The RPS Class of 2023 Caps Off Academic Year With Adventure and Discovery During “Senior Explorations” Week

Senior Explorations Week at RPS was a whirlwind of adventure and discovery! The Class of 2023 truly made the most of their last hurrah before endof-year celebrations began.

Dr. Cooper’s seniors ventured into the world of entrepreneurship at Disney, where they learned the secrets of theme park design, but not before exploring Magic Kingdom prior to rope-drop, meaning they got access to the park before anyone else.

Dr. Britt’s group immersed themselves in the vibrant art scene of NYC, exploring The Color Factory and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and getting backstage tours of both Madison Square Garden and the Metropolitan Opera House!

Ms. Zanfardino and her talented culinary explorers whipped up homemade gnocchi, tantalizing tacos, and indulgent crème brûlée French toast.

Mr. Kuchar’s group took to the sea and skies, riding the waves at the Jersey shore and experiencing the thrill of indoor skydiving.

And last but not least, Mr. Lid’s seniors crafted their own stunning glass art in Pennsylvania, in an intensive course that taught them the techniques used in glass blowing and glass fusing.

What a week of incredible journeys and lifelong memories!

On October 24, 2022, the beautiful, impactful life of Barbara Herzberg came to an end. I will provide some facts of her story although the effort to describe her feels flat in comparison to our actual experience of her. When she passed, a group of her devoted students and beloved colleagues got together to sanctify her life by remembering her. But to describe her, to reflect upon her legacy, is a daunting endeavor that is likely to be inadequate. Any attempt to create a picture of Barbara Herzberg is prone to coming off like a black and white photograph of a colorful, awesome landscape filled with birdsong.

Barbara Herzberg started life in Cincinnati, Ohio where she developed a passion for theater. A high school English teacher named Ed Sauer came from the Harvard faculty to teach in her school and became her role model. “He didn’t treat us like kids, and he knew so much. The discussions were great.” Her father was a businessman by day, a writer with great wit by night. She followed him to his men’s club where he and his buddies put on shows. From Cincinnati, she moved on to college at Oberlin and graduate school at Tufts. Throughout and beyond, she pursued her passion and gift for acting in multiple theater settings. She bragged proudly of being a founding member of the Cincinnati Playhouse. One observer commented on her huge talent packed into short stature, “When Barbara steps on stage, she grows three feet!” She married her husband, Norman, a mathematician, and had no children.

Ms. Herzberg was an English teacher at Rutgers Prep from 1971 to 2000. She taught “Aeschylus to Ibsen,” Dostoyevski, Flaubert, Hesse, and her favorite, “Willy S.” Those walking past her classroom, peering in, were no doubt curious to know, “What is going on in there?” Students were sometimes engaging in rapt discussion of meaning, learning how to interpret the fictional human behavior, symbolism, and images created from words in the literature she taught. More often, those students were on their feet, dramatizing the play at hand, bringing it to life, gaining understanding through the physical enactment. The casual observer in the hallway could see that otherwise distracted teenagers were immersed and excited.

We remember the way she made us feel. We were fascinated by the insight. We had the thrill of watching her act the parts and loved her infectious fervor that turned us into actors. We remember the pleasure of getting up on our feet to learn and putting our personal stamp on the recitation of the lines. She engaged us deeply in the discussion. She modeled unique, outside-the-box humor. She listened. She observed, understood, and cared about each student with a passion. She knew each one who returned to her classroom and could comment meaningfully on who that person was inside. Until the final months of her life, she could discuss with great feeling the personal strivings of a particular student as he made his college choice decades earlier. When I once asked her to describe to my husband the nature of another friend in high school, we heard nuanced observations of what made her tick, her abilities, and her connection to her friends. Barbara’s great caring led her to make friendships with her students that lasted to the end of her life. In the final years, during one of our long phone chats, always fascinating and hilarious, she once said to me, “When I see what you have become, I feel like I did something worthwhile with my life.” She might have said that to any of the students who cleaved closely to her. The comment shows her great devotion, her determination to make an impact. It acknowledges that she knew she had made a difference, that we deeply internalized her methods of observation, interpretation, enactment, and kindness.

Many of us have treasured our Oscars, clippings from a spider plant named Oscar, that Ms. Herzberg gave to her students upon graduation. They are lasting reminders of her impact.

Those who gathered to remember Barbara decided she should have a living memorial, one that would express her passion for theater, for moving us to immerse ourselves in it, and to know the kind of pleasure it provided her. A proper memorial should be egalitarian, benefitting all interested students. In this spirit, we are creating the Barbara Herzberg Memorial Fund to support drama programs at RPS.

Cynthia Berkowitz ’79

Written in admiration on behalf of Mrs. Herzberg’s students and performers