Publications & Media
The DEEP Dive Editorial Board
Raizi Chechik
Raizi Chechik is a veteran educational leader with more than two decades of experience as a head of school, most recently at Manhattan Day School. She has also worked as a Principals Partnership mentor for Yeshiva University, and a curriculum coordinator for the Sephardic Studies Institute at the City University of New York. Raizi has been the recipient of numerous professional awards and honors, among them the national Grinspoon Award for Excellence in Jewish Education and a fellowship at Columbia University’s Middle East Institute. She currently mentors heads of school worldwide on behalf of Herzog College, UnitEd, and the Israeli Ministry of Education, and works with both lay and professional leaders on strategic planning and vision.
Cheryl Finkel
Cheryl R. Finkel is a leadership consultant working primarily with heads of Jewish day schools. For 20 years she served as head of the Epstein School in Atlanta, Georgia. Subsequently she was senior consultant at PEJE (Partnership for Excellence in Jewish Education) and simultaneously senior mentor in the JTS Day School Leadership Training Institute. Winner of the Covenant Award and recipient of an honorary doctorate from the Jewish Theological Seminary, she is a board member and immediate past board chair of the Covenant Foundation.
Ray Levi
Dr. Ray Levi serves as a leadership coach and consultant with Kol-Lev Consulting working with a broad cross-section of the Jewish community. This currently includes serving on the faculty of the Sacks Scholars Programme and as an advisor with the Rabbi Sacks Legacy. Previously Dr. Levi served as director of the Day School Leadership Training Institute (DSLTI) for nine years after being a mentor with the program since its inception. Dr. Levi also served as an adjunct professor at the Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education teaching organizational and school leadership. Previously, Dr. Levi served as head of school at the Amos and Celia Heilicher Minneapolis Jewish Day School in Minnesota and the Agnon School (currently the Mandel Jewish Day School) in Cleveland, Ohio.
Mark Shinar
In 2003, Dr. Mark Shinar moved from New York, where he taught grades 5-8 English, and became head of school at Oakland Hebrew Day School in Oakland, CA. There, he earned an Ed. D. in school leadership. He returned to New York in 2009 to serve as the director of general studies at SAR High School. In 2017, he and his family moved to Israel where he was the founding principal of an independent elementary school. He opened Mark Shinar Consulting to help educational leaders identify their goal, articulate their values, and strengthen their team building skills.
We Want To Hear From You
We hope you find The DEEP Dive useful and meaningful. We welcome your feedback about how we might build upon this foray into professional learning for future issues! Email me at [email protected].
The quarterly e-journal of professional learning for the Jewish day school community.
Through The DEEP Dive, we hope to inform, excite, and inspire you with real-life examples of the many professional learning opportunities that strengthen instructional practice, while increasing faculty job satisfaction. In each issue, we’ll feature one exemplar of professional learning and examine it from multiple perspectives, so you can appreciate both what it takes to implement effective professional learning and its broad impact.
In the news
- Investing in transformational Jewish day school experiences
Rachel Mohl Abrahams - The Balancing Act: Maintaining Standards of Excellence and Independence Simultaneously
David Farbman - High-quality professional development is the springboard to excellence
David Farbman - Don’t look too far: Allies to create field change may be closer than you think
Rachel Mohl Abrahams - Building for Sustained Impact
David Farbman - Professional Development Is Critically Important for Both Teachers and Students
Sharon Freundel - Coaching Strengthens the Teaching Profession
Smadar Goldstein, Tavi Koslowe and Tikvah Wiener - High-Quality Professional Development Can Help Solve the Teacher Shortage
Nina Bruder - Professional Learning for Teacher Retention
David Farbman, David Welsher and David Abusch-Magder
- Investing in transformational Jewish day school experiences
