HOLLYWOOD, Fla. (AP) — A school opening this month is named for a Jewish high priest, directed by a rabbi, will have kosher food and teach Hebrew. It’s also a public school, funded by public tax dollars and following state curriculum guidelines.
Ben Gamla Charter School, billed as the nation’s first publicly funded Hebrew-English school, has prompted fears of religion creeping into public schools and even drawn criticism from groups that defend Jewish causes. Similar criticisms have been raised against Arabic-language charter schools elsewhere, with some saying those schools teach Islam.
Organizers insist that although Ben Gamla will teach Hebrew language and culture, it won’t cross the divide between church and state.
“To me, it’s very obvious that we’re not teaching religion,” said Rabbi Adam Siegel, the school’s director who had led two private Jewish day schools in Miami Beach. “Religion is prayer, it’s God, it’s Bible. And so if you stay away from there, you’re not teaching religion.”
Ben Gamla is the brainchild of former U.S. Rep. Peter Deutsch, who said he was as surprised by the controversy surrounding the school as he was by the interest in it.
Its new building, set to open Aug. 20, will replace earlier quarters leased from a synagogue that had only enough room for 100 children in kindergarten through third grade. Within weeks of publicizing its opening, Mr. Deutsch said, the school received more than 800 applications. The three-story building has space for more than 400 students through eighth grade.
“If we had 50 kids, I would have been happy,” said Mr. Deutsch, who hopes to open other schools in Miami, New York and Los Angeles.
Charter schools are publicly financed and run independently, sometimes by private entities. Some specialize in a language, a trade or some other subject.
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