The Ramaz School (Sample)

D e d i c a t i o n

To Rabbi Haskel Lookstein “The goal of a Ramaz education is to fuse two traditions within one wholesome, integrated, respectful,

The Ramaz School Honoring Tradition, Empowering the Future

114 East 85th Street New York City, New York 10028 212.774.8055 www.ramaz.org

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and dignified student at whom the Jewish and non-Jewish worlds look with pride and admiration and say: ‘Here is the product of a yeshiva education.’”

— Haskel Lookstein, 1971

Under his wise leadership, and with Audrey always by his side, this vision is as true today as ever before. With the Almighty’s help, may it continue to be realized for many years to come.

The Ramaz School wishes to express its deepest appreciation to friends of the school who made this dedication and book possible.

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Foreword by Elie Wiesel....................................................Page 9 The Ramaz Mission...................................................... Page 13 Introduction by Haskel Lookstein .............................. Page 14 History: 1937–2012................................................ Page 16 Education—Philosophy and Practice....................... Page 46 Hebrew is Our Language........................................ Page 82 Developing Jewish Responsibility............................. Page 98 Epilogue..................................................................... Page 116

Rabbi Joseph Lookstein and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein share the “contents” of a book.

Kindergarten students in 1973 race down the steps of the Ramaz school, then located at 22 East Eighty-Second Street.

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History 1937-2012 How Ramaz—named for Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies—grew in seventy-five years from six students and two teachers in the KJ social hall to over a thousand students and three hundred faculty across three buildings.

The board of trustees at Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun (KJ) remained unconvinced.

The trustees agreed with Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein that there was a need for a Jewish day school integrating religious and secular studies.

And yes, they recognized that such a school would be consistent with the vision of Rabbi Joseph’s late grandfather-in-law, the RaMaZ—Rabbi Moses Z. Margolies—the congregation’s guiding light for the previous three decades. They also knew Rabbi Lookstein’s son, Haskel, was five years old and ready to start school in a few months, in September 1937. The rabbi wanted his son close to the synagogue’s East 85th Street address.

But his vision went far beyond his own family. Rabbi Joseph Lookstein told the board that he wanted to create a progressive coeducational school, one that would attract children of both observant and nonobservant families. It would meld Jewish and American ideals and culture with Torah study. It would represent an Americanized Orthodoxy. The school, the rabbi said, was “an imperative necessity for an entire generation of growing young people.”

Rabbi Joseph Lookstein’s dream could not be put into practice without the financial support of KJ. After all, the first-year deficit alone would be five thousand dollars. The synagogue’s officers told him what he already knew: The congregation couldn’t meet its own bills, much less take on more. Why, the rabbi himself had gone without his salary several times. We cannot, KJ president Fred Margareten said, put a healthy head onto a sick body.

Besides, 1937 wasn’t an auspicious time to publicly announce one’s Jewish identity in New York: Every week, the virulent antisemitic commentaries of Catholic priest Father Charles Coughlin were broadcast to millions of radio listeners. The KJ neighborhood on the Upper East Side—known as Yorkville— was home to the pro-Nazi German-American Bund, which held regular street rallies and had organized a boycott of Jewish businesses.

‫ ַהחֲזֹון וְ ַה ַמעַׂש‬:‫ז ֶה סֵפֶר ּתֹול ְדֹות ַרמַז‬ The History of Ramaz: The Vision and the Reality In 1939, students learn poise by standing in front of the classroom and reading aloud to their peers.

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out to this population at the same time in Brookline, Massachusetts, when he established his own Maimonides School.) The rabbi’s plan was designed to bring Judaic rigor and strong Zionist sentiment to students, which would influence their parents’ level of observance and commitment. “They are not observant yet,” he would say.

It was crucial to offer a school that would compare favorably with the best secular day schools of the time while also offering a yeshiva education that would far surpass what was available in afternoon religious classes or Sunday schools. He wanted to achieve an “integrated child…who will experience no clash in being a Jew and an American at the same time.” His competition was not the Jewish schools; it was the elite secular day schools in Manhattan. The school also would differ from other Jewish day schools because it would educate children of all socioeconomic levels.

Rabbi Joseph understood the stakes. He’d served as assistant rabbi to the RaMaZ for thirteen years.

