Jenny Hanley, 37, has been a third-grade general studies teacher on Perelman Jewish Day School’s Stern Campus for a decade. At this point, she’s confident that, by the end of each year, her students will have made progress in math, reading and other primary subjects.
That’s why her deeper focus is on making them kinder and more aware of others. She views this focus as aligned with her Jewish value of tikkun olam, repairing the world.
“Learning academics, even though it might be challenging for some kids, they’re all going to get better. To me, the most important thing is growing into a good, kind person,” Hanley said. “A Jewish lens is making sure you’re taking care of yourself, taking care of others and tikkun olam, taking care of the world.”
Hanley learned this value during her Conservative Jewish upbringing.
The resident of Philadelphia’s Bella Vista neighborhood grew up at Beth Sholom Congregation on Old York Road. Her grandmother worked in the gift shop for over 40 years. Her father served as president of the Men’s Club.
Hanley also kept kosher in her family home and attended Ramah Day Camp.
“The synagogue was like my second home,” Hanley said. “I was always there.”
The teacher studied elementary education at West Chester University, and briefly considered making aliyah. She spent her first postgrad year in Israel as part of a teaching fellows program, focusing on third through fifth grades.
“Like many young American Jews, I thought about staying, but I just didn’t make the commitment, and came back. I gave it a strong consideration,” she said. “My family, though, was all here. I’m one of seven. We’re a blended family. It would be really hard for me to be that far.”
Hanley also briefly worked as a nanny and moved out to California, thinking she might stay, but she returned after a year. When she was looking for a job in the Philly area, Chagit Nusbaum, the sister-in-law of Hanley’s longtime neighbor in Cheltenham and the principal of Perelman’s Forman Center campus, recommended that she speak to Emily Cook, the principal of Perelman’s Stern Center campus.
“It felt like it would be a nice, comfortable place to work. I had this degree in education. I said, ‘We’ll see how it goes,’” Hanley recalled of the interview.
For her first couple of years, Hanley served as a general studies teacher for multiple grades, leading small groups in reading and math. By her third year, she moved up to the role of classroom lead in second grade. A year later, she stepped up to third grade, where she remains.
Over time, she has grown to trust the educational process and to realize that those deeper values are perhaps more important. Hanley said that, every time her students move up a grade, she wants them to “take something they learned in my room.”
She also feels supported by Cook and the Perelman administration.
“I feel as though I can go to her with anything,” she said of Cook. “If I have a suggestion, I can talk to her about it. If I have a problem, I can talk with her about it.”
In the summer, Hanley continues to serve as a staff member at Ramah Day Camp, where she’s been going, with the exception of a few years, since 2005. And last school year, she took four months off for maternity leave; her daughter, her first child, is now 19 months old.
The young family is in the process of figuring out what synagogue to join.
“That’s kind of the next step in our family journey. I do like the Conservative movement. I like a mostly Hebrew service,” she said.