Milestone for Providence Hebrew Day School

PHDS welcomes first third-generation student

On April 2, a new student began school in the second grade at Providence Hebrew Day School (PHDS); while every student is special, this student’s arrival heralded a milestone for PHDS.  Binyamin Cohen and his family moved from Israel to Providence at the end of March. While change is hard, Binyamin was very excited to join PHDS, the school both his mother and maternal grandmother attended. Thus, Binyamin is the first-ever third-generation PHDS student, which makes this a historic moment for the almost 70-year-old school.

Binyamin’s mother Abby Cohen, nee Winkleman, attended both the elementary and high school divisions of PHDS, and all of her siblings are PHDS graduates. Abby began PHDS as a pre-kindergartener in September 1987. She has fond memories of her time in PHDS and is very confident and pleased that her children will have such a special experience. When she brought her son to school for the first time, Cohen was pleasantly surprised to discover that several of her teachers from her time in PHDS are still teaching in the school. She looks forward to her second child Yaakov joining Binyamin at PHDS next year and is thrilled that one of Yaakov’s teachers will be one who taught her when she was in the early childhood program at PHDS.

While Abby and her husband Reuven have lived outside of Providence, most recently in Israel and previously in Teaneck, N.J., Abby’s parents Joseph and Roberta Winkleman have been part of the Providence community for many years. Roberta Winkleman, formerly Zeltzer, is a Providence native who attended PHDS from kindergarten in 1954 through eighth grade and graduated in 1963. Roberta attended PHDS at the school’s first site at 151 Waterman St. through third grade. When she was in fourth grade, classes were held in Temple Beth El, and then, for the next few years, at Temple Emanu-El, while the school’s current site at 450 Elmgrove Ave. was under construction. Roberta remembers that a hot lunch was served every day except Friday. On Friday, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches were served because the students were dismissed at an earlier time. Every year, kindergarten through third-grade students went on a field trip to Roger Williams Park, and fourth- through eighth-grade students traveled to Fenway Park in Boston for their field trip.

Roberta’s parents were active supporters of PHDS because they wanted their four children to receive a religious education. Roberta’s father Abraham Zeltzer spent long hours after work and on Sundays going door to door to collect money for the Day School; he had many doors slammed in his face because residents on the East Side didn’t want any religious schools in their neighborhood. Zeltzer was on the school’s board of directors and helped out with custodial jobs and maintaining the grounds. His hard work and hours of devotion, as well as that of other volunteers, helped lay the groundwork for the thriving school that exists today.

Miriam Esther Weiner (meweiner@phdschool.org) is the principal of the Providence Hebrew Day School.