Sometimes it takes more than a village. Sometimes it takes a benefactor. In a stellar move to further Jewish education, the New York-based Keren Keshet foundation approached the fledgling Jewish Community High School of the Bay with an irresistible offer.
Not only did the foundation agree to buy a $20 million San Francisco campus for the high school’s permanent home. It also agreed to underwrite two years’ tuition for each of the next three incoming classes, with scholarship money to follow.
A gift of that magnitude is staggering. It speaks to the tremendous importance of Jewish high school education as a way to not only improve our children’s knowledge of their heritage, but to convey it to future generations.
The studies are out. It’s no secret that Jewish day-school education is critical in revitalizing a community that’s been depleted by intermarriage, apathy and just plain ignorance.
And while the Bay Area is home to a number of Jewish primary schools, until this fall only one Jewish high school existed in the entire region: the Hebrew Academy in San Francisco, which serves about 75 high-schoolers a year, sending its graduates to top colleges.
In a region as large as this one, there’s room for more than one Jewish high school. That’s why community leaders got together to launch JCHS, which will open Monday at its temporary home on the grounds of Congregation Kol Shofar in Tiburon. And in the South Bay, Kehilla Jewish High School plans to open in the fall of 2002.
Obviously, more is needed, and schools that combine Jewish studies with a strong academic foundation cost money. But it’s not fair to expect parents to bear the entire burden, because the beneficiaries aren’t just the students. We, too, benefit as our community is renewed.
We thank Mem Bernstein of Keren Keshet for her vision. The foundation’s name in Hebrew means “rainbow fund.” Through this gift, and perhaps others, maybe we’ve all witnessed a rainbow, pointing the way to the treasures of future Jewish learning.