Insight
Remember
When • •
Who Pays?
North Carolina Jewish school
offers a twist: free tuition.
JULIE WIENER
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
New York
F or what is believed to be the first time in recent
history, an American Jewish high school is offer-
ing completely free tuition to all its students.
The tuition is only one of several unique
aspects of the American Hebrew Academy, a coeducational
Jewish boarding school scheduled to open next fall in
Greensboro, N.C.
The academy, a prep school that com-
bines secular and Judaic studies, also will
be the first non-Orthodox Jewish board-
ing school in the United States. It is
believed to be the first full-time Jewish
school funded entirely by a small group of
anonymous donors. .
Another distinction is its focus on
recruiting Jews living in small communi-
ties far from the major, metropolitan cen-
ters, where most Jewish high schools are
located.
The academy's unique funding and
tuition policy comes at a time when
Jewish leaders tout day school education
as an effective way to give children strong
Jewish identities, but lament its high cost.
Most day schools operate with far less money per pupil than
do public schools. Some have large deficits, while others survive
financially only by charging tuition so high that low-income
and middle-class families don't consider them an option.
School officials have not yet determined whether the free
tuition will be a permanent policy, but all students admitted for
next year will be guaranteed free tuition until they graduate.
So far, the school has received almost 100 requests for
applications, and will start sending acceptance letters in
March 2001, Rabbi Mars said.
The expected enrollment for next year is not yet clear.
But the academy, for students in grades 9-12, can accom-
modate up to 95 boarders. It will enroll additional day stu-
dents from the Greensboro area.
The school's mission is "to be available to those kids who
live in the Greensboros of North America," Rabbi Mars said.
Rabbi Mars and other senior staff have visited more than
12 communities in the past few weeks, including
Birmingham, Ala., and Tampa, Fla.
Rising Star
Lynn Raviv, director of the N.E. Miles Jewish Day School
in Birmingham, describes the academy as a "new wonderful
star on the horizon that will give parents another way of
continuing their-children's education."
"We are anxious to let the Jewish world
know we are very serious about this
school, that its success is assured and
that we are going to be accepting
students on the basis of merit."
Cooperative Funding
To remedy that situation, the New York-based Avi Chai
Foundation and the Seattle-based Samis Foundation have
experimented with tuition subsidies for students at selected day
schools. But none has offered completely five tuition.
One of the few examples in contemporary Jewish life of
such a free ride is the Birthright Israel program, an effort
launched last year that offers college students and young
adults 10-day trips to Israel.
According to recent evaluations, students considered the
fact that it was free a powerful incentive to participate in
Birthright.
The American Hebrew Academy's tuition policy is "essen-
tially a $30,000-a-year gift," said Rabbi Alvin Mars, the
school's headmaster.
"We are anxious to let the Jewish world know we are very seri-
ous about this school, that its success is assured and that we are
going to be accepting students on the basis of merit," he said.
— Rabbi Mars
Seven families from her school, which has 112 students in
kindergarten through eighth grade, have expressed interest in
the academy, Raviv said.
Jonathan_Woocher, executive vice 1:)esident of the Jewish
Education Service of North America, said he hopes the acade-
my will "raise people's sights," encouraging more Jewish
schools to seek ways to offer affordable tuition.
"People will say, 'Wow, we can have Jewish education that is
this good and really is geared toward every Jew that wants to take
advanrnge of it,"' said Woocher, whose organization issued a task
force report in 1999 calling for greater communal funding of
Jewish day schools.
Will the tuition-free option lure families away from other
pluralistic day high schools, which are proliferating around
the country?
Woocher doubts it, as the new school will not be able to
accommodate large numbers of students. Also, he said, "not
everyone will want to send their child to a boarding school."
Instead, the academy is an option for people who lack
day high schools nearby, Woocher said.
"We get calls all the time from people asking if we have a
list of Jewish boarding schools that are not yeshivas," he
said. "This really fills a niche: ❑
From the pages of the Jewish News for
this week 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50
years ago.
.1991
Rabbi David Shepard of Huntington
Woods became the acting rabbi of
the Huntington Woods Minyan.
Marjorie Karp, senior at Ann
Arbor Huron High School, became
the only female in Michigan high
school doubles tennis history to go
three years without a defeat. •
The Wiener Library, a comprehen-
sive source of information on anti-
Semitism and the Holocaust, moved
from London to Tel Aviv University.
A Cairo newspaper quoted Pope
John Paul II as saying "no one
nation can claim exclusive owner-
ship of Jerusalem."
Abraham Hoptman, a member of
Adat Shalom Synagogue and a daily
attendant at services for 23 years,
was honored by the synagogue at a
breakfast on his 80th birthday.
Jack A. Arfa of Oak Park was
promoted to the grade of master
sergeant in the U.S. Army Reserve.
Detroit lawyer Michael Stacy
assumed a seat in the Wayne
County Circuit Court.
The Israeli Cabinet approved an
attorney's request for $20,000 in
fees for defending Adolf Eichmann
in Jerusalem because no other
funding source was available.
Dr. Fred_ A. Stein of Southfield
was elected to head the national
Alpha Omega Dental Fraternity
"a ..
Camp Hahelu held its 21st camp
reunion at the Wardell-Sheraton
Hotel in Detroit.
Herman Jacobs of Detroit
announced his resignation as execu-
tive director of the Jewish
Community Center of Detroit.
Block's clothing store on 12th
Street in Detroit was offering two-
pant suits for $53.75 as part of its
going-out-of-business sale.
— Compiled by Sy Manello,
Editorial Assistant
#IN
1/5
2001
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