It seems that programs dealing with teens at-risk are popping up at an alarming rate in the Jewish community. Parent support groups, teen drop-in centers, addiction programs, and community conferences seem to be a new norm that have become a part of our society.

There is overwhelming anguish in the experience of so many community adolescents and young adults who are struggling psychologically, emotionally, personally, or religiously. As an educator, it is painful to sit with parents who are devastated and confused, trying to figure out how the children to whom they have devoted so much are now lost, disengaged, and deeply troubled adolescents. Even harder is the conversation with the parent of the child who has been kicked out of or not accepted into a yeshiva; one cannot overstate the damaging effects of the sense of rejection from our community, which is supposed to be characterized by chesed, love, and caring.

The question we need to ask ourselves is, what is it that we are doing to address the needs of these children whose youthful behaviors put them at risk of all sorts of problems later in life? The implications of this question affect not only individual children, but really our institutions and communities as a whole. By not addressing this population of students at a young age, we are likely setting ourselves up to face significant problems down the line. If we are not positioning ourselves to address the needs of these children at a young age, what will be the implications for them, their families, and our communities as they progress through their developmental years? 

Identifying At-Risk Students

Experienced teachers and administrators who have seen the trajectory of students over their educational journeys can often, from early stages, easily identify students who are at risk of academic failure, emotional problems, religious disengagement, and overall detachment from their school experiences. How does this happen? Studies show that in the majority of cases this was not a one-time occurrence or a sudden change, but rather the culmination of a long process unfolding over the course of many years.

Anyone involved in the day-to-day life of middle-school-age children will certainly be familiar with the following representative phenomena: 

• The seventh-grade boy who never seems to be able to follow directions and is always doing something to disturb the other students.
• The individuals in the class who do not grasp the material as quickly or as fully as most of the other children, get poor grades, and generally “hate school.” 
• The sixth-grade girl who sits quietly during davening, and who does not sing with the other girls, open a siddur, or seem to care very much.

These phenomena are not at all uncommon and may be seen as "par for the course" in a regular school or camp day. Typically, in our yeshivot, they are handled in ways that help to manage the behavior and allow for the educational school program to continue as planned. Punitive measures discourage students from disturbing; perhaps behavior charts are used to encourage them to do the right thing. Lower-level classes are created to teach struggling students, and expectations are modified to allow these students to pass from grade to grade despite their lack of achievement and growth. Students are taught to avoid disturbing other students during davening and class, even as they remain disengaged themselves. 

However, the fact is that these behaviors are not mere annoyances, but actually serve as glaring signals of things to come that we all-too-often ignore. The book Dropout Prevention (Goss and Anden) surveys research showing that behavioral problems during middle school years are closely associated with truancy and academic struggles in high school years. Lack of development of executive functioning skills in preteens is associated with lack of achievement in later years. Disengagement in the lower grades is associated with lack of motivation and development as children get older. High school students dropping out of school is, in the authors’ words, “not an event, but a process.” The good news is that, when addressed early enough, it is a process that can be realigned with the proper educational approaches that are needed for these children.

Strategies for Success

There are many well-researched steps for early intervention that will help support these children long before their situation becomes entrenched. Three proven steps to help struggling youth find their path are personalizing academic learning, teaching behavioral skills, and allowing students to pursue their own personal passions. 

Personalized Learning

Over the years, our institutions have increased our focus and rigor on academic achievement. As our days schools continuously “raise the bar,” often those students whose strengths do not lie in academic areas are left to feel inadequate as they struggle in school, earn low grades, and in general spend their days doing things that they feel that they are not good at. The damaging psychological effects of high-stakes testing and consistently poor grades can have serious ramifications later in the development of young children.

We need to carefully consider how to support the learning of these students according to their individual needs to make sure that they are able to taste academic success, as success generally breeds more success. Creative assessment strategies such as projects and presentations that allow students who do not score well on tests a chance to still be “good at school” can go a long way in helping struggling students. Allowing more autonomy in learning builds motivation and sense of purpose in learning. Teachers need to be trained and supported in these methods in order to allow their students to remain positively involved in their learning.

Behavioral Skills

Behavioral skills come naturally to some children but not to others. For children whose behaviors lag at a young age, providing them with the extra help they need in developing those skills is essential. For these children, shifting the focus from academic learning to practical life-skills building can be vital. The short term effectiveness of strict punishments and harsh discipline often comes at the frightening expense of the damage done to the overall well being of the child. Keeping a child's well being and long term development in mind—administrative support, appropriate teacher preparation, and collaboration between parents and teachers—are low cost but crucial factors that can bring about major changes in the child’s overall development.

Passion-Based Education

Finally, when an institution supports children in pursuing their passions in authentic and meaningful ways, tremendous strides can be made toward helping children at risk. By broadening the scope of the educational program to truly embrace children who excel in areas such as art, music, outdoor skills, and hand-on learning, a school can change a child’s entire self image. When a school encourages these avenues to our students, it allows them the opportunity to become the proud exhibitors of special and unique talents; this is in direct contrast to a child being labeled as “the kid in the low class” who is expected to make trouble, as so often becomes the case in our existing models. The risk of students developing “at risk” behaviors as adolescents and young adults is greatly reduced when their need to develop a positive self-image is addressed at younger ages. 

