History

A Brief and Incomplete History of the Levey Day School

Portland Hebrew Day School - Rabbi Morris Bekritsky- Founder - 1952

1952
Levey was founded by Rabbi Morris Bekritsky (leader of Shaarey Tephiloh) as Portland Hebrew Day School. The school was founded as an Orthodox school and was affiliated with the Torah Mesorah movement.

According to Harold Woolf, a Levey Foundation Trustee, who recently passed away and who had a long history with Levey, during the 50′s and maybe into the early 60′s, the school had “over a hundred students” and went all the way to 8th grade during this period.

1969
The school incorporated as a 501(c) (3) with the name Hillel Academy with a purpose “To establish, maintain and conduct schools to teach Hebrew religion, philosophy, culture and secular studies.”

1976
The school’s name was formally changed to the Abraham S. and Fanny B. Levey Hebrew Day School as a result of an extremely generous bequest.

Early 90’s
The name was changed to Levey Day School and the school became a member of RAVSAK, a national association of independent day schools, with no specific movement affiliation to better reflect the community school that it has become.

2000 -2001
Levey moved from Shaarey Tephiloh to Bet Ha Am.

2003-2004
Ellie Miller became Director of Levey. Levey moved from Bet Ha Am to Temple Beth El’s new education wing which had been built and designed with Levey input.

2005-2010
Levey continues to expand organizationally moving from a volunteer administration in the 90’s to an ever increasing professional level of full time administration and staff.  A commitment to families as well as students and a quality education have been the key.