8 | The Jewish Press | April 22, 2016
community
Friedel Graduates: Where do they go to college?
CLAuDiA ShERmAn for Friedel Jewish Academy “Estimates vary, but perhaps 85-90 percent or more of young adult Jews go to college,” according to The Jewish Journal, the largest Jewish weekly newspaper in the United States outside of New York City A college education appears to be a priority to most American Jews. “Although hard to imagine as parents send their five-year-old off to the first day of kindergarten,” said Beth Cohen, Friedel’s head of school, “the impact of a child’s early educational experiences is seen throughout their educational career.” Susan Fellman Witkowski attended the Jewish Day School of Omaha in the early 1970s “when it was in a small building on the site of the current Beth Israel Synagogue,” she said. Her father, Dick Fellman “was pivotal in starting and maintaining that school,” Witkowski pointed out. Susan’s mother, Bev Fellman, known for her dedication serving the Jewish community, recently died. Witkowski went on to attend Brandeis University in Boston, majoring in English literature with a minor in sociology, and graduating in the late 1980s. She later attended law school in San Francisco. But she discovered she “hated it” and left. In 1995, Witkowski moved back to Omaha and finished undergraduate pre-med classes at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. She started medical school at the University of Nebraska Medical Center at age 31. While in medical school, she married Isaac Witkowski and had their first child, Gabby, now 15, a Friedel graduate who attends Central High School. Their second child, Julian, now 11, a fifth grader at Friedel, was born while Susan was in residency training at UNMC/Creighton/Children’s Pediatric Residency Program. For the past 11 years, she has been in practice as a pediatric urgent care doctor. Evan Saltzman, now 39, was part of the first graduating class to complete kindergarten through sixth grade at Friedel in 1989. He still enjoys reminiscing with former classmates about “our fond memories at Friedel.” When selecting a college, “It was important to me to be able to continue my Jewish education as well as get a college education,” said Saltzman, oldest of Lynne and Errol Saltzman’s three sons who all went to Friedel. “I applied to Yeshiva University and Touro College, both in New York City, as those institutions afforded me the ability to continue with a dual curriculum.” Accepted to both colleges, he chose Yeshiva University, which “was a good fit for me at the time for what I wanted to do both educationally and professionally.” He graduated in 2001 with a bachelor of science in management information systems. From 2002 to 2014, Saltzman was corporate IT service desk manager and business continuity coordinator for The Rockefeller Group based in Manhattan. In August 2014, Saltzman and his wife, Rebekah Chaifetz Saltzman, made aliyah and now live in Haifa. Since September 2015, Evan has been working with DataBit, Inc., a managed services provider of IT solutions. He works remotely from Israel as a service desk engineer. Evan and Rebekah have three children: Nathan, nine, and Alice (Elke) and Alexander, three-year-old twins. Evan also added to his educational résumé by earning his MBA with a dual concentration in management information systems and strategic management from Pace University’s Lubin School of Business. “Friedel laid the foundation for my future, and my educational decisions all stemmed from that,” remarked Saltzman. “I doubt this is what I was thinking as a sixth grader leaving Friedel, but looking back, there was a continuity of maintaining a Jewish education and Jewish identity.” Gila Drazen, daughter of Beth El Synagogue’s former spiritual leader, Rabbi Paul Drazen and his wife Susie Drazen, attended Friedel from 1985 to 1992, kindergarten through sixth grade. “I have a lot of wonderful memories (of Friedel), but probably most dear to my heart is remembering the fantastic educators,” she recalled. After being accepted by two colleges, the University of Iowa and the University of Judaism (now the American Jewish University) in Los Angeles, Gila chose the latter. “I wanted a small, Jewishly-oriented educational experience.” She graduated in 2002 with a bachelor of arts in literature and currently lives in New York City. Since October 2015, Drazen, now 35, has been working in the development department of Congregation Emanu-El of the City of New
Gila Drazen
Eva Phillips
Lilly Phillips
Aaron Rich
Adam Rich
Seth Rich
Evan Saltzman
Susan Witkowski
