Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy, Kansas City’s only Jewish day school, is marking a milestone this year. The school will celebrate its 50th anniversary — quite an accomplishment for an institution that started with only a handful of students in a small building.
But thanks to the dedication of its founding parents, the faculty that has taught there and the students it has educated, HBHA is recognized as one of the top private schools in the metro area and beyond.
HBHA will celebrate its golden anniversary on Monday evening, April 11, with a very special musical concert featuring Music Director Michael Stern and the Kansas City Symphony at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. At that time Neil and Blanche Sosland, HBHA founding parents and community philanthropists, will be recognized with the prestigious Civic Service Award.
The heart of HBHA has been its students, and for those among the school’s first graduating class of nine students, the institution has left an indelible, loving mark on their hearts and souls.
Harriet Puritz Almaleh’s earliest memories include riding a little school bus to get to HBHA, then housed at Congregation Ohev Sholom, and carrying around textbooks in cardboard boxes, in place of non-existent lockers.
Almaleh’s parents (Carl Puritz and the late Joan Puritz Greenberg) were also among the school’s founders, and she had an extra special connection as Hyman Brand, for whom the school is named, was her great uncle.
“I remember my Uncle Hymie and Aunt Clara Brand visiting the school and how proud they were of it,” Almaleh said.
“The single most special thing about the Academy for me was that I always felt special and unique attending the school,” she said. “I felt I was a chosen student at a chosen school surrounded by many members of the chosen people. It was — and remains — such a uniquely Jewish experience.”
Almaleh’s own two children, Ryan and Katie, are also HBHA graduates. There is one thing about HBHA that stands out for Almaleh to this day.
“My lifelong love of Judaism that was instilled within me by attending HBHA and that love is with me every day in small and big ways,” she said.
Now living in New York, HBHA Class of ‘76’s Bonnie Nussbaum Mannis, has fond memories of her school experience.
“I always joke that we were the ‘guinea pigs,’ ” Mannis said.
“I really loved the school and I received a very good education there as well. I attribute my fluency in Hebrew to the foundation and the curriculum at HBHA.”
Like her classmate Almaleh, Mannis has fond memories of some of the day-to-day things.
“But most important, I remember the teachers and the learning,” Mannis said. “I remember the teachers fondly. They were infusing us with a strong sense of Jewish identity and educating us with a solid background in Judaic and secular studies,” she said.
“Our families instilled in us the importance of Jewish values and a Jewish lifestyle, but HBHA reinforced those goals in partnership with our families.”
Mannis said HBHA has influenced her life in many important ways.
“My four children have all received an Orthodox day school education in New York and their children are continuing their day school education as well,” Mannis said. “What better proof of the success of the HBHA and the importance of a Jewish education?”
Initially, HBHA began as a kindergarten through third grade school. Then the school added one grade each year until it became a K through eight school, the original expansion goal of the founders. However, founder Joan March led the move to add high school to HBHA, thus making it the K through 12 school that it is today. Her daughter, Susan March, was also a member of the first graduating class.
“They made Jewish life grow in Kansas City … without the day school, that would not have happened,” said Susan, of her parents, Joan and Walter March.
In fact, Susan March’s career has been deeply affected by her time at HBHA, “I am a professional Jewish educator and librarian … I do research and I love studying everything Judaic. “Professionally, having a day school background made it much easier for me to get my college degrees.”
As each subsequent class joined the school, HBHA continued to play an important role for its members. Josh Sosland, another early HBHA graduate said, “I even remember the night before the school opened. My parents explained I would not be going back to Ridgeview Elementary and that I would be attending a new and special school. It was exciting.”
Sosland also recalled the end of the school’s first year — June 1967.
“I remember sitting at the end of morning prayers … and the teachers explaining to us Israel had been under threat from foes in several directions but managed to achieve a stunning victory,” Sosland said. “Excitement rippled through the classroom as we learned, almost in real time, that the Jewish people had regained access to the Western Wall for the first time in a generation and control of the Old City for the first time in 2,000 years. It was a moment of pure joy. What a great teaching moment.”
At the time, Sosland didn’t give much attention to the fact that his parents helped to establish Kansas City’s only Jewish day school.
“Several of my classmates’ parents also were founders. It wasn’t a big deal,” he said. “It’s only with the passing of time I’ve come to appreciate the enduring power of their vision. The school has changed in many, many ways and will continue to evolve, but it has held true to two bedrock principles of my parents and the other founders — the community day school model — that the Academy needs to meet the needs of everyone in the Jewish community and an unwavering commitment to the pursuit of excellence in Judaic and secular education.”
Two of Sosland’s three children have already graduated from HBHA; currently, daughter Leah is a junior in HBHA’s Upper School.
“Having children at HBHA has certainly given me a greater appreciation of what my parents provided me,” Sosland said. “Jane and I are both very proud of our children and appreciative of everything HBHA has done to help shape them into the young adults they have become.”
Judy Firestone Singer, who now lives in Israel, went to HBHA for all of her schooling. She was a part of the graduating class of 1979. Her brother Mike also attended HBHA.
Singer’s parents, the late Milton and Bea Firestone, were also among the HBHA’s founding parents. There are memories of playground activities, moves to bigger buildings, holiday celebrations “and turning every piece of furniture in the upper school upside down on April Fool’s Day,” Singer said.
“I think what I remember best is that we had close personal relationships with many, many teachers,” she said. “I thought this kind of closeness was a normal thing and it wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized how extraordinary it was. We had educators who cared deeply about our education and about us personally, it was very special.”
There is one member of HBHA’s first graduating class who will not be part of the celebration. Rabbi Kalman Levine, z”l, known as Cary during his school days, was tragically killed in 2014 in a violent attack in Har Nof, Israel. Nussbaum remembers Levine well.
“Cary was the class clown — few with words but great with one-liners,” she said. “He was a gentle and sweet soul.”
