A leader, educator, and mentor, Claude Oppenheim has been part of the Calgary Jewish Academy community for generations. He served as Director (Head of School) of the Calgary Hebrew School (CHS) and later the CJA for 22 years, then continued as an Administration Consultant for another 15. Today, Claude lives in Calgary and is a Field Experience Instructor at the University of Calgary Werklund School of Education and Founder of Oppenheim Education Consultants.
With nearly four decades serving the school community, Claude says simply, “I have many memories!” There’s no doubt about that. Among them are the incredible educational opportunities the CJA provided to students, and how he felt “enormously supported” by his board members, who brought a “rich diversity of personal, professional, and academic backgrounds”.
One of Claude’s proudest achievements is his contribution, alongside the principal of the I.L. Peretz School, Marilyn Libin, and the boards of the Calgary Hebrew and I.L. Peretz Schools, to merging the two institutions to create the CJA we know today. He recognizes that while the merger resulted in some losses, particularly in the rich Yiddish programming that had been fundamental to the I.L. Peretz School, it brought new vitality by combining the families, resources, staffs, and many of the traditions of the two schools.
Claude is especially grateful for the impact the CJA had on his own children and their Jewish identities. His four children had “the wonderful opportunity to attend the school, [an opportunity] they would not otherwise have had.” Before the family moved to Calgary, his older children spent their earliest years in rural Alberta, where they were the only Jewish family, and often felt different from their peers. At the Hebrew School, being Jewish suddenly became the norm. For Claude, that experience reinforced the importance of Jewish day school, particularly in a small Jewish community like Calgary’s, giving children a place where they can feel included while learning about, embracing and living their Jewish culture and history.
That connection to Jewish day school has continued into the next generation. Claude describes what being part of a CJA multi-generational family means to him. “That my Calgary children have chosen to send their children, my grandchildren, to the CJA for much of their schooling makes me very proud.” His youngest son, David, lives in London, England, where he and his wife send their two children to a very similar school. “Clearly, my children found their CJA experience so valuable that they wanted to replicate it for their families.”
His advice to current CJA students is to “immerse yourselves in the wonderfully rich environment that the CJA offers. The school’s dual Alberta and Judaic Studies curriculum is incredibly valuable, and you will develop close friendships, many of which will last for the rest of your lives.”