H EADLINES
Barrack Foundation Announces $1M Scholarship Fund
L OCA L
ANDY GOTLIEB | JE MANAGING EDITOR
THE BARRACK Foundation
announced it created a $1 million
scholarship to assist academ-
ically strong students with
leadership qualities in attending
the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew
Academy in Bryn Mawr.

Th e Madlyn Abramson Fund
for Excellence in Education
and Community Leadership
will provide awards and schol-
arship assistance to students
from middle-class families
“who demonstrate outstanding
academic performance and
exemplify Jewish communal
leadership qualities,” according
to a news release.

Head of School Sharon
Levin said the scholarships will
allow the school to attract top
students. “We will really be able to put
out to the community ... that
Barrack is a place where if you
show not only academic poten-
tial but leadership, too, we want
you,” she said. “We want to take
every child who wants to come.”
Chief Operating Officer
Alex Stroker said the schol-
arship serves to address a
potential vacuum of future
leadership akin to families like
the Abramsons and Barracks,
which have off ered support for
the Jewish community for years.

“Th ey can feel comfortable
that there will be a next level
taking over for them,” he said.

Levin noted that indepen-
dent schools like Barrack can be
expensive, which can restrict the
potential applicant pool.

“Th ere are many people
who will never look at us,” she
said. “If they look at us, we
have a great conversion rate ...

Th is will put Barrack on the
radars of more families.”
Like all independent schools
— Jewish or otherwise —
Barrack, which has 337 students
enrolled this year, faces a constant
challenge in attracting students,
Levin said. She pointed out that
many schools are still rebuilding
from the 2008 Great Recession,
and the pandemic is creating a
level of uncertainty going forward.

“We have yet to know
what this year of COVID will
do,” she said, adding that the
school also raised $1 million
for COVID-related emergency
scholarships this year.

Both the Abramsons and
Barracks have played a key role
in the development of Jack M.

Barrack Hebrew Academy.

Madlyn Abramson died
on April 15 at 84. She and
her husband, Leonard, the
former CEO of US Healthcare,
Lynne and Len Barrack
Courtesy of Jack M. Barrack
Hebrew Academy
founded the Abramson Family
Foundation, which has made
multiple contributions to
educational initiatives.

“Our Jewish future depends
on making sure that we pass
on our mantle of leadership to
the next generation,” Madlyn
oft en said, according to Len
Barrack, who runs the Barrack
Foundation along with his wife,
Lynne. “Lynne and I felt that
creating this fund would be quite
Name: Human Good c/o Mayo Seitz
Width: 9.25 in
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Madlyn Abramson
Courtesy of the Abramson family
appropriate to pay tribute to and
honor the memory of Madlyn.”
“Th ese are the things that
were important to our dearest
friend, Madlyn. We have
always spoken about the need
to provide fi nancial assis-
tance to the best and brightest
students in our Jewish commu-
nity,” Lynne Barrack said. ●
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DECEMBER 10, 2020
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