Jewish Education and Culture
2. Beit
Tsindlikht, a Chabad-operated
year-round preschool, is currently in its sixth year of operation in
attractive, newly renovated premises – a two-story rectangular building - near
the center of the city. Its rooms are spacious and well-equipped, and its
grounds include a variety of play apparatus. Highly regarded in
Dnipropetrovsk, the preschool currently enrolls 150 children between the ages
of 2½ and six in space intended for 140.
The
preschool is operating “at the very limits” of available space, said Yudit
Baram, the highly respected principal. A plan to open a branch on the east
bank of the Dnipr River in space controlled by another Chabad institution
collapsed when Chabad refused to pay bribes in return for city operating
permits. At least 25 families in that part of the city had already expressed
interest in such a branch location, said Mrs. Baram, and she is certain that
other families would have come forward as soon as Chabad had declared that it
would open.
Beit Tsindlikht pupils are
divided among six groups according to age. Two of these groups, with a total
of 50 children, constitute a heder with an enhanced Hebrew-language
program taught by Israeli teachers. About 90 percent of the heder children are
from Chabad families, most of whom are from Israel; their parents work in
various Chabad programs in the city.
Children in one of the heder groups gather for circle time
at Beit Tsindlicht. Pre-schoolers in the back are carrying chairs forward to
join the group.
Photo:
the writer.
Ninety-five
percent of all pupils at Beit Tsindlikht are halachically Jewish; the remaining
five percent are from intermarried families who have a strong relationship with
the Chabad community. Most families pay approximately $44 monthly in tuition fees, said
Mrs. Baram, but about ten youngsters are enrolled at $20 monthly, and another
six or seven families pay nothing at all. The program is full-day and includes
both breakfast and lunch.
The
overwhelming majority of Beit Tsindlicht pupils, perhaps 95 percent, con-tinue
their education at school #144 (see below), many of them in the machon or
yeshiva sections of the school, Mrs. Baram stated. The remaining five percent
enter other schools, usually because their families have some connection with
such schools as teachers or administrators, said Mrs. Baram. However,
notwithstanding these con-nections, such youngsters often transfer to school
#144 after a year or two in the non-Jewish school.
Yudit Baram, right, is the Israeli principal of Beit
Tsindlicht.
Photo:
the writer (in 2010),
Beit Tsindlicht, stated Mrs. Baram, employs a staff
of 18 teachers, eleven of whom are graduates of Beit Chana. (Most of the remaining
seven teachers completed pedagogical training in Israel.) Additionally,
continued Mrs. Baram, another two or three teachers also are completing
bachelor’s degrees (after earning a teaching certificate) or master’s degrees
at Beit Chana on a part-time basis. Beit Tsindlicht cooperates very closely
with Beit Chana, she added, noting that some Beit Chana students do their
practice teaching at Beit Tsindlicht.
Mrs. Baram noted with pride that Beit Tsindlicht sends a letter
home with each child every Friday. Tailored to the age group in which the
child is en-rolled, the two-page letter describes the theme of the week (such
as the beginning of spring), progress in both Russian and Hebrew reading
readiness (which alphabet letters were studied, new words), English words
taught, arith-metic lessons, and lessons on the Torah portion of the week.
Announce-ments may be made about forthcoming events.
Another Chabad early childhood program in the city,
Ilana (named after a child who died), operates in another building in a
different part of Dnipropetrovsk. Ilana is a daycare center, currently
enrolling 35 youngsters between the ages of one and three years.
3. School #144,
which bears the formal name of Levi Yitzhak Schneerson Ohr Avner Jewish Day
School, occupies a three-building campus used as a boarding school during
the Soviet period. The main building houses 235 youngsters in grades one
through eleven in a general curriculum with a modest Jewish studies program.
(See below.) Another 168 pupils are enrolled in more intensive Chabad
religious programs, evenly divided between a yeshiva katana for boys in a
second building and a machon for girls in a third building. (See below.)
The main building of School 144 is seen at left. The
girls’ machon is behind this building and the boys’ yeshiva katana is to the
left of the pictured building.
Photo: Chabad of Dnipropetrovsk.
