Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer
Shira Weinstein wears a lot of hats at Kellman Brown Academy in Voorhees, New Jersey. Her titles include director of student services, grant programs manager and school counselor, but she does even more than that.
She has been working hard and doing whatever is asked of her at the school for 18 years. But for seven years before she joined Kellman Brown Academy, she wore an entirely different hat: that of a business management consultant for a large corporation.
“Even though I was growing in the ranks, I felt like something was missing. I felt like I had more to give Jewishly,” she said. “This was a career change for me, to go back and get my master’s in school counseling, and I couldn’t be happier. It was the right move for me.”
As Kellman Brown Academy has grown over the years, Weinstein has been asked to do more. She said that she used to have a smaller role, and now she and other leaders have a whole support staff team to make sure everything that needs to get done at the school gets done smoothly.
“Our school is very much about ‘we’ — not ‘me,’” Weinstein said. “We work together very closely. It helps ensure the social, emotional and academic needs of our students are being met.”
During her time at Kellman Brown Academy, Weinstein has helped create social-emotional learning programs, get grants and develop the school’s after-school program, according to school officials.
She has been at Kellman Brown Academy for nearly two decades because she loves the teachers, students, parents and staff. The community-first mindset is what separates it, Weinstein said. “It’s not just about the student. We have programming for our parents, our families, and we really make it a goal to help everyone feel included,” she said.
Weinstein learned the importance of a Jewish day school education during her own upbringing. The Elkins Park native, who now lives in Bala Cynwyd, attended Forman Hebrew Day School, which has since become part of Perelman Jewish Day School.
“My goal was always to ensure that what we offer at Kellman Brown Academy is more than anything I ever had growing up,” Weinstein said.
The kind of education that Weinstein had and the one she works to further is not an easy one, but that’s part of what makes it special in her mind.
“You know, Jewish day school education is gifted education — the students learn two curricula daily. They learn to speak and read and sing and dance in another language,” Weinstein said.
While crossing the Delaware River every day from Bala Cynwyd isn’t the easiest commute, Weinstein loves her neighborhood and her synagogue, Adath Israel in Merion Station. For Weinstein, there was never any doubt that she would stick around the Philadelphia area as an adult.
“I love it. To me, it’s home,” she said. “I just feel very comfortable in our community.”
Weinstein values Kellman Brown Academy, too, and those feelings are reciprocated. At the end of May, she was honored by the school with the Herman Fraint Memorial Award for Jewish Day School Teaching Excellence, an award given annually to teachers who have achieved success with Kellman Brown Academy.
“I feel very honored, and it’s special that I was selected for it,” she said.
That day, May 29, was a special way to start a weekend that ended up being marred by tragedy for the Jewish community. One of Weinstein’s daughters attends the University of Colorado-Boulder, and while she was not in the city on June 1 when a terrorist attacked members of a solidarity walk for Israeli hostages in Gaza, the attack still hit close to home for the family.
“It was frightening and scary because my child was receiving alerts from the community that she lives in and from the Hillel and the Chabad telling her updates about what was going on,” Weinstein said. “Since then, we’ve received a tremendous outpouring of support from the Hillel and Chabad of Boulder. They have shared with us different updates about how they’re keeping the community vibrant and safe.”
At Kellman Brown, Weinstein is a natural fit for many reasons. One is a steadfast commitment to the world’s only Jewish state.
“The [school community] really feels very strongly connected to Israel, as do I,” she said. “My school community is really such a home. It’s my home, and I’m proud of it. I think people choose it because it’s such a warm, caring community. Our mission is to build the next generation of strong Jewish leaders.”