Dr. Cindy Reichis the Academic Director of Jewish Day School Standards and Benchmarks. Since 2007 Cindy has been a Tanakh Educator Consultant (TEC) with the program, serving in community, Conservative, and Orthodox day schools across the United States and Canada. Prior to her work with Standards and Benchmarks, Cindy was the Director of the Talmud Torah of St. Paul Day School, a community school in Minnesota, where she also taught Jewish Studies and Hebrew for many years. Cindy has also worked as an independent consultant and coach on programs in general and Jewish education focusing on professional development, curriculum design, leadership, assessment, and evaluation.
Cindy holds degrees from Brown University, Hebrew Union College, and University of Southern California. She completed a doctorate in Evaluation Studies at the University of Minnesota’s Department of Organizational Leadership, Policy and Development in the College of Education and Human Development in 2015. She is married to Rabbi Harold Kravitz, a Conservative congregational rabbi in Minneapolis. Her daughters, son, and daughter-in-law are all day school graduates. |
Aviva Silvermanis the Field Services Director of Jewish Day School Standards and Benchmarks. Having joined the project in its first year of implementation, she has consulted with over 30 schools across denominations, in Canada and the United States. Aviva has earned degrees from the Jewish Theological Seminary, Hebrew University and the University of Toronto. She also was deeply involved with various Camps Ramah, in Canada, the United States and Jerusalem.
Aviva has held positions of leadership as Principal of Jewish Studies at Hillel Day School of Metropolitan Detroit, as Director of Camp Ramah Day Camp in Jerusalem, as a member of the original writing team for the Florence Melton Adult Mini-School, and as the first educational consultant and teacher in the Tikvah program for special needs campers at Camp Ramah in Canada. During her career as a Jewish Educator, Aviva has taught, developed and published curriculum, supervised, mentored and coached students, teachers and administrators in a wide variety of Jewish educational schools and settings. Together with her husband, Dr. Mark Smiley, and by co-parenting children with wildly different learning styles, Aviva continues to seek and appreciate the “tzelem ehohim” in every individual.. |
Charlotte Abramsonis the Founding Director of the Jewish Day School Standards and Benchmarks project, affectionately called “S & B” to this day!
In 2003, Charlotte directed the crafting of the first Tanakh Standards and Benchmarks Document and proposed a systematic program for in-service learning for day school Judaic studies faculties and their Judaic studies leaders, preparing them in how to enact the standards as a means for advancing the teaching and learning of Tanakh. In addition to the in-service learning for faculty, the program included coaching and mentoring as well as a series of three professional learning institutes for JS heads, affectionately called “ILS's” (Instructional Leadership Seminars). In 2012, she proposed the development of a Rabbinics Standards and Benchmarks Compendium, which has come to fruition under the able leadership of Rabbi Sheryl Katzman. Charlotte credits the TECs for continually improving the program’s offerings, for their unwavering support for their cohort schools, and inspiring faculties and leaders alike. Charlotte’s passionate involvement in education began with her career as a teacher of Judaic studies at Hillel Day School of Farmington Hills, Michigan. She served as Dean of Studies at Golda Och Academy, Upper School, and as principal of its middle school. Charlotte earned her BS degree at Columbia University, her BJed from Boston’s Hebrew College, and an MA in Jewish Education and Principal’s Certification from JTS. She is the 2013 recipient of the Hebrew College Benjamin Shevach Award for distinguished achievement in Jewish educational leadership and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Jewish Education from JTS and the Jewish Educator’s Assembly in November 2015. Now heading into a well-earned retirement, in her decades of stellar service, Charlotte has taught, trained, and inspired many others in the field, and has been a founding architect of the professionalization of Jewish education. |
Rabbi Elliot Goldbergis currently serving as a TEC to alumni schools and as Rabbinics Advisor to the Standards and Benchmarks leadership team. Before joining the team, Elliot participated in the project as a school leader and was involved in the creation of the compendium of Rabbinics Standards.
Elliot is the primary at Goldberg Coaching and Consulting whose mission is to support the work of non-profit and educational institutions and nurture the people who work in them. He is a CTI-trained coach with more than two decades of experience in Jewish day schools and a lifetime of summers at Ramah Camps. Elliot is a regular contributor to MyJewishLearning.com's Daily Dose of Talmud and an occasional co-host of Tov! a podcast about "The Good Place" and Jewish ideasi |
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