Miriam Jacobson came to Philadelphia with her family from Canada during middle school and grew up in the Beth Or community, becoming involved in multiple aspects of religious life.
The Lansdale resident got her start in Jewish communal work at the synagogue, spending a decade as a preschool teacher before moving to Temple Sinai in 2018 as a lead preschool teacher.
Since then, Jacobson has joined the Temple Sinai community and risen in the ranks to become the assistant director of early childhood education and the director of the religious school and Sinai High.
7What is Sinai High?
[It’s] our teen program for seventh through 10th graders. They’re not really in the religious school anymore, so they enter Sinai High, which is our program for all of our teens in the synagogue.
6What’s it like to watch your students grow up?
A special part of what I loved about working at Beth Or, working in the preschool and the religious school, was I got to see them at their youngest age, and then I would see them as they entered the religious school and in their teens. And it’s the same at Temple Sinai.
I have such a heavy hand in the preschool, getting to see these kiddos when they first enter to when they graduate at our pre-K graduation, and then rejoining the religious school to officially start their Jewish education.
Then watching them grow throughout that and enter as teenagers into our synagogue, and watching that change. It’s so special to be a part of their lives at such different stages.
5Is it special to see your former students after they’ve graduated?
I am kind of at that point right now in my career where kids that I first taught in preschool are seniors in high school and graduating on to college. And it’s so cool to see how much they’ve stayed the same, but also how different they are and how mature and responsible they are going into the world.
I work at a camp in the summer, and I get to see a lot of the kids that I used to have there in their teenage-hood, which is crazy and wild, and they’re growing into these beautiful human beings.
4Can you describe the feeling of being able to provide the kids with a safe and secure Jewish learning environment?
It’s so rewarding and an honor to be able to provide that for them. We want to build and nurture their Jewish identity. And I feel incredibly lucky to help them do that every time they’re in the building.
3Why a Jewish organization?
Working in a Jewish institution, it’s not just about having a job. It’s really a way to help live by the values that I grew up learning about. And it’s a space where there’s learning and community, and you feel so deeply connected to the work that you do for myself and for others, to help them find that meaning and belonging and purpose in Judaism.
2You’re a parent of four kids. Does your work as a teacher help you as a parent and vice versa?
It works so well together. The things that you learn from being a teacher can so easily be applied to being a parent, and then vice versa, being a parent gives you so much insight and so much knowledge into how you teach your students and how you lead by example. They’re so intertwined in my life. I’m a parent, and I was a teacher, and now, I’m a boss, but my kids see me as someone who helps everyone and is happy to pop into a classroom.
It’s so nice that it’s so interchangeable. I’m not just a mom there to them. I’m also someone who runs a school, and someone who’s there to help the teachers and give feedback or advice and all those things. So, yeah, it definitely goes hand in hand.
1Describe your passions outside of work.
I truly value my time with my family. It can be difficult in a job that’s not always a 9-to-5 job finding that time, but I have four kiddos and a husband, a cat and a dog, in a chaotic, lovely life that we live, but I value spending that family time with them, making memories and doing things that are special over the holidays or just finding little pieces of time to carve out and be with them individually. I love the beach, and I love the camper, but truly, it’s about my family.