Prominent Jewish school receives largest gift to date

A Jewish elementary school in the District has been pledged a gift of $5 million in what area private educators are calling a hopeful sign for fundraising.

The Jewish Primary Day School of the Nation's Capital, a 262-student school in Brightwood, announced Friday that it had been promised the gift, which is a mixture of outright gifts and a matching grant that will require the school to raise an additional $1.8 million on its own.

The money, which comes from an anonymous donor, will allow the school to renovate its building, create a capital reserve fund, build a new outdoor play area and expand its scholarship program.

"It's no secret that scholarships have really been a major shock to the system in the last year, and it's going to continue to be so. This helps," said Naomi Reem, head of the school. She said the gift was by far the largest the school has ever received. The donor is a "very dear friend" of the school, she said.

The school, which isn't affiliated with any one branch of Judaism, has attracted high-profile attention before. Elie Wiesel has visited, and a fourth-grader made headlines this spring when he asked former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who was giving speech there, about torture.

The school started in 1987 at Adas Israel synagogue in Cleveland Park. In 1999, parents decided to make the school independent from the synagogue and looked for a new building, but they had trouble finding a permanent site. The school moved to its current location at the end of 2003. Reem said that the school planned to expand in the long term -- the building's current legal capacity is 13 over its enrollment -- but that the gift was intended for more immediate needs.

An independent school advocate said that the gift was a positive sign after a stretch of increased difficulty with fundraising.

"It's been a very difficult time for nonprofits of any sort to raise money," said Thomas Toch, executive director of the Association of Independent Schools of Greater Washington. "It looks fortunately like there's light at the end of the tunnel."