Tucked away in a private nook west of the City of Fairfax is the longtime dream of the Gesher Jewish Day School. With the start of the 2007-08 school year, the private school will no longer be located at Jewish Community Center of Northern Virginia, but in a new school building at 4700 Shirley Gate Road.
"It is an incredible feat that we can build this after all these years," said Ron Katz, the project manager for the Gesher School. "If people come out to see it, they can see how truly beautiful and amazing it is. All the funds, a total of $14 million, for this school building were raised within the community and all over greater Washington as well as private donations."
Gesher was founded in 1981 by Rabbi Shelldon, Shulamith Elster and Rabbi Arnold Fink. Originally, Jewish families would have to send their children across the Wilson Bridge to attend the closest Jewish Day School. The group decided it was time for Northern Virginia to have one of its own and so named Gesher. The Hebrew word Gesher means "bridge."
"The school is very important because it provides Jewish families with the kind of education they need for their children to move ahead in life and it provides the Jewish community with a source of leadership for the future," said Dr. Zvi Schoenburg, the school’s headmaster.
For the past 14 years, Gesher has been housed within the JCCNV, but it will be moving into its new 4,500-square foot school building on a 27-acre lot that is currently under construction. The reason for the move is that the school has been split between two campuses, the JCCNV and the Chabad Synagogue, all the classrooms were smaller, overcrowded and being double-used. The new facility will be able to hold 350 students but has the ability to further expand itself in the future if an additional wing is necessary to hold 540 students. Construction will be finished this month, so that the school staff can move into the new building in August in order to prepare for the first day of classes on Tuesday, Sept. 4.
When the school first opened in 1982, it began with kindergarten and then progressed to sixth grade. Today with an enrollment of 180 students, the school teaches kindergarten through eighth grade. With its continued growth and this new school building the possibility of teaching all the way through high school has become a goal for the future.
THE NEW SCHOOL building includes a library with a reading area for the kindergarten classes, a chapel in the front, faculty offices, a cafeteria with an outdoor dining area, a gym, a hallway with kindergarten through fifth grade classrooms, a hallway with sixth through eighth grade classrooms and lockers, an art room, computer lab and science lab. On the grounds will be a soccer field, softball field, playground, basketball court and eventually an outdoor pool to be used during summer camps.
"The importance of Gesher's new building can be seen on two levels," said Steve Adleberg, the school’s senior administrator. "First and foremost, it unifies Gesher, which for the last five years has been split into two campuses. This unification of the whole school under our own roof allows us to offer more comprehensive and enhanced core content and elective programs for our students.
"Secondly, the additional space allows us to grow our K-8 student body from the current 180 students to 350 students. We expect this increase to happen gradually, and future plans also call for the possible addition of a high school wing. So, to go along with a growing Northern Virginia Jewish Community, Gesher Jewish Day School is also growing in many ways. We see this integrated growth as symbolic of a strong and vibrant future for the Jewish Community in Northern Virginia."
"Gesher is already a wonderful community; having our own home with all our students on one campus (instead of split into two campuses) will add even more to our feeling of community and our school spirit," said Shari Schwartz, one of the co-presidents of the Gesher Parent Teacher Organization. "I think we can also look forward to more extracurricular activities and additional PTO-sponsored enrichment programs now that we have our own auditorium and fields."
The school accepts students from all Jewish backgrounds: Reform, Reconstructionist, Conservative, Orthodox, and unaffiliated. The students live everywhere from Ashburn to Alexandria and from McLean to Woodbridge.
"Gesher’s mission is to prepare its students to become knowledgeable and committed Jews, informed and responsible American citizens living in a pluralistic society, and morally sensitive human beings," said Schoenburg. "We are teaching them basics and skills so that they can be literate and independent learners."
Class sizes of no more than 16 students provide more individualized attention. Daily prayer and the celebration of both Shabbat and Jewish holidays is part of the school calendar. "I sent all three of my children to Gesher, and I think that it is important for them to learn about Jewish tradition, history, culture and to learn Hebrew on top of general studies," said Katz.
"The Jewish community in Northern Virginia is continuing to grow, and a study done recently puts their number as high as 30 percent of our total population," said Adleberg. "For the past 25 years, however, Gesher has sought to serve as an excellent formal day school alternative for Jewish families who wanted more than a quality of general studies program for their children. "Gesher's importance to the Northern Virginia Jewish Community is that it continues to expand upon its role of integrating excellent Judaic Studies and Hebrew language programs for students in grades K-8 — Gan through Kitah Chet — along with a high-quality general studies curriculum."
"Speaking as a parent, Gesher is important because it enables us to raise our children in a vibrant, active Jewish community," said Schwartz. "It reinforces what we do at home and inspires our whole family to do more. It gives our children a strong sense of identity and a fuller appreciation of what it means to be Jewish."