Melissa Kushner and Jeremy Kaplan approach philanthropic decisions with their mind and heart. As the Board Chair of Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Brooklyn, NY, and mother of four children in the school, Melissa knows firsthand some of the critical challenges day schools face. Top among them, from her perspective, is the recruitment and retention of talented educators and leaders. “Nothing in school really happens without teachers,” said Melissa. “I know there are brilliant educators out there—and even more young people who would consider careers in Jewish education. We need to figure out how to keep them choosing to work in our schools.”
When Melissa attended both the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC) Innovators Retreat and Prizmah’s Investor Summit in the same month, she found an opportunity to invest in a systemic approach to the challenge that was raised by educational leaders from across the spectrum of day schools. “I heard from teachers and educational leaders one week, and the next week I met funders like me and Jeremy who really want to make a difference,” said Melissa. By co-investing with the Mayberg Foundation in the Pipeline for Educators initiative, which is being organized by Prizmah and JEIC, she and her husband are supporting research to discover the levers that can change the outlook for schools and their educators. “The solutions we will discover will have far-reaching impact,” she said.
