Andrew Guckes | Staff Writer
Mitchell Daar, head of school at Perelman Jewish Day School since the 2022–23 school year, announced earlier this month that he will be leaving the school at the end of June 2026 for what he called the “one job on the planet that [he] would leave [Perelman] for.”
Come 2027, Daar will take over as head of the Bernard Zell Anshe Emet Day School in Chicago, his alma mater. While the Perelman community is sad to be losing its headmaster, the school and Daar are working together to ensure that the transition will be as smooth as possible. Daar, whose last day is June 30 of next year, said he hasn’t even begun to think about departing yet.
“I’m not leaving for 15 months. [Thinking about] what I’m going to miss about Philadelphia — I’m not even there yet,” he said.
Announcing a departure that won’t come for 15 months is atypical in any industry, but Daar said that it is the right way to go about the change. He emphasized that he wants to assist the school in the same way that it helped him.
“I love this school, and it is my job to think about the future of our school. I know the board is going to be incredibly well positioned to find a great next leader of our school. And I want to ensure that they have a proper runway to do that. Fifteen months is certainly a lot of time to be able to find the next head of school here,” he said.
For Daar, who arrived near the end of the pandemic and was drawn to the school thanks to the people he met while interviewing, helping Perelman transition means advocating for it to anyone interested.
“I said I would be chief recruiter and cheerleader, and I will certainly tell anyone that is interested in the role what an amazing place this is,” he said.
Daar added that Perelman’s board, faculty and parents welcomed him and his family.
Dov Haselkorn, the president of Perelman’s board of directors, said that Daar’s impact has been great. He helped lead the development of several new programs and initiatives.
“Mitch’s many achievements at Perelman have helped to strengthen the school’s position in the community, enabling us to engage more children in Jewish learning. Under his leadership, we increased enrollment on both campuses, forging our path toward continued growth; established the Geographic Scholarship Program; launched a robust after-school program; and together with valued community stakeholders, built the Horowitz Family Center for Innovation & Imagination, a spectacular new space where students explore and push boundaries,” he said. “We are deeply grateful for his stewardship of our beloved school.”
Daar said he is proud of what he has helped accomplish at Perelman thus far, especially the Center for Innovation & Imagination. Complete with an art studio, science lab, library, sound studio, work gallery and fabrication labs, Daar said it’s the most impressive educational space he has seen.
Perelman, like any private school, needs to function as a business to some extent. To that end, Daar has also succeeded: enrollment at PJDS grew 15% from last year to this year.
There are 95 new students at the school this year, and Daar said Perelman is expecting more next year. The school accomplished this partially by analyzing the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s geographic study and offering scholarships to families in specific ZIP codes.
“It’s been an incredible gift to those families and those students and enabled some people to be here that otherwise wouldn’t have,” he said. “We were sort of held up as an example to all Jewish day schools nationwide about how to bring more families and more students in.”
But his most important role at Perelman over the last couple of years has nothing to do with numbers.
“Bringing a community through the tragedies of Oct. 7, I think everyone that was a part of our school felt really at home in our community,” he said.
Daar and Perelman were able to bring a dozen Israeli students to the school’s two campuses, helping them escape conflict at home and also giving the American students a powerful perspective on the conflict.
“It shouted our mission loudly and proudly, of who we are and what we do in support of the Jewish community,” he said.
As Daar wraps up his penultimate year at Perelman, he is thankful for the chance to do more work in the Philadelphia Jewish community.
“I’m still here for a good while longer and very excited by all the things we’re doing at Perelman,” he said.