While the challenge that lies before us is formidable, there are many steps that we can take to truly embrace and support all of our children. If our yeshivot will allow themselves to truly address the issue with the wellbeing of these children in mind, this will allow for highly effective interventions in changing their trajectory and development. It is incumbent upon our community to ask the hard questions and make the hard decisions that will give a chance for each and every one of our children to reach their fullest potential.

Rabbi Yaakov Mintz serves as the Talmud department chair at the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School, where he has been an educator for the past 14 years. He has innovated curricular and programmatic changes to help meet the needs of all students. In addition, Rabbi Mintz serves as an educational advocate for the youth support organization WorkAtIt, where he helps young men and women who have found themselves outside of the yeshiva system plan the next steps in their education and growth. Rabbi Mintz has Smicha from RIETS and a masters degree from the Azrieli Graduate School, and is currently studying alternative and at-risk education through Marian University.

In his TED talk, Rory Vaden talks about the idea of how to multiply your time. One of the most valuable takeaways for me was to ask myself the question, “What’s the most important thing I can do today that would make tomorrow better?”

When I think about the one thing in which lay and professional leaders can invest in order to make tomorrow better, it is learning how to share effective feedback.  

This is surely more of an art than a science. Sometimes we avoid things that feel uncomfortable.  We think that “supporting” our head of school means being our head’s cheerleader. It is important to recognize our professional’s accomplishments and celebrate success but this is not feedback. And feedback is a two way street. Invest in getting curious.  Your head of school has to understand you care about them personally and professionally.  Start by soliciting feedback with questions like “Is there anything I could do or stop doing that would make it easier to work with me?” and then share directly with your Head in a way that will give them constructive insight into the behaviors that contribute to growth, development and success. As Kim Scott, author of a best-selling book on feedback called Radical Candor would say “Clear is kind.” 

Feedback is timely. It is clear, and it is designed for growth. We put our own discomfort aside in service of our shared purpose--in this case, to make our schools better for our children.

We have learned that one of the most important things you can do to set your professional and lay team up for success is to invest in building this relationship. Learning how to deliver clear and direct feedback is a critical skill that will ensure you are setting your head of school up for success.

Ultimately, for me, this is driven by a core value of trust. Trust that the people with whom we are communicating are committed to a shared purpose. Trust that the professionals want to hear feedback, view it as a gift and will act on what they learn. Trust that our professional leaders know their board has their back and is sharing feedback in service of their growth and development. And trust that when we are in this work of Jewish education together we can make a difference.

Check out the three articles below. And if you have more time, I suggest reading the book Radical Candor by Kim Scott. (If you don’t have time for that, check out the podcast).

• Giving and Receiving Feedback
• How to Give Feedback People Can Actually Use
• Feedback Is the Key to Developing Leaders.. And It’s the Gift We Aren’t Giving

This would not have happened last year.

Last year Rachel Levitt Klein Dratch was in Baltimore, and I was in Brookline. But this year, we are both working in New York, and one day in December, Rachel was sitting in my office, awaiting her meeting with the Head of School, Rabbi Yahel Tzaidi. His office is next to mine, and therefore my room usually becomes the waiting room for those about to meet with him. Little did we know that this fortuitous encounter would end up being so meaningful. We started talking and reminiscing for a few moments, and our conversation eventually led to a unique professional development partnership between Prizmah and the Yeshivah of Flatbush (YoF).

A few weeks prior, Rabbi Tzaidi suggested at an administration meeting, that YoF extend teacher learning beyond our walls and arrange visits to other Jewish New York area day schools. Then on February 14th, a day designated for professional development at YoF, the staff could share their takeaways from the visits. I pitched this project to Rachel, and she immediately wanted to assist. Because of her numerous contacts and connections with leaders of Jewish day schools, she felt that she could be instrumental in bringing this idea to fruition. Our administration team agreed, and we joined forces with Prizmah. Time was short, and we immediately started to design the next steps.  

Our first move was to decide on the goals and purpose of the visits. Some goals include: 

• Grade level teacher bonding over a shared experience
• Learning together as a group
• Being inspired by what others are doing
• Validating our practice
• Connecting to educators in other schools
• Implementing new ideas and/or strategies

As an administrative team, we began to ask questions to make these visits more effective and meaningful. 

• Should we visit as grade-level teams or mix teachers from different grades?
• How will we enlist teachers and include them in the process?
• How will we measure the success of our goals?
• How will teachers record and share information on the 14th?
• What are the guidelines and protocols when visiting other schools? 

Other questions were logistical:

• Who will cover classes when the teachers are visiting?
• How will teachers travel to their destination and how far of a distance are we willing to go?
• Should assistants also visit?
• Should a gift be brought to the schools on the day of the visit? 

