History
Sixty-one years ago, five dedicated community leaders recognized the need for a community Jewish Day School that would blend a top notch general studies education with the timeless teaching of Torah study. Less than a year later, the “Founding Five” – Abraham and Donald Butler, Rabbi Baruch Poupko, Adolph Schoenbrun and Rabbi Joseph Shapiro incorporated Hillel Academy, the first day school in North America to use that name.
The first class of students was comprised of 17 boys and one girl. The automobile showrooms in the Morrowfield Apartments were their beginning classrooms. When the booming student population had outgrown their home donated by David and Esther Horvitz, the community came together and raised enough money to purchase a larger building. Their new home was the former Ellis School on Ellsworth Avenue. By 1959 a larger facility was needed for a thriving student population. A building fund campaign was initiated, and with vital support from Harry and Pearl Morris and Saul and Miriam Fineberg (who mortgaged their homes), the community responded in kind.
Frank and Marlene Rice were asked by Harry Morris to purchase property on Beacon Street, where the school remains today. Thus a bridge was built connecting the essential values of Torah, to up-to-the date innovations in secular education. Hillel’s mission was, then as now, to produce responsible graduates who would contribute to the betterment of the Jewish community and world.
In the past four decades, Hillel Academy has grown to offer an exceptionally strong foundation in Judaic studies as well as a comprehensive program in English, Math, Science, and Social Studies/History. Taught by an exceptional staff of teachers and professionals, our students excel academically. Over the years, they have consistently scored amongst the highest in standardized tests (SAT and ACT) and have won major scholastic awards, both nationally and internationally.
As Hillel moves forward, we employ innovative means to build on our strong Judaic and General Studies foundation. Our very successful Middos program, promoting the application of Torah values in everyday life, is a growing part of the curriculum. And for the first time ever, high school students will experience firsthand the Israel they’ve come to love through their studies by taking an educational trip underwritten in part through the community’s generosity.
Additional examples of our innovative approach to education include the Gam Chai (community volunteer) program and La’Briyut (health) project. The girl’s high school annually requires 18 hours of volunteer community service from each student. This program has generated tremendous excitement with hands-on projects like the creation of hats for children with cancer – which were delivered to patients at Children’s Hospital and in Israel during the high school trip. By their own choice, Gam Chai participants greatly exceed the required number of volunteer hours. And through a grant made possible from the Jewish Healthcare Foundation, a pilot program that promotes healthy lifestyle was initiated this year in the elementary grades. The La’Briyut project has invigorated the student body with presentations and discussions on a variety of topics including nutrition and exercise and incentives like complimentary water bottles, T-shirts and pedometers.
From providing computer-based learning, to teaching critical thinking skills, we are preparing our children for a world that is changing daily. Most importantly, we are instilling in them the ancient values of Torah that have sustained the Jewish people for centuries. All of our graduates attend yeshivot and seminaries and/or college, with a great percentage accepted by Ivy League schools. Our alumni are among the most active members of their Jewish communities, serving as rabbis, lay professionals and Jewish activists.
Hillel Academy is a beacon: we provide our students with high moral and ethical standards and an exceptional foundation in secular and Judaic studies, so they can carry on our traditions into the next generation.