FEATURED JOBS
Yeshivat Rambam, Bnos Yisroel to trade campuses.
Phil Jacobs and Alan H. Feiler
July 2, 2010
When Abba Poliakoff could take a breather late Wednesday night, June 30, after hours of phone calls and meetings, he still had two more phone calls.
In one conversation he’ll always remember, Mr. Poliakoff learned from his son that he had just become a grandfather for the first time.
While it doesn’t get much better than that, the second call with Rabbi Hershel Lutch, Yeshivat Rambam’s executive director, came very close.
Rabbi Lutch congratulated Mr. Poliakoff on becoming the “grandfather” of 404 Rambam students as well. That was what it was like in the early hours of Mr. Poliakoff’s new role as president of Rambam.
He is helping watch over and work out one of this community’s most beneficial exchanges.
Yeshivat Rambam and Bnos Yisroel will be switching buildings. The two beloved educational facilities could be on the verge of cementing a bright future for the two day schools. The schools are a short drive from each other on Park Heights Avenue.
Yeshivat Rambam, which has of late relied on the Associated: Jewish Community Federation of Baltimore for fiscal help and management advice, will be able to move its main campus to the Bnos campus, the former Beth Jacob Congregation. It is located across the street from the Park Heights Jewish Community Center.
Bnos is located at 5713 Park Heights Ave. just blocks south of Yeshivat Rambam’s 6300 Park Heights Ave. location.
The beauty of this is that the Rambam boys are already housed at the JCC. This will bring the two campuses that much closer together.
Bnos, which has seen itself grow into kindergarten through high school with some 500 students, is in a position of needing space to accommodate its growth.
On June 28, Rambam’s board of directors considered a letter of intent to move forward toward a contract with Bnos. The schools would stay in their current locations through the upcoming academic year.
“Now is the time to get reinvigorated and to reach high standards,” Mr. Poliakoff said. “Rambam is vitally important to the community. It plays a critical role, educating children on the derech [path] of Torah Umadah
.”
He said now that the structure of a secure future is more in place for the school, it can focus on its mission of excellence in Jewish education. “We are now better poised to meet our targets as a school with a high level of excellence,” he said.
“It looks like Rambam will have a future,” said one source. “Rambam will have a light at the end of the tunnel. It looks as if all of this will result in a happy ending.”
For Mr. Poliakoff, the work has begun already and the feeling of optimism is abundant.
Marc B. Terrill, president of the Associated, is also excited about the agreement struck by Rambam and Bnos.
“This is wonderful news for both schools and for our community,” he said in a statement. “The entire process is emblematic of how mature communities should conduct business. Simply put, the communication, openness and creativity points to an across-the-board win for Jewish Baltimore The unique needs of each school are being met, and all indicators point to a bright future for all involved.”
* * * * * * * *
Rabbi Hershel Lutch, Rambam’s executive director, sent out the following letter to parents July 1:
After many weeks of hard work and negotiation by our board and professional leadership, we are delighted to share a number of positive developments at Yeshivat Rambam. These developments enhance the success of Rambam and ensure that we continue our critical mission of educating the next generations of Jewish leaders.
Here are the key points of these developments, with further details below:
We are selling our building to Bnos Yisroel and buying their building, the former Beth Jacob Synagogue, located across the street from the JCC. We have chosen new lay leadership headed by our new Board President, Abba Poliakoff. We have restructured the Middle & High School administration to better accommodate our physical configuration. As a result of this restructuring, Dr. Schwartz is stepping down as Principal.
Please join us for an important community meeting to discuss these and other matters Thursday, July 8, at 8:00 PM at our main campus.
New Building
As explained in a previous communication, the building at 6300 Park Heights Avenue has ceased to fulfill our needs. In addition, the weight of old debts was preventing our rebound from the difficulties of our recent past.
We therefore signed an agreement this week to sell our building to Bnos Yisroel, and to acquire their building in return. That building, at 5713 Park Heights Avenue, is across the street from our Boys Middle & High School in the Park Heights JCC, close enough for faculty and staff to cross between locations with ease. In addition, the sale of our building will allow us to pay off substantial debt and will make us more financially agile moving forward. We will remain at 6300 Park Heights for the 2010-2011 school year. Next summer, we will remodel the new building to prepare for occupancy, using funds made available through this transaction. The building already contains more than 25 classrooms, a large shul/auditorium, a multi-purpose room, a cafeteria, and outdoor spaces. Our plans are in the earliest stages, but we are excited about the move and have begun exploring appropriate modifications to the building.
New Lay Leadership
We are similarly pleased to announce new lay leadership of our school. We have asked Abba Poliakoff to serve as our President, and are in the process of filling out the Board of Directors. Abba will serve as the school’s chief lay leader, working closely with me and other professional leadership to advance our mission and secure Rambam’s future. He comes to us as a former Rambam parent who has served the Baltimore community in many ways: as a business lawyer and Chairman of the Securities Law Department of Gordon Feinblatt, LLC; as President of the Jewish Arbitration and Mediation Board of Baltimore; as Chairman of the Maryland Israel Development Center; as a member of the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the Baltimore Jewish Council; and as member of the Board of Directors of The Associated.
“Our new Board will feature an active committee structure. The committees will cover key aspects of operation, including: development (Ed Hoffman, chair), academics (Debra Drang, chair), finance and administration (Meyer Shields, chair), communications and marketing (Ellie Kagan, chair), and governance (Steven Fleisher, chair). Members of the Executive Board will include the committee chairs and other active parents. In addition, all members of our Board of Directors will serve on at least one committee each.
We are looking to enfranchise the parent body in building the school’s future. Please keep this in mind when you meet with us next Thursday.
Hakarat Hatov to our Outgoing Board
We are grateful to our outgoing officers and directors for their tremendous help and support. Without their determination, ideas, and, of course, hard work, Yeshivat Rambam would surely not exist today. In particular, we thank Barry Nabozny, outgoing President, and Dr. David Sidransky, outgoing Chairman, for their remarkable service. Barry stepped in two years ago, helping to bridge the successful transition to new leadership. In fact he helped find and recruit some of our top talent while serving as a lay-Executive Director. While he is happy to stand down from that all-consuming level of involvement on behalf of the school, we will miss Barry’s unwavering commitment.
Middle & High School Administrative Restructuring
We are grateful to our administration for its dedication and hard work over the past year. This was a learning experience for new and old administration alike, as we explored the best ways to educate students on two campuses while maintaining the highest levels of academic and Torah learning. The experience taught us the difficulties of having administrative personnel on-site for half the time in either location. After much serious thought, we decided to restructure the Middle & High School leadership. We are happy to announce the 2010-2011 Yeshivat Rambam Senior Educational Administration as follows:
Boys Middle & High School Principal—Rabbi Yakov Majeski
Girls Middle & High School Principal—Mrs. Shira Tuchman
Elementary School Principal—Rabbi Shmuel Feld
ECC Director—Mrs. Rachel Rotenberg
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