Rabbi Maccabee Avishur has been named the new head of school at Kohelet Yeshiva. He comes to the Philadelphia area’s only modern Orthodox school of grades kindergarten to 12 with years of experience in Jewish day school education, but he said that what his new home in Merion Station offers is unique.
“There are very few schools around North America like Kohelet. The school is fully committed to operating the most robust academics in both Judaics and general studies, and also offers kids all of the opportunities to explore their passions,” he said. “So that was really attractive to me as an educator who went into this career because he wanted to make a positive difference in the lives of children at a place that was aligned with my personal mission in life and my personal sensibilities. Kohelet is that place.”
Before joining Kohelet Yeshiva, Avishur served as principal of the Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in Livingston, New Jersey. The California native said that prior to joining Kohelet Yeshiva, he knew a good bit about the school and its reputation from firsthand experience.
“When I was working at Yeshiva University, I had the chance to work with Kohelet Yeshiva for a long time, dating back maybe a decade, so I knew a lot about the school. I knew a lot of the people inside. I knew their educational philosophy. I knew a lot of students and the educators, and all of that was really impressive to me,” he said.
Avishur’s past roles in Jewish education include serving as a teacher at Emek Hebrew Academy and Mesivta of Greater Los Angeles, both in California, director of Judaics at the Emery/Weiner School in Houston, dean of Judaics at the Frankel Jewish Academy in the Detroit area, academic dean and principal of general studies at Heichal HaTorah and principal of Rae Kushner Yeshiva High School in New Jersey. He also worked as a senior consultant and leadership coach at Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools, an organization that helps Jewish schools with strategic planning and leadership.
In those roles, he accomplished a lot — although he isn’t the first to tell you that.
“I have such a difficult time talking about my accomplishments because I am very much a team player that really chalks up accomplishments to the efforts of people I work with, but I think some of the things that you might say I have been successful with at the previous schools are refining and professionalizing educational programs, increasing enrollment almost 100% at one school, creating innovative models for kids who needed them and then expanding those programs for all kids so that they could experiment with different ways of learning,” he said.
Jennifer Groen, Kohelet Yeshiva’s executive director, said that the school is happy to welcome such an accomplished educator.
“He keeps an open door; he wants to meet with every staff person,” she said. “Over the summer, he wanted to get to know everybody. He’s really working hard to learn as much as he can as early as he can, and he’s building teams and collaborating and bringing his own spin to things to really improve on systems that are already in place.”
Groen said that staff members have received Avishur warmly, and she is confident that families and students will, too.
“They just feel him to be aligned with who we are, appreciate his clarity, appreciate his openness to listen and learn, and his support in them doing their work,” she said.
For Avishur, joining Kohelet Yeshiva was an easy decision in part because of the school’s culture, which is largely built on a steadfast commitment to Jewish pride and Israel.
“One of the things is that the school has an amazing culture which is totally aligned with the culture that I was looking for in a school,” he said. “It is a culture of learning and joy, and it does so many things well — like commitment to Zionism. [That is] really important to me.”
Avishur said that he has seen how some Jewish organizations have had their donations decrease because of how they have handled antisemitism and the war in Israel, and he is proud to say that his new school is not one of those.
“Some of that money is coming to Kohelet,” Avishur said. “The reason for that is because Kohelet has done an amazing job in building up Jewish pride and Jewish knowledge and is committed to Israel and the Jewish people.”
At Kohelet Yeshiva, more than 65 graduates have served or are serving in the Israel Defense Forces. In recent years, over 85% of graduates have gone to gap-year programs in Israel. For Avishur, that is something that he wants to continue.
“All of our kids feel a strong connection to Israel and feel empowered to stand up for the Jewish people, and that’s something I am really looking to build on,” he said.
Groen said that this aligns with what Kohelet Yeshiva already wanted before he joined.
“I think the school saw him as a really good fit for who we are and how we’re going to be growing in the future,” she said.