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Our Impact

350

Educators

12,000

Students

Expected Outcomes

  • In-school leadership with expertise in Hebrew teaching and learning.
  • Custom built, well-articulated curricular framework.
  • Well defined assessment tools to measure student progress in all four language skills to clearly track student progress.
  • Teacher performance measured against student outcomes.
  • Install a culture of transparent teaching and learning within the school.
  • Ever-growing collection of resources and learning materials available to teachers.

Results in the Classroom

  • Greater desire by students to take risks and to express themselves.
  • Increased student motivation and interest in the language.
  • Maximal use of the language speaking in complete sentences and answers.
  • Participation and expression among all levels of learners in the classroom.

Leading in Hebrew מובילים בעברית

The Leading in Hebrew initiative selects Jewish day schools with the strong commitment to Hebrew education and invests in them to become “demonstration schools”—models of excellence in Hebrew teaching and learning for other day schools and communities to emulate. The overarching objective is that these model schools demonstrate successful educational outcomes, which then catalyze similar outcomes in surrounding schools. Data dissemination and guidance on curricular approaches will subsequently expand knowledge about Hebrew education to other communities in North America.

Beginning in 2019 with the selection of Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School of the Nation’s Capital as our first demonstration school, the Chicago Jewish Community Day School was recently selected as the second project site. Leading in Hebrew is made possible through the generous and visionary support of multiple funders and foundations, including Alisa Doctoroff, Arnee and Walt Winshall, Covenant Foundation, Jim Joseph Foundation, and Mayberg Foundation, reflecting a commitment to elevate the Hebrew language as a communal priority in the Diaspora.

Read more about the announcement of our second Leading in Hebrew school

“We could not be more pleased to see this bold initiative come to Chicago, building upon the strong engagement with Hebrew education that has always been a hallmark of our community. This is a terrific opportunity to leverage both the expertise of Hebrew at the Center and CJDS’s wonderful faculty, leadership and families, and advancing our shared belief in Hebrew’s power to deepen Jewish identity and connection.”

– Lonnie Nasatir, President of the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Chicago

Partnering with Hebrew at The Center brought our Hebrew department to the next level. My teachers are more knowledgeable, proficient and confident. Our curriculum is up to date and interesting. Relationship with Hebrew at the Center is a gift any school needs to give to their teachers —

Efrat Amir, Hebrew Chair, Gann Academy, Boston

Join Hebrew teachers, Hebrew leaders, and other school leaders for an intensive, virtual conference November 16-17, 11:00 am – 4:00 pm EDT. 

Click here for more information and to register

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Adina Kanefield
Director

Adina Kanefield is the Chief Executive Officer of the National Library of Israel, leading efforts to build support through strategic partnerships, dynamic programming, and community outreach across North America.

Previously, Adina founded a consulting practice focused on strategic growth and resource development, serving as a lead consultant for Hebrew at the Center. She has held leadership roles at the Edlavitch DC Jewish Community Center, the Milton Gottesman Jewish Day School, and the Center for Israel Studies at American University, and earlier practiced regulatory and employment law.

A graduate of The George Washington University School of Law, she also holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees, summa cum laude, from Emory University. Adina lives in Washington, D.C., and serves on Hebrew at the Center’s Board Development Task Force.

Adina lives in Washington, D.C., and is active in Jewish communal life. She serves on the Board Development Task Force for Hebrew at the Center and is a frequent presenter on the intersection of Jewish heritage, cultural preservation, and the mission of the National Library of Israel.

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Sanford “Sandy” Cardin

Director

Sanford “Sandy” Cardin is the founder of Global Jewry. A graduate of Harvard University, Sandy is a member of the bar of DC, Florida, Maryland, and the United States Supreme Court, as well
as the Senior Consultant for Philanthropy and Impact at Cresset Capital.
After a short stint practicing law, Sandy shifted into the NGO world. He started as the Mid-Atlantic Director of the Jerusalem Foundation before moving to Tulsa, OK in 1994 to become the first executive director, then first president, of the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family
Foundation.
Sandy spent 25 years guiding the CLSFF before leaving to become the CEO of Our Common Destiny, a global effort to
bridge the widening gap between the Jews in Israel and those living elsewhere.
Sandy has served on many Jewish boards (including as chair of the board or Leading Edge) and is currently involved in the JCC Association of North America. He has also held leadership posts at the Council on Foundations and National Center for Family Philanthropy.
Sandy lives with his wife, Melody, in Queenstown, MD.

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Walter A. Winshall

Director

Walter A. Winshall is a founding member of the board of Hebrew at the Center. He is a Principal in Collaborative Seed and Growth Partners, LLC, an investment firm specializing in the commercialization of early-stage technology. He is also a director at a number of early-stage companies. In addition to HATC, he is a board member of the National Yiddish Book Center and MIT Hillel. He was a founding board member of JCDS, Boston’s Jewish Community Day School and the Institute for the Advancement of Hebrew.
He graduated from MIT in electrical engineering and from Harvard Law School. Walt lives in Weston, Massachusetts with his wife, Arnee, chair of the Hebrew at the Center Board.
Walt serves on the Finance Committee and the Advocacy & Strategic Task Force Committee.