He knew how to run a synagogue and how to lead a community. When the synagogue’s membership declined in the 1920s as people moved to the Upper West Side, his suggestions for modernization— announcing page numbers during services, reading responsively, conducting portions in English, and emphasizing decorum—helped stabilize the situation. With his grandfather-in-law’s death in August 1936, Rabbi Joseph assumed leadership of KJ and its aging congregation. To grow, it needed young families, and the way to reach young families was through their children. A connection between KJ and his proposed school could create the symbiosis needed to build two successful organizations, and, in the process, influence future generations. His was a powerful pulpit; all the more reason, in his mind, to push hard for what he believed. He raised his five-foot-one-half-inch frame to its full height

The RaMaZ

low ebb. A quixotic attempt to remedy these problems had undone Rabbi Jacob Joseph, the Chief Rabbi of New York, proving that no one rabbi could solve all the challenges of American freedom.

Moreover, the Reform Movement, which eschewed halachah, was growing. Out of these deliberations came the Union of Orthodox Rabbis. The RaMaZ would become a long-term member of its executive committee. But remarkably, there was a second dynamic that brought these colleagues together.

They were also delegates to the Federation of American Zionists’ organization convention, a decidedly non-Orthodox group. Under Zionist auspices, these Orthodox leaders sat with Reform rabbis Richard Gottheil and Stephen S. Wise, as well as Conservative leaders Rabbi Marcus Jastrow and Henrietta Szold.

Their willingness to work with those with whom they disagreed theologically rose out of their Mizrachi (religious Zionist) principles. The RaMaZ firmly believed that religious Jews must play a central role in Zionism. Religious Zionism, with its belief that the Torah would guide the path toward Israeli statehood, would become a foundational tenet of the Ramaz School.

Before there was a Ramaz, there was the RaMaZ—Rabbi Moses Zevulun Margolies. Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein chose to name his path-breaking school for the senior rabbi whom he followed in the Kehilath Jeshurun pulpit.

Naming the school after the RaMaZ a year after his death was certainly a sincere act of reverence to honor his grandfather by marriage, but it was also recognition of his influence. Many of the values that came to be identified with the Ramaz School stemmed from the teachings and actions of the RaMaZ himself. Rabbi Lookstein imbibed ideas and sensitivities from his mentor, ensuring that they lived on and flourished.

The RaMaZ’s iconic visage—white hair; long, grey beard— conjured an old-school East European rav out of touch with the new world. Born in 1851 in Kraz, Lithuania, the RaMaZ studied at yeshivot in Bialystok and Kovno before serving as a community rabbi in Bialystok for a dozen years prior to his arrival in Boston in 1899. Though he did not receive a secular education, he understood that for Judaism to survive in America and beyond, accommodations had to be made to contemporary realities, albeit with halachah reigning supreme. Moreover, he believed allies could be found within many Jewish sectors, so long as Orthodoxy was not compromised.

The RaMaZ did not write much, but his actions spoke loudly of his progressive and tolerant disposition. In May, 1902, five immigrant rabbis from Eastern Europe met in his home in Boston to address critical issues facing American Jewry. Sabbath observance was lax, the kashrut industry was poorly monitored, and Jewish education was at a

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Half a decade later, after assuming his position at KJ, the RaMaZ served on the board of directors of the Uptown Talmud Torah in East Harlem, a progressive school dedicated to teaching Orthodox Judaism using modern educational techniques. The RaMaZ not only agreed to these principles, but also joined hands again with non-Orthodox Jews, including the leading Reform communal leaders Jacob Schiff and Louis Marshall. The RaMaZ’s model of embracing innovative ways of teaching Judaism and working closely with all Jews, so long as Orthodoxy would not be compromised, served as the blueprint for his eponymous school.

A year before his death, in 1935, a group of young Orthodox rabbis, men ordained primarily at the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, visited the RaMaZ at his summer vacation spot, the Hotel Carlton in Belmar, New Jersey. They were about to form the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) and came for his blessing. These rabbis were dealing with maturing second-generation Jews who were still interested in Orthodox synagogues but were increasingly attracted to the Conservative Movement. Some of these rabbis held fast to strict Orthodox synagogue principles—especially no mixed seating, the calling card of their competitors. But others felt great pressures to deviate from Orthodoxy’s tenets. The old-line Union of Orthodox Rabbis refused to accept these rabbis as colleagues. Despite his long- standing relationship with the Union, the RaMaZ recognized the problems facing young rabbis, and therefore gave the RCA his imprimatur. The RCA went on to accept colleagues with differing theological points of view, but reserved leadership roles for those who did not deviate from halachic standards. It makes sense, then, that the school carrying this great rabbi’s name would adopt a guiding principle of tolerance within Orthodoxy.

