Following its students, Hebrew school heads east

After 80 years, Temple Israel of Lawrence’s religious school is relocating to Young Israel of Hewlett in the hope of attracting more families.

Over the past few years, students from Hewlett, Woodmere and East Rockaway began outnumbering those from Lawrence and Atlantic Beach, prompting what temple officials called “a necessary move.” “Finally, this year, looking at the demographics and the reality of which Five Towns community we have the best opportunity to draw from, it became obvious that it was necessary to hold our religious school classes in the Hewlett-East Rockaway area,” said Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, spiritual leader of Temple Israel. “We hope to attract those of the liberal Jewish community who live in the Hewlett, Woodmere, East Rockaway area who would find it more convenient and more feasible to bring their children to religious school in Hewlett rather than Lawrence.”

The move will affect only kindergarten through eighth grade at the religious school. The high school will remain at Temple Israel. Rosenbaum said that a number of factors figured into moving just the younger students. “The older kids are more mobile and able to get to the temple building,” he explained. “And we want to maintain a connection to the temple. We’re going to have our special events at Temple Israel as well as a supplemental and voluntary religious school class at the temple for all the grades.”

Temple officials said they hope that having a one-day religious school, rather than a two-day school as in past years, will reduce the demands on families coming from the other end of the Five Towns. “The move has to do with making it easier for our religious school parents to get their kids to school,” said Garret Gray, Temple Israel’s president. “We found that a majority of them live further east. This inconvenience led to less students attending religious school in the past few years. We’ve found that if the religious school was in Hewlett, it would be easier for the parents.”

North Woodmere resident Larry Abrams said the trip to Temple Israel was becoming more and more of a hassle. “It would take my wife 20 minutes in each direction to take my kids to religious school,” Abrams said. “It didn’t make sense.”