Sussna attended Olney High School in Philadelphia where she befriended future award-winning Yiddish poet , Rukhl Fishman , the sister of renowned linguist , Joshua Fishman . Sussna attended Temple University for a year and a half . In college , she held multiple jobs one of which was as a librarian in the English department at Gratz College . At the Jewish college , she was exposed to books and resources about the Jewish experience . She read books about The Holocaust , the State of Israel , and on kibbutz movement . Sussna 's time working at Gratz College and a fateful conversation with her friend Rukhl , influenced Sussna 's decision to leave Temple University and go to Israel . Arriving in Haifa in 1953 , Sussna decided to join a group of Jewish teenagers from South America to create a kibbutz and military outpost along the Jordanian border . Sussna lived on other kibbutzim and later lived in Jerusalem where she worked as an editor for '' The Jerusalem Post . '' In 1960 , Sussna accepted positions on the faculties of San Francisco ’s College of Jewish Studies and Hebrew High School . She became convinced that the answer to adequate Jewish education for children was a Jewish day school . She recruited a prominent local Jewish leader , Rabbi Saul White , to help her raise funds to start one . On September 4 , 1963 , the Modern Hebrew Day School opened its doors with Sussna as its Founder and Director , and with Rabbi White as an important member of the Board of Trustees . A few months after its opening , the school changed its name to Brandeis Day School . Sussna chose the name " Brandeis " as a nod to Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis and as a nod to the Brandies University graduate fellowship she had passed up in order to sustain the school . The school was an immediate success with high student satisfaction and achievement . The Ford Foundation awarded her a prestigious grant . Sussna was concerned that the needs of non-Jewish students at the school were not being fully met . She proposed a modification of the school 's structure so that while Jewish students had Jewish studies , the other children would be similarly immersed in their own separate cultural studies . Once a week each group would be host or guest of another group to share with them what they learned and to practice good inter-group communication . Her proposal was approved by the Board of Directors , the staff , and the Parent Council , however , the Bureau of Jewish Education strongly opposed it
The Holocaust
The Holocaust
Frances Sussna