At its peak census in the late 1990’s, the school
enrolled close to 700 youngsters, most in the general program. At that time, it
was the largest Jewish day school in all of the post-Soviet states and one of
the largest in all of Europe. Both the total number of pupils (503) and the
number of youngsters in the secular program have been decreasing over the years
at the same time that both the raw number and proportion of pupils in the more
intensive religious sections has been increasing. The growth of the Chabad
religious programs reflects the increasing Chabad population in the city,
whereas the decreasing enrollment in the general program reflects both Jewish
demographic losses and a perception that the general studies program is
inferior to that in many other city schools.
The writer spoke with Principal
Mikhail Gugel, a newcomer to the school during the current academic year. Prior
to coming to School #144, Mr. Gugel taught in other schools for 15 years and
then taught in several different colleges, including a pedagogical college. He
is a native of Dnipropetrovsk and, he said, he “knows everyone” in the city.
His major objective, he continued, is to improve the quality of
secular studies in the school; such improvement is critical to attraction
of new families and retention of current pupils. School #144 must be
competitive with the best secular public schools.
Mikhail Gugel is new to School #144 this year. He has
had many years of experience in Dnipropetrovsk public schools and in local
universities and colleges. Mr. Gugel’s parents live in Israel.
Photo: the
writer.
Pupils have only six class hours of Judaic
instruction each week, three of which are in Hebrew language instruction
and three of which are in Jewish tradition. Additional hours of Jewish studies
would impinge upon the quality of secular studies offered by School #144, Mr.
Gugel said. In addition to formal Jewish education, the school also observes
all Jewish and Israeli holidays. Shabbatonim are available to some grades
through funding from the Avi Chai Foundation.
Responding to the writer’s questions about Jewish
demography and enrollment, Mr. Gugel said that all pupils in the school
this year are halachically Jewish, but some are from intermarried families.
Intermarried families predominate among self-identified Jews in the city, he
continued, although some such families are halachically Jewish because the
mother is Jewish. School #144 has sustained some enrollment loss in the upper
grades, said Mr. Gugel, because a large number of adolescent pupils have gone
to Israel on the Na’aleh high school in Israel program. Given available space
in the main building and the number of teachers employed by the school, School
#144 probably could absorb about 500 pupils, instead of the 235 currently
enrolled, said Mr. Gugel in answer to a question.
The sister-city program linking Dnipropetrovsk and
Boston has been helpful to School #144, said Mr. Gugel. The Boston Jewish
federation (Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston) provides training
for School #144 English teachers, and CJP also supports a winter camp in which
Boston and Haifa teens joined their Dnipropetrovsk counterparts for a week of
informal education. Having observed the winter camp in February, Mr. Gugel said
that the camp program should consider the inclusion of additional education
components, for example, Jewish history of Ukraine.
In response to a question, Mr. Gugel said that the greatest
material need of the school was additional technical equipment and supplies
for instruction in science. Instruction in foreign languages, he added, would
be significantly improved if the school had headphones with which to equip a
language laboratory.
Replying to another query, Mr. Gugel estimated that 85
percent of pupil families have computers at home, almost all of which
are connected to the Internet. Those without computers, he continued, are
permitted to use computers at School #144. It also is likely, he stated, that
parents without home computers use workplace computers for personal matters
and/or visit Internet cafes. School #144 is increasing its exploitation of
computers for communication with patents and is encouraging teachers to post
homework assignments on the school Internet site.
While visiting School #144,
the writer observed a ceremony held in the auditorium of the yeshiva katana in
which awards were presented to winners of an ORT school robotics contest that
was held in the computer laboratories of School #144, which is affiliated with
ORT. Contestants from ORT schools in 12 cities across the post-Soviet states
had been brought to Dnipropetrovsk for a four-day competition in robotics
design and operation, as well as local sightseeing. Schools were permitted to
enter two two-person teams, one of pupils in 5th through 7th grade and the
other of pupils in 8th through 11th grade.
Awardees in the ORT robotics competition pose with
their certificates and prizes; the latter included cameras and flash drives.
Some participates came from as far away as Bishkek,
Kyrgyzstan.
Photo: the
writer.
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