Northwest Yeshiva Students Enjoy New School Quarters

Imagine going to high school in cramped and gloomy basement quarters and not even being able to use the gymnasium for physical-education classes during basketball season.

Then think what it would be like to switch to a spacious, modern facility that's only a five-minute drive from a community center whose gym and swimming pool are available for physical-education classes.

If it sounds like a dream, it is a dream that recently came true for the Northwest Yeshiva High School.

This four-year high school, the only Jewish high school north of Los Angeles and west of Denver, recently moved from its basement home at the Seattle Hebrew Academy to a new complex on Mercer Island dedicated yesterday.

"It had been our goal to move out for quite some time," said Rabbi Bernie Fox, dean of the high school that has grown from a class of six in 1974 to 45 students today. "Everything came together this past spring."

The high school purchased the former Mercer Island Baptist Church at 5017 90th Ave. S.E., a short distance from the Stroum Jewish Community Center, for $690,000. The former church was remodeled in two months and classes began Sept. 1.

"We have always had an excellent educational program," said Fox. "But no matter how good your program, parents and students have a hesitancy to attend school in a basement."

Sarah Ross of Seattle, 17, a senior, described the old high school space as relatively small and gloomy.

Ross said the new Mercer Island facility is "brighter, bigger, much newer . . . way better. I think it will attract new students."

The Northwest Yeshiva High School grew out of the Seattle Hebrew Academy, a longtime educational institution on Capitol Hill that initially offered classes from pre-kindergarten to the ninth grade. But if students wanted to continue their Jewish education after the ninth grade, they literally had to leave Seattle, said Fox.

"Rabbi Daniel Rosenthal, who was the principal of the academy at the time, decided that was not a workable situation," said Fox. Rosenthal added on a 10th grade, then 11th and 12th grades.

By 1974, Yeshiva High School split off from the academy, establishing its own administrative and fund-raising offices. It continued to hold classes in the academy's basement.

But the high school, which in addition to 45 students now has 11 instructors, was fast outgrowing its quarters. Fox said that during the fall basketball season he had to move the high-school physical-education classes out of the gym and hunt for alternate space on the playground or in rooms large enough for exercising.

Now, Fox proudly shows visitors around the former Mercer Island church complex that has been divided into classrooms, offices, a science laboratory, computer lab, student lunchroom and library. Students can use the nearby Jewish Community Center twice a week for P.E.

Students attend classes from 8 a.m. until 4 or 5 p.m. School opens with prayers, followed by Jewish studies until noon. In the afternoon, classes are offered in the sciences, mathematics, language arts, foreign languages (Spanish and Hebrew), social studies and fine arts.

"They are well-prepared by the time they get out," said Fox. Graduates have gone on to Brandeis, Princeton, Columbia, Yeshiva and Yale universities, as well as the University of Washington and other colleges, said Fox.

Tuition is $5,750 a year, but no student is turned away because his or her family can't pay.

"We adjust the tuition. We have kids from the former Soviet Union who just came to this country. Their parents are not presently employed," said Fox.

"We consider it our duty to provide every Jewish student with a Jewish education. It is our religious mission," said Fox.

The school accepts students of all Jewish backgrounds, though it is Orthodox in its own orientation, meaning it advocates complete observance of the Torah, said Fox.

"We try to teach, not proselytize. Our philosophy is if we give these kids an education, they will be better Jews no matter what denomination they choose to adopt."

Fox said part of the high school's success can be traced to work being done in the earlier grades at the Seattle Hebrew Academy and the Jewish Day School in Bellevue.