MONTREAL — Stephen Bronfman and his wife, Claudine, smiled broadly from their front row seats inside Bialik High School’s spanking new Mitch Garber ’81 Hall of Honour as they helped the school celebrate the official completion of its $6.5-million expansion.
From left, the Green Team students, are Elissa Brock, Josh Bercovitch, Yoni Abres and Sabrina Dabby. Seated in the front row with Stephen and Claudine Bronfman (at right) are, from left, incoming Federation CJA president Jack Hasen; Freda Rashkovan, past president of Jewish People’s and Peretz Schools-Bialik; and Liane Rashkovan-Eliesen. [Howard Kay photo]
The Stephen R. Bronfman Foundation was one of a number of “lead donors” that helped Bialik complete the expansion on time and on budget, which school and community officials said would serve to herald a new era for the school while preserving its traditions of pluralism and Yiddishkeit.
It will remain a school dedicated to those founding principles and to Jewish continuity while retaining its “heimishness,” Jewish People’s and Peretz Schools (JPPS)-Bialik president Arnold Cohen promised at the May 19 ceremony, where school staff, officials, donors and community representatives had come to celebrate.
“It’s really quite awesome,” Bronfman said of the expansion. “You have brought your school to the forefront.”
A “Green Team” of students made presentations and recited a spoken tribute to the Bronfmans.
Incoming Federation CJA president Jack Hasen referred to the school as one of the crucial pillars of the Jewish community.
The “transformational gift” by the Bronfman foundation served to renovate and enlarge the cafeteria for its student body of 640, expansion campaign co-chair Matt Newpol said.
But the gift also was linked to creating an environmentally conscientious culture of “going green” at Bialik – a sensibility that has since expanded to JPPS, the high school’s main feeder school, founded in 1927. Bialik was established in 1972 at the JPPS site, with ground broken for the Cote St. Luc site in 1980.
JPPS-Bialik is the only quadrilingual school system in North America – with classes in English, French, Hebrew and Yiddish – teaching Yiddish both at the elementary and high school levels. Since 2003, another Jewish elementary school, Solomon Schechter Academy, has also served as a feeder school for Bialik.
Besides reconfiguring the basement-level cafeteria, Phase 1 of the expansion, which cost $3.5 million, began in May 2007 and was completed about a year ago. The first phase added a fourth floor to Bialik that included a new lounge, art studio and state-of-the art science laboratory.
Phase II, at an additional $3 million, added a 10,500-square-foot athletics and performing arts complex that included a new, second gymnasium named for Helen and Sam Steinberg, modern theatre facilities with a new stage and adjacent dressing rooms, a renovated Mettarlin Hall, an exercise and weight room, as well as the new Hall of Honour atrium to recognize donors and exhibit student trophies and awards.
Bialik president and campaign co-chair Michael Eliesen said almost $2.7 million dollars for the expansion has been raised through pledges and gifts.
Newpol said a total of $3 million in loans came in equal parts from the U.S.-based Avi Chai Foundation and Federation CJA. The balance is being raised though continued solicitation.
In the school atrium, a festive and at times even playful mood prevailed as the new but then still-unnamed Bialik Bulldog mascot mugged for those assembled, and fully costumed cast members from the school’s recent production of Beauty and the Beast gave a sampling of their talents.
Hasen noted that given the choices now available to the families, it is more crucial than ever for Jewish schools to be “centres of excellence. The impact of Jewish day schools is second to none in enhancing Jewish identity,” he said.
Eliesen said Bialik is offering specialized programs such as LEAP, the Section Française and the Hebraica Track, as well as improved facilities, “knowing full well that our parents compare what non-Jewish private schools can offer.
“Given our pluralistic mission,” he said, “we are often the last option before a family opts for a non-Jewish school, [so] we need to be as good if not better than the other schools.”
Among those cited for their generosity in supporting the expansion were the Bronfman, Tauben, Zak and Dym family foundations, as well as the Alexander, Becker, Elituv, Garber, Eliesen, Gelber, Blatt and Goodman families.
The school’s Yiddish choir performed and the JPPS Pugs basketball team was introduced. Two mezuzot handcrafted by Bialik students were affixed and a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held.
Although the expansion is technically complete, work still to be done includes completing exterior landscaping and, possibly in the future, the addition of an outdoor basketball court.
