Save Hillel

An anonymous person writes in:

There is an ad in today’s Miami Herald for the following teacher positions at Hillel:

High School: Biology, Math, History
Middle School: Science, Social Studies
Elementary & Pre-School

Have we lost more teachers? Does anyone know if any teachers have quit lately?

Keith Brooks, an ‘83 Hillel alum (I assume that was when Hillel only offered classes through 8th grade?), writes in:

As an early alumni(1983), pre-Jewish High School takeover, based on the postings in this site and the other one, I am at a loss to understand your perspective or even what the issue is beyond the norm of most institutions or even businesses.

You are upset because some teachers were let go and I totally understand it, although no one has said why they were let go? Salary, tenure, attitude, revolution? I read some teachers replies and am not surprised at how the school deals with them, businesses are much worse I have found.

And the administration, to be honest, was NOT great under Dr. Levy, at least when I was in school. But then perhaps we prefer the previous regime over the new ones. Is this one such an ogre? Deaf to parents ears, I think I have heard that about every school since I was a little kid.

Avi frier’s article shed no light on why the tumult at Hillel either and I know Avi and usually enjoy his writings.

Is the school becoming too religious or too secular? Is it trying to grow or trying to stop from shrinking (which might mean closing at some point)? Admittedly little info reached me while I was overseas or out of state and even this set of events only reached me this week.

It’s a shame to see a good school go down for a little while, most businesses suffer downtimes, but then I have seen what became of NMB also and pondered how long Hillel could stay there and be viable.

So those out there that fight the good fight, you can enlighten me perhaps?

The long-awaited article by Avi Frier has been published.

A grassroots campaign aimed at changing the direction of the Hillel Community Day School in North Miami Beach ended last week in what many considered to be a landslide defeat of the group dubbed “Hillel4Change.” The slate of officers originally proposed by the school’s Nominating Committee garnered an estimated 65% of the school membership’s vote to beat the slate of nine challengers, which comprised five current and two former Hillel parents, a former Hillel teacher, and a 2003 Hillel alumnus.

To read the remainder of the article, click here.

Shlomo Bolts writes in:

It took me a long while to get around to posting this. At first, I was too devastated by our defeat to post anything cogent. Then, I wanted to withdraw from the situation entirely, because it was too much for me—and then, I realized that for me to withdraw would be (perhaps!) exactly what the Board wanted.

True, we suffered a serious defeat last Wednesday. We could have gone home in a position of equal power with the Board, but instead we ended the day far from it. But one crushing electoral defeat should not obscure all the progress we have made. We went from 0% of the votes to 30% in less than a month. We showed that a substantial portion of the school shares our views.

We also have a lot more power than you think. Because it takes 50 families to call an open Board meeting, we have effective veto power over major decisions. As a result of our campaigning, we could easily get fifty. The Board knows this, and knows that if next April is like last April, they will be in for some awkward questions. The Board further knows that if it does something to catalyze another groundswell of opposition, it could lose the next election.

In the meantime, we need to remember that Hillel is a school—not a political battlefield. The voters have spoken. The election was decisive. A vast majority like the direction that (they think?) the school is going. We are a minority. So what are we going to do? Will we destroy Hillel in frustration?

Maybe that is an option if you don’t truly care about the school. You heard me. When I say I care about the school, I mean I care not only about my former teachers, but also about the many friends I still have in the school. But maybe I’m different from other people here. At times, some people here seem to be clawing in vain against the march of time, desperate to preserve some theoretical Hillel in their memories. Let me tell you, you are sacrificing real people, good friends of mine, for a Hillel that is long gone. Time passes, and Hillel must change with the times.

The election, to me at least, was not about whether or not Hillel changes. Rather, it was about whether or not Hillel changes against the vociferous opposition of a vast majority of CURRENT stakeholders. It is about whether CURRENT Hillel parents will get a say as the school drastically changes direction. I honestly believe that if most people knew the full implications of their vote, the alternate slate would have won. So, we need to educate parents. An educated individual won’t BUY propaganda. The relative ease with which the Board can get out information is less important when the timescale is months, not weeks. The Board knows this.

In the meantime, we need to stop some of the ugliest practices of this website. The calls for Holden to get the axe have to stop; we don’t need Holden to resign, we just need him to work by consensus. Besides, the Board should be our top priority now. Also, the borderline racism has to stop. We do not a need JEWISH administrators (a reverse-antisemitic notion). We need administrators that RESPECT JEWISH VALUES. The Board did not win because of a changeable, slobbering mass of “MANY MANY LATINS” that are easily fooled. Leave that sort of nativism to the Minutemen. It COULD be that the new influx of Latinos wants something legitimately different. They have a full right to that. Our goal is not to take away from them what they want. Our goal is to keep them, and all other parents and students, from getting fooled.

I’ll post more specific ideas sometime in the near future.

