Parents, faculty and alumni spoke to Charles E. Smith Jewish Day School’s tight-knit community, rigorous academics and teachers who go above and beyond for their students.
The private, pluralistic Jewish Rockville school community, which offers instruction for preschool through 12th grade, is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, marked by a March 22 reunion event.
The school is home to a notable number of longtime faculty members, including four who have worked at CESJDS for more than 40 years. Some faculty members attended CESJDS themselves.
Why do alumni keep coming back to work for CESJDS and sending their kids there? And how does the school explain that 16% of the faculty have worked at CESJDS for at least two decades? Many cite the community.
Dorie Ravick, who graduated from CESJDS in 2001, is in her 13th year working for the school. She and her husband, also a CESJDS alum, met in the sixth grade.
“It just really felt like a home,” Ravick said of the school. “It really felt like an extension of my life in my own home when I walked in every morning.”
Ravick is now CESJDS’ director of engagement and Lower School admissions, having previously served as a college counselor in the Upper School. She regularly tells prospective families “it was a gift that [she] was able to come to JDS.”
Josh Lipsky, a class of 2004 alum and father of two CESJDS students, is a “lifer,” the colloquial term used for a student who attended the school from kindergarten through 12th grade. Lipsky met his now-wife, Leah, also a class of 2004 alum, at CESJDS.
“JDS feels like a home. There’s a warmth; I’ve always felt that about the school,” Lipsky said, describing how the headmaster, Elliot Prager, would visit classrooms and play his guitar.
Dan Mendelson, a Chevy Chase resident and CESJDS alum who attended from kindergarten through ninth grade, described the school as small and intimate, especially in its early years.
“There was a lot of engagement from the teachers,” Mendelson said.
The teachers earned high praise from many in the community.
As the dean of students since 1989, Roslyn Landy interviews graduating seniors before they depart, and the first thing many of them say is that “our teachers are more than teachers. They care about us as a whole person.”
“Here, you’re able to be more creative as a teacher,” Landy said. “You have wonderful relationships with your students.”
When Landy joined the faculty team in 1977, she knew every student from kindergarten to 12th grade.
Enrollment has since grown — the 2001 graduating class was 76 students, a number that now approaches 100.
“One of the most special aspects of JDS is the growth of what we’ve seen,” Ravick said.
Until her junior year of high school, all grade levels were housed on one campus. Then, CESJDS built a second campus, the Upper School on Hunters Lane, which opened in 1999.
“Watching that transformative moment, I remember it so clearly, even though it feels like it was a million years ago,” Ravick said. “It’s been amazing to watch JDS evolve as an academic institution and as a community institution. I really believe that we’re able to support even more students and families now than we were when we were students.”
Recent years have seen other changes as well. “In the last 10 years, our arts and STEM programs have become so outstanding because we’ve increased and built them up,” Landy said.
In the early years of CESJDS, when Landy’s three children attended, all three were required to take the same set of Judaic studies courses. As the interim principal in 2002, Landy worked on adding more elective options in Judaic studies, including courses in Jewish theology, rendering legal decisions in Judaism, Jewish history in film and literature, and Arab-Israeli conflict, which went into effect in fall 2003.
“It’s become far, far more creative, and that has changed kids’ view of what they will do afterwards,” Landy said. “Because we added more interesting courses and choices, students are far more engaged and interested in continuing studying Judaics in college.”
In 2022, CESJDS launched an Upper School Center for Health and Wellness to support social-emotional growth, according to the website. “We’re moving with the times,” Landy said.
The March 22 event honored faculty members Sue Zuckerman, the director of Upper School educational support services, and Rochelle Sobel, a fourth grade Judaics teacher.
Lipsky recalls sitting in Sobel’s classroom in the mid-1990s. “She was my fourth grade Hebrew teacher and had such an impact on my life,” he said. “She was such an incredible teacher.”
Passionate and full of energy, Sobel would “bring to life” chapters of the Torah and explain how the lesson was applicable to the modern day, Lipsky recalled. He said the community reunion was a great experience.
“I just love seeing people come from all different years and classes and talk about how these teachers have made such a difference in their lives,” Lipsky added.
The school’s 60th anniversary is also a fundraising opportunity to keep CESJDS afloat for future generations. The community’s goal is $36 million, according to Head of School Rabbi Mitchel Malkus, which includes maintaining “faculty excellence, tuition assistance, a transformational remodeling of the Lower School building, and Jewish life and community.”
“We want to make sure that we have all the resources we need to support our students,” Malkus said. “That is some of the work we’re thinking about: How do we make sure we have the resources to meet our mission in the next 60 years?”
He added that he’s most proud of CESJDS’ graduates, who “go out and make a difference in the world.”
The graduates aren’t solely leaving with Jewish knowledge or leadership skills — many have also met lifelong friends, teachers they won’t soon forget and a community.
Landy’s three children and three grandchildren are an example. “Their best friends, even in adulthood, are their JDS friends,” she said.