— Jeffrey S. Gurock ’67 is the Libby M. Klaperman Professor of Jewish History at Yeshiva University.

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Rabbi Haskel Lookstein Rabbi Haskel Lookstein has shown that the streets of New York can be sanctified. Prayers, marches, and protests on behalf of fellow Jews suffering oppression is a holy act. In the process, the activist becomes a better Jew and a better American.

Activism that cuts across denominational lines is a family trait that began with the RaMaZ, who participated in the New York Kehillah in the early twentieth century.

The German Jewish Reform elite founded the Kehillah in response to the antisemitic allegation by the New York City Police Commissioner that half the city’s criminals were Jews. A forerunner of today’s Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and the Jewish Education Project, the Kehillah brought together all New York Jews. The RaMaZ put aside theological differences to participate in this important organization, which addressed social and communal concerns.

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein, during his mission to the Soviet Union in 1972 to support Soviet Jewish refuseniks, joins in a procession in the Moscow Synagogue on Hoshana Rabba morning.

In 1943 the dimensions of the calamity befalling European Jews became increasingly known. On Washington’s Birthday, Rabbi Joseph Lookstein chaired a “Children’s Solemn Assembly of Sorrow and Protest.” Some thirty-five hundred students and educational and youth group leaders joined at the New York City Center on West Fifty-Fifth Street to pray for Jews suffering under the Nazis’ heels. In the spring, as heroic Jews in Warsaw were rising up, Rabbi Joseph Lookstein welcomed to Kehilath Jeshurun more than five hundred Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform rabbis and over one thousand lay participants for a special meeting of prayer and intercession. Many Modern Orthodox congregations, along with the Union of Orthodox Rabbis, refused to participate because Reform and Conservative rabbis were on the program.

In the 1970s, second-grade students celebrate as they receive their first very own chumashim.

In 1917, Joseph Lookstein entered the Yeshiva Rabbi Isaac Elchanan (later known as RIETS at Yeshiva University). He simultaneously attended City College of New York and later earned a master’s degree at Columbia University. He earned his smicha in 1926, with the RaMaZ and Dr. Bernard Revel, president of the yeshiva, among those granting his ordination. That same year he married Gertrude Schlang, the RaMaZ’s granddaughter. By that time, the rabbi had already served as an assistant to the RaMaZ for three years.

Rabbi Joseph was popular at KJ from the start, as much for his oratorical gifts as for his communal philosophy. By all accounts he was funny, vivacious, and often mischievous, as likely to ask a provocative question as to share a story. The RaMaZ taught him the intricacies of synagogue life while supporting the younger man’s ideas to modernize the synagogue. At the same time, the RaMaZ taught him how to influence congregants to become more observant. For example, before he came to KJ, the young Joseph Lookstein had picketed the kosher butcher stores on the Lower East Side because their kashrut standards were too low. The RaMaZ, however, demonstrated to him it was not difficult to state something was treif.

More important as a rabbi was to find opinions that would allow a certification of kashrut. “The more kosher products that can be provided,” the RaMaZ said, “the more kashrut will be observed.”

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Rabbi Haskel Lookstein has responded similarly to the pressing crisis of oppressed Jewry in his lifetime, the plight of Jews in the Soviet Union. The issue has never been one of denominational boundaries but of fulfilling the holy mission of pidyon sh’vu’im (redemption of captives). Always respectful during his acts of civil disobedience, Rabbi Lookstein, a leader of the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry, was frequently handcuffed along with Conservative and Reform rabbis in front of the Soviet Mission to the United Nations. He stressed the importance of protesting in a strong yet respectful manner. In the 1980s, with their principal leading them, Ramaz students were among the sturdiest foot soldiers for the cause of Soviet Jewry through their regular morning prayer vigils.

The activist tradition continues today. Rabbi Haskel Lookstein mobilizes community-wide protests against Israel’s enemies and marches proudly with his students and all Jews in joyous parades saluting the Jewish State. He raises awareness of the fate of captured Israeli prisoners of war held incommunicado

by Arab terrorists, keeping hopes alive that somehow and someday they will be freed. For five and a half years, from June 2006 through October 2011, KJ worshippers and Ramaz students were reminded weekly—on shul and school bulletin boards and through heartfelt prayers—how long Gilad Shalit had been held by Hamas in Gaza. Once again, Rabbi Lookstein was on the front lines of a critical social issue that demanded social activism and that knew no denominational lines.

