(Photos: Amir Levy)
Say the word “kiruv” and what comes to mind is campus outreach or Birthright trips or a Chabad house.
The favorite demographic for kiruv workers is the young-adult cohort people old enough to think for themselves and young enough to change course in life.
But what if you could chap young people even earlier before the toxic social environments of secular high schools and colleges lead to poor choices warped perspectives and Jewish alienation? Long before kiruv became a buzzword Rabbi Eli Freilich decided to give it a try.
Back in 1968 he wondered if it would be possible to attract New York public school kids with weak or no Jewish background to a “late start” Jewish school that would meet them on their level. What he lacked in funding he made up in drive and 49 years later Ezra Academy is still that bridge school and Rabbi Freilich is still at the helm having navigated the institution through nearly five decades of social and demographic changes.
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