A Message from the Board President

Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. --B. F. Skinner

Recently, someone from out-of-town asked me to describe what MJBHA "gives" its students. I first responded with a description of the wide range of classes, activities and programs our students participate in. But after thinking about it, I told the person what was really important—and what really makes our school and its students unique: our five core values. The most important thing we give our students is an unbelievably strong connection to those five core values. Our five core values (Chochma, Torah, Yisrael, Derech Eretz and Achrayut) form the basis of the MJBHA education that survives when all the facts and figures have been forgotten.

We seek to instill in our students a love of both Judaic and secular learning, guided by curiosity, creativity and critical thinking. Our graduates leave with a love of Torah and a firm foundation in Torah and Jewish law.

We encourage our students to hold themselves up to the highest standards of personal conduct and to always be mindful of others in words and actions. We cultivate an enduring love of the people of Israel, the land of Israel, and the state of Israel. And we promote a deep sense of responsibility and menschlechkeit for ourselves, each other, the Jewish community, America and for people around the world.

Each of these core values is what our administration and faculty seek to "give" our students each day. Whether they are participating in a lower school community volunteer day, a meaningful and moving Veteran's Day Assembly, a new Middle School Parsha initiative, preschool students packing food with middle school students for Harmony Hills Elementary School, an Upper School tzedakah auction which raised over $6000 for Chai Lifeline, learning with the Kollel, learning from a poetry scholar-in-residence, or being entertained by a production of 1984, our children are experiencing the five core values both inside and outside of the classroom in ways that will stay with them long after they have left the halls of MJBHA.

This is the education that MJBHA strives to impart—the kind of education that is priceless.

Daphna F. Raskas, Ph.D.
President, MJBHA Board of Directors