The administrative team grappled with these questions and many others as part of the planning process. Once these were clarified and answered, our decisions were communicated to Prizmah. Rachel got to work calling, emailing and recruiting schools that were willing to host our teachers. The response by the schools was overwhelmingly positive, and more than 12 schools agreed to welcome our teachers into their classrooms. Meanwhile, Rachel also designed Prizmah’s Guide for an Awesome School Visit, and she shared a choice board of questions to ask or items to notice while visiting schools. During the week of January 27th, our weekly grade-level meetings focused on these two documents. We reviewed guidelines for a successful visit and decided on individualized goals with the grade-level teams. During the weeks of February 3rd and 10th, we plan to send about 15 teacher teams to the various schools, including (so far) Har Torah, YCQ, NSHA, Heschel, SAR, RAMAZ, HAFTR, Kineret, HANC, MDS, and Beit Rabban. On February 14th, Prizmah and Rachel will facilitate the follow-up meeting at our professional development morning.

We are very excited about this opportunity and have incredible HaKarat HaTov to Prizmah and the schools that offered to welcome our teachers. We hope to create partnerships that will strengthen our teaching community and ultimately improve the learning experience for all of our students.

Stay tuned for a future article about the results of this professional development adventure!

The very first mitzvah we received as a nation was Rosh Chodesh and there are many commentators who ask why this mitzvah, and why now- but I want to ask a less popular question that has me thinking about teaching and learning- and that is the HOW. 

I am curious about HOW Hashem taught us this first mitzvah.  The pasuk says: “Hachodesh haZEH lachem…” “THIS month shall be for you…” The Mechilta DeRebb Yishmael (12:2:1) picks up on the implied stage directions -- the Torah says “ZEH” or “THIS” which implies that Hashem SHOWED Moshe what the moon would look like when it is time to declare it a Rosh Chodesh.  Hashem showed him, according to the midrash, because Moshe was having trouble understanding what Hashem meant. Moshe Rabbeinu did not get it.  He needed help.  So something amazing happens between the lines-- when Moshe does not get it, he keeps asking, unashamed, and then Hashem uses a new approach to teach him.  This was not a big chesed of Hashem, nor was it a big ask, since Hashem’s desire and goal is to teach the Torah and pass it on so we can fulfill it.  Hashem tries another approach- showing Moshe the picture of what the moon looks like- like ZEH, like THIS, and then- AHA! I get it now!

So I ask this: If Hashem can use multiple ways of teaching, and is open to showing, to explain in a new way, how can we emulate how Hashem teaches Moshe? When words fail, how can we show? As educational leaders, we are often overwhelmed with things to do, fires to put out, and lists upon lists of things to accomplish, but do we check for understanding? Do we ensure that what we teach - whether to students or faculty or parents - was understood? 

One of my heroes in teaching is Mrs. Esther Dzeidek from Maryland, and among her many lessons to me was this: when you teach middot, make sure the students know what this middah looks like in action. Brilliant.  She understood this pasuk and its message clearly. The idea isn’t understood until it can be translated, until the student can picture it in action, until the student knows what this lesson looks like in real life. We continue teaching until the picture is clear.

In this month, when Tu B’Shevat reminds us of the rebirth happening deep under ground, we are privileged to learn this lesson again and again- learning is happening all the time, even when we do not realize it.  And there are many ways to teach and inspire, many ways to access understanding.  It is our job as leaders to support one another in helping our students to find their access points and grow, connect and see themselves as integral to the process and beyond. At Prizmah, we have been privileged to help many schools in their process and we are thrilled to celebrate your schools. Please send us articles and pictures of what your school is working on to share and inspire the field, so we can celebrate some of the wonder in action!

In the fall of 2014, Yeshiva Ohr Yisrael (YOY) opened its doors in Boston, MA. Now in its sixth year, it has almost 40 students, a beautiful property, strong community support, and year over year growth. To look at it today, you wouldn’t know that this vibrant Jewish high school began with a mere six students. One person didn’t start the Yeshiva, a team did. From the beginning it was a collaborative process that started with a small group of respected community members, committed parents, and visionary educators. The road hasn’t always been easy, but I’ve gained many valuable insights along the way that can help other new schools launch and thrive. 

Here are 6 things you need to avoid in “Year Zero” to keep you on track for success:

1) Making the school just about you
Schools are founded by visionaries, but to be successful, your vision needs input from many. Our first step was simply to listen. We reached out to parents in the community and asked what they were looking for in a school for their sons. We made day trips to other yeshivas to see their operations first hand. We also tapped into professional resources, talking to as many experienced people as possible - educational consultants, heads of school, and foundations for fundraising ideas. This listening phase enabled us to enter our own process in an informed, prepared way. I met with Joseph Jacobson, head of the Molecular Machines research group at MIT’s media lab, just to ask him, “what’s the most important skill kids need to graduate with?” When he told us to prioritize computer science, we took that as marching orders.” Take the time to find out what your community wants and needs in a school, and surround yourself with a network of professionals who can help guide you on your way.   

