It's Wednesday morning, less than a week before the school year starts, and Hedva Fensterheim has received six phone calls this week; Robyn Gross received three phone calls on Tuesday alone, as did Michele Kaplan-Green. The three women, all Anglo immigrants, are comparing notes on how many parents have called them about enrolling their children in "Meitarim Ra'anana," the new junior and senior high school which will open in the city on Monday, at the start of the new academic year.
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"We've been flooded with calls," says Fensterheim, a former New Yorker who chairs the non-profit body Parents for Pluralistic Education, which is setting up the school. "The level of interest is increasing by the day. And this is without advertising - just through word of mouth."
The enthusiasm for Meitarim Ra'anana, which the three women possess in sackfuls, is because no other school in the area is offering quite the same mix of Jewish and general studies in an "open environment," says Fensterheim, who is Orthodox and wears a large hat. Jewishly pluralistic, and with a strong emphasis on Jewish learning, the private school is being established by local parents who have been unsatisfied with the education their children have been receiving to date.
Fensterheim, an MBA graduate who is currently dedicating herself full-time to the school without receiving a salary, says she has been "gravely disappointed" to find that the subjects students in the religious school system seem to hate most are the religious studies. "What was missing for me was the students' love of learning and the lack of respect for the student," says Fensterheim, a mother of six, who has two children beginning at the new school next week. "The level of learning was high and the demands on the student were great, but the learning just wasn't challenging them; it didn't engage them."
The enthusiasm of Robyn Gross, who is originally from Australia and describes herself religiously as "traditional," comes from a different place. She has three children, who currently study in the TALI school system, which offers enriched Jewish studies within the state secular school system. However, the TALI School in Ra'anana, which operates as a stream inside a secular elementary school, ends at grade six, and its sister school in Hod Hasharon, where the family live, ends at grade 10. "My children have a love of Jewish learning from their schools, but there's nowhere for them to go when they are done," says Gross. "I don't want it all to disappear when they graduate [the TALI schools]. As a family, we are looking for a depth of Jewish education that is non-existent outside of the religious school system."
According to the parents' estimates, approximately two-thirds of the students who will start learning at Meitarim Ra'anana on Monday have been educated until now in the state religious system, although they believe the split is likely to be more balanced in future years.
Sixty-plus children have had their applications to the school accepted and will study in grades seven through 10; over the next two years, parents hope that will extend to grade 12.
Gross, who will teach drama one day a week at the school, says that the principal, who is interviewing potential students, is looking for pupils who will benefit from and contribute to the school, and whose parents support the educational philosophy of the school. "We want students who want to enroll and want to learn," she says.
Meitarim Ra'anana's private status - parents will pay NIS 490 per month 12 months per year for each student - was bourne more out of necessity than desire. The parents originally arranged for the new school to begin operating as a stream within a local existing high school, but say that the Municipality of Ra'anana's conditions for such an arrangement were too restrictive and would have limited student numbers and, perhaps most importantly, the number of hours available to teach the additional Jewish curriculum. They also complain that the municipality only clarified its conditions in July, after the parents had spent eight months conducting negotiations with Aviv High School's management. It was then, says Fensterheim, they made the "bigger than huge" decision to go it alone. They still hope to be part of the city's school system in the future, which will bring in significant funding.
The parents are also busy "wading through" the bureaucracy of the Education Ministry, says Fensterheim, adding that this is a standard, drawn-out process for any private school or new educational initiative that wants to receive national funding. In the meantime, Michele Kaplan-Green is busy trying to fund-raise from individuals and foundations locally, in North America and in Europe, as the tuition fees fall far short of making up the school's budget, which she estimates to be $400,000 to $500,000 for the first year.
Planning for the new school began two years ago, when a group of parents in the Ra'anana area got together to discuss opening a Jewishly pluralistic junior and senior high school. Kaplan-Green says it took a year of weekly meetings for the ideas behind the school to develop into a clear vision. "The idea is that there should be `education,' not `religious education' and `secular education.' Instead of building a single country, this country is being polarized. The whole thing grew out of seeing the need, and wanting to provide a strong and solid education."
Students will begin their day in prayer, and in keeping with the school's Jewishly pluralistic approach, will choose from simultaneous options such as a traditional service, an egalitarian service, and a girls-only minyan. Shabbat and kashrut will be observed at all school events, but there is still some debate with regards to the school policy on wearing kippot. The issue will most likely be deferred to the "school parliament," which will meet weekly, with parents invited to participate as well as students and teachers.
Kaplan-Green, who is originally from Manhattan, emphasizes that Meitarim Ra'anana is "not an Anglo school, with a few Israelis joining in." She says that some 50 percent of the students will come from native Israeli or French, Spanish or Russian speaking homes. "Even Anglo kids of this age are very Israeli," points out Fensterheim, whose six sons were all born in Israel.
Kaplan-Green, who like all the other parents involved is also volunteering her time - not just to fund-raise but also to pull up carpets and clean toilets - says the school has come together by "working 24/6. If we see each other on Shabbat, we really don't discuss the school, we really need a break." Until premises were found for the school - in a converted office building on Hazon Ish st., many of the meetings were held at Kaplan-Green's home, including interviews for many of the teachers. She concludes: "It's a real grassroots effort - that's part of what is so wonderful about it.
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