An “Older Alum” (who has submitted this anonymously) writes in:

I have to say that it’s a real shame the way things have gone at Hillel. Since way back when, when I had attended the school, there was always this joke about Hillel being a ”camp”. But now it seems to have gone beyond that. People are praising all these wonderful new changes. I have heard SO many stories. About how great the changes are. About how horrible the changes are.

Interestingly, it seem the wonderful changes are in the elementary school and the horrible ones are in the high school. There is such an imbalance between both… however it wouldn’t surprise me if the majority of the board members only have children in the elementary school right now. But that’s besides the point…

The point is, we alumni don’t count. How are we supposed to know what is going on when we have zero communication from the school? The fact of the matter is that we alumni… those who graduated from the school… those who actually understand the inner workings… have been completely shut out. Not ONE of the members of the Board, and please correct me if I am wrong, to my knowledge, actually attended and graduated from Hillel. I don’t remember recognizing any of the names on that slate as someone I went to school with many years ago (long ago enough that I do have kids of my own and have finished graduate school a few years ago). It would have been nice seeing Isaac on the board. Although he is young and fresh out of college, he surely offers a perspective that no one else on that board has.

I contacted the school asking to please provide us more information on what is going on. The alumni are interested in knowing what is wrong with the school that there is so much controversy. I received absolutely no response. This year, the class of 1997 held, what is believed to be, the first reunion the high school has ever had. The majority of those teachers in attendance were actually no longer part of the Hillel community. They showed up out of respect for their former students. Alumni only know one side of the story… and it’s a side that I am really compelled to believe. I would be interested in hearing the other side of the coin from someone who truly can compare Hillel’s past to its future. I don’t want to hear from parents that can only SPECULATE on what it was like in the past (which are the only people that I have heard from that state all of these changed are ”good”). How are they supposed to know what is ”better” when they really know little about the past?

There has been so much talk about Hillel ”trying” to establish an alumni relations network. If they were really, truly interested, they wouldn’t be trying… they would have something in place by now. The lack of interest in building a long-standing relationship is disturbing. What is the point of fighting so hard to ”build a community” when you forget about the people who will hopefully one day send their kids back to their alma mater??

Why is there no alumni representation on the board? Why is there no interest in hearing what those of us who actually went to the school know? Why are alumni not welcome at the annual board meeting (unless we donate lots of money… which some may consider doing if there were actually some relationship between alumni and the school… ironic?)?

Unfortunately, I don’t see a future for my family at Hillel. I have three alma maters… Hillel, my undergraduate school and my graduate school. Unfortunately, Hillel ranks at the bottom for me. It seems arrogant for people to think that they are the only option available for Jewish kids in the North Dade/South Broward area. If they are going to go the route of secularizing the school (which is partially what i have come to understand), there are plenty of better options out there. It is a shame to act as if those who helped build the school from the inside are not worthy of taking part because they currently do not have children in the school or donate money to the school.

It also amazes me how insecure some people can be. There are so many people fighting for the betterment of the school, yet there seem to be a select few that just CANNOT let go of the reigns. They have a choke hold on their positions and don’t want to ease up. We try and teach our kids to play nice, yet the ones who play dirtiest seem to always be the adults.

For the sake of the school’s future, I think people need to be willing to open up more and welcome others. And i mean this from all sides. Open up more and welcome new teachers, new administrators, new ”blood”. But at the same time, open up more and welcome the thoughts and ideas of those people who have a vested interest in the future of the school. Open up to fresh faces on the board. Open up to thoughts and ideas from those that have been around the block MANY times (which includes the great teachers on staff). And for those who are so possessive of their positions and unwilling to play nice… open up to the option of moving on and allowing others to share in the task of making Hillel better.

YOU CAN’T GO HOME AGAIN
thoughts of an [anonymous] alumnus

It had to happen eventually. There’s a saying, “You can’t go home again” and that’s what some of our Alumni (me included) have tried to do. Many of us had spent twelve or more years at Hillel. We felt invested in the school. Personally, I had always wanted to send my eventual hypothetical children to Hillel. Others wanted to send their actual children to Hillel. This will probably not happen now. You can’t go home again.

It has been suggested that if only middle school and high school families were allowed to vote, the election would have gone the other way. I know many supporters of COG feel that way. However, when asked if that means we have to deal with the upper school differently, considering we know that the majority of those parents are discontented, the answer is “No, we have a mandate.” And the sad thing is, they do. You can’t go home again.

Every teacher who attended the election is in danger. Perhaps they won’t get fired, but I am sure they will be pressured to leave. Holden doesn’t have a choice at this point, and I don’t blame him. How can he run a school where he knows that the teacher aren’t beholden to him? (Forgive the pun.) Every new teacher and administrator he hires to replace a veteran will be a someone who won’t remember Dr. Levy or Mrs. Cole or Rabbi Raab or Mrs. Gorin or Rabbi Bald or Mr. Baltuch or Dr. Zakon or Mr Feilich or Rabbi Dr. Grant or the many others who came before them who helped build up the school. And it doesn’t matter because the school they built is dead. On the morning of June 6, my Hillel was near-dead corpse. We were trying to coax its soul back in, but it was too late or just impossible. That Hillel is dead and we can’t go home again.

