Bet Shraga Hebrew Academy

The Hebrew Academy of the Capital District was established to provide Jewish young people with an education integrating the intellectual rigor, ethical norms and spiritual warmth of the Jewish tradition with the values of the American democratic heritage and the wisdom of the Western intellectual tradition. The Academy’s goal is to produce graduates who are well grounded in Judaic and secular studies and prepared to pursue both at more advanced levels, sensitive to ethical and moral demands in their dealings with all persons, committed to the religious traditions and Zionist aspirations of the Jewish people, loyal to the American democratic way of life, and possessed of a keen sense of civic responsibility toward the various communities – American, Jewish and universal – in which they will participate as adults.

An intense love of learning for its own sake has long characterized the Jewish life style, and the Academy strives to develop this devotion in its students and to see it applied to all learning, sacred and secular. Academic excellence is expected to result from this view of scholarship as its own reward and not from a sense of competitiveness. At the same time, the Academy’s curriculum is designed to transmit the values to which the school is dedicated. Natural sciences are taught from the point of view of man’s obligation to respect the world in which he lives. Social sciences are taught to foster the concern for social justice and sense of communal responsibility common to the Jewish and Western democratic traditions. The transmitting of knowledge and the transmitting of values are the two main purposes of a school, and the Academy strives to create an atmosphere in which both of these functions are carried out simultaneously.

Therefore, the Academy seeks to attract faculty members not only for their skills in conveying information, but also for their ability to serve as role models. Classes at the Academy are small, allowing for an intimate teacher-student relationship. In this way, the school’s sense of community, strong as it is, does not override its respect for the individual.

The school was established in 1962 by a group of dedicated Jewish community leaders under the guidance of its founding Principal, Mr. Shraga Arian, after whom the school was renamed as Bet Shraga Hebrew Academy.

DREAM, LITTLE CHILDREN
This is the heritage we bequeath to you.
This school was not established to leave you untouched,
uninspired. Ours is more than an institution devoted
to pursuing excellence in general studies and in Hebraica.
We have built this school so that you can
dream dreams, see visions, and do wonders.

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