York, “one of the largest synagogues in the world,” she pointed out. “Friedel absolutely influenced my college choice,” continued Drazen. “I chose a small university where classes in my major had six people, we called our professors by their first names, and everyone knew everyone. If that’s not a Friedel influence,” she insisted, “I don’t know what is.” Another Friedel kindergartner through sixth grader, Adam Rich, 35, graduated from the school in 1993. When he started in 1986, Friedel had classes from kindergarten only through third grade. But while he was attending the school, the grade level extended through sixth grade allowing Rich to benefit from “amazing field trips; winter and spring plays, musicals, and programs; civic oration competitions; and the infamous Turkey Bowl football game on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 1991 when the score was 0 to 0,” he recalled. After graduating with honors in 1999 from Burke High School, Adam, one of Diane and Philip Rich’s three sons who all attended Friedel, began classes at the University of
Kansas. He had been accepted to the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, Iowa State University, and Kansas State University as well as all four of their Colleges of Architecture. Contributing factors in selecting KU included it having “the largest Jewish student population of any of the four schools and its proximity to an even larger Jewish community in Overland Park, Kansas.” Rich earned a bachelor of architecture in 2004 as well as a bachelor of arts with a major in psychology. Rich is also “thankful for my choice to attend KU, because if I hadn’t, then I never would have met my wife, Jessica Kalender. They live in Overland Park and have four children: Yonatan, eight, Eliezer, six, Yehoshua, four, and Devora, who will turn a year old on July 5. Both Yonatan and Eliezer attend the community Jewish day school in the area. Rich works for Hockenbergs, a restaurant kitchen equipment dealer, headquartered in Omaha although Rich works in the design department of the Kansas City branch. He just celebrated his fifth year there. According to Rich, “Jewish traditions and morals were compared, correlated, and intertwined with the daily skills that were taught to me at Friedel. How lucky I am to live my life as a Jew who enjoys embracing our lifestyle, because I was taught so many life skills and values at such a young age.” Rich’s cousin, Aaron Rich, 33, son of Joel and Mary Ann Rich, remembers “studying electricity with his teacher Mrs. (Denise) Bennett,” one of his favorite memories. He attended Friedel from kindergarten through sixth grade. He applied to five colleges and was accepted by all five. “It came down to the Colorado School of Mines, an engineering focused school, or Purdue,” he said. He chose the School of Mines, because he preferred the smaller student body of 3,000 over 30,000. “Plus Colorado is awesome, and I could go snowboarding for class credit!” Aaron confided that Friedel did not influence his choice of college but did affect his field of study. Friedel initiated his interest in electronics which led to computer programming at Central High School. A software engineering lead at Northrop Grumman Corporation since 2004 in Denver, Aaron majored in math and computer science with a minor in electrical engineering. He and his wife, Molly T. Zwerdlinger, live in Denver. Aaron’s brother, Seth, now 27, started going to Friedel when he was in first grade, the year the school opened on the JCC campus. He particularly remembers participating in the Modern Woodmen of America speech contest which was “among my favorite experiences since they had a lot to do with setting me on the path to speech and debate which was largely responsible for my future career,” Seth explained. He graduated in 2001 and after completing Central High School, he enrolled at Creighton University. “I chose Creighton,” Seth said, “because of its focus on social justice, its political science department, and placement of graduates into leadership roles - particularly in politics.” He majored in political science and is currently the Voter Expansion and Protection Data Director for the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C. where he moved in 2012 right after graduating from Creighton. “Having such a strong base of knowledge about my religious identity made it easier for me to push myself into ‘unfamiliar’ environments. Going through Creighton had a lot to do with how my moral compass evolved, but there wouldn’t have been much to shape,” declared Seth, “had it not been for Friedel and my upbringing.” Lilly Phillips, 21, and Eva Phillips, 20, daughters of Dr. Eric and Julie Phillips, graduated from Friedel in 2006 and 2008, respectively. Lilly is currently at Stanford University and will graduate with a bachelor of arts in psychology. She’s beginning to plan her next steps after graduation, reported her mother. Pursuing a bachelor’s degree in sustainable environmental design and a minor in city planning, Eva is a sophomore at the University of California at Berkeley. Like her sister, Eva plans to attend graduate school in the near future. “I know both girls feel that the confidence, encouragement, and individualized learning and care they received at Friedel gave them a strong foundation for their future education,” added Julie Phillips. “When Lilly was selected as a Presidential Scholar for the State of Nebraska,” said Julie, “she wrote in her essay that Friedel ‘set the bar for what learning could and should be.’”