creating inspired, proud, educated Jewish teens,” Bassman said. “We’re not just trying to create book-smart graduates.”
More information can be found on the school’s website, www.HillelHigh.com.
Meanwhile, other Jewish educational opportunities for teens are slated to become available in the coming year.
Nicolet High School in Glendale is the only public high school in Wisconsin that offers Hebrew as one of its foreign language options. According to an emailed news release, the school’s Hebrew program will be expanded this year.
The email said that the Committee to Support Hebrew at Nicolet pledged funding for this purpose. The result will be four sections instead of the previous three, eliminating the previous need to combine some of the classes.
Steven Baruch, Ph.D., is both director of the Coalition for Jewish Learning, the education program of the Milwaukee Jewish Federation, and a member of the Nicolet Hebrew committee. He is quoted in the release as saying that the change at Nicolet “will allow for increased individual attention for students and greater opportunities for enriched programming.”
For more information about Hebrew at Nicolet, contact the teacher, Yael Gal, 414-351-8294 or Yaelgal@nicolet.k12.wi.us.
This year will also see the debut of the Dror Leadership High School, a semester-long program of study in Israel for sophomores and juniors scheduled to start in January.
Shani Bob, the school’s admissions director, visited Milwaukee and Chicago in July to explain the program to Jewish organizations and officials. In a conversation with The Chronicle on July 22, she explained that the students will attend Adam Hevra Ve’Teva high school in Karmiel in northern Israel for four months.
These students will attend their own English-language classes within the school, but will also be interacting in formal and informal ways with the Israeli teens. Moreover, the plans call for travel throughout Israel.
And because this program is just beginning, “we can really tailor the program to what the students want,” Bob said.
Cost is $15,000 which includes flight from New York City, dorm room, all meals, transportation and instructional materials, said Bob. For more information, visit www.drorleadership.org.
Finally, the June issue of the Madison Jewish News reported a new development in the story of the Madison Jewish Community Day School.
New students in all grades, which at present comprise kindergarten through fifth, will be able to attend the school for free during the 2013-14 school year, the newspaper states.
According to the article, anonymous donors provided the funds to do this in honor of Helen and Sam Ablove, parents of one of the school’s founders, Dr. Robert Ablove, and as a farewell gift to Robert and his wife Dr. Tova as they prepare to move to New York.
For more information, contact Head of School Rabbi Rebecca Ben-Gideon, 608-204-9900.
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