Levey Day School

400 Deering Avenue

www.leveydayschool.org

Levey Day School is Maine’s (and Northern New England’s) only Jewish day school for preschool, elementary and middle-school students. Named for Abraham S. and Fanny B. Levey (Stop M01), early leaders of the Jewish community in Portland, Levey now thrives as a community day school that welcomes families of all beliefs, backgrounds, and faiths. The changes in its physical location and the broadening of the school’s educational focus reflect the trends of a community responding to the challenges of suburbanization and increasing cultural and religious diversity.

Levey was founded in 1952 as an Orthodox Portland Hebrew School (Stop W04), led by Rabbi Bekritsky of Shaarey Tphiloh. It was a supplement to regular day school, also providing bar and bat mitzvah education. At its peak in 1969, the Hebrew school had more than a hundred students, became independent of the synagogue, and was renamed the Hillel Academy. Its purpose was “to establish, maintain and conduct schools to teach Hebrew religion, philosophy, culture, and secular studies.” In 1976, the school was again renamed, this time as the Abraham S. and Fanny B. Levey Hebrew Day School— later shortened to the Levey Day School (or just “Levey” to locals). In 2000, Levey briefly moved to Bet Ha’am in South Portland (Stop W11). Three years later, it moved again, this time to the dedicated space here at Temple Beth El.

Levey now educates more than 60 Jewish and non-Jewish students from pre-school to grade eight, and retains its strong roots in Jewish history and culture. Levey Day School and Temple Beth El are also celebrating the completion of Shalom Community Park, a new playground and neighborhood green space intended to “foster learning, exploration, and cultural bridge-building for children and adults of diverse backgrounds and abilities.” The park is open to the public outside of school hours.