IMAGE Magazine reported in August that the nation’s first Jewish-themed, taxpayer-funded, charter school was set to open in Hollywood, Florida: The Ben Gamla Charter School, named after Rabbi Joshua Ben Gamla, a first-century rabbi who lived in ancient Israel and is credited with establishing the concept of public education.
IMAGE Publisher Ben-Gurion Matsas recently visited the school to see how it was doing several months after it opened. He had a chance to sit down with the school’s director, Orthodox Rabbi Adam Siegel.
Rabbi Siegel said that after a bumpy start, the school is now doing very well. Each day, the school offers one hour of instruction in Hebrew language and one hour of studies in Jewish history, in addition to English studies.
“In class, students learn Hebrew, Jewish culture and Jewish history,” said Rabbi Siegel. There is a special after school program, run independently by the local JCC, from 2 pm to 6 pm, where children learn about the Jewish holidays, religion, Jewish law and how to pray. The fee for the after school program is $130 a month, per child. The after school program is optional. Not all children attend.
A parent in Hallandale, Tzipora Nurieli, has all three of her children attending Ben Gamla. “I was supposed to send them to Hillel in North Miami Beach, but this school is the most amazing miracle that’s ever happened,” she raved. “It’s a combination of teaching my kids Hebrew, but also taking advantage of the public school system. This is like having the best of both worlds.”
Supporters of the school say it could serve as a model for providing families with a financially accessible option, at a time when the overwhelming majority of households are finding private school tuition an excessive financial burden.
“Ben Gamla is licensed to have 600 students, but because of space restrictions there can only be 430 at the moment. There are three more schools just like Ben Gamla in the planning stages in South Florida and most likely other Jewish communities in the US will take advantage of the same system, using government funds to teach our children.
In December 1998, the New York State Charter Schools Act allowed the creation of independent public schools. These schools can be created by educators, parents, community leaders, philanthropists and nonprofit organizations and are governed by a not-for-profit board of trustees.
There are currently 62 charter schools in the NYC area, including 19 in Brooklyn. The Khalil Gibran International Academy, in Brooklyn, is an Arabic school which caused a lot of controversy when it opened.