— Jeffrey S. Gurock

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During the tumultuous social movements of the late 1960s and ’70s, when many Americans questioned authority, supported civil rights for African Americans and the cause of women’s liberation, protested the Vietnam War, and experimented with drugs and sexual mores, it became more important than ever before for Orthodox institutions to explain the relevance of Judaism in daily life. Rabbi Haskel Lookstein increasingly sharpened a concept he had spoken about for years at KJ and Ramaz— the idea of a true “Man of Torah” combining ethical sensitivity, Jewish activism, and piety, along with Torah learning. He called it menschlichkeit. This profound idea has been a guiding principle for the school and shul ever since.

Thus, in 1967, Ramaz students conducted a twenty-four-hour vigil for Soviet Jewry in front of the UN headquarters. Rabbi Lookstein’s four trips to the former Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s galvanized Ramaz into broader activities such as a student-inspired daily shacharit minyan in front of the Russian Mission. (In 1982, sixty-five students, along with Rabbi Lookstein and Ramaz teacher David Bernstein, were arrested on day twenty-four.) Today, menschlichkeit is expressed through activities such as daily food collections, work in soup kitchens, and activities with developmentally disabled youths, in addition to political activism.

In 1979, with the school’s 817 students all crammed into a single building now used only by the Lower School, the trustees spearheaded the raising of $10.5 million to purchase a site at 60 East Seventy-Eighth Street. The completed Morris and Ida Newman Educational Center was named the Rabbi Joseph H. Lookstein Upper School. Its namesake was present at the ground breaking, less than half a year before he died at age seventy-six. The striking seven-story aluminum-faced building was set among older surrounding structures on the street. It featured windows resembling the Ten Commandments and an intimate sanctuary that The New York Times described in a 1981 review as having “unusual grace.”

In the early 1980s, parents became more involved than ever before in school decision-making with the creation of the Liaison Committees. In meetings every six weeks at the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools, representatives of school administration and faculty meet with parents and take the pulse of the parent body. The notes of each meeting—concerning issues such as school nutrition, Lower School clothing uniforms, and academic trends—are distributed to all parents.

Out of the Ashes: The Fire at KJ At 8:30 PM on Monday evening, July 11, 2011, a four-alarm fire broke out inside Congregation Kehilath Jeshurun. Flames shot up forty feet in the air from the roof of the sanctuary as 170 firefighters battled the blaze. On Facebook and Twitter, members of the Ramaz and KJ community exchanged messages of concern. Emails flew as the news was reported on television and the Internet.

From all over New York City, supporters rushed to the scene so as not to feel alone. Hundreds stood on East Eighty-fth Street and watched with shock and sadness as the fire destroyed the roof, damaged the upper floors, shattered the stained-glass windows, and created thick black clouds of smoke.

By Tuesday morning, the New York Fire Department and KJ assessed the damage to the 110-year-old building. While considerable, it could have been far worse. Although only a few of the roof beams remained, the building itself was intact. Most important, of course, was that there was no loss of life. And, because the synagogue had been undergoing renovation, the Torah scrolls had previously been relocated.

Rabbi Haskel Lookstein estimated it would take at least a year to eighteen months before services could resume in the KJ building. Moreover, the Lower School building was beset by water damage caused in the aftermath of the fire, making it impossible to repair the damage by early September for the start of the new school year. Immediately, neighboring Reform and Conservative synagogues—Temple EmanuEl and Park Avenue Synagogue, among others—offered to host Early Childhood Center and Lower School students in a beautiful expression of achdut (unity) within the Jewish community.

Ramaz faculty and staff reacted with outstanding loyalty and optimism. Many ECC and Lower School teachers and administrators canceled their vacation plans. They worked tirelessly—often twelve-hour days—to make certain that school would open on time, albeit in alternate locations in different Upper East Side neighborhoods.

As she welcomed back the administration, faculty, and staff for the beginning of the 2011–12 year, Head of School Judith Fagin related a story about the great Israeli-American violinst Itzhak Perlman, as described by Jonathan Sacks, the Chief Rabbi of Great Britain, in his book To Heal a Fractured World.

