Wilshire Boulevard Temple to Open Brawerman Elementary School East with Full Enrollment

LOS ANGELES, June 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Wilshire Boulevard Temple announced today it will open its new Brawerman Elementary School East with full enrollment for the 2011-2012 school year.  Brawerman East expands the mission of the wildly successful Brawerman Elementary School West, located at the Temple's Audrey and Sydney Irmas Campus on the West Side of Los Angeles.  With its location on the historic Wilshire Boulevard Temple Campus in the Wilshire Center neighborhood of Los Angeles, Brawerman East fuses the past, the present and the future into a compelling curriculum that roots students in the history of the Jewish people, develops students' sense of self and prepares students to be good citizens in a multi-cultural city and world.  A dynamic response to education, students at Brawerman East will experience the highest academic standards with the added privilege of attending school at an historical landmark, a living example of Jewish history.

Head of School Nadine Breuer is proud that Dr. Hannah Bennett is the Principal of Brawerman East.  Principal Bennett remarks: "This is an educator's dream.  We have the opportunity to build a school from the bottom up.  We get to take everything we know from the best of educational theory and our experience at Brawerman West and apply it to the reality that will be Brawerman East; all with the added luxury of integrating a compelling neighborhood, an historic building and the story of Judaism into a dynamic twenty-first century education."  Dr. Bennett took a rather unorthodox route to Jewish Day School administration – through the city of Compton – launching her career in education as a first-grade teacher at Thomas Jefferson Elementary School.  She received her Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Maryland, her Multiple Subject Teaching Credential from California State University, Long Beach and her Doctorate in Education and Administrative Services Credential from the University of California, Los Angeles.  

Wilshire Boulevard Temple also announced today the hiring of Brawerman Elementary School East's founding Kindergarten teacher, Amy Carson.  Ms. Carson received her Bachelor of Arts in Developmental Psychology from Harvard and her master's degree in Early Childhood Leadership from Bank Street College of Education.  She spent several years conducting research on early childhood education policies at Teachers College, Columbia University.  For the past five years, Ms. Carson has been teaching at Rodeph Sholom School, a Reform Jewish day school on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

The opening of Brawerman East coincides with a major renovation and redevelopment project at Wilshire Boulevard Temple's historic 3.9-acre campus that includes the restoration of the magnificent Magnin Sanctuary, as well as the renovation and construction of new school buildings, a parking structure, athletic and social services facilities.  

Founded in 1862, Wilshire Boulevard Temple (originally known as Congregation B'nai Brith) is the oldest Jewish congregation in Los Angeles, and one of the country's most highly regarded Reform Jewish communities.  The Temple also operates fully accredited and outstanding parenting and early childhood centers at both its Westside and historic campuses as well as the Wilshire Boulevard Temple Camps and Conference Center at a 200-acre site in Malibu.

SOURCE Wilshire Boulevard Temple