2) Proceeding without a clearly defined mission
In order to move forward toward any goal, you must first clearly define what that goal is. For a new school, articulating and refining a mission and vision to guide the way forward is key. Our team worked intensely on defining exactly what YOY needed to be. We knew that if we were going to convince parents and donors that we had an organization worth supporting, we had to be crystal clear about what we were offering. Our work led to a focused philosophy of learning and teaching that is producing top-notch graduates. Your discussions will get heated. The decisions you make will have long term effects. Be diligent in defining the character and goals of your school; don’t move forward until you know who you are and what you have to offer. 

3) Letting your nephew make your logo in Microsoft Paint 
One of the elements critical to YOY’s success was branding. Early on in the development phase, we hired a designer to produce our logo, website and information packet. Having an arsenal of marketing collateral to hand to parents at YOY’s open house signaled that we knew what we were doing. We presented the plans for our yeshiva in a professional way, and that gave us credibility. Invest in professionally designed marketing collateral for your school. It will generate confidence in your institution even before it has its own proven track record.

4) Assuming that qualified teachers will be lining up... 
Finding teachers to commit to a fledgling school can be a challenging task. With patience and persistence, it is possible to find those committed individuals who are excited to come on board your new initiative. We searched diligently for the right staff members, and by the time we opened, we had a strong roster of teachers across the subjects: English, history, gym, math, science, computer science, and religious studies. Some of the original teachers are still at the school to this day. We look for individuals who are believers in the mission, love what they teach, and genuinely care about the success of each student. Though the hiring process can be challenging, have confidence that your school will attract the right educators to lead the way through those first years.

5) Expecting a crowd
You have a mission, you look professional, and you recruited a lineup of quality teachers...but who is going to learn at your school? For our team, recruiting students was one of the most challenging parts of the process. And with good reason: asking families to commit to sending their children to a school that has not yet proven itself requires a big leap of faith on their part. We spent lots of time talking with families in the community to try to recruit the school’s minimum number of students needed to open. On the first day, we started with 6 boys. Now in the school’s fifth year, we have nearly 40 students. You may have to start small, but if you offer a quality product and meet community needs, the numbers will come. 

6) Paying out of pocket
Donors need to know they’re investing in something solid. Even if you’re just in the planning stages, it needs to be presented in a way that’s tangible and easy to imagine becoming a reality. Early on, we developed a fact sheet with our vision and plan to present to potential donors. We shared this with the people who would become our “Founder’s Circle”, a group dedicated to helping fund this idea. Our passion for the school’s vision came through in our conversations, and a number of donors committed to step forward and support us. Share your excitement for and belief in your vision with others as a solid plan, and the people who share that vision will come alongside you.

Rabbi Uri Feldman is a graduate of the Talmudical Yeshiva of Philadelphia, Yeshivas HaGrach in Jerusalem, Beth Medrash Govoha in Lakewood, N.J, and the Kollel of Greater Boston. He completed his M.Ed. in Jewish education from Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Leadership. With vision and passion, Rabbi Feldman currently leads Yeshiva Ohr Yisrael into its 6th year and is embarking on an ambitious school expansion project. He lives in Brighton, MA, with his wife, Dina, and their children.

By Nicole Nash

As a JTA article from May 2019 reported, many Jewish day schools are looking to address diversity in their communities. The article states that there is “a growing effort by Jewish day schools across the nation to educate students and community members about people from different ethnic backgrounds. While Jewish schools in America remain overwhelmingly white and Ashkenazi, schools increasingly are looking for ways to welcome Jews of color and other Jewish minority groups while sensitizing students to the wide cultural milieu outside the schools’ doors.”

Like many other day schools, Hannah Senesh Community Day School has been engaging in work around diversity for the past few years. Senesh was founded in 1995 by a small group of visionary parents who were committed to building a welcoming and progressive Jewish community day school in Brooklyn. Throughout the past 25 years, we have grown to a K-8 school with 231 students, 241 alumni, and strong engagement with families and institutional partners throughout the Brooklyn Jewish community. Even as we have remained committed to our founders’ original mission to build an open and inclusive Jewish community, we questioned if we were doing enough to be truly inclusive to marginalized groups and to ensure that everyone in our community felt welcomed, celebrated, and had a deep sense of belonging. This is important in our 25th milestone anniversary year as we chart a course for our future.

The work of investigating diversity in our community has been enlightening and challenging, requiring commitment, intention, honest reflection, openness to listening and learning, and intensive planning. This process has helped us grow both personally and together as a school. Below is a window into the approach we have taken to incorporate more diversity into our community so that other Jewish day schools might benefit from our experience.

Set an Intention
The first step in our process was to engage our community in this work. We formed a Diversity Committee, including school leadership, trustees, parents, and alumni parents. The purpose of this committee was to formally articulate with intention for the first time in the school’s history a diversity statement that reflected our school’s mission and strategic priorities. This Diversity Statement was then approved by the board of trustees and would guide decisions in curriculum, programming, admissions and hiring policies, professional growth and training opportunities, and future community partnerships.

Reflect
The next step was to engage in a reflective process and ask ourselves some important questions. Who are we now? Who do we want to be in five, ten, twenty years? We spent time reflecting on our community, branding, curriculum, programs, policies, and partnerships. We asked questions to determine where we were aligned with our diversity statement and where there were opportunities for growth. 

