The David S. Stone Hebrew Academy, the only Hebrew day school in the Toledo area, is closing after the school year ends next week.

Enrollment at the private Sylvania school, which was founded in 1968, had dropped from 116 eight years ago to just 22 today.

“It’s very sad. People who love the academy are sad,” said Marjorie Siegel, principal. “We always made sure the secular program was excellent as well as the Judaic program, so people would be comfortable choosing the school.”

The academy teaches Hebrew, Torah studies, and Jewish holidays along with secular studies. “We teach our students to understand and live the ethics of Judaism,” Ms. Siegel said.

Students in the academy, which offered classes for kindergarten through fifth grade, presented the school’s final “Night of the Arts” program on Wednesday, singing and playing Jewish songs on xylophones, glockenspiels, and recorders.

The joyful music, performed in the chapel of The Temple-Congregation Shomer Emunim, included such percussive tunes as “Zum Gali Gali” and “Kukuriku,” sparking smiles and clap-alongs from proud parents in the audience.

But after the hour-long performance ended, tears began falling as teachers and parents hugged and exchanged farewells.

“This is such a loving school. Such a warm environment,” said Bina Carr, wiping away a tear. Her four children have attended the Hebrew Academy. “I was OK until I saw my children’s kindergarten teacher crying.”

“It’s a unique school that excels in every way,” Collette Lundberg said.

The United Jewish Council of Greater Toledo explored a number of alternatives, appointing a strategic planning committee to conduct a two-year study.

“It wasn’t a decision reached lightly or quickly,” said Kirk Wisemayer, the UJC’s chief executive officer.

The committee considered reconfiguring the school, possibly sharing it with another faith group by joining for secular classes and holding separate classes for religious instruction.

The panel reviewed a range of options and formats, Mr. Wisemayer said, even consulting with national Jewish education agencies.

“It was a difficult process and they did a wonderful job,” he said. “It was a difficult decision for the board to vote to close the school. Jewish education is very important to all of us in the Jewish community. The school has a wonderful legacy in the Jewish community.”

The academy, named after a Toledo businessman and developer, peaked in the early 1970s with 125 students, including its preschool program, Ms. Siegel said.

It has an extremely low teacher-pupil ratio, with classes held in spacious rooms in the school adjacent to the Temple on Sylvania Avenue.

The Rev. Patrick Schwenk, teaching pastor at NorthPoint Church, and his wife, Ruth, enrolled their two oldest children — Tyler, 8, and Bella, 6, in the Hebrew Academy.

Mr. Schwenk said he had been taking Hebrew lessons from a retired teacher at the Stone Hebrew Academy, who invited him to visit the school.

“I liked the small classroom sizes and the opportunity for our children to learn Hebrew as a second language, and also to learn the Jewish background of our faith as Christians,” he said. “We’ve made some friends we wouldn’t have met otherwise. It’s been a great experience.”

Tuition was $8,000 a year, but Ms. Siegel said the local Jewish community’s philosophy was that “no Jewish child would be denied participating in the Hebrew Academy because of financial hardships.”

She added that the school used a sliding scale for tuition based on a family’s income and ability to pay.

Mr. Wisemayer said the Jewish population in the Toledo area has declined from around 7,500 individuals in the early 1970s to less than 4,000 today.

Despite the economic downturn and the drop in numbers, the private school could have survived if enough families had sent their children to the school, he said.

“From a community perspective, there are more than enough children to populate the Jewish day school in the Toledo area. You have to ask yourself the question, ‘Does the community really support the Jewish day school if they’re not sending their children to it? And if they’re not supporting it, should we, as financial stewards, be funding something they don’t support?’ That was the primary reason for the closure of the school,” Mr. Wisemayer said.

Contact David Yonke at: dyonke@theblade.com or 419-724-6154.

First Published May 31, 2011, 4:30 a.m.