Silicon Valley celebrated a new startup on Sunday.
But unlike so many other companies that have gone belly-up in the hi-tech hub, this one seems destined to succeed.
Why?
Because rather than software or innovations in Web technology, this startup will produce minds versed in Jewish text, philosophy and critical thinking.
It’s a high school, and a Jewish one at that — the first Jewish high school to exist in the South Bay.
“Kehillah is a startup in the best tradition of Silicon Valley,” said Dr. Len Lehmann a founder and president of the new enterprise.
While school doesn’t begin until Sept. 3, Kehillah Jewish High School of San Jose held a celebratory ceremony to officially welcome the class of 2006. Board members and faculty frequently called the 34 incoming students “chalutzim,” or pioneers.
Proud parents sported royal blue plastic visors with the Kehillah logo to shield them from the hot sun, making an amusing combination with the kippahs some were wearing. As the faculty and students walked in a procession, parents watched their kids through video cameras.
Teachers were introduced one by one, along with their advanced degrees. In addition to the required Hebrew, students can opt to take Japanese.
And each student was called up and introduced to the audience by board President Jacqueline Bocian, who handed out a Tanach (bible), while listing the merits and interests of each one. Judging by Bocian’s descriptions, Kehillah shouldn’t have any trouble lining up a cast for a school production, as more than a handful of the girls are aspiring actors, singers, dancers or musicians. Among the boys, the most unique future career choice was a roller coaster designer.
“Today we are inaugurating a new and vital institution that will profoundly transform our Bay Area Jewish community,” said Lehmann.
Half of each student’s yearly $18,000 tuition will be subsidized by the Levine-Lent Family Foundation, though some will be subsidized even more than that. Bobby Lent, a successful Silicon Valley venture capitalist, and his wife Fran Levine, pledged upwards of $1 million for this voucher program, with an additional $5,000 scholarship for each student when they head to college.
Lent praised the 30 board members whose tireless efforts made Kehillah a reality. “The most valuable commodity on this earth isn’t money, it’s time,” said Lent. “And these people spent a lot of time.”
Lent spoke of his gift as a worthy investment, and used startup lingo to remark on “the A-plus players across the board” running the school, and that “A-plus players hire A-plus players.”
What makes those involved so excited about Kehillah’s opening is that until now, parents who wanted to provide their children with a Jewish education beyond middle school had to send them to Los Angeles, said Lehmann, or move.
No longer.
“This is a high school that really forms identity,” he said. “They can really delve deeply into Jewish philosophy and text in a way they can’t in middle school.”
Furthermore, in today’s world, many parents are not Jewishly literate enough to educate their children.
Indeed, quite a handful of Kehillah’s students come from interfaith families.
Rick Cady, whose son Eliot is part of the incoming class, said, “You can’t get better than what you’re going to get here,” in terms of an education. And since Cady isn’t Jewish, he said, “I can’t give him that background myself.”
The students are equally excited.
Ilyssa Brickman of Almaden has only gone to public school until now, but she can’t wait to be a part of Kehillah’s incoming class.
One introductory meeting convened by Rabbi Todd Doctor, Kehillah’s dean of Judaic studies, was all it took. “I couldn’t stand the feeling of not going here,” she said. Remarking that she would have one obvious thing in common with her classmates, Brickman added, “The friendships I’ll make here will be so much stronger.”
Shira Aitchison of Los Gatos too, said attending Kehillah was her choice, but it was an obvious one because every contact she had with the school was so positive. “The people have been amazing,” she said. “I’m really excited about school starting.”
Rachel Schiff admitted that her mother kept singing Kehillah’s praises, so she did feel a bit of pressure to choose it over another school. “She kept saying ‘Kehillah this, Kehillah that,'” said Schiff, of Campbell. “But now I don’t regret my decision.”
“If we went to a normal high school, we wouldn’t know everyone,” said Rachel Halper of Los Gatos.
Kehillah has been in the works for three years now. This last year, principal Marion Peterson and two other staff members worked out of an office in Palo Alto.
Earlier this month, they moved to the new school site on the former Blackford High School campus in San Jose, leased from the Campbell Unified School District. Sharing the campus are subtenants Yavneh Day School, the pre-school of the Addison-Penzak JCC of Silicon Valley, the Mid-Peninsula Jewish Day School and Canyon Heights Academy, a startup Catholic school.
They share a 40-acre campus with two swimming pools, two gymnasiums, two baseball fields, a football field, track field and a darkroom. “It’s a remarkable campus,” said Lehmann, during a guided tour.
While an alternative high school has operated on the site in the past decade, other than that, much of the site has not been in use. Workers were on site on Sunday, clearing equipment out of one of the gyms. Some of the classrooms were not quite ready yet either, with random equipment being stored.
The classrooms have been checked for asbestos — it’s been removed — and the bathrooms have been completely renovated. A student lounge with shiny blue lockers will soon be furnished — beanbag chairs are being discussed — where students will eat their kosher vegetarian lunches, provided by the Palo Alto based-Meekk’s Kitchen.