Perlman came out on the stage at a concert to play a violin concerto. He lay down his crutches and placed the violin under his chin and began tuning the instrument when, with an audible crack, one of the strings broke. The audience expected him to request another string, but instead he signaled to the conductor to begin, and proceeded to play the concerto entirely on three strings. At the end of the performance, the audience gave him a standing ovation and called on him to speak. Reportedly, Perlman said, “Our task is to make music with what remains.”

Clearly, Perlman referred to more than a broken violin string. Throughout his life, he has not allowed setbacks to stand in his way. Likewise, through extraordinary dedication and hard work, the administration, faculty, and staff opened school on time on September 12 for all ECC and Lower School students. They made music with what remained.

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work on open-ended research projects in English, history, and science. Motivated students are encouraged to participate in the National History Day contest; Ramaz has had four national winners. Students may also participate in the Torah Bowl, competing against area yeshivot, and the Chidon HaTanach.

In the Upper School, the Ramaz Scholars program identifies rising ninth graders who demonstrate distinction in any one of a number of talent areas. Each is assigned faculty mentors for his or her high school years. The science research program, which also begins in ninth grade, is designed for students willing to commit to independent laboratory research and summer work at labs and universities. Seniors can shape their own topics as part of independent study and research, whether it’s creating an iPhone app, working on math theorems, or conducting research with faculty members. And the spring minicourses for seniors—there were 112 offerings in 2011—are stunning in their breadth, ranging from biblical criticism and the world through the eyes of midrash to the history of jazz, teen films based on Shakespeare, and the career of Robert Moses. In math, science, Talmud, and foreign language classes, students are grouped according to their strengths. History, English, and the Judaic Studies classes combine all students. Through this process, the school recognizes and nourishes every student’s individual skills and talents.

DANIÈLE GORLIN LASSNER “I know of many families over the years who became more observant because of their children’s attendance at Ramaz—many,” says Danièle Gorlin Lassner ’55. A member of an early Ramaz class numbering nineteen students, and an administrator and teacher from 1972 through 2007, she witnessed first-hand the spectacular growth of the school. As Dean of Admissions, Ms. Lassner met personally with a great majority of the prospective parents to both provide a vivid picture of Ramaz and get a sense of why they were interested in Ramaz for their children.

Parents sought out Ramaz, she recalls, because “the cachet of Ramaz was that it excelled in all areas, in modern Hebrew as well as in traditional texts. Everyone knew we offered a well-rounded education.” n Danièle Gorlin Lassner has been described as having a je ne sais quoi quality, the same adjective she uses to describe her beloved alma mater. In addition to serving as Dean of Admissions, Ms. Lassner also held the positions of Chair of Foreign Languages in the Upper School, Coordinator of Foreign Languages in the Middle School, and Teacher of French and Spanish in grades 7-12. Her many former students are fortunate to have benefited not only from her superior teaching skills but also her infectious joie de vivre. n Lynne Price Frenkel ’86 remembers that Ms. Lassner had “boundless energy” and that “she was dynamic and exciting. She actively engaged us and made us part of the learning process. To teach us verbs she or the students would act them out. I remember her walking to the door and saying, ‘Ouvrez la porte, fermez la porte’—open the door, close the door. From the very first day I entered her classroom, she had me at ‘Bonjour.’”

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Book Day at Ramaz Everyone in the school reading the same book—that’s a “novel” idea—or so it seemed in 2006 when Book Day was introduced to Ramaz Upper School. I conceived the program as a day for students and teachers to attend assemblies and workshops related to the subject of a selected book. It would also be an experience in which relevant Jewish perspectives were included. Its purpose? To enjoy and share the reading experience without the usual pressures of the classroom.

The first Book Day selection was Hiroshima by John Hersey, which describes in an understated tone the horrible effect of dropping the atomic bomb. The choice was particularly appropriate since it was the sixtieth anniversary of the book’s publication.

