New Jewish day school to open in Buffalo Grove

With its synagogues, kosher bakery, Jewish bookstore and Jewish Community Center and adult education center, Buffalo Grove bears witness to a substantial Jewish population.

Unlike similarly populated suburbs such as Highland Park and Northbrook, it has no Jewish day school.

That situation will change this fall with the opening of the Torah Academy of Buffalo Grove.

Pending a special use permit from the village, the academy is leasing space at Congregation Beth Am, 225 N. McHenry Road.

The school principal, Rabbi Shimon Zehnwirth, said the school will ground preschoolers, kindergartners and first graders in both Judaic and general studies.

Zehnwirth said registration is open, with a 10 percent credit on tuition for the first 30 families. Limited scholarships are available for qualified families, based on need.

For details visit Torah Academy of Buffalo Grove Web site at TorahAcademyBG.com or call Rabbi Zehnwirth at (773) 771-2613.

Zehnwirth comes from New York, where he studied at the Rabbinical Seminary of America.

He said his mentor, Rabbi Henach Leibowitz, believed in reaching out to communities without Jewish schools.

"If you look at the statistics, it's not a great scene, especially in places where they don't have Jewish education," Zehnwirth said. "Studies have shown that the intermarriage rate is way beyond where it should be.

The strongest weapon against intermarriage and assimilation has been proven to be a day school education, he added.

After he was ordained, Zehnwirth taught post-high school students at a Yeshiva in Jerusalem, then became the principal of a Jewish high school in San Diego.

From there, he moved to the Hanna Sacks School in West Rogers Park, serving as principal for five years.

The rabbi said he has heard that as many as 35,000 Jews live within a five-mile radius of his new school.

Eventually, Torah Academy intends to teach all eight grades of elementary school.

"It's just necessary to have a 3- and 4-year-old preschool as well, because it's hard to get people to jump on board at the level of K or 1st grade," he said. "This is not a day care center."

He said the Judaic studies will emphasize studying Torah sources firsthand.

"It's a weakness that people have to rely on somebody else to give them their interpretation, their spin, of what it says in the Torah," he said.

Studying the Torah sharpens critical thinking skills, he added.

"We want our students who graduate to eventually visit the land of Israel and consider living there. We want them to feel that connection," he said.

As for the general studies part of the curriculum, he said, the school's goal is to have academics meet or exceed the level of local public schools and believes the smaller class sizes at Torah Academy will bring good results.