In order to better understand our community, we created a survey to collect data on our families and staff: where they come from, what languages they speak, their religious identities, holidays they celebrate, religious organizations they belong to, past Jewish educational experiences, past and present Jewish practices, experiences of marginalization in the Jewish community, and the ways they want to help advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in our community. Not only did the survey results give us a wealth of information, but the process of conducting the survey opened up many important conversations about identity and diversity within our community.

We also engaged in a listening campaign, where we met with members of our school community and the broader Jewish community who are in minority groups and may have felt marginalized. It is important not to assume how people feel, but to ask them how they feel and really listen to their stories and experiences. We also reviewed our existing curriculum and programs and the makeup of our staff and board.

Learn
Next, our entire community engaged in meaningful learning that included deep thinking, questioning, and having discussions that felt a little unsettling and uncomfortable. Students, faculty, leadership, and parents were able to participate in professional growth opportunities where we discussed our own experiences and described the type of inclusive community we wanted to create. We created safe spaces to encourage participants to share openly and foster honest conversations.

Our faculty received training from Be’chol Lashon, an organization that strengthens Jewish identity by raising awareness about the ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity of Jewish identity and experience. Staff also attended professional development through NYSAIS and Facing History and Ourselves. In these trainings, teachers reflected on building cultural competency and racial literacy, how to navigate current event conversations, and race and equity in the context of Jewish education. Teachers had the opportunity to examine their own practices, curricula, and resources, and to think more deeply about how to bring these learnings into their teaching. 

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) led anti-bias workshops with our seventh and eighth graders, prompting many important and insightful conversations, and Be’chol Lashon conducted diversity training for fifth and sixth graders about the history of the Jewish community and the impact of stereotyping and discrimination. Students reflected on how they define themselves and how people might stereotype them. The organization also hosted a three-part series for Senesh parents to explore Jewish identity, specifically as it relates to racial and ethnic diversity in the Jewish community.

Planning for the Future
After reflecting and learning, we moved forward, with the help of our partner organizations, by taking a close look at our curricula and programs. The partnerships we have had with organizations focused on diversity have been very important as they provide insight, education, expertise, and outreach into marginalized communities. 

Curriculum Development
Staff collected data about how our curriculum reflected our focus on diversity so we could determine where there were gaps to be filled. Over summer vacation, a small committee of Judaics teachers worked in partnership with Be’chol Lashon to update our K-8 holiday curriculum to be more inclusive of the diversity of the Jewish community. Guided by Teaching Tolerance, we also revised our K-8 social studies standards and benchmarks to reflect identity, diversity, justice, and action. 

We collaborated with Keshet, an organization that works for the full inclusion of all LGBTQ+  Jews, to make sure our policies and programs were more inclusive of all gender and sexual identities, and we expanded our partnership with Facing History to better engage students in an examination of racism, prejudice, and antisemitism. 

Community Programming
Engaging the broader community in these conversations and learning has been critical to our own learning and has grown the impact of our work around diversity. For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, we have had an ongoing partnership with Repair the World, an organization that seeks to make meaningful service a defining element of American Jewish life. This year, we welcomed 350 community members of all ages to join us for a day of service and reflection on the teachings of Dr. King. 

We have also incorporated learning about diversity into our community holiday programs. For example, our annual Hanukkah Art Festival featured a special reading of multicultural children's books, craft projects, and foods that reflect Hanukkah traditions from around the world. We advertised these programs as a way for the community to celebrate the diversity of the Jewish people in a safe, welcoming space where all Jews can feel a sense of belonging and home. We created a Parent Diversity Committee that meets regularly and has been working on the above-mentioned initiatives. This committee is currently seeking a speaker focused on diversity for our community speaker series and producing a book fair with books that focus on diversity and inclusion. 

Marketing and Branding
We have revisited our current marketing, branding and admissions approach with an eye toward inclusion and diversity. Our work with a nonprofit branding firm this year has given us the opportunity to pour over our mission, vision, values, and messaging to ensure that diversity and inclusion are better incorporated into our brand. 

Using this revised branding, we are creating marketing materials and events that speak to diverse populations. At a recent Hanukkah admissions event, we had a Senesh parent and chef teach prospective families how to make Moroccan donuts (Sfenj). We invited a current parent and a staff member who are Moroccan to relay their childhood memories of eating Sfenj for Hanukkah. Participants remarked on how nice it was to learn about a tradition from the Moroccan Jewish community. Inspired by ideas from the Parent Diversity Committee, our admissions director is also broadening our recruitment efforts with outreach to diverse neighborhoods and partnerships with schools and organizations that focus on diversity. 

Leadership and Staff
We have taken a close look at our human resource practices to ensure better representation of marginalized groups and to meet the shifting landscape of the Jewish community. Over the past few years, we have created a board matrix to examine the makeup of our lay leadership and have made changes to ensure our board is more representative of our community. 

The Jewish Community of Tomorrow
As the larger Jewish community and landscape becomes more diverse, Jewish day schools must continuously work to review our curricula, hiring policies, professional development opportunities, and admissions practices to ensure that we are being as inclusive as possible. We must represent the diversity of contemporary Jewish life with all kinds of Jewish families including varied ethnicities, races, nationalities, Jewish identities and practices, multifaith families, sexual orientations, gender identities, life experiences, socio-economic circumstances, perspectives, and worldviews. 

