Months after unveiling plans for a brand new Jewish highschool in downtown Chicago, the venture’s founders have discovered their inaugural head of college and secured a still-under-construction constructing forward of its firstclass, slated for fall 2027.
The Davis College this week introduced the appointment of Richard H. Cuenca, the present head of college on the Posnack Jewish Day College in Davie, Florida, to guide the brand new highschool.
“A transformative builder and disciplined chief, Dr. Cuenca brings extraordinary expertise and a document of significant achievement,” the Davis Chicago Board of Trustees stated in an announcement. “Davis Chicago is dedicated to creating an academically rigorous, values-driven Jewish highschool that prepares college students for prime universities, significant Jewish engagement, and management within the broader world.”
For Cuenca, the transfer to Chicago after main Posnack since 2011 marks an opportunity to construct a college from the bottom up in one of many nation’s largest Jewish communities. The launch of the Davis College was first reported by the Jewish Telegraphic Company final summer time.
“It’s going to be a unbelievable alternative for the Jewish neighborhood and the Chicago larger neighborhood to have the ability to add one other asset to this wonderful metropolis,” Cuenca informed JTA. “A world class metropolis deserves a world class faculty preparatory Jewish highschool.”
The outside of the forthcoming Davis College in Chicago. (Courtesy of Jewish United Fund)
The college, set to be the one non-Orthodox Jewish highschool inside metropolis limits, will function a mixture of obligatory secular and Jewish curriculum with the purpose of instilling “Jewish satisfaction, help for the State of Israel, [and a] robust connection to their Jewish id” in its college students, in response to Cuenca.
“If a child’s taking AP calculus and so they don’t establish with AP calculus, you already know, that’s okay, proper? It’s a must to know calculus,” Cuenca stated. “However in Judaic research, it’s far more than simply content material information. It’s additionally a way of satisfaction, of connection, of Jewish id that will get solidified in very childhood of a youngster, in order that by time they graduate, they know precisely who they’re.”
Among the many lessons to be provided by the college will likely be an “Israel advocacy course,” which, in response to Cuenca, will embrace a survey on the historical past of the biblical land of Israel by means of the creation of the trendy Israeli state.
“When you have got the true information, when you have got that, then that may be a place of energy when an 18-, 19-year-old goes on a school campus and hears, you already know, different issues that deviate from that fact,” Cuenca stated.
The lead-up to the college’s firstclass comes as each personal and public faculties in Chicago have confronted allegations of antisemitism, spurring concern and need for another amongst some native Jewish dad and mom.
However whereas some Chicago-area dad and mom could also be drawn to the college as a refuge from rising antisemitism, Cuenca stated that was not the college’s focus. As an alternative, Cuenca stated the college was intent on “lifting folks up by means of Jewish studying.”
“We’re not attempting to reply to antisemitism,” Cuenca stated. “We’re attempting to supply a college of excellence that we predict contributes to the success of the general metropolis.”
That imaginative and prescient has been backed by vital funding within the faculty. In August, Tony Davis, a lead donor to the venture and the co-founder and president of Linden Capital Companions, bought a seven-story constructing on East Wacker Drive for $17.5 million to accommodate the college.
The constructing, which can function a 500-seat theater, a two-story library and absolutely kosher cafeteria amenities, was initially developed to accommodate a highschool campus for GEMS World Academy, a Dubai-based schooling supplier.
“Our founding imaginative and prescient is anchored in educational excellence, elevated by distinctive Jewish scholarship, rigorous faculty preparation, and the colourful power of the town of Chicago,” Davis and his spouse, Laura, stated in an announcement. “Our imaginative and prescient is daring, and Dr. Cuenca is the chief who will construct our dream right into a actuality.”
Reporting the tales that outline our period. When historical past unfolds in real-time, the Jewish world turns to JTA. Your help ensures we will doc the complexities of conflict and the resilience of Jewish communities with integrity.
