[ RELIGION ]
School changes name
to honor first student
The Chabad of Hawaii is renaming its Hebrew school after its first student, Daniel Levey, a 19-year-old hiker who died after falling from a Nuuanu trail in July.
Pearl Krasnjansky, director of the 15-year-old Chabad Cheder Hebrew School, said Levey "was the reason we started the school. He was 4 or 5 years old and his mother came to me and asked, 'What are we going to do about his Jewish education?'
"I taught Daniel and one other boy on my lanai," she said. "By dedicating our school to Daniel's memory, we hope that his path in Jewish learning will serve as an inspiration for future generations of Jewish children."
The school, now in the Sunset Towers Building at 419 Atkinson Drive, was renamed the Daniel Levey Chabad Hebrew School at a memorial service last Sunday. Dr. Joyce Cassen Levey, Daniel's mother, said she and her husband, Norman, were "just delighted" because it gave their son's life "more meaning (because) his name will be remembered and it will keep his memory alive in a productive way as a contribution to education."
Levey said she will support the school by volunteering to help the staff on a regular basis. Her son attended the school for about 10 years, learning traditional values and Hebrew customs that provided him the stability and structure he needed throughout his life, she said.
As a senior at Punahou, her son once wrote that his religion provided him with comfort, Levey said. In his sophomore year at the University of Oregon, he had reconnected with his roots through a local rabbi, which helped him to be "a better student and person in general; it helped him mature. He had just started to blossom when the tragedy occurred," she said.
Levey, an avid, experienced hiker who liked to go on treks alone, was found after a four-day search in the Koolau mountains. He apparently died from a 150-foot fall into a shallow pool of water from a ledge near a waterfall.
Levey once stayed awake with a friend for 100 hours to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House, which provides temporary housing for parents of hospitalized children.
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