Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy is a pluralistic

Cultural pluralism

Cultural pluralism is a term used when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their unique cultural identities, and their values and practices are accepted by the wider culture. Cultural pluralism is often confused with Multiculturalism...

 Jewish Day School

Day school

A day school—as opposed to a boarding school—is an institution where children are given educational instruction during the day and after which children/teens return to their homes...

 for grades 6 to 12 located in Radnor

Radnor, Pennsylvania

Radnor is a wealthy Main Line township. It is an unincorporated community in Radnor Township of Delaware County and Tredyffrin Township of Chester County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. It lies near the communities of Villanova and St...

, Pennsylvania

Pennsylvania

The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...

. It was founded in Center City Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 in 1946 as Akiba Hebrew Academy and changed its name in 2007. Barrack Hebrew Academy's enrollment was 318 students during the 2007-2008 school year. On October 25, 2007, Dr. Steven Michael Brown was named to replace retiring headmaster Rabbi Phillip Field. Dr. Brown began his new position on July 1, 2008. His tenure ended on June 30, 2011 when Academic Dean, Sharon P. Levin, took over as interim head of school.

Name Change

In February 2007, Akiba accepted a gift of $5 million from The Barrack Foundation, headed by Leonard and Lynne Barrack. Akiba agreed to change its name to "Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy" in honor of Leonard Barrack's deceased brother. Leonard Barrack became president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia in the fall 2007. The new name was inaugurated on September 10, 2007, at the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia's Radnor Campus in Bryn Mawr.

Location Change

In July 2007, the Jewish Federation

Jewish Federation

A Jewish Federation is a confederation of various Jewish social agencies, volunteer programs, educational bodies, and related organizations, found within most cities in North America that host a viable Jewish community...

 of Greater Philadelphia announced that it had purchased the former American College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania

Bryn Mawr from Welsh for "big hill") is a census-designated place in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, just west of Philadelphia along Lancaster Avenue and the border with Delaware County...

. The American College site is 35 acres (141,640.1 m²) on Bryn Mawr Avenue in Radnor Township. The school inaugurated the new building with a "Hanukat HaBayit" on September 14, 2008 at which U.S. Congressman Joe Sestak addressed the crowd.

History

Akiba was founded in 1946 by Dr. Joseph Levitsky and co-founded by Rabbi Simon Greenberg

Simon Greenberg

Dr. Simon Greenberg, was a Russian born American Conservative rabbi and scholar. Greenberg was part of the senior management of many Jewish organizations in America. He helped to found a number of institutions, including the American Jewish University, of which he was the first President...

, Rabbi Elias Charry, and Dr. Leo L. Honor. The school first met at the YM & YWHA

Jewish Community Center

A Jewish Community Center or Jewish Community Centre is a general recreational, social and fraternal organization serving the Jewish community in a number of cities...

 at Broad

Broad Street (Philadelphia)

Broad Street is a major arterial street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and is nearly 13 miles long.It is Pennsylvania Route 611 along its entire length with the exception of its northernmost part between Old York Road and Pennsylvania Route 309 and the southernmost part south of Interstate 95...

 and Pine Streets in Center City, Philadelphia

Center City, Philadelphia

Center City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2005, its population of over 88,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City's and Chicago's...

. Its first class had 20 boys and girls. After four years at the YM & YWHA, Akiba moved to Har Zion Temple at 54th and Wynnefield Avenues

Wynnefield, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Wynnefield is a predominantly African-American, middle-classneighborhood in West Philadelphia. Its borders are 53rd Street at Jefferson to the south, Philadelphia's Fairmount Park to the east, City Avenue to the north and the Amtrak Main Line tracks to the west.Surrounding neighborhoods include...

, where it was located until 1958.

In 1956, Akiba purchased a 5.3 acres (21,448.4 m²) property off North Highland Avenue in Merion Station

Merion, Pennsylvania

Merion Station is an unincorporated community in Lower Merion Township, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is contiguous to Philadelphia and is also bordered by Wynnewood, Narberth, and Bala Cynwyd...

, across City Line Avenue on the Main Line

Pennsylvania Main Line

The Main Line is an unofficial historical and socio-cultural region of suburban Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, comprising a collection of affluent towns built along the old Main Line of the Pennsylvania Railroad which ran northwest from downtown Philadelphia parallel to Lancaster Avenue , a road...

