Hillel Children’s School at Yale Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Published: July 17, 2009

Students at the Hillel Children’s School at Yale learn Jewish prayers, traditions and history. The school was founded after Israel’s victory over Egypt, Jordan and Syria during the Six Day War of 1967.

New Haven, Conn. — The Hillel Children's School at Yale may offer specific lessons on such topics as the meaning of the Sabbath or how to read a Hebrew prayer, but the most important thing it aims to teach its students is what it means to be Jewish.

The school, which celebrated its 40th anniversary this year, was founded in the wake of Israel's victory over Egypt, Jordan and Syria during the Six Day War of 1967- an event that is widely acknowledged as having had a "transformative" impact on attitudes toward Israel and Jewish self-perception.

Jewish faculty members who had never identified with the Jewish community "came out of walls," eager to give their children the background they lacked, recalled Dr. Sherwin Nuland at the celebration marking the Hillel School's anniversary.

"I and seven or eight others met to create the school," said Nuland, clinical professor of surgery and author of the National Award-winning "How We Die," the just-published "The Soul of Medicine" and other volumes.

It took almost two years of long, lively, philosophic discussions to bring the project to fruition, noted Nuland, because they had to figure out, first, what they wanted to accomplish and, then, how to best do it.

Initially, the curriculum was non-religious. "It wasn't about God," said Nuland, adding that the emphasis was on cultural traditions and history.

New Haven psychologist Dr. Robert Horwitz and his wife, Carla, director of Calvin Hill Day Care Center, sent their daughters to the Hillel School. He was president of the school's Parents Council for 12 years, and said his involvement over that time caused him to think deeply about what it means to be Jewish and what an ideal school should be.

"For most of the parents who choose to send their children to the school," he said, "the most important goal is to promote a positive Jewish-American identity and to have the experience be fun. There are endless debates about how much emphasis to place on Hebrew, on ritual and tradition, on Israel, on Jewish values, but there is also a healthy awareness that in a diverse community you can't please all the people all the time."

Today, the Hillel Children's School teaches prayers along with traditions, but unlike Jewish schools across the United States, it isn't affiliated with a synagogue or associated with any single denomination within Judaism.

On Sundays, when Yale is in session, school begins with a short morning worship service at Slifka, then classes meet down the street in Harkness Hall. The curriculum emphasizes Jewish holidays and history, Bible, modern Israel, Hebrew, ethics, community service, and "tzedakah" (a word that means both "justice" and "charity") — all designed to help the children appreciate their heritage. Students range in age from six to 13, and graduation is a group bar/bat mitzvah ceremony in Battell Chapel.

"The treasure of this school, besides our diversity, is our teachers," added Traci Hodes, past president and mother of three of the school's students. "The children have young adults to identify with. They inspire our children."

The teachers — all Yale students — come from a wide range of backgrounds: Orthodox, Conservative, Reform, Reconstructionist, even secular. Some are Israeli.

"We look for a certain playfulness in our teachers," said Elana Ponet, principal of the school. "They are all committed Jewishly, and interact with the children on multiple levels. We look for teachers who are creative, enthusiastic and warm. We want the kids to love coming to school."

Ponet has headed the school since 1993. She came to Yale in 1981 with her husband, Rabbi James Ponet, the Howard M. Holtzmann Jewish Chaplain and head of Joseph Slifka Center for Jewish Life at Yale. He had been an undergraduate in Yale College the year the school first opened.

Current students of the Hillel School include the children of Yale faculty and staff and members of the non-Yale community.

"I'd say, the beauty of the Hillel Children's School is that its intimate, relaxed environment is comfortable for Jewish families of all backgrounds," said Beth Weinberger, incoming Parents Council president and mother of 10-year-old Simon, who has been a student at the Hillel Children's School for two years. "My son, however, would probably say that the best thing about the school is how cool the teachers are."

There are still openings for children in grades 1-5 for the school year beginning in September. For further information, contact Elana Ponet at (203) 432-8529 or elana.ponet@yale.edu. More information about the school can be found at www.slifkacenter.org/faculty-community/hillel-childrens.

— By Gila Reinstein

PRESS CONTACT: Gila Reinstein 203-432-1325