Area Jews to construct new school

ORMOND BEACH, FL — Attending a Jewish parochial school is normally a privilege reserved for children in the largest cities, as a local rabbi and his benefactor can attest.

Morris Esformes, the owner of three nursing homes in Volusia County, left home at age 13 to attend a Jewish boarding school in Chicago.

Pinchas Ezagui, rabbi for the Chabad-Lubavitch of Greater Daytona, sends his two teenage children to the Windy City for their Jewish education.

The family separation is “pain staking,” Ezagui said, but the big city has been kind to Ormond Beach.

Chabad has raised about $4.5 million for a new Jewish school on Granada Boulevard. Most of the donations, including a $1 million gift from Esformes, are from Chicago-based donors.

Many donors “have never heard of Ormond Beach,” Esformes said.

All believe in the importance of Jewish education for the continuity of the religion, said Esformes, a non-practicing rabbi.

Ormond Beach, of course, already has an established Jewish K-8 school, Bet Sefer.

But the Chabad school will be different because it will be reserved for Jewish children only and have a heavy emphasis on religion, Ezagui said.

Chabad-Lubavitch is an Orthodox movement within Judaism. Chabad is a Hebrew acronym that stands for wisdom. Lubavitch refers to the Russian town where the movement started 250 years ago, according to Chabad.org.

The current building on the property will be torn down to make way for the new community center and school. It will be a 23,000-square foot complex on a 2.5 acre property.

The mikveh, or ritual bath building, which was only completed a year ago, will remain on-site.

The rabbi is looking for a temporary facility to hold religious services during the construction.

The Chabad community hopes the school will be ready by fall 2007. The plan is to serve between 75 and 100 students, from kindergarten through eighth grade.

The fundraising will continue to help pay for school operating costs.

While private school tuition is always expensive, “no child will ever be turned down because of money,” Esformes said. “That I can guarantee.”

While the school and community center will bear his family name, Esformes is not benefiting directly since he lives half the year in Chicago, is 60 years old and has grown children.

“Education is his heartbeat,” said Ezagui.

Esformes, a businessman who wears T-shirts and jeans to work, said he would rather spend his money on children than fancy clothes.

He said he has paid for the college tuition of an impoverished girl from the west side of Chicago, corrective plastic surgery for a Deltona employee’s daughter and drug rehabilitation for a DeLand employee’s son.

Esformes said his motivation is simple.