Photo credit: KleinLife
KleinLife held a grand opening of The Ann & Murray Spain Jewish Learning Center on Oct. 5, in what the organization called a “re-opening” and expansion of its youth educational services ahead of its 50th anniversary on Nov. 2.
KleinLife’s children’s educational programs started around 12 years ago, designed to be a non-denominational way to teach kids more about Jewish pride, history and some Hebrew.
“We don’t want to base children’s experiences on all the negative stuff that happened in Jewish history. We want them to feel kind of positive about Jews and their impact on the overall society. It [the program] kind of took off,” said Andre Krug, president and CEO of KleinLife.
Krug said the program typically enrolls around 50-75 students at a time, and KleinLife leaders are consistently working to expand and improve their offerings and experiences.
This year, that process aligned with the organization conducting a fundraising drive in the run-up to its 50th anniversary. Krug said he spoke with Murray Spain, a big supporter of KleinLife, about the learning center and its mission.
The CEO said that, several weeks ago, he was able to secure a gift from the Ann & Murray Spain Foundation, and that the school would be named after the couple. Krug added that the funding will go toward increasing and improving the programs the center provides.
Possibilities include taking students to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., to Jewish museums in New York City and to other educational institutions.
The organization is also looking to make these opportunities more affordable and to give the kids a unique experiential learning experience.
“Those are kind of expensive things that we could not afford to do before, but now we’ll be able to do it and get more quality instructors to teach the children,” Krug said.
He added that having such opportunities will aid the development of the children’s Jewish identity and give parents a chance to share these experiences with their kids by coming on the trips. Engaging with parents is another goal the center is trying to achieve in connecting more people with Jewish life in Northeast Philadelphia.
Krug explained that, when KleinLife started the learning center, there was a high volume of Jews who were not connected to Jewish life in the area. So, as the center works to connect to the children, the parents will gain some level of connection as a byproduct.
“When the Judaism kind of skipped a generation or two, the way to reintroduce it to people’s lives is through their children,” Krug said.
This mission is important to KleinLife, as the center has become “the place of last resort” for Jewish community in the area, Krug said. The last major synagogue in the neighborhood sold its building two years ago.
“People are coming here, seniors and non-seniors alike. And now it’s a lot of kids, and I think we need to preserve this. And now it becomes more and more kind of urgent; we want the Jewish life in Northeast [Philadelphia] to continue,” Krug said.
The new funding will allow the center to have a greater impact in the community. Krug said KleinLife hosts events open to people across the community throughout the year, but now it can host them on “a greater scale.”
“We’re going to continue to provide the services to the Jews who are still living in Northeast [Philadelphia],” Krug said.