Revisionist?
I went to Akiba (Akiba Hebrew Academy) for 4 years: grades 7-10, so all of what was considered for me to be middle school and then the first half of high school. I won't go into the ordeals of the past, but just recently the school was renamed and is moving to a new site. Both fabulous things. I'm glad to see the place expanding out of an inadequate facility to a better location, and I'm glad they found a solid amount of money to facilitate both relocation and helping to fund students' education through scholarships.
Here's the weird part. The school has been the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy for something like a month. And actually that's an overstatement, technically it's been JBHA for -2 days, since the official renaming is Sept 10. But now everything at the school has the name change. Including the history of the school. Apparently JBHA was founded in 1946, and the first class was graduated from JBHA in 1951. And that's just not quite true. They graduated from Akiba. The school was founded and named for a famous rabbi and scholar. The school was then renamed to honor a generous gift of commitment from another individual.
So why rewrite history? I find it unsettling. I'd much rather read about a generous gift and someone's pledge to help warranting a name change, than just that the place always had such a name. It just... feels wrong to retroactively change the name 60 years earlier... and maybe again that's just me.
Here's the weird part. The school has been the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy for something like a month. And actually that's an overstatement, technically it's been JBHA for -2 days, since the official renaming is Sept 10. But now everything at the school has the name change. Including the history of the school. Apparently JBHA was founded in 1946, and the first class was graduated from JBHA in 1951. And that's just not quite true. They graduated from Akiba. The school was founded and named for a famous rabbi and scholar. The school was then renamed to honor a generous gift of commitment from another individual.
So why rewrite history? I find it unsettling. I'd much rather read about a generous gift and someone's pledge to help warranting a name change, than just that the place always had such a name. It just... feels wrong to retroactively change the name 60 years earlier... and maybe again that's just me.