Sessions included presentations by U.S. veterans who had battled in the Far East, a Japanese American woman who had been imprisoned in an internment camp set up in the United States, and plastic surgeons who discussed operations to repair injuries caused by nuclear radiation. Topics discussed included the ethics of war, the role of Japanese diplomat Chiune Sugihara in saving Jews during the war despite the fact that his country was an ally of Germany, and modern warfare in Israel. Meanwhile, under the direction of the music teacher, students learned a Japanese folk song; in the art studio they worked on origami inspired by the true story of Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes, about a girl struck by radiation sickness after the United States dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Black Like Me, the 2008 selection, focused on the civil rights movement, especially notable because it was the fortieth anniversary of the assassination of the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. Students met with former New York Mayor David Dinkins; several 1960s-era civil rights activists; and Jack Greenberg, legal counsel to the NAACP who argued Brown v. Board of Education before the U.S. Supreme Court, ending the “separate but equal” basis for racial segregation. Again, from soul food to gospel singing, as well as poetry, film, and dance, the day included entertainment fare.

Recent Book Days have introduced videoconferencing, which allowed students in 2010 to communicate directly from their school on New York’s Upper East Side with William Kamkwamba, sitting in his own school in South Africa. Kamkwamba discussed his remarkable story, told in The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind.

Bryan Mealer, the book’s author, presented a PowerPoint lecture and stayed to enjoy the entire program. In 2011, students again used videoconferencing technology to interview Vikas Swarup, author of Q & A, on which the film Slumdog Millionaire is based, in his capacity as an Indian diplomat in Japan.

When an entire community reads the same book together, perceptions about different people and cultures are broadened and the literary experience is altered. The Ramaz administration has endorsed the program totally, even going so far as to purchase books for distribution to the entire school, including the support staff. The Manfred Lehman Great Minds for Young People endowment has supported the event.

It’s been very gratifying to hear students say it’s their favorite day of the year.

— Esther Nussbaum introduced Book Day at Ramaz Upper School in 2006, and for thirty years was the Upper School’s Head Librarian. She has a Masters in Library Service from Columbia University and an M.A. in English from New York University. Although retired, she continues to chair Book Day.

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Finding Nerve and Confidence through Ramaz Theater “If I only had the nerve.”

This famous Cowardly Lion phrase from The Wizard of Oz resonated with me from my youth, but it was the theater program at Ramaz that gave me the confidence.

I was a shy kid when I joined the school musicals in fifth grade and took a comfortable place on the backstage crew. A year later, director Gail Hadani nudged me into the limelight with small roles, but I was hardly a natural performer. “Stiff as wood” is what my friend’s father called me. But in the eighth grade, Gail cast me as Sky Masterson in Guys and Dolls. I was as nervous as ever, but the show was a success and people complimented me (though on the videos, all I saw was more stiffness).

Then came Upper School theater, under the direction of Caroll Goldberg, where I worked in productions such as Rags and Rumors. Indeed, it was Rumors that gave me a boost of self-confidence. To see how people reacted when I just let go and had fun was amazing and from then on, I was fearless.

Junior year, I played the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz. I interpreted the role differently from others, concluding she was not so much wicked as she was insecure and consumed with fears—a struggle I knew and lived. On stage that first night, clad in witch’s garb, I felt all the anxieties I imagined in my character. I received many compliments, but most importantly, I felt the satisfaction of knowing I had played the role the best that I could.

Later, Ms. Goldberg appointed me as assistant director for the fall musical. We held auditions, cast the show, and conducted rehearsals—and then we were told that due to a licensing complication we couldn’t do the show we had planned. I was devastated. How would we ever prepare for a new production before December? But we didn’t miss a beat. We immediately picked Beauty and the Beast and three days later, started rehearsals. I was so proud of the entire cast; they took it all in stride.

The highlight of my last term was Little Shop of Horrors. Dani Roth and I were chosen as the directors. We worked together for over four months, with less than a month for rehearsals. It was a huge undertaking, but we had an amazing group to work with us and we staged a fantastic production.

The theater program at Ramaz allowed me to develop one of the great passions in my life and gave me the confidence—and, yes, finally nerve.

