Hebrew language school in Harlem
A presentation to put a Hebrew language charter school in Harlem was met with fierce resistance from local officials and residents, who want the school to move elsewhere.
Harlem Hebrew, modeled after Brooklyn’s Hebrew Language Academy Charter School, would serve the upper West Side and a portion of Harlem.
It would be open to all students in Community School District 3.
However, Community Board 10 members fired back at the idea following a presentation by school officials Wednesday night.
“It’s an abomination. It’s an insult,” said Board 10 member Isis Ausar.
“To be perfectly honest, I don’t think it should be in Central Harlem. I think they should find another location.”
Ausar suggested maybe a largely Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn.
“I could not go over there and propose a school and say it’s an African language school…,” Ausar said. “I have no problems with another language, but they want modern Hebrew and that’s not going to help our children in any way.”
The board’s education committee voted on the proposed school coming to Harlem in February and was split down the middle.
But Wednesday night some board members voiced loud opposition.
Board 10 member Angela Hollis also wouldn’t pledge support for the school.
“I believe it’s in response to gentrification that’s occurring in Harlem,” she said.
“Tell us how [students] can use that particular language to market themselves more in the real world? I just don’t think it’s necessary.”
Maureen Campbell, principal of the Brooklyn Hebrew Language Academy, told the board the school offers a diverse and rigorous learning experience, with an extended school day and a 12-to-1 student-teacher ratio.
The dual-language school does not offer teaching on Judaism.
“When children of different backgrounds learn together they do better,” said Campbell, who is of Jamaican descent. She added that about 45% of the children at the Brooklyn HLA are black and Latino. About 55% are white.
Campbell also said learning any second language enhances learning skills.
Dan Gerstein, a spokesman for the Midwood school, said naysayers are not giving it a chance.
“[The school is] focused on breaking down barriers and understanding across cultures,” he said.
“Give the school a chance. There are a lot of benefits to it.”
A similar school, Sosua Hebrew, has been proposed in either Washington Heights or Inwood – and received similar resistance from residents at a Community Board 12 meeting in January.
Both schools, which will enroll kindergarten through fifth-graders, are tentatively slated to open in 2012.
Board 10 member Stanley Gleaton still isn’t sold on the idea.
“It’s questionable,” he said.
“I just don’t understand or see the value of it. If our children are going to learn a language, they are going to have to have a use for it.”
photo credit to photos8.com