Foundation School bids adieu to Leah Rubin
By Jenn Director Knudsen
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People who know Leah Rubin well—her sons, friends, colleagues—say very little has changed about her since 1974, when she became The Foundation School Director.
"To me she has changed very little," said Nikki Director, whom Rubin credits with assembling—within a week—the school's first class of 2-year-olds. Director's two daughters went through The Foundation School, and she now has two granddaughters there.
"Leah is still the steady, loving leader she always was, and what was important to her in the beginning ? remains the same," Director said.
But the school Rubin has led for 32 years—a reign that ends this spring with her retirement and will be taken over by Jan Skolnik, a long-time Foundation School teacher —has seen its share of metamorphoses.
In 1974, the school had less than 10 children enrolled. Today, The Foundation School is near capacity, at 84 children, ages 2 to 5.
And in 1994 Rubin helped the school achieve accreditation from the National Association for the Education of Young Children, making it perhaps even more appealing to families, both members and non-members of Congregation Neveh Shalom, where it has been housed since its founding in 1954 by then-senior Rabbi Joshua Stampfer.
The school's student body always has been around 95 percent Jewish, Rubin said.
Rubin said she's not really certain why Stampfer tapped her more than three decades ago to lead the school.
An early-childhood educator by education and experience, Rubin in the mid-1970s was at home with her three young sons during the week and, on Sunday mornings, teaching kindergartners in the synagogue's religious school.
"I have always been extremely impressed with Leah's remarkable qualities, and when Ethel Suher retired as preschool director, Leah was an obvious choice to succeed her," Stampfer said.
"Leah is indeed unflappable," he continued. "Whatever crisis arose—and in a preschool that happens almost daily—Leah resolved it with the calmest demeanor and the most effective manner."
Stampfer remembered one particularly telling incident when a homeowner on property adjacent to the school's parking lot made a stink over expanding enrollment and therefore higher decibel levels within earshot.
"Rather than engaging in an ongoing dispute," Stampfer recalled, "Leah quietly arranged for a row of trees and hedges to be planted on the edge of the parking lot that satisfied his need for privacy and allowed our school to proceed as usual."
Calm, deeply faithful and a people-collector are other adjectives used to describe Rubin.
Her three sons, Gary, 39, Dan, 41, and David, 44, recalled being anywhere with their mom—a Trail Blazers basketball game, the mall, a restaurant—and having current and former preschoolers and their parents coming up to say hello.
"It's been a running joke in the family for as long as I can remember," Dan said about the constant chance meetings.
"Once there was a doctor in scrubs on the elevator at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center who said, 'Hi, Morah Rubin,' in a deep voice. He was in his late-20s or so. This?really highlights the impact Mom has had on our community," said Dan, whose two sons attended the school.
Executive Director Fred Rothstein believes Rubin's work at the school indeed has made an impact on the synagogue itself.
"The Foundation School is a wonderful entry point into congregational life," said Rothstein, who's known and worked with Rubin for five years. "So to that extent, she's helped grow the congregation. I want to thank her for the impact she's had on generations of Jewish people, their Jewish lives and on the Jewish community."
Rubin paused in a recent phone interview when asked what was the biggest challenge she faced in her decades-long job running a preschool.
Eventually, she answered, "It's not great when the toilets overflow, or when there's a paintbrush down the sink and the sink overflows."
Plumbing issues must in fact pose huge challenges to The Foundation School.
Jan Skolnik, the future director, who met Rubin 14 years ago when her eldest son started at the preschool and has worked with Rubin for more than a decade, recoiled at the thought of plumbing issues on her watch.
"Over the years I have watched her clean out clogged bathroom sinks with her little pincher device,?crawl on the kitchen floor to fix the garbage disposal," Skolnik said. "I just hope she leaves me her handy tool box with the little pincher tucked inside."
Rubin today is grandmother of six, two of whom still attend the school, and this summer will celebrate her 68th birthday and 47th year of marriage to Mark (Mr. Morah) Rubin.
She may be removing permanently her administrator hat—"I am leaving because it's time," she said—but her impact and legacy will remain.
Said Sheila Stern, who's known Rubin for 26 years and also is retiring as a longtime Morah: "When my son was in the 3-year-old class and cried the first three weeks of school ? she appeared in my class one morning announcing, 'He's not crying today.'
"I loved her for that."