“We have been not even been recognised as a minority community all these years. It is an achievement that we have managed to run the school by ourselves with a good success rate,” said Ezra Moses, honorary treasurer and trustee of the school.
There was an added zing to the celebrations at the Sir Elly Kadoorie School in Mazgaon on Tuesday. The Jewish management-run Marathi medium school completed 141 years against the tide of BMC-run Marathi medium schools switching over to English.
“We have been not even been recognised as a minority community all these years. It is an achievement that we have managed to run the school by ourselves with a good success rate,” said Ezra Moses, honorary treasurer and trustee of the school.
Talking about the journey, Moses said, “Those who can afford seldom want to study in a Marathi medium school, because of the competition from contemporaries and better opportunities at an English medium school. The nearby locality has a lot of slums. Such children cannot afford expensive schools. So we thought of going to the slums and asking children to get admission. The Right to Education Act also gave us a good impetus. We send our teachers to counsel prospective students to come and attend the school.”
The school was built by Haeem Samuel Kehimkar in 1875 for the betterment of the Bene Israel and Jewish children, especially girls who were deprived of education. “Ironically, we do not have even one Jewish child in the school. The last Jewish student finished education in 2007,” said Moses, adding that Marathi was used as medium as the Bene-Israeli community had adopted the language.
Earlier, the school was a Marathi and Hebrew elementary school, named Israelite School. It functioned from a small bungalow in Dongri, before Kehimkar shifted it to Mazgaon. It has been running from the present spot since 1899.
The school management even provides mid-day meals to children. This year, the school added another feather in its cap. “Kaveri Jadhav, daughter of a Kargil martyr, topped in the SSC board exams in Marathi medium, with a 95% score,” said Ezriel Penkar, honorary secretary of the school.
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