![]() | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Upper School | |
Address | |
![]() | |
Upper School: 11710 Hunters Lane North Bethesda, Maryland (Rockville address) 20852 United States Lower School: 1901 East Jefferson Street Rockville, Maryland 20852 United States | |
Coordinates | 39°03′14″N77°07′37″W / 39.054°N 77.127°W |
Information | |
Type | Private, Jewish day school, College-prep |
Motto | "...You shall teach them diligently to your children" (Deuteronomy 6:7) |
Established | September 1965 [1] |
Head of school | Mitchel Malkus |
Faculty | 199 |
Grades | Pre-kindergarten–twelfth grade |
Enrollment | 924 (2019-2020) |
Student to teacher ratio | 6:1 |
Campus | Suburban |
Color(s) | Blue and gold |
Nickname | Lions [2] |
Rival | Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy |
Newspaper | The Lion's Tale |
Yearbook | Dimensions [3] |
Website | www |
The Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School, often referred to as CESJDS or JDS, is a private, pluralistic Jewish JK-12 school located in two campuses in North Bethesda (Rockville postal address), Maryland, United States. [4] [5] Founded in 1966, the school's namesake is Charles E. Smith, [6] a local Jewish philanthropist and real estate magnate.
The head of school is Rabbi Mitchel Malkus. [7]
Two distinct campuses make up the school. The two campuses are distinct yet interrelated, and school functions take place regularly at both locations. The two campuses are located less than two miles from one another in Rockville, Maryland.
The building has three levels. People regularly use the oval Beit Midrash, located at the entrance for tefillah. Other notable facilities include the Great Books Reading Room, "Field of Dreams" playground, technology labs, science classrooms, and a library with two designated working classrooms.
Since 1976, the Lower School has undergone three major renovations. The school now occupies approximately 130,000 square feet (12,000 m2) on 11 acres (45,000 m2) and houses over 700 Lower School students.
The central hallway, the "Cardo", is bracketed by arches modeled on the archways in the ancient Jewish Quarter of Byzantine Jerusalem. The main thoroughfare showcases student art and other projects.
Throughout the structure are pieces of Jewish history and acknowledgments of the foundation of pluralism on which the school was established. The Beit Midrash features rounded stained glass windows circling a cupola based on Eastern European synagogue design, with each panel representing an essential principle of Judaism, including Torah, Neshamah (Soul), Kavanah (Spirit), Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World) and Rachamim (Compassion). A woodworking motif frames the room and Jerusalem stone is featured throughout. The doorposts in the school have distinct mezuzot .
Spaces for the arts and athletics include the Daniel Pearl Memorial Gym which holds 700 and encompasses full-court basketball and volleyball play. Art spaces include a ceramics studio with six pottery wheels and a state-of-the-art kiln, a professionally equipped photography studio, a dark room, and a recording studio.
The Upper School curriculum is designed through a unique method whereby all high school seniors graduate after the fall semester, as opposed to continuing through the spring and graduating in May or June, as is the practice at most local schools. Students complete their high school studies in late January and graduate in early February, after which they are given the choice to go on a school-sponsored trip that mixes education and tourism. It combines a week of Jewish history in Europe with a three-month, whirlwind tour of Israel, hosted and led by the Alexander Muss High School in Israel.
