The Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy of Rockland: One Year Later

At the end of last summer, educators from the Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy of Rockland, or ASHAR, were running around like mad, having only one week to move from Monsey to New City. They were stacking up boxes in the gym, setting up classrooms, and hanging up decorations. The purchasers of the old building did not give them the money until the very last minute, and the staff was in a state of panic. The school even had to open one day later than planned.

This summer, ASHAR is holding a camp in which children can come to the school, learn to speak Hebrew, play and have fun. Last Friday, all of the counselors came to camp dressed up as either doctors or cowboys.

It’s clear that things have slowed down for the better at ASHAR. With the school having one successful year under its belt, the staff and students alike are looking forward to progressing into their second year with ease.

“Last year was a great year,” said Dr. Wallace Green, managing director of ASHAR. “The kids loved being in this beautiful new building.”

In the new facility, located on New Hempstead Road, ASHAR has access to the athletic field, a much larger gym, science labs, a larger library, an arts studio and many other amenities that were unavailable in the Monsey school.

Also new to ASHAR this year was an after school robotics club and a new stock markets club, that could be conducted in the computer room.

Yet while new features have been laden unto ASHAR, not much about the school has fundamentally changed since it was first founded 60 years ago.

The school was first founded in 1953, when the early pioneers of the modern orthodox Jewish community in Rockland decided they needed a school for children. At the time, the only school available was Hassidic, and the modern orthodox community was uninterested in that.

So, the pioneers founded the Hebrew Institute of Rockland County, or HiRock, which later became the Adolph Schreiber Hebrew Academy of Rockland after Mr. Schreiber contributed significant donations.

After over half a century in the same building in Monsey, the ASHAR community felt that it was time to look for a new facility.

“Over the years they’d added on a piece here, a piece there, and it didn’t have the sense of one building. There was also a fire a couple of years ago, so they had to rebuild a part of the building. It was time to move,” Greene said.

At the same time, Reuben Gittleman Hebrew Day School was on the path to closing down, as they were unable to sustain their enrollment. After forty years, Gittleman shut down, leaving room for ASHAR.  

Greene attributes the closing of Gittleman with the changing community of Rockland.

“The community itself has become much more to the right religiously,” Greene said.

With 91,300 Jewish residents, Rockland County has the highest percentage of Jews in the nation. 31.4 percent of Rockland County residents are Jewish.

According to Greene, this large population is largely made up of the ultra-orthodox. American and Rockland Jews alike are showing a pattern of either becoming more reformed, or more orthodox.

“I think the people moving into the community now are more to the right, whether they’re Hassidic, or yeshiva oriented,” Greene said.

The modern orthodox community is relatively small, and spread throughout parts of Suffern and Pomona, with few left in Monsey. New City does not yet have a substantial orthodox community.

This creates a problem for Jewish day schools, in that for many families, ASHAR is too religious, and for others, it’s not religious enough.

“We’re caught right in the middle,” Green said.

What separates ASHAR from the Hassidic schools is a commitment to the Hebrew language, the state of Israel, and a top-notch secular education.

“So those things are still in place, but it’s attracting a more right wing crowd. The school still runs along the principals on which it was founded. Clientele has changed.”

Yet despite religious conflicts, ASHAR has a sizeable student body. Last year, ASHAR was comprised on 380 students from pre-k to eighth grade. Forty-five eighth graders made up the graduating class.

This large number is difficult to maintain though, for religious and economic reasons.

“We try everything that we possibly can to get families to come in. We try publicity, we’re on the radio, the newspapers, but the most important driver of enrollment is word of mouth. If people are happy, they’ll tell their friends, that’s how we get kids,” Greene said.

One way ASHAR hopes to get their name better known is by holding a concert on September 22 at Boulders stadium for the community. The school is expecting several thousand in attendance.

“It’s a fun event, but it’s also for publicity. It will get our name out,” Greene said.

Yet no matter how well known ASHAR could ever be, financial costs continue to make a private school education a luxury that many are unable to afford. Perhaps the biggest challenge for Greene is fiscally helping families.

Tuition at ASHAR is certainly costly, with Pre-K costing $10,800, Kindergarten costing $12,400, grades one through four costing $13,700 and five through eight costing $14,700.

“In today’s economy, there are a lot of families who simply cannot afford tuition,” Green said.

Green has also found that in addition to unemployment and lower salaries being an issue, there are more divorces than ever, and a lot of single-parent families are struggling to get by.

While the school receives some donations for the scholarship fund, the majority of the money comes from the schools itself.

ASHAR has to raise a great deal of money every year, as government funding is kept to a minimum for private elementary schools.

“We have to watch every dollar, and it’s hard to raise money in this economy. And parents unfortunately just don’t have it,” Greene said.

Despite monetary challenges, ASHAR has managed to maintain their yeshiva to the highest degree.

“We pride ourselves in putting out well rounded kids. Good American citizens, strong knowledge of Jewish heritage, can’t ask for more than that,” Green said.

The school day at ASHAR is split in half, with Judaic studies in the morning, and general studies in the afternoon.

Local and state administrators regularly come to ASHAR to make sure they are following New York State education guidelines, and always come away impressed with the level of learning and teaching.

From the preschoolers learning two languages, to the eighth graders taking the high school regents in math and Hebrew, ASHAR students are known to exceed.

Greene believes the students to be highly advanced, as they are able to seamlessly handle a double curriculum. Additionally, he deems Judaic studies beneficial in a child’s development.

“If you ask many prominent attorneys or physicians who were yeshiva students, they’ll tell you that their study of the Talmud helped sharpen their minds,” Greene said.

In the future, Greene hopes to continue the ASHAR legacy of excellence, and foresees a more religious clientele.

“The attitude reflects the attitude of the people that come. So if the people that come demand a higher level of religious observance in the school, that’s what you’re going to get,” Greene said.

Greene also hopes for ASHAR to grow, and is confident that it will do so.

“Hopefully the building will be too small for us. Hopefully we’ll expand maybe into a high school. It all depends on enrollment. If we’re successful and keep doing what we’re dong, then the numbers will go up.”