— Jason Eisner ’11

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‫לשון עברית ברמ”ז— מבט חינוכי ואישי‬ ‫בשנת תשמ”ט‪ ,‬אחרי עשר שנות מגורים בישראל‪ ,‬בהן מלאתי תפקידים‬ ‫שונים במערכת החינוך שם‪ ,‬הוזמנתי להצטרף להנהלת ישיבת רמ”ז‪,‬‬ ‫בית הספר שבו הייתי תלמידה בשנים תשי”ח – תשכ”ט‪ ,‬ואני גאה להיות אחת‬ ‫מבוגרותיו‪.‬‬ ‫אחת מאבני היסוד של רמ”ז‪ ,‬היתה הוראת לימודי‪-‬יהדות בשפה העברית‪.‬‬ ‫לא זו בלבד‪ ,‬גם שפת התקשורת בין המורים לתלמידים‪ ,‬היתה עברית –‬ ‫לא רק בכתה‪ ,‬בתהליך ההוראה‪ ,‬אלא גם בשיחות – חולין היתה עברית‬ ‫השפה השלטת‪ .‬עד היום‪ ,‬כשאני נזכרת במוריי‪ ,‬אני “שומעת” אותם מדברים‬ ‫אלי בעברית‪.‬‬ ‫בשובי‪ ,‬הפעם כחברת הנהלה‪ ,‬נדהמתי והתאכזבתי לשמוע את אותם המורים‬ ‫מדברים עם תלמידים באנגלית‪.‬‬ ‫שנות לימודי ברמ”ז היוו תקופה אחרת בחינוך היהודי‪ ,‬בארה”ב בכלל וברמ”ז‬ ‫בפרט‪ .‬השפה העברית לא היתה שפה “שניה”‪ ,‬היא היתה חלק בלתי נפרד‬ ‫מחיי יום‪-‬יום‪ ,‬חמישים אחוז (ויותר) מן הזמן ששהינו בביה”ס דברנו עברית‪.‬‬ ‫אנגלית‪ ,‬שפת האם שלנו‪ ,‬היתה בסך הכל “ראשונה בין שווים”‪.‬‬ ‫עד כתה ו’ קראנו ודברנו עברית בהברה אשכנזית‪ ,‬ואני מציינת בתודה עובדה‬ ‫זאת‪ .‬הברה זאת היא אשר עזרה (ועוזרת) לי לנקד נכונה טכסט עברי בלא‬ ‫שאצטרך להזדקק לכללי דקדוק יבשים שקשה ליישמם בפועל‪.‬‬ ‫אני יודעת להבחין בין פתח לקמץ‪ ,‬בין אות דגושה לאות רפה‪ ,‬וכמו כן להטות‬ ‫פעלים ולנתחם‪ .‬לתלמידים בישראל חסרות מיומנויות אלה‪ ,‬וחבל‪.‬‬ ‫מכתה ו’ ומעלה עברנו למבטא המקובל בישראל – “המבטא הספרדי”‪.‬‬ ‫מעבר זה לא היה טכני בלבד‪ ,‬הוא הביע והפגין את הזדהותנו עם מדינת‬ ‫ישראל והרעיון הציוני‪.‬‬ ‫מורי בבית הספר היסודי‪ ,‬היו בוגרי החינוך היהודי אמריקאי‪ ,‬ומורי בתיכון – משכילים‬ ‫וישראלים‪ .‬המורים כולם‪ ,‬ללא יוצא מן הכלל‪ ,‬דברו עברית רהוטה‪ ,‬נכונה ומדויקת‪.‬‬ ‫תוכנית הלימודים שילבה בתוכה את שפת התנ”ך‪ ,‬ספרות ימי הביניים‪ ,‬ספרות‬ ‫ההשכלה והספרות החדשה‪ .‬כך למדנו להתמודד עם טכסטים עבריים‬ ‫מתקופות שונות‪ .‬למדנו קטעי תלמוד בארמית וידענו לתרגם אותם לעברית‪ ,‬גם למדנו‬ ‫את העברית של פרשני המקרא לתקופותיהם‪.‬‬ ‫הדגש שהושם ברמ”ז על העברית מהווה נכס ותשתית לגיבוש הערכים שבהם‬ ‫דוגלת ההנהלה‪ :‬אחדות העם‪ ,‬הכשרה להתמודד עם מקורות מורשתנו‪ ,‬עידוד‬ ‫והכשרה לעליה ולהתישבות במדינת ישראל והשתלבות בחייה האזרחיים‪.‬‬ ‫ההכשרה שקבלנו ברמ”ז‪ ,‬הן בידיעת הלשון‪ ,‬והן במקורות תרבותנו‪ ,‬תוכל‬ ‫לשמש כאידיאל ערכי לרמ”ז של ימינו ולחינוך היהודי בישראל ובתפוצות‪.‬‬ ‫‪— Beverly Gribetz ’69, a former Assistant Dean of the Upper School and Headmistress of the Ramaz‬‬ ‫‪Junior High School, is principal of Tehilla-Evelina de Rothschild Secondary School for Religious Girls‬‬ ‫‪in Jerusalem. She was graduated from Barnard College and earned her M.A. from Harvard Graduate‬‬ ‫‪School of Education, and her Ph.D. from Graduate School of the Jewish Theological Seminary.‬‬

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Natan Sharansky

“Until I touched his hand, I could not

“Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds” (Vayikra 19:16).

believe that he was really there. Even

No other Jewish figure so powerfully represents the commitment of Ramaz and its students to activism, involvement, and the mitzvah of “Do not stand idly by while your neighbor bleeds” as does Natan Sharansky.

