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June 8, 2001/Sivan 17, 5761, Vol. 53, No.36
Hebrew High unites local teens
BETH OLSON
Staff Writer
Hebrew High Principal Myra Shindler stands with graduates, from left, Rachel Fuchs, Harry Flaster and Jennifer Matlin.
Photo by Leisah Namm
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Where would you expect to see a gathering of 500 teens on a Tuesday evening? A sporting event? A concert? The mall? How about Hebrew school?
The Phoenix High School of Jewish Studies - Hebrew High - is exactly where you'll find nearly 500 Jewish teens on Tuesday evenings during the school year.
Hebrew High recently saw its largest group of graduates to date, 68, at a May 15 commencement ceremony at Temple Chai. There, awards were presented for Hebrew High's annual essay contest, for which students wrote on the topic "Who am I? What will I be?"
Winners were Orly Shafir, first place; Rachel Feller, second place; Russell Mollen, third place; Max Ellentuck, fourth place; and Julie Novakoff, fifth place.
Hebrew High meets Tuesday evenings during the school year. Students taking the Hebrew for Credit class also meet on Thursdays. According to Myra Shindler, principal of Hebrew High, each student selects two classes to take each semester. Courses are taught by a variety of instructors including high school teachers, local businesspeople and rabbis.
"It affords the community the ability to get the best teachers under one roof. It's very difficult to get quality teachers for high school kids, so if each synagogue is going to do its own thing, it's that much more difficult," explains Aaron Scholar, director of the BJE.
Shindler says one of the appeals of Hebrew High is the variety of students who attend, from Reform to Conservative to Orthodox to unaffiliated.
"This is where the kids want to be. Many times it is not the parents who are pushing the kids. The students are asking the parents, 'Can I come because this is where I hear my friends are on Tuesdays nights,' " explains Shindler.
"It's one of the wonderful areas of our community that all the synagogues cooperate (in) and that's what gives (Hebrew High) the tremendous strength," Scholar agrees. "Jewish kids can see that there's a lot of Jewish kids in the community."
Matt O'Malley recently graduated from both Hebrew High and Paradise Valley High School. O'Malley says he was reared in an interfaith home, where his family mostly practiced Catholicism. After his parents separated, he moved to Phoenix where his maternal grandparents reacquainted the family with Judaism. Not having been raised in a Jewish home, O'Malley's first exposure to Jewish education was at Hebrew High.
Hebrew High graduate Shawn Fineman, left, celebrates with her father, Scott, center, and Rabbi Zvi Holland.
Photo by Leisah Namm
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In addition to enjoying his Jewish education - courses on the Holocaust, the Ten Commandments and Jewish sexual ethics in particular - O'Malley says he made several new friends whom he expects to maintain a relationship with after graduation.
Graduate Keren G. Raz, a recent graduate of Chaparral High School, saw the social aspect of Hebrew High as one of its attractions.
"It was nice to be able to go and hang out with my friends who are Jewish because at school (in) the group I hang out with, none of them are Jewish," she explains.
Shindler says the students have expressed to her that the socialization with other Jewish teens is one of the highlights of the program.
"Somehow this combination of being in a learning environment and structured socialization seems to work and brings the kids out," she says.
Additionally, the courses at Hebrew High are geared toward teens and issues that affect them. Raz says her favorite courses were Conversion Through Coercion - a class about cults, Response to Christian Missionaries, Jewish Law, Jewish Ethics and Jewish Cooking.
Scholar recalls that Hebrew High started around 1971. He says originally the program was run by the Jewish Education Council of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix. The BJE stemmed from this and became incorporated in 1986. He estimates that the original enrollment was approximately 150 students.
Scholar stresses the importance of Hebrew High in our local Jewish community.
"Hebrew High is not an option, it's a must. Just like you don't send kids out into the world with an elementary school education, you don't send them out into the world with an elementary Jewish education. Hebrew High lays a foundation from which they can ... go on to college and mature as adults."
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