Yaakov Green, at The Blogs

Sep 6, 2024, 10:48 PM

Smiling Through Tears — A School Year Starts

“Lean on me when you're not strong and I'll be your friend I'll help you carry on... for it won't be long ‘til I'm gonna need somebody to lean on.” – Bill Withers I want to share with you what I shared with our Middle...

Mar 7, 2024, 11:06 PM

A story no one tells about the miracle no one sees

My children and my students know that I love stories. I collect them, tell and retell them, savoring the details and nuanced changes in inflection or illustration that occur in each retelling and new rendition. All our knowledge, and...

Jun 16, 2023, 11:44 PM

A Tale of Two Stories — A Recipe To Motivate Prayer

Upper School student in Maimonides School, Brookline, MA

This week our school community shared its final communal tefillah for the academic year. At the end of services, I felt compelled to share with our students a send-off into the summer. I began by telling them that I often...

Mar 6, 2023, 11:09 PM

Childish salvation: Purim reminds us to giggle

I recently watched our school's third grade masterful performance of the Purim story, an annual milestone at Maimonides School. They did a great job! Their lines were memorized, their costumes cute, and their stage directions well followed. So much growth...

Sep 15, 2022, 11:28 PM

It takes more than a village – educational lessons of ‘bikkurim’

Students at Maimonides School in Brookline, MA are greeted on the first day of school.

In this week’s parsha of Ki Tavo, we first focus our attention on the first fruits of the harvest season. Bikkurim are an intense expression of love and trust in Hashem that, sadly, we can no longer experience. Imagine...

Apr 29, 2022, 7:37 PM

Featured Post

Max is gone. It’s our turn. Yom HaShoah reflections

When I asked the Holocaust survivor whether it was hard for him to return to Poland after all he suffered, his answer was surprising...and profound.

Apr 14, 2022, 1:40 AM

Memories Of Mom And A Mandate

Around Pesach time, I miss my mother. She was, in so many ways, a prototypical Jewish matriarch, especially at this time of year. Burgeoning on the point of comedic, the countertop layering and tinfoil was rampant, the worry and work began...

Mar 31, 2022, 10:01 PM

The Yin and Yang of Jewish Living

Pixar/Disney-Pixar, via Associated Press

Light and dark, order and chaos. Happiness and Sadness. Our world has only ever existed with contradictions and opposites. Most we live with and take for granted. The school-year and summer break. The work-week and the weekend. Of course, in...

Mar 10, 2022, 11:16 PM

Kids Need Purim Now More Than Ever – And So Do We

Two years ago, Purim was the end of the normal world order. Two years ago mask-wearing was for costume contests in schools and synagogues, and they were accompanied by colorful graggers and the sounds of the megillah being chanted....

Feb 19, 2022, 11:06 AM

Monumental Lessons

“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again….” – Theodore Roosevelt I have always been...

About Me

Rabbi Yaakov Green is the Head of School, and an alumnus, of Maimonides School, a Modern Orthodox coed day school serving students from infants through 12th grade in Brookline, MA, where he lives with his wife Elisheva and their five children. Before coming to Maimonides, Yaakov has served as a school administrator for many years Dallas, TX, St. Louis, MO, and Boca Raton, FL. Yaakov holds a master's degree in education, concentrating in Ed. Tech. Bachelor’s degrees in English Literature and Political Science, and has participated as a cohort fellow in many educational programs in Harvard University, JTS Davidson School, and University of Missouri, St Louis. He spent several years developing innovative programs that have been implemented across North America, Israel, and Australia, in classrooms, camps, and conventions, synagogues and Sunday schools.