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Photo by Jim Webber An 11th grader at Prozdor and devoted dancer, Jamie Appelstein initially hesitated about enrolling in a community Jewish high school program. Would it conflict with her dance schedule? Would it be boring? Her parents convinced her to give it a try anyway, and she enrolled. Once at Prozdor she was surprised to find that she "actually enjoyed it. I got up on Sundays and didn't care. This year I am switching my dance schedule so I can go on Tuesday nights [in addition to Sundays]. I never thought I would do that for something Jewish. I really loved some of my teachers and the classes were interesting," she says.
Those reactions confirmed what Prozdor administrators had already surmised—that the Prozdor model for success is worth sharing. Student enrollments have grown from 175 to 950 students since 1996, and the high school's geographic reach now extends to Nashua, N.H. and Worcester, Mass.—representing an hour-plus commute to Newton from points north and west. Key to the high school program's success, according to a preliminary analysis of a recent parent/student survey, is a college-style approach to Jewish teen education that encourages choice of academic focus within a grade-appropriate framework of core courses, Hebrew language and a broad range of electives. That, combined with a strong social network of Jewish teens, excellent faculty and informal educational experiences such as weekend Shabbatonim and class trips to New York, Montreal and London, has made Prozdor a national model for engaging Jewish teens in Jewish study. "We're receiving calls from people around the country who've heard that we're thinking of ways to package the Prozdor model, which includes the meshing of informal and formal education," says Margie Berkowitz, director of Prozdor. "Word has also crossed the ocean to Israel. Everyone has the same question: How did this happen?" |
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Sharing reflections such as Appelstein's at the Institute for Informal Jewish Education's Community Hebrew High School Conference at Brandeis this past July, Prozdor High School Director Bil Zarch was bombarded with questions about Prozdor's student commitment and exponential growth by the other principals and directors, all seeking ways to replicate the high school's experience.