Politz Hebrew Academy of Philadelphia

Optione

Wed, Apr 18 2012, 11:02 pm

They have a phenomenal education, both limudei kodesh and chol. They are extremely caring and kind. It is known to be yeshivish yet they have a diverse group. Boys from the school go on to many well known "top" yeshivos and universities.

Tova

Thu, Apr 19 2012, 12:05 pm

Ahh...are you me? I attended nursery and kindergarten there when my family lived in Philly and I distinctly remember Mrs. Bessy Katz. I still have the class pictures from those years at my parent's house.

amother

Thu, Apr 19 2012, 6:40 pm

Mrs Katz is still there. As someone who's daughter attended the school I can't speak for the boys program but I don't really have anything nice to say about the school overall. We pulled our dd out.

tzatza

Thu, Apr 19 2012, 9:31 pm

amother wrote:

Mrs Katz is still there. As someone who's daughter attended the school I can't speak for the boys program but I don't really have anything nice to say about the school overall. We pulled our dd out.

Last amother, if you dont mind me asking, was it related to education level or other things?

TIA

amother

Thu, Apr 19 2012, 9:37 pm

tzatza wrote:

amother wrote:

Mrs Katz is still there. As someone who's daughter attended the school I can't speak for the boys program but I don't really have anything nice to say about the school overall. We pulled our dd out.

Last amother, if you dont mind me asking, was it related to education level or other things?

TIA

it was a combination of things. one of our main issues (there are a few) was the quality of educator. There are a couple of decent teachers there but the majority leave something to be desired.
The school lacks a professionalism that I expect in any school but maybe as a non FFB I am expecting too much from our system.
Another thing...it is much more of a day school with lots of frum kids than it is a yeshivah.

tzatza

Fri, Apr 20 2012, 3:03 pm

amother wrote:

tzatza wrote:

amother wrote:

Mrs Katz is still there. As someone who's daughter attended the school I can't speak for the boys program but I don't really have anything nice to say about the school overall. We pulled our dd out.

Last amother, if you dont mind me asking, was it related to education level or other things?

TIA

Thank you for your reply. If you dont mind me asking (again), what other school /schools were better suited?

amother

Fri, Apr 20 2012, 3:45 pm

in the philadelphia area? there isn't much else to choose from. Torah Academy in Lower Merion and Politz of Cherry Hill are the only other options around here. We don't know much about either. We are considering Politz of Cherry Hill for our younger child but still aren't sure. I don't know much about TA.

gila-rina

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 2:45 am

TA used to be co-ed till 4th grade. Overall, I think TA has a more modern student body.
Don't know about English department in Politz, but the Rabbis should be good.
This info is from someone who went to Politz about 20 years ago, just a warning.
Mrs. Katz is still there, for whoever was wondering.

amother

Sun, Apr 22 2012, 3:07 am

I also went to hebrew academy as a kid, graduated in 1990 then went on to TA for high school.
I can't say anything about the education nowadays but I am surprised to hear it called yeshivishe. It might be a tad more right wing than TA but its still a basic catchall orthodox day school as far as I know.

timeout

Wed, Apr 25 2012, 11:12 am

I graduated Politz a really long time ago. It has definitely changed since my time, if u r regular Yeshivish and your child is a happy go lucky Politz would be good. I have a friend who has her kids in 3 different schools in Philly since each one needs something else. The community itself is great especially where my parents live I love going for Yom Tov and will be going for a month this summer. My kids will be going to Achdus the day camp and a little toddler camp for my 3 yo they can't wait.

amother

Tue, Feb 10 2015, 8:49 pm

I grew up intown so this has all been new to me (think less than a decade).
So far, we are very happy there.
I have both genders there (in the younger grades) and have been very pleased educationally, hashkafically and middos wise.
While both Politz and TA cater to the general community with it's mixed crowd, the hanhala of Politz is much more right wing.
THe more yeshivish families from Lower Merion send there kids there.
Its lacks a certain professionalism that TA offers.
But that was never an ikkur for me.
Love of Torah, Gedolim and overall yeshiva hashkafa was more of a priority.

That said, I have seem many families have different kids in the different schools for a variteyt of reasons.

FTR, TA is still coed until 4rth-a major issue for me personally. I

good times

Tue, Feb 10 2015, 10:11 pm

I don't know about the boys as my kids are girls but we were extremely happy with the school. We felt that besides the top notch academics, the students were taught to truly love Torah. There was a very warm atmosphere among students and faculty alike. The children were given a variety of way to explore their artistic side as well as find the best way to connect to Hashem. I have never seen a school (and we move around a lot) that has such a diverse crowd with a great unified and solid hashgafa from the faculty. I also was very impressed with the importance the school placed on midos and on children being kind to each other. They have a very strict no bullying policy that they implement. My children were very happy there. Many years later we still lament about how we had to move away from that school.

amother

Calendula

Sun, Feb 20 2022, 12:24 pm

Anyone have current info? I’m hearing really mixed things. (FTR, moving from a Lakewood school. Not one of the so called “yeshivish” ones but still Lakewood) Specifically want to know about the girls school.

amother

Bergamot

Tue, Aug 02 2022, 9:57 pm

amother [ Calendula ] wrote:

Bumping this to follow