. The property had once been part of a large estate, "Ashdale". Ashdale had been built by William Simpson, a nineteenth century insurance entrepreneur. After Simpson's death in 1909, his family broke up the estate, and the McMenamin family purchased a 5.3 acres (21,448.4 m²) section on which they built a mansion that they named "Drake Linden Hall". After Akiba purchased the mansion, it converted bedrooms into classrooms. In September 2008, Akiba sold the property to the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia for $4.0 million. At the time of sale, Drake Linden Hall measured 20247 square feet (1,881 m²), including additions made in the mid-1970s, the gym and "new" classrooms building. Kohelet Yeshiva High School purchased the mansion in 2010 and has since renovated it and the adjoining buildings.

Alumni

Well known alumni include writer Mitch Albom

Mitch Albom

Mitchell David "Mitch" Albom is an American best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, dramatist, radio and television broadcaster and musician. His books have sold over 30 million copies worldwide...

, ABC News

ABC News

ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...

 Senior National Correspondent Jake Tapper

Jake Tapper

Jacob Paul "Jake" Tapper is an American print and television journalist, currently the senior White House correspondent for ABC News in Washington, D.C...

, Deputy Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two year terms from single member districts....

 Josh Shapiro

Josh Shapiro

Josh Shapiro is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, representing the 153rd legislative district since 2005...

, Jewish Telegraphic Agency

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency is an international news agency serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world. The JTA was founded on February 6, 1917, by Jacob Landau as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau in The Hague with the mandate of collecting and disseminating news among and...

 editor-in-chief Ami Eden, scientist Dan Bricklin, "Deadliest Catch

Deadliest Catch

Deadliest Catch is a documentary/reality television series produced by Original Productions for the Discovery Channel. It portrays the real life events aboard fishing vessels in the Bering Sea during the Alaskan king crab and C. opilio crab fishing seasons.The Aleutian Islands port of Dutch Harbor,...

" and "Ghost Hunters

Ghost Hunters

Ghost Hunters is an American paranormal reality television series that premiered on October 6, 2004, on Syfy . The program features paranormal investigators Jason Hawes and Grant Wilson who investigate places that are reported to be haunted. The two originally worked as plumbers for Roto-Rooter as...

" producer Yoshi Stone, author David Wolpe

David Wolpe

David J. Wolpe is an author, public speaker and rabbi of Sinai Temple . Named the "#1 Pulpit Rabbi in America" by Newsweek magazine , he is considered a leader of the Conservative Jewish movement. Wolpe was named one of The Forward's Forward 50, and one of the hundred most influential people in...

, cookbook author Jamie Geller

Jamie Geller

Jamie Geller is the author of Quick and Kosher Recipes from the Bride Who Knew Nothing and founder of the Kosher Media Network, a media platform affiliated with Kosher.com, an online kosher food delivery site. Additionally, she hosts the online cooking shows Quick & Kosher and Simply Kosher...

, actor Gideon Glick

Gideon Glick

Gideon Glick, born June 6, 1988 is an American stage performer and movie actor. His Broadway work includes the role of Ernst in the musical Spring Awakening.-Biography:Glick graduated from Lower Merion High School.Glick is Jewish, and openly gay...

, and reason magazine editor Jacob Sullum

Jacob Sullum

Jacob Z. Sullum is a syndicated newspaper columnist with Creators Syndicate and a Senior Editor at Reason magazine. In 2004, he received a Thomas S. Szasz Award...

.

Athletics

Akiba men's sports teams (the Cougars) participate in the Tri-County Independent School League (TCISL). The girl's teams are members of TCISL as well as the Penn-Jersey League. Akiba's men's basketball team last won the championship in 1997 defeating Phelps Academy in a dramatic, come from behind win. The 1997 team was captained by Marshall Lesack and Nati Passow, and coached by Barnett Kamen.

The women's varsity basketball team was coached by former-NBA

National Basketball Association

The National Basketball Association is the pre-eminent men's professional basketball league in North America. It consists of thirty franchised member clubs, of which twenty-nine are located in the United States and one in Canada...

 player Joe Bryant

Joe Bryant

Joseph Washington "Jellybean" Bryant is a retired American professional basketball player, current coach, and the father of Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. Bryant was the head coach of the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks from August 22, 2005 until April 4, 2007...

 during the 1992-1993 season. Bryant would leave Akiba in June 1993 to take an assistant-coach position at LaSalle University.

The men's varsity Baseball team has won the Penn Jersey championship only three times in their history. They were consecutively won from 2007-2009.