History
Center City, Strawberry Mansion and Wynnefield, 1946–1956
Akiba Hebrew Academy was founded in 1946 by a group of individuals, primarily Conservative rabbis, active in the Philadelphia Jewish community, including Dr. Joseph Levitsky, Rabbi Simon Greenberg, Rabbi Elias Charry, and Dr. Leo L. Honor. The school was originally located in rented rooms at the YM & YWHA at Broad and Pine Streets in Center City, Philadelphia.[2]
The school was founded without a connection to any Jewish denomination.[3] According to Dr. Harold Gorvine, Akiba's founders created the school with the view "that all Jewish children – affiliated and non-affiliated – should come together under one roof to study their common Jewish heritage while simultaneously learning to respect all positions...This objective was not intended to blur differences. Rather, it was intended to strengthen the Jewish identification of every student without compelling acceptance of one particular interpretation of what is “THE” Jewish way of life."[2] To fit this vision, the school took a middle of the ground approach to certain Jewish practices to ensure the school would remain pluralistic. For example, no school prayer was required and kippot were only required in Jewish classes.[2] The first year consisted of 20 boys and girls. The school graduated its first class of 14 students in 1951.[4]
The founding of Akiba marked a point when enough Jewish leaders believed that Jews had been incorporated into American society that they were willing to create a school solely for Jews. The founding of Akiba was met with opposition from some within Philadelphia's Jewish community, particularly from the reform Jewish community.[2] Philadelphia Jewish leaders believed in American assimilation through the public school system and judged Jewish day schools to be parochial, un-American, and ghettoizing. Philadelphia's Jewish Federation would refuse to fund the institution until 1953.[3]
Akiba was founded as a progressive school, which a 1946 brochure for the school described as "the needs, interests and aspirations of the individual pupil are the school’s primary concern."[2] The school hired Dr. Joseph Butterweck, the dean at the Temple University School of Education and a leading figure in progressive education, as an advisor for general studies.[2] Part of Butterweck's progressive curriculum included "core class", which encouraged students to research and discuss topics.[2] Butterweck's curriculum also encouraged democratic participation from students including a student government (made up of three branches: executive, legislative and judicial) that held power within the school.[2] Due to Butterweck's position at Temple, he was able to recruit quality teachers to teach secular subjects.[2] However, for the school's first 10 years, Judaic teachers only were hired on a part-time basis.[2] From 1951 to 1963, the school was led by Louis Newman, who was also the camp director of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, until he was named the first director of the Melton Center for Research in Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary.[2]
After four years at the Center City site, Akiba's enrollment had grown significantly and moved to B’nai Jeshurun in Strawberry Mansion, Philadelphia.[2] However, the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood was facing urban decay and economic decline, which resulted in a significant fall in the school's enrollment.[2] Therefore, the school moved to Har Zion Temple at 54th and Wynnefield Avenues until a permanent location for the school could be established.[2] Akiba was located at Har Zion until 1956.[5]
Merion, 1956-2008
In April 1956, Akiba purchased a 5.3-acre (21,000 m2) estate on North Highland Avenue in Merion Station, on the Main Line for $105,000.[6] The property had once been part of a large estate called "Ashdale," which had been built by William Simpson, a 19th-century insurance entrepreneur. After Simpson's death in 1909, his family broke up the estate, and the McMenamin family purchased a 5.3-acre (21,000 m2) section on which they built a mansion that they named "Drake Linden Hall." After extensive renovations, the school dedicated its new foyer, classrooms, library, and science laboratory in December 1958.[7]
In 1967, Elie Wiesel spoke to Akiba's graduating class as the commencement speaker.[8]
From 1973 to 1975, Akiba's campus underwent an expansion process which included the construction of a new building, library and auditorium.[8] Enrollment grew to 290 students in 1979.[9]
