|
|
January 12, 2001/Tevet 17, 5761, Vol. 53, No.15
High school breaks ground
LEISAH NAMM
Staff Writer
Board members of Phoenix's new Jewish high school broke ground for a temporary site Jan. 7 on a vacant lot on Temple Chai's campus in Phoenix.
Nearly 300 members of the Valley's diverse Jewish community witnessed the groundbreaking ceremony for the Jess Schwartz Jewish Community High School, where ninth and 10th grade classes are scheduled to begin in August.
"This is of great significance for Jewish education here," said Rabbi William Berk of Temple Chai at the ceremony. "It's no longer the case that you're going to have to leave Arizona in order to get a high quality, in-depth Jewish education."
Work to bring the years' long dream of many community members to reality spun into action a year ago with the formation of a board and hiring of veteran educator Jay Schechter, an Orthodox Jew, as headmaster.
"Our school is something very special - something bold and different for Phoenix and for Arizona," Schechter said during the ceremony. He said it will be "a Jewish community high school that is first and foremost academically superior, diverse and pluralistic, which means open and sensitive to all Jewish backgrounds ... but with a prime focus on excellence, achievement, identity and most of all, community."
According to Berk, "We have seen more cooperation, more partnering, less turf-fighting in this community since this high school began than in all the years before it."
That the high school, with an Orthodox Jew as headmaster, is building its first location at the site of a Reform synagogue is significant, he said. "Orthodox and Reform institutions working together - this is unbelievable."
"May this occasion mark the forging of a new link in the chain of harmony in the lives of our Jewish community," said Rabbi David Rebibo of Beth Joseph Congregation, an Orthodox synagogue in Phoenix.
The high school, with the help of a major gift by the Jess and Sheila Schwartz family, is building the facility in lieu of paying rent to Temple Chai. When the school constructs a permanent facility on the Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus on Scottsdale Road and Sweetwater Avenue in Scottsdale, Temple Chai will purchase the two-story, 7,000-square-foot building, which includes nine classrooms.
Jess Schwartz, who died in 1996, was a founder of the Phoenix Hebrew Academy and a strong supporter of Jewish education.
At the ceremony, Lesley Hammer, Abby Schwartz and Frank Schwartz, children of Jess and Sheila Schwartz, spoke of the emphasis their father placed on education.
"My mom's worked very hard on this for a long time, along with a lot of other people, and finally this dream is becoming a reality," said Abby Schwartz. "We're very honored to have it in my father's name."
The Schwartz children all attended the Phoenix Hebrew Academy.
Twenty-one ninth and 10th-graders met on Jan. 4 to form the school's first student council and to plan future events. Projected enrollment for the fall is 25-40 students, Schechter said.
"The Torah talks extensively about the earth and the land," said Deborah Harris, high school president, who spoke at the ceremony. "As we prepare to plant this small piece of land with the seeds of our future, we hope to reap a new generation of Jewish teens who will dream their own dream for their century.
"We're hoping for a harvest of Jewish adults who will cherish the traditions of our people and who will think deeply about what actions they must take to make the world a place for them."
Ceremony participants also included Nora Perlmutter, president of Temple Chai; high school board member Daniel Feller; Rabbi Michael Wasserman of Beth El Congregation; Rabbi Harris Cooperman of Phoenix Hebrew Academy; Rabbi Mark Bisman of Har Zion Congregation; and Phoenix City Councilman Phil Gordon.
For information about the school, call 602-953-7620.
|