While doing this work, we have learned the importance of buy-in, support, and engagement from all constituents in the community: leadership, faculty, parents, students, and funders. There are tremendous resources available to all of us to ensure institutional change. Additionally, we have learned that this work is truly a process and not something that you can start and complete quickly. It is an ongoing endeavor that requires persistence, openness, and the belief that diversity, equity, and inclusion will benefit all of us in our day school communities and in the world beyond.

Nicole Nash is the Head of School at Hannah Senesh Community Day School in Brooklyn, New York. She was the first teacher at the founding of the school 25 years ago and is in her 12th year as head of school. Nicole participated on a panel about race and diversity in Jewish day schools at the Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools conference in Atlanta last year and continues to partner with UJA-Federation of New York to advance diversity work in Jewish day schools.

There is an international phenomenon known as the “January Gym Spike,” in which fitness centers around the world see their highest annual numbers of newly enrolled members in the beginning part of the month. Most surveys and data attribute this increase to folks making commitments to improve themselves in the new year. According to a 2018 poll conducted by Marist, PBS and NPR, upwards of 44% of Americans are likely to make a New Year’s resolution, with “Exercise More” being the most popular thing people resolve to do.

However, while early January is the busiest time for gym memberships, recent data insights have shown that January 19th is the day people are most likely to abandon their resolutions. For this phenomenon, that of giving up on resolutions, there is little data to suggest why. According to an executive at the social fitness network, Strava, the reason is simply that “Staying motivated is the oldest and biggest problem in health and fitness.”

I would like to suggest that the January juxtaposition of folks joining and then abruptly quitting gyms is not due to a lack of motivation but, rather, to improper goal setting. In fact, I would argue that most of the goals people set for themselves (I will lose weight; I will get in better shape) are not even goals; they are the byproduct of goals.

This point was elucidated in a 1981 edition of Management Review, where George T. Doran wrote about a concept he described as SMART Goals. This concept, which was developed further by Saint Louis University professor, Robert. S. Rubin, makes the case that effective goals are clear and reachable, and each should be:

• Specific
• Measurable
• Achievable
• Relevant
• Time bound

Working within this paradigm, instead of saying that my goal is to “get in shape,” or “exercise more,” I might say that my goal is “to go to the gym every Tuesday and Thursday from 4pm - 5pm,” laying out a specific workout regimen. If I have fidelity to this goal, the byproduct will be that I will be in better shape.

Indeed, this concept is not only steeped in contemporary relevance, it also a halachic injunction. Whether it is in Pirkei Avot when Shammai says, “Aseh Torat’cha Keva” (Make your Torah study a regular habit), (Avot 1:15) or in the Rambam’s Mishnah Torah where it says one “must establish a fixed time for Torah study during the day and night,” (Hilchot Talmud Torah. Perek 1, Halacha 8) our tradition mandates that each of us sets SMART Goals for our growth that are appropriately challenging, while remaining realistic.

As Jewish school communities around the country take their winter vacations, we all have the opportunity to reflect on the first halves of our respective school years, and consider who we want to be, both individually and collectively, in the coming months. With this in mind, I encourage each and every one of us to think about how our goals align with Mr. Doran’s framework, and how well we are setting ourselves up for success. Whether we want to become better at math, or engage in more Talmud study as part of Rabbi Meir Shapiro’s inter-generational daf yomi SMART Goal, it is not the big, abstract goals that position us to make meaningful change. Rather, it is having consistent and unwavering fidelity to the small steps that allows us to realize our potential.

by Joshua Gold
Principal, HAFTR Middle School

Prior to moving into the Jewish Day School world, Joshua Gold worked in the New York City Department of Education for ten years as a teacher, department chair, new teacher mentor, and assistant principal. Mr. Gold worked first as a teacher at the High School for Sports Management, and then for seven years as a teacher and then school leader at NEST+m, NYC’s premier Gifted and Talented school, and one of the best public schools in the country.

Mr. Gold holds a Bachelors Degree in Secondary Education - Social Studies from SUNY Cortland, a Masters Degree in History from Brooklyn College, and a Masters Degree in Educational Leadership and Organizational Management from Columbia University, where he was a Wallace Fellow. Mr. Gold is also a graduate of Columbia University’s prestigious Summer Principal’s Academy.

Having learned under such professors as Dr. Elie Drago-Severson and Dr. Marc Brackett, Director of the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, Mr. Gold has developed specialization in the areas of the psychology of leading adult development, developing social emotional learning curricula, and instructional leadership at large. 

A sought after speaker and professional development facilitator, Mr. Gold currently serves as the Principal of HAFTR Middle School in Lawrence, NY. 

