Manhattan Day School’s goal is to turn out young men and women who not only excel academically, but who are also “mensches” – good, reliable people. The school stresses the idea of “chesed” or doing good for friends, for the sick or for the elderly.

Founded in 1943 to provide an Orthodox education for young people on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, the Jewish day school has grown and expanded its scope over the past six decades. Today, the school has 500 students, evenly divided by gender. They come from the entire New York metropolitan area, although most live in Manhattan.

Manhattan Day School offers an early childhood program for three- and four-year olds, and runs through eighth grade. Boys and girls learn in separate classes after third grade. Students spend half their days in secular studies, taught in English, and half in Judaic studies, taught in Hebrew.

Rabbi Mordechai Besser, the principal for nine years, emphasized that Manhattan Day School provides a warm and individualized environment that encourages students to learn. “If a child is motivated, he or she can do anything,” Besser said.

“We’re all here for the kids,” said Daphne Herskowitz, who is a special education teacher at the school and a mother of four. Two of her children attend the school, and two graduated recently. “I never heard any of my kids say, ‘I don’t want to go to school today,’” she added, in her role as a Manhattan Day parent.

“We’ve been incredibly pleased,” said Sharon Haberman about her family’s experience at Manhattan Day School. Her four children, who all entered the school when they were three years old, now range in age from a first to a seventh grader. “If there’s any issue, the school provides support to both the parents and the child,” Haberman said. She noted the school’s ability and proactive willingness to offer enrichment, special tutoring or extra help to meet every child’s specific needs.

For its middle school students, the school’s Judiac curriculum builds Torah study skills and addresses contemporary issues of Jewish interest. Although Hebrew language instruction begins in the school’s early childhood classrooms, its middle school pupils participate in the intensive NETA (“neta” is the Hebrew word for sapling) language program developed by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem for students in seventh through twelfth grades (at Manhattan Day, it is offered through eighth grade).

“We’re out to prove that a young man or woman can be an Orthodox Jew in the 21st century, as well as a patriotic and civic-minded American,” Besser said.

The school environment reflects this dual effort. On a wall opposite the entrance to the school’s cafeteria, students created a large mural that remembers their relatives who died in the Holocaust. On another wall, the students assembled their individual wishes for the future of the United States into a red, white and blue collage of an American flag.

Middle school students also take a full curriculum of language arts, math, computer education, science, social studies and art. Gifted math students participate in the Johns Hopkins University Center for Talented Youth distance learning courses, and the school competes in the annual math Olympiad held by the Board of Jewish Education. The school also takes advantage of its New York City environs.

“One of my favorite experiences in sixth grade was when we went on a trip to the Museum of Television & Radio (recently renamed The Paley Center for Media),” wrote Lauren Brickman, 11, in an e-mail. “We each made our own movie, which involved filming segments and putting the parts together!” she added.

Within the school itself, competition is discouraged, in keeping with the school’s emphasis on fostering community. Students’ artwork from all grade levels festoons the building. Interested students must audition to join the school’s choir, but everyone is accepted. There is no dean’s list or honor roll at the Manhattan Day School, “but we become barracudas in competition against other schools,” Besser said.

“Everyone is invited to be on the basketball team,” parent Sharon Haberman said, “and, miraculously, the kids win.”

Last school year, Manhattan Day School’s team won second place in a math and science contest, competing against other 15 teams from the United States and Israel. The contest is part of the Mitchell Excellence 2000, or E2K, initiative started in Israel to promote excellence in education.

In their final year at Manhattan Day, eighth graders visit Washington, D.C. and produce a culminating multimedia project, “Through Our Years,” about their journey through the school. Almost all of the school’s graduates go on to continue their education at religious high schools in the New York metropolitan region.

Manhattan Day is currently in the midst of an $11 million renovation that began last summer and will be completed next summer. A new rooftop playground is being added and the school’s systems are being upgraded.

Besser said that the greatest issue the school faces in the future is that young families can no longer afford to live on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. Although the school’s enrollment has grown to 500 from 350 since Besser became principal, Manhattan Day School experiences some attrition when the families of its enrolled students move to Israel or to more affordable areas outside New York City.

Despite its challenges, Besser loves his job as principal and the school’s atmosphere that he has helped create. “I feel the kids in the school are happy,” Besser said. “They smile a lot and that’s very gratifying to me.”