By Stephen Silver
Rabbi Marshall Lesack, who graduated from what was then Akiba Hebrew Academy in 1997, arrived in the fall of 2021 as the new head of school at Akiba’s successor institution, the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr.
In the three years since, he’s had to contend with various challenges, including the return to in-person learning, rising antisemitism and the aftermath of the Oct. 7 attacks.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Jewish Exponent, Lesack discussed his path back to Barrack, his short- and long-term goals and how he views things just after the start of his fourth year at the school.
When attending Akiba in the 1990s, Lesack said, he never could have imagined becoming a rabbi, much less working at his alma mater.
“My 18-year-old self was not sitting at a desk here at Akiba Hebrew Academy thinking, when I’m in my 40s, this is what I’m going to be doing,” he told the Exponent. “But I’ve always loved education, committed and connected to the Jewish community, and it was the right path, and it’s been the right path for me.”
In 2021, Lesack arrived at Barrack, just as it reopened after the pandemic.
What has he learned in the first three years?
“This is a strong and vibrant community,” he said. “As somebody who’s a graduate of this school and community, it’s really been an honor to be able to come back and to lead the community and partner with so many other leaders here.”
“We’re really proud of our history. We’re really excited about our future. So all of that together has been exciting,” he added. “We’ve had different goals over the past few years, part of which has been to expand and grow our enrollment, and focus on bringing even more Jewish students and families who are mission-aligned into the system.”
He added that “strengthening our program and focusing on just making the overall student experience better,” are among the goals.
The school has 360 students in grades 6-12, an average of just over 50 per grade.
“It’s been wonderful,” Lesack said of the early going of the school year. “Really good energy. Our students are wonderful, energetic, and we have an outstanding faculty, along with new faculty in a variety of different positions. With everything that has gone on in the past year and everything that’s still going on, it’s really positive to be back together as a community.”
As is the case with every other Jewish institution, the events of Oct. 7 and their aftermath have presented a challenge to Barrack.
“I don’t know that there is one unique challenge. There’s a lot,” Lesack said. “I would say, emphatically, we’re a Zionist Jewish day school. We’re deeply connected to Israel, to the land, the state, the people. We have deep connections on personal levels, whether it be through faculty or families or students. And obviously, as part of our educational curriculum, we are teaching about Israel, our students are spending time in Israel.”
The school’s typical program sends eighth graders to Israel for just under two weeks and its 11th graders for 11 weeks.
Due to the war, last year’s 11th graders returned home early, while last spring’s eighth-grade trip and this year’s 11th-grade trip have been postponed. The goal, he said, is to make up those trips later in the year.
“I think like many other communities, the past year has been extremely emotional and heavy in a lot of ways. And at the same time, we have had to focus on keeping the community together and keeping the community strong, while also focusing on continuing to educate our students about Israel and the situation and about everything else that is typical of an education in the United States, math, science … So it’s like, how do you live in a few different worlds at the same time while continuing to move forward?”
The school is also looking at what’s happening on college campuses.
“How do we continue to support and educate our students in Barrack now? How do we support and educate our parents in Barrack now? And how do we support and connect with our alumni who are on college campuses?”
Lesack also addressed the frequent fighting about Israel that’s become a growing cultural issue in the last year.
“I think Oct. 7 and what occurred is a different watershed moment than say other events that have happened in the past 70-plus years of Israeli history,” he said. “The intensity and the evil that happened on that day, I think just differentiates it from some of the other stuff before. With that being said, I think the vast majority of our students, and it’s part of our goal, are deeply connected to Israel or growing in their connection to Israel, they’re learning, and are connecting with Israelis as well through our program.”
“I think our students ask questions that are reasonable and fair questions for adolescents and teens to ask. They see things on TikTok and on their social media channels at a different level than 30 years ago, that any of us would have seen,” he added. “So we’re trying to work and also navigate with them, the conversations we need to have with them to be responsible educators, but also do so at the appropriate developmental levels and at the right time.”
Speaking of things in the news lately, Akiba/Barrack alum Josh Shapiro is the governor of Pennsylvania and has become a national political figure.
During Shapiro’s run for governor in 2022, his Christian nationalist Republican opponent, Doug Mastriano, made a crack about Shapiro having attended “one of the most privileged schools in the nation,” for which Mastriano was mocked on CNN by another alum of the school, anchor Jake Tapper.
“With regard to Governor Shapiro and also First Lady Lori Shapiro, who’s also an alumna of the school, they’re wonderful parents, and we’re blessed to have them part of this community,” Lesack said. “Proud of Josh and Lori for their service to the larger community and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as the Jewish people.”
Lesack also outlined his vision for the school’s future, called a K’lal Yisrael, or Jewish Community Day School.
“Really, on the most basic level, that means we are a school that intentionally recruits and builds a community of Jewish students and families coming from a wide variety of backgrounds, from different religious affiliations, from different socioeconomic backgrounds, and regions.”
“And that’s really our focus. I would love for us to be a model of what a vibrant and diverse Jewish community looks like, and that we are a model of how a Jewish community can respect one another, support one another and engage with one another, regardless of what differences we might have. And within that context, we’re here to provide our students with an unbelievable education in an environment in which teachers have deep connections with their students. They know each and every one of their students.”
“We are focused on graduating leaders, and people lead in different ways,” he added. “So we’re not saying this is the only typology of what it means to be a Jewish leader, but it’s our hope that with the formal classes they have, the informal experiences they have, the leadership opportunities, that they’re also going to find their voice in the Jewish community when they’re out of here on a university campus or longer term.”
The school is also working to purchase its portion of the campus from the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia and recently released a five-year strategic plan. Renovations are planned, including a new Beit Midrash and revamped dining commons.
“Ultimately, I would say, I am always thinking about ‘how do we elevate the student experience,’ to make this not only the best for those who are here but so that we can increase the interest for mission-aligned families within the Philadelphia area,” he said.
Stephen Silver is a Broomall-based freelance writer.
