For the past fifty-five years, Bruriah High School has catered to the girls in the tri-state area, providing them with a healthy balance of Judaic and general subjects. Eight years after the school’s birth, Chaya Newman was recruited. Newman worked in various locations, including Mexico, Ohio and New York. When she came to Bruriah, only fifty girls attended; now around four hundred girls are enrolled in the junior high and high school. She worked over thirty-seven years in Bruriah, making it the thriving school it is today.
Throughout my years in Bruriah, I have gained an exceptional amount of Torah knowledge and secular understanding. The girls around me are driven by their desire to live successful lives, however they see it. Their motivation never rests. Their kindness to others never stops. The inspiration from the teachers never ceases. But one thing can come to a halt: the expenses their dreams entail.
Many students want to take a gap year and attend seminary in Israel, where one can deepen Torah knowledge and one’s connection to God, but not all can afford it. While the majority of Bruriah grads spend a year in Israel, there were always students who could not pay the tuition.
Bruriah’s administration saw this recurring problem and decided it was time to address it. Each year, the junior grade builds a museum to commemorate all those who perished in the Holocaust. Along with the museum, a fundraiser is started, raising money for a different cause every year.
The school announced that the fund will be in honor of the fifth anniversary of Mrs. Newman’s passing. She believed in each of the students, taking particular interest in each individual girl. She knew their names and what path they wanted to go on. She was the embodiment of the school’s ideals.
I sat down with a Bruriah graduate recently and she described Bruriah’s past, about a decade prior to my enrollment. She said, “Mrs. Newman was a real believer in her students. She wanted us to succeed in our own unique ways.”
I was amazed at what I was learning about a woman who not only believed in women’s education but was also personally connected to each of her students.
“She wanted me to go to an Ivy League because I wanted to go to an Ivy League. She wanted me to really live out my dreams. She really motivated her students.”
The Mrs. Newman Israel Scholarship Fund will pay for the roundtrip airfare to Israel for at least one student of the Bruriah class of 2019. By donating to this fund, you will help us honor Mrs. Newman and her legacy and continue her efforts.
Please donate to this fund in honor of Chaya Newman in the following link: https://www.gofundme.com/mrs-newman-israel-scholarship-fund or contact us at [email protected]
By Mili Chizhik
