Computer Center to Open at Jewish School

Uniting antiquity and modernity, the Orthodox Emek Hebrew Academy of Sherman Oaks will dedicate a state-of-the-art learning center Thursday, complete with some 80 Internet-capable computers.

Dancing with the Torah, placing it in the arc and hanging a mezuzah at the entrance to each room, students, teachers and dignitaries will gather for the center’s grand opening.

Then they’ll fire up their Pentiums.

The 42,000-square-foot learning center includes 25 classrooms, with two Pentium computers each, a mini-synagogue where the older boys pray each morning, a computer lab with 30 Macintoshes and a library with extensive CD-ROM holdings.

“The entire Bible, the entire Talmud and most books on Judaica are available on CD-ROM now,” said Rabbi Eliezer Eidlitz.

The center cost about $4 million to build, said Eidlitz, the director of development for the 600-student school open to youngsters from nursery school to eighth grade. About half the money came from fund-raising and the remainder came from a loan from City National Bank, he said.

To protect its investment, the school has taken security precautions, including the installation of 16 security cameras that run 24 hours a day. The campus, in the 15000 block of Magnolia Boulevard, is gated as well.

Although such technology might seem anachronistic in a school where boys and girls are taught in separate classrooms, Eidlitz is comfortable with bringing religion into the 21st century.

“Technology can either be used against or as an enhancement to [religion],” he said.

“Our students use technology fully to enhance the religion and what they are studying.”