Solomon Schechter School of Greater Washington opened in September 1965. [1] [8] Operating under the auspices of United Synagogue of America, classes were held near Chevy Chase, Maryland. [1] [9] During the school's first year in operation, two teachers, Masha Spiegel and Masha Cohen, taught seven children in kindergarten and first grade. [1] [10] Gershon W. Gross became the school's administrator in 1967. [11]
Throughout the school's history, it had operated in various rented spaces in Maryland, but it had long wanted a permanent location of its own. [12] In 1971, the United Jewish Appeal asked the Greater Washington Jewish Community Foundation to raise funds to build a permanent location for the school. [13] The Greater Washington Jewish Community Foundation searched for a site with about 10 acres (40,000 m2) of land that was as close to Washington, D.C., as possible. [13] In 1974, the Greater Washington Jewish Community Foundation took an option on a $500,000 property located on Montrose Road in Rockville. [13] The Rockville property was adjacent to the new location of B'nai Israel Congregation, which had moved there in 1970. [14]
A few months later, the Marjorie Webster School was put up for sale. [13] The private Webster School's campus was located at 17th Street and Kalmia Road NW in the Washington, D.C. neighborhood of Colonial Village. [13] An option was taken on the Webster School, but it was later determined that the Webster School would require a more costly renovation than was financially practical. [13] The site selection committee decided to move forward with the Montrose Road site in Rockville. [13] Some families were unhappy with that decision, as the majority of students lived closer to the Colonial Village site than to the Rockville site. [13]
On April 24, 1977, the school dedicated its new 62,819-square-foot (5,840 m2) building at 1901 E. Jefferson Street in Rockville. [10] [12] The $2.7-million building became the first permanent location for the school. [12] The building is owned by the Greater Washington Jewish Community Foundation, and the school has a renewable 99-year lease. [12] [15] Charles E. Smith was the chairman of Greater Washington Jewish Community Foundation, and Smith had helped raise the funds to build the facility. [12]
In 1980, the school was renamed in honor of Charles E. Smith, who had been a generous donor and fundraiser for the school. [16]
The upper school was built in 1998, [17] and the lower school was expanded in 2001. [18]
In April 2006, three seniors who were participating in the school-sponsored program in Israel through the Alexander Muss High School were arrested by Israeli police for marijuana possession. [19] The marijuana was discovered by program guides, and the quantity was judged to be large enough to necessitate involving governmental authorities, according to Muss headmaster Chaim Fischgrund. Drug experts cited in a Jewish Standard article theorized that the students had intended to sell the marijuana. [20] These three students were expelled from the program, and six other students were expelled for having bought or used marijuana during the program. Local police arrested two students on drug charges, who were held overnight. [19]
The Lions participate in athletics in the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference. Their biggest rival is the Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy Cougars. Led by head coach Jason Belinkie, the JDS track and field and cross country teams often rank among the top private schools in the state, winning four Maryland Private School Cross Country State Championships in 2017, 2021, and 2022 (boys' and girls' teams). ESPN produced a SportsCenter feature on the JDS boys' cross country team, which aired on April 9, 2023. The boys' varsity basketball team also won the 2017 PVAC Championship. The girls' varsity softball team won a championship in 2023. The boys' middle school baseball team won PVAC championships in 2017, 2018, and 2019. Below is a list of sports that the Lions participate in.
Fall sports:
| Winter sports:
| Spring sports:
|
Rockville is a city in and the county seat of Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, and is part of the Baltimore–Washington metropolitan area. The 2020 census tabulated Rockville's population at 67,117, making it the fourth-largest incorporated city in Maryland.
Montgomery College (MC) is a public community college in Montgomery County, Maryland.
North Bethesda is an unincorporated, census-designated place (CDP) in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States, located just north-west of the U.S. capital of Washington, D.C. It had a population of 50,094 as of the 2020 census. Among its neighborhoods, the centrally-located, urbanizing district of White Flint is the commercial and residential hub of North Bethesda. The Pike & Rose development and the Pike District is an initiative of Montgomery County to brand and market this region as "North Bethesda's Urban Core". The WMATA North Bethesda metro station and Grosvenor-Strathmore metro station serve the region.
Robert Hilton Smith was an American builder-developer and philanthropist. After taking over his father's real estate development business, Smith developed much of the Crystal City neighborhood, just south of Washington, D.C.
Col. Zadok Magruder High School (#510) is a secondary public school located in Rockville, Maryland, United States.
Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School (B-CC) is a public high school in Montgomery County, Maryland. It is named for two of the towns it serves; it also serves Kensington and Silver Spring. It is located at 4301 East-West Highway, in Bethesda. In 2023, U.S. News and World Report ranked Bethesda-Chevy Chase as #12 in the state of Maryland, and #574 in the nation.
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.
Poolesville High School is a public magnet high school located in Poolesville, Maryland, United States. It is part of the Montgomery County Public Schools system.
Montrose Christian School was a private Christian school in North Bethesda, Maryland, with a Rockville postal address. It was formerly operated by the Montrose Baptist Church, Maryland's second largest Southern Baptist church. It educated around 370 students before its closure in 2013. Its first Senior High School class graduated in 1986.
Alexander Muss High School in Hod HaSharon, Israel is a pluralistic study-abroad program in Hod HaSharon, Israel, for high school students. Programs run throughout the year and range in length from 6 weeks to 18 weeks. The school is accredited by the Middle States Association and students can continue in their high school subjects while abroad. Students are also eligible to earn college credit through the University of Miami. Its flagship campus is in Israel. The school has an average enrollment of 1200 students. It has four dormitories and a mini-dorm, and is a college prep program for international high school students. Having merged with Jewish National Fund (JNF) USA in 2013, AMHSI-JNF has begun its global expansion for all High School students.
The Melvin J. Berman Hebrew Academy, referred to locally as Berman or The Hebrew Academy, is a coed Modern Orthodox Jewish day school serving the greater Washington area. It is in Aspen Hill, Maryland, with a Rockville postal address.
Formed in 1979, the Potomac Valley Athletic Conference is a group of independent schools in the Washington metropolitan area who compete against each other in interscholastic athletics. The conference comprises small independent schools from Maryland and the District of Columbia.
Theodore Nathan Lerner was an American real estate developer and managing principal owner of the Washington Nationals baseball team. He was the founder of the real estate company Lerner Enterprises, the largest private landowner in the Washington metropolitan area, which owns commercial, retail, residential, and hotel properties, as well as Chelsea Piers in New York City. In 2015, Forbes magazine named him the richest person in Maryland.
Charles Emil Smith was a real estate developer and philanthropist in the Washington metropolitan area.
The Jewish Day School of Metropolitan Seattle (JDS) is the oldest community Jewish day school in the Pacific Northwest. JDS offers an integrated curriculum of Judaic studies and general studies focusing on the "whole student," from Pre-Kindergarten to grade 8.
The Yeshiva of Greater Washington (YGW) is an Orthodox community-based Jewish Day School that is located in Silver Spring, Maryland. It was founded in 1964 by Rabbi Gedaliah Anemer. It consists of separate high schools for boys and girls and a beis medrash.
B'nai Israel Congregation is a Conservative Jewish egalitarian congregation and synagogue, located in Rockville, Maryland, in the United States. B'nai Israel's mission is to study in the Jewish tradition, worship God, commit to social action, and address the needs of the Jewish people locally, in Israel, and worldwide. The congregation consists of 1,200 families.
Newport Mill Middle School is a public school for students in grades 6, 7, and 8, located in Kensington, Maryland.
Yavneh Academy of Dallas is a coeducational, college preparatory Jewish private school in Dallas, Texas. It is guided by the tenets of Modern Orthodox Judaism. In 2019, the school merged with Akiba Academy of Dallas to become Akiba Yavneh Academy. With a student body of more than 400 students from 3 months of age through 12th Grade for the 2021–22 academic year, Akiba Yavneh Academy has dual curriculum of General and Judaic Studies.
Joseph Vogel is an Uruguay-born American politician who has served as a member of the Maryland House of Delegates from District 17 since 2023. A member of the Democratic Party, his district includes the Montgomery County cities of Gaithersburg and Rockville; he represents the district alongside fellow Democratic delegates Julie Palakovich Carr and Ryan Spiegel.
Lower School 1901 East Jefferson Street Rockville, MD 20852 [...] Upper School 11710 Hunters Lane Rockville, MD 20852- Compare with the CDP map.