Posted to Communal Matters on
by Yonit Tanenbaum

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — Ten principals of Jewish schools across North America gathered in Brooklyn this week to participate in the Menachem Education Foundation’s Principal Leadership Program. The program began with an informal dinner on Monday, Oct. 5, and continued with two full days of intensive and challenging workshops on Oct. 6 and 7.

Jewish Principals Kick Off Innovative Leadership Program

by Yonit Tanenbaum

CROWN HEIGHTS, Brooklyn [CHI] — Ten principals of Jewish schools across North America gathered in Brooklyn this week to participate in the Menachem Education Foundation’s Principal Leadership Program. The program began with an informal dinner on Monday, Oct. 5, and continued with two full days of intensive and challenging workshops on Oct. 6 and 7.

The workshops took place in the Crown Condos penthouse suite and were led by the New York City Leadership Academy. The NYC Leadership Academy was created by Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Klein in 2003 to develop transformational principals for New York City public schools. The Menachem Education Foundation recruited the Academy to provide training and individualized coaching spanning the 2009-2010 school year, and has tailored the curriculum to fit the unique profile of a Yeshiva principal.

“For the very first time, a group of Yeshiva principals are being formally trained to become more effective leaders by world class trainers and coaches,” comments participant Rabbi Avrohom Bergstein, principal of Cheder Lubavitch in Morristown, NJ. “While much professional development has been available in the past, this course imparts both the rationale behind and the practice of expertly efficient mechanisms that propel a school to succeed through the development of its leader.”

The Menachem Education Foundation developed the Principal Leadership Program to give Jewish school principals “tools to become brilliant leaders who will inspire and transform generations of students, parents and teachers,” says executive director of the Menachem Education Foundation, Rabbi Zalman Shneur. The program, with its interactive methods of group exercises and discussions, “will create a new standard in Jewish educational leadership,” he predicts.

As growing focus is being placed on improving American education both nationally and locally, “Now is our moment,” Shneur says, “to utilize the opportunity… to work with the Jewish community to provide the best possible education for our children.”

The Foundation’s programs focus on workforce and professional development within the Jewish education system by providing training and placement for those aspiring to become teachers and educational leaders.

The NYC Leadership Academy’s success in producing transformational leaders has recently been confirmed in an independent study performed by NYU’s Institute for Education and Social Policy.

The following principals will once again come together in November and will continue to meet over the next ten months for a total of sixteen workshops – in addition to the individualized coaching – as part of the Principal Leadership Program:

1. Rabbi Lustig – Oholei Menachem, Brooklyn, NY
2. Rabbi Simpson – Lubavitcher Yeshiva, Brooklyn, NY
3. Rabbi Rosenblum – Achei Temimim, Pittsburgh, PA
4. Rabbi Greenbaum – Cheder Menachem, Los Angeles, CA
5. Rabbi Zaltsman – Zahavy Cheder, Toronto, Canada
6. Rabbi Zavdi – Kluman Mesivta, Miami, FL
7. Rabbi Rappaport – Oholei Menachem, Brooklyn, NY
8. Rabbi Wolowik – Cheder Chabad, Monsey, NY
9. Rabbi Benzion – Darchei Menachem, Brooklyn, NY
10. Rabbi Bergstein – Cheder Lubavitch, Morristown, NJ

For more information on the Menachem Education Foundation: mymef.org

For more information on the NYC Leadership Academy: nycleadershipacademy.org

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15 Comments

  • a new zalmy schneur fan

    Brilliant. Aside for its goals its just incredible to see all those people in one room together.

    There’s light at the end of our dark tunnel.

  • bee

    I would like to commend Yonit Tanenbaum on always writing beautifully articulated, and non biased articles. Keep it up!

  • Wishing more from our schools!

    Finally, Frum schools catching up with modern education! I am not cringing as much at the thought of putting my children in our schools.

  • A parent who wants more for her child

    When the principles and administration finally have the guts to weed out the paycheck collectors, a.k.a. teachers, our children will benefit immensely. Until then talk is cheap and all the workshops in the world will not help our precious gems. We do everything in our power to protect our children from all elements, whether it be crossing a street safely, checking for a proper hechsher in a store, checking out a household before allowing playdates, choosing appropriate clothing, etc. What a crying shame that we send them off to our own yeshivos to be subject to suffering at the hands of incompetent, burnt out (if they ever could teach to begin with) and emotionally inept teachers. It’s about time that these losers are removed from the classrooms so we can begin to build our schools with the professionalism that every student deserves.

  • Moshiach-s Tzeiten

    It’s about time!
    Our children, our future, our most valuable and treasured investments are given over to “mechanchim” with no qualified training – for hours on end. The majority of professionals need certification to keep their jobs. Teachers and principals should have to do so yearly, too. Training should be done by “outside” top-notch people in the field of education. Naturally, this training could be enhanced by “chassidishe” advisors.

  • me

    Please support this amazing orginization in all aspects. And the the commentator about teachers they have a program for teachers as well :)

  • Eli Ohav

    Wonderful program but I would perhaps explore more fully the statement “For the very first time, a group of Yeshiva principals are being formally trained to become more effective leaders by world class trainers and coaches,” as there are several existing high quality programs currently available through Torah Umesorah, the Board of jewish Education of Greater NYan others, taught by acclaimed and internationally regarded experts. These programs are heavily underwritten by philanthropists intersted in advancing and promoting Jewish Education and in fact CHABAD leders have, and are currently participating, at no cost.