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Daniel Serfaty

Director

Daniel Serfaty is currently Chair of Aptima. As Aptima’s Founder and CEO, Daniel Serfaty has led Aptima to become the premier Human Performance Engineering business in the world. His work optimizes the integration of humans with intelligent technologies in defense, healthcare, aerospace, and education. His keynote addresses around the world are encouraging his audiences to imagine a future in which human and artificial intelligences work together in the service of humankind.
Daniel’s interdisciplinary background includes degrees in mathematics, psychology, aerospace engineering, and international business from the Université de Paris, the Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, and University of Connecticut. His doctoral work has pioneered the study of distributed command teams. He is the recipient of the UConn Distinguished Service Award and has been inducted in its Engineering Hall of Fame.
Daniel is the co-Chair of the New England Israeli American Council (IAC), the board of the Friends of the Academy of Hebrew Language and, in addition, serves on the boards of several business and philanthropic organizations in both the United States and Israel, with an eye towards building bridges between these communities. Daniel serves on Hebrew at the Center’s Yom Iyyun Task Force and is co-chair of the Board Development Task Force.
Daniel lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts with his wife Irene.

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Todd Sukol

Director

Todd Sukol has worked in and around the nonprofit and philanthropic sector most of his career. At the Mayberg Foundation where he is Executive Director, he oversees the foundation’s strategic philanthropy, grant-making and development of the Jewish Education Innovation Challenge (JEIC) and the Incubator for Emerging Jewish Initiatives (IEJI). In addition, Todd is a founding board member of The Witness Institute. Previously, Todd was president of Do More Mission, a firm that increases nonprofit impact through philanthropic advisory services to high net worth individuals and foundations and management services to small and mid-sized charitable organizations.

Todd received his formal training in Journalism and Public Relations from Pennsylvania State University. He studied
at the University of Manchester in England and completed a two-year Yeshiva program at Machon Shlomo: Alexander and Eva Heiden Torah Institute in Jerusalem, Israel. Sukol graduated from the Executive Master’s program
at the Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at Indiana University where he is currently enrolled in a doctoral program. Todd and his wife Amy (an active Hebrew at the Center volunteer) live in Silver Springs, Maryland. Todd was a member of the Strategic Reset Group, chaired the Strategic Transition and Planning Work Group, and is the current co-chair of the Governance Committee/Committee on Trustees and Board Development Task Force.

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Neil Kuttner

Treasurer

Neil Kuttner is the Chief Operations Officer of Cross Shore Capital Management, LLC, a registered investment advisor. He has worked in the financial services industry for forty years, previously at Sanford Bernstein & Co. where he was the CFO. Neil is a CPA and has also taught tax planning at Lehman College. Neil has BA in economics from City College of New York and a master’s degree in business administration from the Wharton School.
Neil lives in Manhattan and has two grown sons, Sam and Matthew, both of whom are involved Jewishly. Neil has long been active in the Jewish community has previously served as treasurer of Camp Ramah in New England, treasurer of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, board chair of the Academy for Jewish Religion, and synagogue president of Park Slope Jewish Center.
Neil views fluency in Hebrew as one of the important building blocks in positive Jewish identity, though his Hebrew language skills do need brushing up. He chairs Hebrew at the Center’s Finance Committee and is looking forward to continuing to contribute both his time and expertise.

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Joanne Blauer

Clerk

Joanne Blauer was formerly the Associate Dean, Secretary and Executive Vice Dean of Weill Cornell Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences in New York City.
Joanne has a BA in Philosophy and Religion from Scripps College and a JD from the University of Washington School of Law. She spent her junior year of college at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. She is the past COO of Hebrew at the Center and a founding board member of the Institute for the Advancement of Hebrew. In addition, Joanne has previously served on the board of Scripps College, the National Association of College and University Attorneys and is an inactive member of the Washington State Bar Association. She lives in New York City and Richmond Shores, Massachusetts. Joanne co- chairs the Governance Committee/Committee on Trustees and serves on the CEO Support and Evaluation Committee (CSEC).

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Arnee Winshall

President

co-founded Hebrew at the Center with Dr. Vardit Ringvald and
Sharona Givol. She is Founding Chair of JCDS, Boston’s Jewish Community Day School and sits on the boards of Jewish Interactive and Incubator for Emerging Jewish Initiatives (IEJI).
In addition, Arnee is a member of the JEIC advisory and co-founder of DEEP (a PLC of Developing Embedded Expertise Programs). In the past, she served chair of the RAVSAK board, on the Board of Overseers of Hebrew College, on the Executive Committee of JESNA, as the lay co-chair of the Lippman Kanfer Institute, and on the boards of The Harold Grinspoon Foundation, the JCC’s of Greater Boston, the Foundation for Jewish Camp, JECEI, and the Yiddish Book Center.

Arnee received her undergraduate degree in contrastive linguistics from Boston University and, after serving in the Peace Corps in Thailand, pursued graduate studies in developmental psycholinguistics at the University of Chicago.
Arnee has two adult children and lives in Weston, Massachusetts with her husband, Walt.