Photo by Stefany Andrade on Unsplash

Forming committees on a board is more of an art than a science. There are few hard and fast rules to the work, and different boards approach it in different ways. Some boards have numerous, long-standing committees in place, while other boards work without any committees! Overall, boards are encouraged to think, in an ongoing way, about what committees are critical to the work of the board today and to do away with committees that no longer serve a core purpose. Twenty five years ago, the average board had 6.6 committees; today the average is down to 4.5. Even the executive committee, which serves as a cornerstone of many boards, has come into question for its role in usurping the decision-making power of the larger board.

Some boards struggle to effectively engage committees, with only a few people seeming to do the majority of the work of the board. Effective committees with a clearly defined purpose enable the board to distribute responsibilities, engage all board members, and get the work done in between board meetings, thus enabling the board to focus on the critical strategic conversations they need to have at board meetings.

Nonetheless, there are some consistent suggested practices that have emerged as boards go about the work of forming and composing committees.

• Of all standing committees, governance and finance are generally considered the two most important and least dispensable.
• If you do have an executive committee, make sure it doesn’t have too much power such that it saps the initiative and personal investment of the other board members.
• Make sure that the bylaws enable the board to be nimble in forming committees on an ad-hoc basis when needed, to perform functions such as hiring a new head or undertaking a major fundraising campaign.
• Establish clearly defined responsibilities for committees, and let them know that their advice will be taken seriously but the board has final say.
• Committee size should be determined to ensure the engagement of all its members.
• Try to compose a committee of people with diverse and relevant skills, backgrounds, connections.
• Consider bringing onto committees people who are not members of the larger board, both to tap into their skill sets and as a potential recruitment tool for new board members.
• Rotating committee assignments can be an effective way to develop the skill sets of board members, especially ones with the potential for board leadership.

Finally, be sure to review the committee structure and assess committees’ effectiveness often to ascertain that their work is important to the school and satisfying to the members.

For many years, I have wondered why Avraham was chosen to lead the Jewish people. Although he lived during complicated times filled with wickedness and evil, there were still other people who could have merited to be “our father”.  

The Torah describes Noach “as a righteous man, perfect for his generation…..Noach walked with G-d”(6:9).  Our forefathers, Avraham, Yitzchak and Yaakov, all learned with Shem and Eiver, the noted scholars of the day. Rivka consulted with them when she encountered questions about her pregnancy. This leads us to ask the obvious question as to why individuals such as Noach, Shem or Eiver were not chosen to spearhead the birth of our nation. What quality did Avraham possess that made him favorable in the eyes of G-d? 

The Torah tells us-” for I have loved him(Avraham) because he commands his children and his household after him that they keep the way of Hashem, doing charity and justice” (Vayeira 18:19). Avraham was chosen because he would teach G-d’s children- from this we can assume that Avraham was the first true teacher. 

Noach was very righteous but in the span of 120 years he spent building the teiva, he was not able to convince even one person, other than members of his own family, to join him in the teiva. Shem and Eiver, great scholars, served as advisors and were available to answer questions for those who inquired, but they did not progress beyond that role. They did not proactively make that ever important “human personal connection”. The Torah states that Avraham “planted an eshel in B’ersheva and there he proclaimed the name of Hashem, G-d of the Universe” (Vayera:21:33). Rashi comments on this pasuk that Avraham would say to the people he served food and drink, “Do you believe that you have eaten of that which is mine? Bless Him of Whose food you have eaten.‘’ Through acts of kindness, Avraham built trust with the people he came into contact with and in doing so made them believers in Hashem. As Rashi says in Parshat Lech Lecha(12:5) “Avraham converted the men while Sarah converted the women and Scripture considers it as if they had made them.”  

One can argue that today, the Shem and Eiver type of teacher might be rendered obsolete by platforms such as Google and Sefaria. What is irreplaceable, however, is that remarkable teacher who leaves an everlasting impact on a child. 

As educational buzzwords come and go, and curricula and initiatives change year after year, I marvel at the continued dedication of teachers who keep pushing forward. Sadly, I read article after article about teacher shortages nationwide, a topic discussed at every educational leadership gathering and wonder if this spirit will continue. I ask my daughter’s friends at our Shabbat table what field of work they are pursuing. Occupational therapy, physical therapy, nursing, psychology, and social work are the popular answers. We are quick to size up the issue as a pay scale and benefits dilemma. While this may have been a primary reason in the past, today it’s much more complicated. One talented girl commented, “I don’t want to come home in the evening after a long day of navigating ‘more-than-ever challenging children’ to a slew of difficult emails from snowplow parents …a career of occupational therapy affords me the opportunity to make my own hours and take care of my family.” 

While shuls, youth groups, and community activities are a vital necessity for our children’s upbringing, it’s great schools that ensure Jewish continuity. STEAM Labs, engineering programs, and a robust Judaic and General Studies curriculum are key components for any educational institution today. The lifeline of every great school, however, is its amazing educators. 

What’s the solution? I don’t have all the answers but perhaps together we can figure out how to persuade our young men and women to consider this noble and fulfilling profession. Hopefully, by addressing this pressing issue collectively, we will continue the mission that our father Avraham began. 

The Hall of Fame baseball manager Earl Weaver once said, “Momentum is only as good as tomorrow’s starting pitcher.”  Who will be our next group of ace starting pitchers?

