by Marilyn Silverstein
NJJN Bureau Chief/PMB

January 6, 2009

For the first time in its more than 100-year history, Abrams Hebrew Academy in Yardley, Pa., is offering a $3,000 scholarship to every incoming kindergarten pupil in its coeducational Jewish day school program.

The yearly subsidy, which will begin with the fall 2009 semester, will accompany each incoming child through at least the fifth grade. It is being made possible by a grant from the Philadelphia-based Kohelet Foundation through its TIPSY initiative — Tuition Incentive Program for Subsidizing Yiddishkeit.

Abrams, which serves some 285 students in nursery school through the eighth grade, is one of six Jewish day schools in the region to receive a TIPSY grant from the foundation. The man behind the grants is philanthropist David Magerman, who established the foundation to promote healthy Jewish identity and Jewish observance by improving access to Jewish education.

In conjunction with the TIPSY grant, Abrams will require the families of incoming kindergartners to join or continue their affiliation with a Jewish congregation. The school will offer a $1,500 yearly grant to each family to subsidize the expense of synagogue affiliation, according to Abrams head of school Rabbi Ira Budow.

Magerman, said Budow in a recent interview, “is a real hero. This guy has done a terrific thing for Jewish day schools. He’s done something the whole United States could learn from. The whole goal is to bring in as many kids as we can physically bring in.”

Today, some 30 pupils are enrolled in the full-time kindergarten program at Abrams, where the curriculum includes the integrative teaching and learning tools of the Smart Board, an interactive electronic whiteboard created by the Ottawa-based Smart Technologies.

The program also includes a Hebrew-immersion program; art, music, and gym classes; and an indoor playground.

Key to survival

Budow said he hopes the scholarship will move parents who have their children in secular private schools to take a second look at Abrams.

“They can get a good education and pay a quarter of what they’ve been paying at [private] schools,” he said. “Now, perhaps, those people will think of Abrams Hebrew day school first.”

The combination of Magerman’s gift and Abrams’ subsidy for synagogue affiliation is a key to survival for the school, Budow said.

“We have many synagogues partnering with us to help recruit kids for the first time ever,” he said. “It’s a win-win. Now, we have the greatest advocates in the synagogues.

“In today’s economy,” he added, “we’re only hearing bad things; here’s a great story.”

Jon Parker of Ewing Township, president of the Abrams board of directors, said that the school has so far approached close to 30 synagogues in the Mercer County/Delaware Valley region — as well as Cherry Hill in New Jersey and Lower Merion Township in Pennsylvania — to enlist their partnership in the program.

Among the synagogues that have so far signed on are Adath Israel Congregation in Lawrenceville, Beth El Synagogue in East Windsor, Congregation Beth El of Bucks County in Yardley, The Jewish Center in Princeton, and Shir Ami-Bucks County Jewish Congregation in Newtown, Pa.

“While [afternoon] Hebrew school gives an excellent education, the combination of a synagogue and day school experience is a much stronger experience for the child and the family,” Parker said. “Our goal is not only to teach children and provide them with a good day school and secular education, but also to try to stop the assimilation that’s been happening.”

Although Abrams is already in a “fairly healthy” financial situation, Parker said, he is hoping that with additional children enrolled, “we will not have to raise so much money to subsidize the school. Obviously, if we get more children, tuition is not going to increase.

“I think Abrams is probably the best-kept secret in the area,” he added. “It’s a great school, and we’ve got to make the community aware of it.”

For more information about the scholarship program, call Abrams at 215-493-1800.

Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com

--TOP--