Local Jewish day schools show they care through bagel breakfast, Day of Learning
Although Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School has largely returned to its routine, some community members are still grappling with the loss of Lower School principal Rabbi Matthew Bellas, who died on Dec. 30, 2024.
“I’ve had a number of faculty come to my office to cry, sometimes to get a hug, sometimes to talk about how they’re feeling, and that’s the same with the whole administration at the Lower School,” Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, CESJDS’ head of school, said. “We’ve told teachers that we have an open door and we’re available to them.”
The day before students returned from winter break, Malkus said he spent the entire day with the Lower School faculty discussing their collective grief and how they’re coping with their loss, noting that grief isn’t a linear process.
Malkus and the faculty worked with grief counselors from CaringMatters, a nonprofit organization based in Gaithersburg, on how to best present information about death to the young students. The Lower School faculty received group support and had the opportunity to share their thoughts.
“Overall, the students are doing quite well and are very resilient,” Malkus said. “There are a handful who need more support, which they’re getting directly from their counselors.”
He said the longer-term work through this grief primarily affects the Lower School staff members, who worked closely with Bellas during his decade-long tenure at CESJDS.
The community has named the performing arts graduation award in Bellas’ memory, as he was highly involved in the school’s musical productions. The CESJDS community also established a memorial fund in his name and created a T-shirt with his name and signature slogan. The CESJDS parents’ association started a virtual tribute book for Bellas.
In addition to these memorial efforts, three Jewish day schools in greater Washington banded together to show their support for the CESJDS community following Bellas’ death.
The heads of school of Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, Gesher Jewish Day School in Fairfax and Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School in Washington, D.C., collaborated to send a bagel breakfast to the CESJDS Lower School staff on Jan. 17. The three other schools also dedicated a “Day of Learning” in Bellas’ memory that day.
Aviva Walls, the head of school at Gesher, spearheaded the effort to cater the breakfast from Goldberg’s New York Bagels in Rockville. She said she meets regularly with the other heads of school to discuss issues in Jewish education.
“When I heard about Rabbi Bellas, I was very struck by the impact that he had on not only his community, but on the entire field of Jewish education,” Walls said. “He was an incredible leader.”
Feeling like Bellas’ passing warranted more than a single well wish to the CESJDS community, Walls contacted fellow Jewish day school leaders Deborah Skolnick-Einhorn of Milton and Rabbi Hillel Broder of Berman: “Hey, I think we should do this together. I think it would make a strong statement.”
Skolnick-Einhorn and Broder were “on board immediately,” Walls said.
“I also felt in the immediate aftermath [of Bellas’ death] that [Bellas’] family was being taken care of and the teachers [at CESJDS] were taking care of the students, but nobody was talking about the fact that he was a leader and made a huge impact on his faculty,” Walls said. “How could we do something for that faculty that’s also in mourning? I felt like the only way we could do it was from school to school, so that’s what we did.”
The Lower School faculty at CESJDS received a breakfast of bagels, cream cheese and egg salad — “all the good Jewish stuff” — as well as coffee and orange juice, Skolnick-Einhorn said.
“I know that the teachers really were super appreciative,” Malkus said. “It was a nice touch that we were able to give them this meal, which was lovely. We really felt supported by that.”
Skolnick-Einhorn said the four heads of school work “very closely” together.
“When something tragic like this happens, as a school leader, you think about what that would be like for your team; you want to find a way to support that other school,” she said. “It seemed [to us] like the obvious thing to do.”
Support for the CESJDS community even spanned county lines; Krieger Schechter Day School in Baltimore also sent a breakfast to the Lower School faculty.
Walls didn’t want to stop there.
On Jan. 17, the staff at Berman, Gesher and Milton Jewish day schools dedicated a Day of Learning in Bellas’ memory, invoking his catchphrase: “Ask a good question, learn something new and be kind to everyone.”
A senior educational leader at Gesher put together lesson plans that encourage students to be inquisitive and kind. Students at Gesher received a graphic organizer with blank spaces to fill in “something I’m wondering about,” “something I learned today” and “I was kind when… .”
“We very much believe that the work of Jewish education is a calling; it’s much more than a profession,” Walls said. “When we allowed Rabbi Bellas’ calling to move beyond his own school to the entire community of schools, it really only increases his holiness, and what a beautiful tribute we can make both to his legacy and to our community.”
Skolnick-Einhorn said leaders at Milton also shared educational material with students related to Bellas’ philosophies.
“It was a statement to the [CESJDS] community that we’re here with them, that they’re not alone in their pain and their loss and that a loss to one of our schools is a loss to our whole community,” she said.
“I hope they feel our support,” Walls said of the CESJDS community. “I want them to know that we’re thinking of them, and we know that they’re in pain and mourning, and I can’t lessen that pain, but I can say, ‘We’re thinking of you and we support you.’”
