Jay Leberman, head of school at the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School in Beachwood, said Aliki Rzepka didn’t just talk the talk – she walked the walk.

So, when she and her husband, Peter, constructed a vision to create a pluralist Jewish day school in Cleveland, the two didn’t sit around waiting for it to come to fruition.

The Rzepkas sprung into action.

“Aliki and Peter were instrumental in founding the school in 1969 for their daughter, Lisa,” Leberman told the Cleveland Jewish News. “Quite often, school founders are no longer involved after their kids go through, but she had remained consistently involved ever since. She was an honorary life board member who never turned her back to Jewish education. Never. Every Jewish child was important to her.”

Aliki Rzepka, a co-founder of The Agnon School, which later became the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School, and a longtime philanthropist within the Jewish community, died on Oct. 1. She was 97.

“My mother was just an amazing person,” Rochelle Busbey, Aliki’s daughter, told the CJN. “People were drawn to her. Everyone always wanted to be near her because she was dynamic and interested. She was always eager to find out about you. Some people are superficial, but she actually would delve in.”

Rzepka was born Aliki Yamanis in Alexandria, Egypt, on Feb. 23, 1929. Her family ended up in Greece, where they were forced to hide from the Nazis in a small village outside of Athens during the occupation of the country. While the villagers knew they were there, no one ever told the Nazis.

Aliki previously told the CJN this was in part because of the kindness that her family showed the community, bringing clothes to all of the people every year.

The family later left for Perth, Australia, where Rzepka’s mother had siblings, a move that would change the course of her life after she met her future husband, Peter.

“She met my dad at a dance,” Busbey said. “My dad was there with another woman, and my mom was there escorted by her brothers and sister. He saw my mom and she saw him, and it was like a thunderbolt. He took his date and put her on the bus and came back to the party to dance with my mom. They left and he didn’t know how to find her, but this was a very prominent party so there was a picture in the paper the next day of my mom wearing a dress that she had made. My dad was able to find out her name and where she was, and he pursued her relentlessly.”

The two eloped to Sydney in 1954 before returning to Perth where their first son, Hillel, was born. In 1956, they immigrated to America and settled in Cleveland, where the Jewish community welcomed them with open arms.

“They helped set my parents up here when they first came, so they always felt obligated to pay it back,” Busbey said. “My dad started right away getting involved and giving back, and my mom was right there at his side. She didn’t really have much of a social life outside of what she did with my dad, and that was fine with her. She liked it like that. She was a homemaker, so she was home all the time for us when we were growing up. She sewed most of her clothes and made her hats. She cooked amazingly and kept a wonderful house. She was what we call a great balabusta.”

Peter Rzepka founded Rzepka Construction in 1956. He was joined by his brother, Fred Rzepka, who arrived in Cleveland four years later and joined Peter in the company. Later, in 1971, they established TransCon Builders.

Wishing for their youngest daughter, Lisa, to have a Jewish education, Aliki and Peter Rzepka teamed up with a group of parents and community leaders to found The Agnon School, which started with 11 students in 1969. The school’s original mission was to teach students in a non-regimental manner. It started teaching kindergarten and first grade students at Congregation Brith Emeth in Shaker Heights before moving to 26500 Shaker Blvd. in Beachwood. By 1994, it had introduced integrated learning and held classes for children in early childhood through eighth grade.

“We are now a school of almost 370,” Leberman said. “She helped start a school with just a few kids and a vision. We service a community of diverse families through their philanthropy as they are significant donors to the school. That money goes to help families afford tuition so we can make sure no one is turned away because of financial need. We have a learning kitchen in the school, which they wanted as we underwent our last renovation, and it is named after Peter and Aliki.”

The Rzepkas have been members and stalwart supporters of the Jewish Community Center, first in Cleveland Heights, and now the Mandel JCC in Beachwood, since the mid-1950s. The JCC aquatics center is dedicated in her name because Aliki swam there daily for decades.

“My mom was so proud of Agnon and so proud of the JCC because they believed in those institutions,” Busbey said. “They enjoyed their lives within the Jewish community. Using the JCC was integral to their lives, as was going to the temple.”

Peter and Aliki Rzepka have also been longtime supporters of Bar Ilan University, the largest university in Israel. Both have received a “doctorate, honoris causa” from Bar Ilan. Their major contribution to Bar Ilan provided funding to create the Peter & Aliki Rzepka Twelve Tribes Plaza at the university, the purpose of which is to provide a place for students to relax and study. They have also provided scholarships to students at Bar Ilan, many who immigrated to Israel, for many years.

Aliki was a congregant of Park Synagogue in Pepper Pike for decades, and Peter has served as its president and is a recipient of Park’s Centerite Award, the synagogue’s highest honor.

“I’ve known Aliki since I came here in 1990, and she was elegant, hopeful, enthusiastic, bold and a very charming lady,” Rabbi Joshua Skoff, senior rabbi, Leighton A. Rosenthal Chair in Rabbinics, told the CJN. “She accompanied her husband on many of his community leadership positions. She was a wonderful hostess and wonderful friend to many, and the heart of her love was her family and Peter.”

Busbey said her mother loved going to temple on Saturday mornings, calling it a meditative exercise for her.

“The principles of Judaism were so rife in our house, especially in the spirit of tzedakah,” she said. “The morality of our Jewishness was embedded in us by my parents.”

Aliki and Peter Rzepka were honored by the Cleveland Jewish News in 2021 as recipients of the Sam Miller Lifetime Achievement Award.

Skoff said he will always remember the unique colorful outfits Aliki would wear to Sabbath services, many of them homemade, and that those who talked to her always left with a smile.

“Her legacy is of a proud and affiliated Jew, a supporter of Park Synagogue, a supporter of Jewish education and a big fan of Cleveland,” he said. “She was a unique type of Jewish role model.”

In addition to making her own outfits, Aliki Rzepka enjoyed collecting art, reading, she often visited the local library, and was a prolific poet, writing poetry throughout her life. She also loved singing, dancing and painting, and she was known for her lavish parties which were full of fun and delicious food.

“My mom wanted to embrace the happy things,” Busbey said. “She always had a positive outlook. Every time I would call them while they were in Florida and asked how the weather was, she’d say ‘Great! Well, it’s raining. But it’s still beautiful!’ When you meet somebody that exudes that positive energy, it makes you want to be positive and to be around them. That was Aliki.”

Aliki Rzepka is survived by her husband, Peter; her children, Hillel Rzepka, Rochelle ( Bud Smith) Busbey, Jeffrey Rzepka and Lisa (Ram Tamir) Rzepka; her grandchildren, Michael (Leah) Rzepka, Joshua (Kate) Rzepka, Leora (Nathan) Cohen, Olivia (Nicholas) Patterson, Nicole (Andrew Kinman-fiance) Rzepka, Jaclyn Rzepka, Jordan Rzepka, Tal (Lauren) Tamir, Benjamin (Britt) Peleg, Tal Tamir and Edon Tamir; her great grandchildren, Noam, Oren, Lev, Theodore, Paxton, Oliver, Ryder and Mila; and her siblings, Chryssoula Pearson and Michael Yamanis. She was predeceased by her sister, Constantine Yamanis.

Services were held on Oct. 5 at Park Synagogue. Interment followed at Bet Olam Cemetery at in Beachwood.

Read more about Aliki Rzepka at cjn.org/18dm.