A new Hillel is being built on the grave of the old. A different Hillel. I don’t know if its better. I do know that it is a Hillel that my parents would never have sent me to. I do know its a Hillel that I could not send my eventual hypothetical children. (In fact, I know that this new Hillel is a Hillel that some current members of the board who helped birth it would not have sent their already graduated to… but that is another topic for another time…)

And this Hillel will be haunted for a while- it will be haunted by the Ghost of Hillel That Was. But as every member of the old guard leaves, the ghost will become more and more transparent and eventually, it will become unnoticeable.

As suggested, upper school parents may try to get involved for some time, but six years from now, those parents will no longer have children in the school. And the parents who swept Holden’s board back into office will have their children in high school. Those children will have a different Hillel experience than I have had.

I’m curious- when those children grow up and go to college and then go start their lives and they see that a group of new parents are trying to changed Holden’s Hillel into something different… will they make a fuss? Will they put up a fight? Or will Holden’s Hillel teach them what mine could not, what life had to teach all of us alumni- You can’t go home again.

An anonymous individual sent this in:

The following information was provided subsequent to the meeting:

If you would like information about how to become involved as a Hillel volunteer or to learn about Hillel’s committees, please contact Board Members Michelle Amselem or Helena Broide at Board@hillel-nmb.net.

Some of Hillel’s committees and associations are listed below.
Strategic Planning Committee Budget & Finance Committee Audit Committee
Building & Land Committee Bylaws Committee Communications Committee
Technology Committee Development Committee Capital Campaign Committee
Annual Campaign Committee Ma’ayan Society Committee Poker Tournament Committee
Annual Event Committee HIP/PTA Alumni Association

This was submitted by an anonymous individual:

Hillel has just announced their head of Judaic Studies for the High School. Why has Rabbi Robert Kaplan, who has proven himself as a capable administrator as interim high school principal, been passed over in favor of Rabbi Shlomo Ackerman?

This message was written by Isaac Sapoznik:

This is kind of hard for me to write correctly because I am out of the country on a blackberry.

First, I would like to thank everyone who came out to vote. Whether you voted for us or the other people is irrelevant. It is great to hear that soo many people came out to vote for our school.

That fact that I lost does not bother me. I will not take this personal and I hope that no one on our slate does either. This was not about us. This was about the school. The school came out and voted tonight. They heard what we all had to say and they voted and we must respect that.

On that note, just because we are not officially on the board does not mean we cannot help the school. I am 22 years old and this election was my first opportunity to help the school. No matter what, I will spend the rest of my life helping and shaping an institution that helped shaped my life.

We should all be proud of ourselves of the hard work that we put in. It has not gone unnoticed. I know that every year for every possible year, I will be trying to get on the board of governors. Even if it takes me 10 years, I will be helping the school in the meantime any which way I can. Why? Because that is how much dedication and care I have for this school. There is always work that needs to be done whether it be fundraising, a strong alumni association or programs for the school. It doesn’t matter what we personally think about anyone in the school. IT IS ABOUT THE KIDS AND THE FUTURE KIDS OF THE SCHOOL. I hope that this is just the beginning for other people also. I hope that just because we lost, the new slate and all the supporters never stop supporting the school. Moreover, we cannot tarnish the school by ruining its reputation. We cannot revenge the school and do things like call the IRS, the media, SACS or whatever other ways people were plotting. If people do that then we are left with nothing and then and ONLY THEN our hard work went for nothing and was simply a waste of our time.

I hope people will put there egos aside on our slate and the current board to be able to find a way to work together. This is the Hillel COMMUNITY day school. By definition, community includes all members of the community. No exceptions. That means that ina perfect world all members In a community should be involved and send their kids to this school. We have not achieved that but hopefully one day we will achieve that. We will never achieve that if we don’t keep on trying. Imagine if Michael Jordan gave up after he was cut by his High School team? On that note, I hope everyone keeps their enthusiasm up. We must respect the mandate of the school. If they were correct then the school will be better in the future. However, if they see they are wrong in the next few years, I hope they can admit to their mistakes and finally change their attitudes and work together with anyone who cares about this school.

Thank you for your support everyone. I hope that you continue to support us because the school needs people like us. Without us, they would be free to do whatever they want.

This post comes directly from me, the site administrator:

While I, Tamar (Palgon) Weinberg ‘99, site administrator, am not going to be in Florida for the election tonight, this is an official site endorsement of the Hillel4Change slate. I firmly stand behind these wonderful individuals who have only the best interests for the school and for the future of our students and teachers, and I urge you all to vote accordingly tonight.