Research has substantiated what the administration at Yavneh Academy knew 14 years ago when they hired me to design a social-emotional curriculum - unheard of at that time - truly groundbreaking... that EQ may be more important than IQ in succeeding in life. Research on SEL in schools indicated children in schools with social-emotional learning as part of their curriculum showed improved achievement scores, and many improved their grade point averages.  Incidents of misbehavior and disciplinary action went down as well. Research indicates that skills like self-restraint, persistence, and self-awareness are better indicators of success in life than academic performance.  Children with strong social-emotional skills are more successful in their careers and marriages, face less mental illness, and may even be physically healthier.

Educators and parents may worry, “If we take the time to implement SEL we take away from academic learning time.”  No worries there! SEL has been found to have a tremendous positive impact on academic achievement and learning.  When children are anxious or distressed, they are not available to learn.  As psychologist David Caruso, the author of the Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test asserted, “It is very important to understand that emotional intelligence is not the opposite of intelligence, it is not the triumph of heart over head; it is the unique intersection of both.”  The SEL vision is not at all contrary to the academic and cognitive vision of growth we have for our children. They work in tandem. 

The unique component regarding the SEL, implemented in my school and as well as in other schools, is that it does not simply focus on prevention programs which tend to target a single issue. True social-emotional learning, is, as Jennifer Kahn says in her article “Can Social Emotional Intelligence Be Taught,”   “...to instill a deep psychological intelligence that will help children regulate their emotions. Educators and parents have long assumed that a child’s ability to cope with such stresses is either innate — a matter of temperament — or else acquired ‘along the way,’ in the rough and tumble of ordinary interaction. But in practice, Brackett says, many children never develop those crucial skills. ‘It’s like saying that a child doesn’t need to study English because she talks with her parents at home,’ Brackett told me last spring. ’Emotional skills are the same. A teacher might say, ‘Calm down!’ — but how exactly do you calm down when you’re feeling anxious? Where do you learn the skills to manage those feelings?‘”

Our Advisory program in our middle school is a once a week social/emotional class, with weekly lesson plans designed for our students.  The advisors each receive very specific lesson plans which lay out the entire lesson for them and guide them step by step.  When beginning to design the curriculum much thought was put into the developmental needs of each particular grade. What are the issues that come through my office for that grade?  I consulted with teachers and parents in focusing on topics.  Parents, teachers, and students know that the curriculum is dynamic, and when an issue comes up we can incorporate it into Advisory. While the skills learned each year are targeted to the needs of that age group, we never lose sight of the fact that the skills are life skills- needed beyond school to raise resilient, successful and happy adults.

Our sixth grade curriculum focuses on skills that are needed in the transition to middle school. We call it “Do You Want To Succeed In Middle School?  Here’s How…”  Topics such as:  Time management, organization, etiquette and appropriate behavior (especially at bar/bat mitzvahs, in interfacing with teachers, and when e-mailing), working in groups, friendship skills, conflict resolution, peer pressure, relationships with parents, body image, and harassment/safety.

The eighth grade curriculum is fondly called “Preparing for Life After Yavneh.”  We cover topics they find extremely practical. In the first half of the year, they cover topics like: Goal Setting- learning, friendships, family, personal, religious.  How to fill out an application? Expectations for high school- what can I gain? What can I become? What do I want? How to make important life decisions, and how to navigate that with their parents. They learn interview skills and test-taking strategies and how to cope with possible rejection.  The 2nd half of the year is all about life in high school. They focus on pressures faced in high school- peer pressure, substance use (including alcohol and vaping), cheating, stress management and relationships with parents.

Our seventh grade was the trickier one as those who work with middle schoolers know that the seventh-grade students’ development is so varied and social-emotional learning needs buy-in. How could I design a curriculum that applied to all? The skills the sixth graders and eighth graders needed were more obvious to the students.  I decided to make the seventh-grade curriculum more project-based.  Each unit covered leads up to a project where the students can actualize what they have learned.  We called their curriculum “Prepare Yourself To Change The World.”  Topics like teamwork, communication skills, compromise, empathy, coping with adversity in life- resiliency, upbeat thinking and self-talk., the bystander’s role to stand up to injustice, body image, anger management, social exclusion and cliques, gambling and foul language.

The selection of teachers for Advisory is a key component of the program’s success.  Advisors need to be able to balance the fine line of being open and connected to the students, with maintaining decorum in a once a week class.  We want the students to take this class seriously and they understand that it’s not just a “schmoozing” class, but a class with directed activities, discussion points and clear goals for each lesson. Each lesson plan, in fact, does have a goal clearly stated in the lesson plan to ensure we are keeping our eyes on the goal. Whether there is a trigger film, an activity, an article or a current event shared with the students it is obvious to them that this is a structured plan for skills they need to learn.

We want our students to know that social-emotional learning is a serious business, and we take their social-emotional lives seriously, as we want them to do so as well.  When they graduate, and they do an exit survey sharing their experiences at Yavneh, (which they do in Advisory), they tell us that they got that message and hopefully have gained skills that will stay with them way beyond the walls of Yavneh.