A School, A Community, Grows with Chabad in Houston

HOUSTON, TX — The number of Jewish Day Schools in the U.S. has been on the rise for som time now. The AVI CHAI Foundation’s census of Jewish Day Schools count 759 in the 2003-2004 school year, with 80 new schools opened since five year earlier.

From 1989-1999, Day School enrollment numbers have gone up by 11% or 20,000 children. In 2003-2004, there were 205,000 students in Jewish Day Schools—four-year-olds through grade 12.

Torah Day School of Houston (TDS), the school of the Chabad Lubavitch Center—Texas Regional Headquarters, was one of the trail-blazers. Having opened its doors in 1977, TDS is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year.

Mrs. Chiena Lazaroff, Director and Judaic Principal, and her husband, Rabbi Shimon Lazaroff, Head of School, founded TDS. At the time, they had “a little apartment Chabad House” and were in the process of building a shul. Their children were attending a local Jewish school, as were the children of Carol and Stuart Nelkin, a couple who were becoming observant with them. Since both families were unhappy with that school, they teamed up to open a new Day School.

The Nelkins financed the project. The Lazaroffs taught Judaic studies and hired secular teachers to teach secular subjects. “It was like a one-room schoolhouse,” says Mrs. Lazaroff, “with five of our children and two of theirs. We were in a little trailer. A year later we were in a new building. It turned out to be the foundation of our community.”

Today, 120 students, 30 in the pre-school and 90 from kindergarten through eighth are at TDS. More than 800 children have passed through its doors since its humble beginnings. The younger classes are co-ed. From 5th to 8th grade, classes in Judaic studies are separate for boys and girls, while for secular subjects some are separate and some co-ed.

Being involved with Torah Day School brought powerful change to her family, Carol Nelkin admits. “Before that I was not able to give my kids the kind of Jewish education that we came to know and want for our kids. Before we met Rabbi and Mrs. Lazaroff and became familiar with Chabad, we were like a lot of other American Jewish families on our way to getting totally lost.”

Carol and her husband grew up in Conservative synagogues, but their family became Orthodox through their relationship with the Lazaroffs.

Presently, TDS is under renovation to enlarge it to twice its original size. “The school has been in a very cramped situation that has reached its capacity,” says Rabbi Chaim Lazaroff, Mrs. Lazaroff’s son. Rabbi Chaim and his wife Chanie run the Center’s Hebrew School.

The expansion will add eight new classrooms, Judaic and general libraries, dedicated computer and science labs, a new assembly hall, a teachers’ resource room, and a sheltered rooftop playground. A new early childhood program for 18-month-old toddlers is part of the plan. The modernized building double its capacity to allow comfortably for 280-students.

Article continued (Lubavitch.com)