Akiba continued to grow and enrollment grew to 350 students by the 1990s.[10] As a result of growing enrollment, the school began the process of expanding again. In 1992, the school purchased 1.1 acres (4,500 m2) in adjacent land as part of their plans to acquire neighboring properties to expand athletic facilities.[11] This acquisition expanded Akiba to about 7.5 acres (30,000 m2) of land.[11] Efforts to expand the school building in April 1994 were unsuccessful as Lower Merion Township declined Akiba's request to be exempted from four township building codes.[12] In October 1994, a committee for expanding the school found that the options to expand the school included expanding the school to the former Solomon Schecter Day School that was located across the street, moving to the campus of either Gratz College in Melrose Park or to a vacated high school in Conshohocken and constructing a third story onto the school.[10]
Following his retirement from professional basketball in Europe, Joe Bryant served as head coach of Akiba's varsity women's basketball team during the 1992–1993 season. His son, Kobe Bryant, who went on to become an 18-time NBA All-Star and the 2008 NBA Most Valuable Player, was a freshman at Lower Merion High School and often met his father at the Akiba gym after practices.[13]
Akiba Hebrew Academy was named for Rabbi Akiba. The school was approached by the Perelman Family Foundation in 1999 and offered a $2.0 million donation on condition that the school change its name to honor the Perelman family. After vocal student objections, Akiba was compelled to decline the offer.[14] In February 2007, the school accepted a gift of $5 million from Leonard and Lynne Barrack's charitable organization, the Barrack Foundation and renamed itself "Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy," after Leonard's older brother, who died in a plane crash at age 27 in 1960.[15][16] The $5 million gift to the school was given under the condition that 90% of the funds will be allocated towards a scholarship fund.[16] The school was officially renamed on September 10, 2007 at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia's Radnor Campus in Bryn Mawr.[17]
In September 2008, Barrack sold the property to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia for $4 million. At the time of sale, the mansion measured 20,247 square feet (1,881.0 m2), including additions made in the mid-1970s such as the gym, and the new classroom building.[18] Kohelet Yeshiva High School purchased the mansion in 2010 and has since renovated it and the adjoining buildings.[19]
Bryn Mawr, 2008-present
For several years, Akiba was looking to move to a new location to help facilitate the school's growing enrollment and to ensure their facilities remained up to par with other private schools in the area.[20] In July 2007, the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia announced the purchase of the campus of American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. The American College site is 35 acres (140,000 m2) on Bryn Mawr Avenue in Radnor Township and contains six buildings, walking trails and an arboretum.[21][20] The school inaugurated the new building with a "Hanukat HaBayit" on September 14, 2008 at which U.S. Congressman Joe Sestak addressed the crowd.[22][23]
In 2013, the Robert Saligman Middle School, which was located in Melrose Park, Pennsylvania and a part of the Schechter Day School Network, was integrated into Barrack.[24] Barrack opened a STEM lab in 2015 featuring 3D printers, laser cutters and a solar energy research center.[8][24] Barrack dedicated a new multipurpose, artificial turf athletic field with high school soccer and lacrosse lines in September 2018.[25] Following stints with the Philadelphia 76ers and Portland Trail Blazers as an executive, the school hired Ben Falk to serve as Barrack's boy's varsity basketball coach. He coached the team from 2018 to 2021.
Mrs. Sharon P. Levin served as the Head of School from 2011 to 2021.[26] In 2021, she was replaced by Rabbi Marshall Lesack, a Barrack graduate, as the new Head of School.[27][24]
Current school
Barrack Hebrew Academy is accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools, and the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and is a member of the National Association of Independent Schools.[28]
Barrack students in 11th grade have the option to study abroad for the first semester of school at Alexander Muss High School in Israel.[29] Barrack students have studied at Muss since 1994. From the introduction of the Israel study option in the 1980s through 1993, students had attended Tichon Ramah Yerusalayim (T.R.Y.) in Jerusalem.[30]
Barrack men's and women's sports teams, the Cougars, play in the Friends’ Schools League. The school has 15 male and female varsity sports teams.
Rabbi Marshall Lesack is the current head of school. He was preceded by Mr. Oscar Divinsky, Dr. Irving Agus, Mr. Lou Newman, Dr. Diana Reisman, Dr. Steven Lorch, Rabbi Marc Rosenstein, Rabbi Phillip Field, Dr. Steven Brown, and Mrs. Sharon P. Levin.
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