Addlestone Hebrew Academy
In 1956, the newly merged Brith Sholom Beth Israel, under the leadership of Rabbi Nachum Rabinovitch, founded a school for preschool and first grades, the Charleston Hebrew Institute (CHI), with classes initially held at the Jewish Community Center (JCC) on St. Philip Street, with the Daughters of Israel Hall next door providing a lunchroom. Using part of the proceeds of the sale of the former Brith Sholom on St. Philip, a new building was constructed behind the synagogue on Rutledge Avenue to house the Hebrew school.
In 1976, CHI was renamed Addlestone Hebrew Academy (AHA) in honor of Abraham and Rachel Addlestone, parents of philanthropist Nathan Addlestone, who donated endowment funds to underwrite its renovation and expansion. In 1987, the day school moved to more spacious facilities on the JCC campus on Raoul Wallenberg Boulevard. (The street had been renamed in 1982 for Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg, a Swedish architect, diplomat, and humanitarian, who saved thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary in the last months of the Holocaust.) Teaching students from preschool through eighth grade with a dual-curriculum in secular and Jewish studies, AHA relocated once again in 2015 to a new school building.
Addlestone Hebrew Academy, 2020
Photo by Jack Alterman
Dedication, Charleston Hebrew Institute, 1956
Photo by S. A. Wall