Tarbut V'Torah Community Day School is a Jewish Community Day School located in southern Irvine, California. The school is divided into two separate sections: the Lower School serves grades TK-5 and the Upper School serves 6-12. Both schools are located on its campus that was generously donated by the Samueli Family and other donors. The school has been recognized as a Blue Ribbon School.
History
Founded in 1991 by Holocaust survivor Irving "Papa" Gelman, Tarbut V'Torah Community Day School, an elementary, middle and high school educational facility located in Irvine, California on a campus that opened in 1997 with more than 500 students. The school became the second Jewish school in Orange County to be cited among the 465 National Distinguished Blue Ribbon schools in California when the designation was conferred during the 1998-1999 school year. The campus expanded the upper schoolin September 2002: An area of was added and a new middle and high school was constructed to accommodate increased enrollment for all grade levels. The campus encompasses and of structures. In 2005-06, a record 645 students enrolled at TVT, making it the eighth largest Jewish Community Day School in the United States. The name "Tarbut" is inspired by the Tarbut schools created by the Yiddish-speaking community of pre-World War II Eastern Europe. The founder of Tarbut V'Torah, Irving Gelman, attended one of these schools. Tarbut V'Torah, translated from Hebrew, simply means culture & Torah. Tarbut schools had a curriculum that was secular and included science, humanities, and Hebrew studies, including Jewish history. Today, other Tarbut schools exist in Argentina and in , but there is no formal affiliation between either of those schools and Tarbut v'Torah. Irving Gelman died in 2018.
Athletics
TVT's athletics department is divided into Middle School athletics and High School athletics. Tarbut V' Torah's middle school athletic program competes in the Tri-Way League consisting of 10 other private schools throughout Orange County. Currently, the boys field three teams which include flag football, basketball and soccer while the girls compete in volleyball, basketball and soccer. TVT's high school athletic program has more than 10 teams. In the fall, girls compete in volleyball, tennis, and both boys and girls compete in Cross-Country. In the winter, both boys and girls compete in soccer; in addition, TVT has a winter Basketball team, which is ranked in Division 5. In the spring, boys can play tennis, baseball, swimming and volleyball, and the girls can play in swimming and softball.
Criticism
In August 2013 Rabbi Dov Fischer, a nationally respected rabbinical leader and member of the National Executive Committee of the Rabbinical Council of America, and rabbi of Irvine-based Young Israel of Orange County, published an extensive analysis criticizing the school's academic program. In his comprehensive analysis, based on seven years' interviews with and oral testing of students between grades 6-12 at TVT, Rabbi Fischer continued expressing the deep dismay he initially had published four years earlier regarding TVT's "institutional failure to achieve the results charted at leaner, more modestly funded Jewish Day Schools operated throughout America under Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox auspices." The rabbi's sharp critique criticized Tarbut V' Torah's ongoing track record, claiming that it does not meet its mission as a community Jewish Day School because of failures in inculcating grade-appropriate Hebrew reading-and-writing skills, meaningful student acquaintance with the Jewish prayer book, and a foundational knowledge in Chumash and Bible studies. Rabbi Fischer's critique took on added significance because of his prominence both nationally and locally, where he has served in capacities and prominent mainstream Orange County Jewish organizations and institutions ranging from the Orange County Board of Rabbis to the Board of Directors of Hillel of Orange County, and formerly served on the Board of the Bureau of Jewish Education of Orange County.
