Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy is a coeducational college-preparatory and religiously pluralistic Jewish day school for grades 6 through 12, located in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.
Founded in Center City, Philadelphia in 1946 as Akiba Hebrew Academy, the school renamed itself in 2007. It is the oldest pluralistic Jewish secondary school in the United States.
History
Center City, Strawberry Mansion and Wynnefield, 1946–1956
Akiba Hebrew Academy was founded in 1946 by a group of individuals, primarily Conservative rabbis, active in the Philadelphia Jewish community, including Dr. Joseph Levitsky, Rabbi Simon Greenberg, Rabbi Elias Charry, and Dr. Leo L. Honor. The school was originally located in rented rooms at the YM & YWHA at Broad and Pine Streets in Center City, Philadelphia.
The school was founded without a connection to any Jewish denomination. According to Dr. Harold Gorvine, Akiba's founders created the school with the view "that all Jewish children – affiliated and non-affiliated – should come together under one roof to study their common Jewish heritage while simultaneously learning to respect all positions...This objective was not intended to blur differences. Rather, it was intended to strengthen the Jewish identification of every student without compelling acceptance of one particular interpretation of what is “THE” Jewish way of life." To fit this vision, the school took a middle of the ground approach to certain Jewish practices to ensure the school would remain pluralistic. For example, no school prayer was required and kippot were only required in Jewish classes. The first year consisted of 20 boys and girls. The school graduated its first class of 14 students in 1951.
The founding of Akiba marked a point when enough Jewish leaders believed that Jews had been incorporated into American society that they were willing to create a school solely for Jews. The founding of Akiba was met with opposition from some within Philadelphia's Jewish community, particularly from the reform Jewish community. Philadelphia Jewish leaders believed in American assimilation through the public school system and judged Jewish day schools to be parochial, un-American, and ghettoizing. Philadelphia's Jewish Federation would refuse to fund the institution until 1953.
Akiba was founded as a progressive school, which a 1946 brochure for the school described as "the needs, interests and aspirations of the individual pupil are the school’s primary concern." The school hired Dr. Joseph Butterweck, the dean at the Temple University School of Education and a leading figure in progressive education, as an advisor for general studies. Part of Butterweck's progressive curriculum included "core class", which encouraged students to research and discuss topics. Butterweck's curriculum also encouraged democratic participation from students including a student government (made up of three branches: executive, legislative and judicial) that held power within the school. Due to Butterweck's position at Temple, he was able to recruit quality teachers to teach secular subjects. However, for the school's first 10 years, Judaic teachers only were hired on a part-time basis. From 1951 to 1963, the school was led by Louis Newman, who was also the camp director of Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, until he was named the first director of the Melton Center for Research in Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary.
After four years at the Center City site, Akiba's enrollment had grown significantly and moved to B’nai Jeshurun in Strawberry Mansion, Philadelphia. However, the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood was facing urban decay and economic decline, which resulted in a significant fall in the school's enrollment. Therefore, the school moved to Har Zion Temple at 54th and Wynnefield Avenues until a permanent location for the school could be established. Akiba was located at Har Zion until 1956.
Merion, 1956-2008
In April 1956, Akiba purchased a estate on North Highland Avenue in Merion Station, on the Main Line for $105,000. The property had once been part of a large estate called "Ashdale," which had been built by William Simpson, a 19th-century insurance entrepreneur. After Simpson's death in 1909, his family broke up the estate, and the McMenamin family purchased a section on which they built a mansion that they named "Drake Linden Hall." After extensive renovations, the school dedicated its new foyer, classrooms, library, and science laboratory in December 1958.
In 1967, Elie Wiesel spoke to Akiba's graduating class as the commencement speaker.