Saddened to learn that Yeshivat Rambam’s high school was going to call it quits after this school year.
Some really great kids came out of this high school program and excelled in so many different ways.
I “invested” both of my daughters in the high school. My oldest is now getting a master’s at Yale. My youngest is getting ready to graduate at U of Maryland.
But here we are still reeling in the “great recession.” Rambam ran into that recession and gave it, with help from donors, parents, staff and the Associated everything it had to keep its high school open. Don’t think it fair to shed blame anywhere for this.
But what I do wonder is how this figures into the Associated’s recently released demographic study that reported an Orthodox community making up about one third of the total Jewish community. Seems like there’s going to be a need for more high schools now more than ever.
We’re sure that the other day schools and yeshivot will open up spaces for the Rambam students and for the middle schoolers who will also need a place for high school.
Rambam gave was at one time named a Blue Ribbon School. But again, it ran into the complications of a smaller school facing a daunting economy. Many of its graduates stayed true to the school’s mission and ended moving to Israel.
The high school also had many masterful teachers over the years.
We know this will leave a sadness with many. We are certain that this community will come forward and offer academic opportunities for those Rambam children who need a new school to call home.

Interesting. Love the emphasis on the main topic, just like
Hello In Italian

There is blame to be laid, but not at a single person’s feet. It was a combination of ill-made decisions, gross overspending, and a vision beyond what reality could contain. I, for one, begged the admin to hold onto its mission, and not believe the folklore that splitting would solve the problem. There were many issues, many problems, and dividing a house falling is never the solution. I, among many others, was fired for expressing my opinion.

Many claimed that educating boys and girls was not the correct way anymore, yet my children graduated and went onto bigger and better things. I felt they were the poster kids for Rambam, yet some wanted to avoid that success? I am bewildered, I am hurt, I am sad, and I am mostly upset that upstanding educators could not admit that they made mistakes.

“Many of its graduates stayed true to the school’s mission and ended moving to Israel.”  Unfortunately, Yeshivat Rambam itself did not stay true to it’s original mission, and instead, hoped that a move to the right would increase its moribund enrollment.  The plan did not work, and served only to alienate families who had wanted their children to attend Rambam because it had coed classes and a Tzioni hashkafa.  Once coed classes were eliminated and the school moved to the right, how really different was Rambam than the other area schools?