Source: The Boston Globe
An anonymous group of donors has given more than $12 million to a small Jewish high school in Waltham, MA., providing a boost not only to the school, but also to the world of Jewish philanthropy, which has been jolted by the twin shocks of the recession and the Madoff scandal. The contribution to the 315-student Gann Academy appears to be one of the largest ever to a local Jewish day school, and the first major gift in the local Jewish world since the recession hit.
The school, formerly called the New Jewish High School of Greater Boston, was founded 13 years ago in a small building on the Brandeis campus. As the school grew, its leaders borrowed $15 million to construct a building for it, in Waltham, to which the school moved in 2003. The anonymous donors paid off the remaining balance of the construction loan. The contribution will stabilize the finances of the school, which had been spending about $700,000 a year on debt service.
Gann Academy, calls itself transdenominational accepting children from across the broad spectrum of Jewish religious observance. Gann is the only non-Orthodox Jewish high school in Greater Boston.