Elyssa Koenig, a parent of one RGHDS graduate and three current student, makes a teary testimonial to the school -- and for parent not to blame the board of trustees.

As news sunk in that Reuben Gittelman Hebrew Day School would close this June, parents whose children attend the 40-year-old Jewish school were grappling with a sense of loss, coupled with what to do next.

“I was shocked at how quickly things seemed to have been decided,” said Marcy Pressman, whose daughter, Eliana attends the 3rd grade at RGHDS. “I felt a terrible sense of loss and all I could think about was how I could explain this to my daughter.”
Pressman loved the cozy, family feel of Gittelman and felt her daughter, who had been there since kindergarten, had blossomed there. She came to Gittelman, she said, because of the school’s students she’d met at Orangetown Jewish Center, where she belongs.

“I was so impressed by how grounded they were, how respectful they were and how comfortable they were,” she said.

Another 3rd grade parent, Bari Lewart, said she had an inkling that things were bad at the school, but no idea how bad. “We were hearing things, rumors, but no one can call that reality,” she said. “The reality is we were on a sinking ship.

“I just felt my heart sink,” she said of learning the school would close.

Lewart, like many parents, is looking at many choices. Already the Solomon Schechter schools in New Milford, N.J. and in Oakland, N.J. have showered the Gittelman parents with evites to special open houses. And the new Rockland Jewish Academy, which is hoping to start this fall at the Rockland Jewish Community Campus [see related story], has held parlor meetings in hopes of getting parents to enroll their children for the coming fall.

Sandi Jacobs’ daughter, Sarah, graduated RGHDS in 2008. Her younger child, Emma, is currently enrolled in the 4th grade.

“I’m willing to try out a new school,” she said. “I really want a community school. I want Emma’s friends to be in the county. That’s important to Mark and me. I really want this school to be successful.”

Other parents are weighing their options including Modern Orthodox ones like Moriah of Englewood and Yavneh Academy in Paramus.

Middle school parents, whose children won’t get to graduate from RGHDS, have also been looking at options in New Jersey. And the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester, where many Gittelman students go on to high school, held a parlor meeting for parents with students who will be entering those grades in the fall.

“I feel a deep, deep sadness,” said Judi Katz Kelly, about the closing of Gittelman. “When I saw what the alumni wrote on Facebook [about the school], it made me proud I was part of it and that my kids benefitted. I don’t remember feeling that way about any school I attended.”

Kelly’s daughter, Hannah, her fourth to go through RGHDS, is in 7th grade. She’ll be heading to Schechter’s middle school and then high school, as did her siblings.
“I would have preferred her to graduate from Gittelman, our middle school had such values,” she said. “It was fantastic.”

A parlor for the RJA, which will be an independent school, attracted more than 30 parents to hear Solomon Schechter School of Westchester and its Headmaster Eliot Spiegel talk about his educational vision for the new school. Although the school will be independent of the Schechter movement, it will be overseen by the Westchester school.

Jennifer Strober attended that meeting. The Upper Grandview mom has two children in Gittelman, Dylan in 4th grade, and Avery in kindergarten. Parents want to see the kids go someplace together, she said, so they remain with their friends.

The Westchester and New Milford Schecters are tantalizing, with their beautiful facilities, she said, but the commutes are very long. Strober wants a school in the community and is considering the RJA.

“If the community of Rockland is concerned about having a Conservative school, why did we let this happen,” she asked. “Now our children have to be bused over the river and across state lines, when they could have been educated in our own back yard.
“The community let the children down,” she said.