From 1977 until 1986, while he was incarcerated in Russia, he was the object of rallies, prayers, letters, and every conceivable form of activism on the part of Ramaz students.

it was true. Natan Sharansky was the

when I saw him, touched him, heard him, and logic told me that ‘yes, he is free,’ my emotions would not let me believe victim, the person we were fighting for.

Now, he is one of the fighters.”

— Jessica Cohen ’89

Natan Sharansky established his first link with Ramaz when Audrey and I met him in September 1975, on the night of Shemini Atzeret, in Moscow at the home of Vladimir Anatoly Sharansky speaks at KJ after his release in 1986.

Slepak. A lifelong friendship began that night that continues even up to today. Eighteen months later, Dr. Noam Shudofsky and his son, Binyamin ’75, were among the last American Jews to visit with him prior to his incarceration in the Gulag in March 1977.

Throughout his imprisonment, Ramaz students actively worked for Sharansky’s release and supported his wife, Avital, who traveled the world on her husband’s behalf. They held a daily public shacharit minyan for three months in the fall of 1985 on Lexington Avenue and East Sixty-Seventh Street in solidarity with his plight and in support of his hunger strike. At the first such service, seventy-five were arrested with me and Dr. Shudofsky on East Sixty-Seventh Street across from the Soviet mission to the United Nations.

They also wrote letters and attended Solidarity Sundays and other specific rallies in his behalf.

When Sharansky was released in February 1986 and came to the United States two months later for one of the biggest Solidarity Sundays ever, dozens of Ramaz students boarded buses at 5 a.m. to greet him at JFK Airport. During his short visit in the United States, he came to the main synagogue of KJ, where the entire student body assembled to greet him. He occupied the chair that had been set aside for him on the bimah of KJ every Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in the hope he would someday be able to sit in it. That day, he did—to the thunderous applause of over one thousand Ramaz students.

Today, Sharansky is chairman of the Jewish Agency. He has served as a minister in two Israeli governments and resigned from both on principle. He is a hero in our eyes not only because he behaved heroically in the Gulag but also because he is unique in being prepared to give up the power and the amenities of a government minister in order to defend a principle in which he fervently believes.

In the annals of the history of our school, he remains the symbol of our commitment to stand up for any Jew who is oppressed or in danger.

His life story is the embodiment of Ramaz’s commitment to the ideal that we are our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers.

— Haskel Lookstein

Anatoly Sharansky celebrates his freedom with Binyamin Netanyahu, then Israeli ambassador to the United Nations, and Rabbi Haskel Lookstein after his release in 1986.

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h

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r

a

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s

c

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Editor…………………....Leora Tanenbaum Editorial Board Chair……....Esther Kremer Editorial Board Rabbi Joshua S. Bakst Caryl Englander Judith H. Fagin Jeffrey S. Gurock ’67 Edith Lazaros Honig Esther Kremer ’91 Mara Lassner Seth Lipsky Rabbi Haskel Lookstein ’49 Judi Resnick Kenneth Rochlin ’86 Leora Tanenbaum ’87

Special Thanks Ramaz expresses a special thank you to Dr. Jeffrey Gurock for bringing to this book his deep understanding of Jewish education in New York in general and his detailed knowledge of Ramaz in particular.

The Ramaz School would also like to thank Rachel Rabhan for the generous use of her photographs that appear in this book.

Copyright © 2012 by the Ramaz School

114 East 85th Street New York City, New York 10028 212.774.8055 www.ramaz.org All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without permission in writing from the Ramaz School, New York City, New York.

Book Development by Bookhouse Group, Inc. Atlanta, Georgia www.bookhouse.net

Remember When…

If you see yourself or a familiar face in any of the photos in this book of memories and history, please share your recollections by emailing 75Years@ramaz.org. We regret that we could not publish many more of the wonderful photos and stories of the past seventy-five years.

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