How our Jewish Day Schools and Yeshivot Produce Future Leaders
“Chanoch L’naar al pi darko, gam ki yazkin lo yasur mimenu” — Train the youth according to his way, even when he ages, he will not depart from it (Mishlei 22:6).
One of the most frequent questions I am asked by parents, lay leaders, and philanthropists which is deceptively simple is do Jewish day schools and yeshivot really produce leaders?
My answer is unequivocally yes, but not by accident. Leadership is not taught by a single course. It is cultivated over twelve years of intentional chinuch.
After three decades as an influencer and communal leader in Jewish day school education as well as head of school and principal for a variety of schools, I have seen firsthand how our these institutions are not simply schools. They are what I call leadership incubators.
The question is how and why?
Anchoring Leadership in Values, Not Just Skills
Secular leadership programs teach skills such as public speaking, decision-making and strategic planning, but our day schools and yeshivot teach something far more enduring. That is “why” they lead.
A Jewish leader is not measured by how many followers he has, but by what he stands for. In our schools, leadership is anchored in middot, in derech eretz kadma LaTorah, in ahavat yisrael, and in achrayut, responsibility for the klal.
When a 5th grader is chosen to serve as a gabbai or a 12th grader leads Shacharit, he is not only learning a skill. He is learning that leadership is avodat haKodesh and a sacred service to others.
Jim Collins, in his amazing book entitled Good to Great, speaks about Level 5 Leaders who blend humility and will. Our mesorah has taught this for 3,000 years and Moshe Rabbeinu was an anav mikol adam, one of the most modest of individuals, yet ,he led a nation through a desert.
Creating a Culture of Responsibility
In a typical public school, a student can go through 12 years of schooling without ever being responsible for another human being, yet, in a Jewish day school or yeshiva, that is virtually impossible.
Our students are responsible for younger students in chavruta learning, as well as for the school’s chesed projects, for leading Kabbalat Shabbat, for bikur cholim, and for packaging mishloach manot for soldiers in Israel. By the time they graduate, they have “led” dozens of times.
This is intentional. As we know leadership is like a muscle. We exercise it daily and the more we use it, the stronger it becomes.
Highly effective schools are almost always led by highly effective leaders. The inverse is also true. But, the most effective schools do not just have leaders, they actually create them.
Teaching Resilience through Torah
The future will not need leaders who have all the answers. It will need leaders who can explore and navigate uncertainty. To be sure, our Torah is the ultimate leadership training manual for this uncertainty.
Examples are when Avraham Aveinu left his home without knowing where was is going; Yosef rises from a pit and enters a palace; David confronts the all-powerful Goliath; and Esther enters the palace Achashverosh at great personal risk.
When our students learn Chumash, TaNach and Navi, they are not just learning history. They are learning how to lead when the path is murky and unclear, when the odds are stacked against them, and when emunah or bitachan become the only roadmap or compass.
This is precisely what our post-October 7th world demands. Our children have seen existential war, rampant anti-Semitism on college campuses, and moral confusion in the public square. They do not need leaders who are polished. They need leaders who are grounded.
Understanding that Every Child is a Leader
For too long, in our schools we reserved the term “leader” for the valedictorian, the student council president, or the star athlete.
That is a major mistake.
In my book Think Excellence (Brown Books, 2011), I argue that excellence is not about being the best, but about being your best. The same is true for leadership.
The quiet child who helps a new immigrant feel welcome is a leader. The student who asks a piercing question in Gemara is a leader. The child who organizes Tehillim for a sick classmate in the hospital is a leader.
As we learn from the words all pi darko (according to his way), our job is not to create one type of leader, but rather to discover the unique leadership spark in each child and nurture it.
The Future Demands what Only We Can Produce
A close colleague once said that America does not have a shortage of technologists. It has a shortage of ethical leaders. It does not have a shortage of influencers. It has a shortage of people of influence with values.
The world of AI, social media, and moral relativism is crying out for the kind of leaders only a Jewish day school can produce. These include those leaders who know that intelligence without values is dangerous, that power without responsibility is destructive, and that success without service is hollow and empty.
Our day schools and yeshivot are far from being perfect. We face significant challenges such as affordability, teacher recruitment and retention, board governance, strategic planning. But we should never lose sight of our sacred mission.
We are not just teaching math and Mishna. We are shaping the future poskim, educators, communal leaders, business leaders, and mothers and fathers of the next generation of klal yisrael.
A Final Word to Boards and Donors
If you want to know the ROI of a Jewish day school education, do not look at standardized test scores. Look at the alumni 15 years after they graduate.
Look at who is leading the shul, who is starting the chesed organization, who is standing up for Israel on a hostile campus, and who is choosing a life of service.
That is leadership. And that is the amazing reality and miracle our day schools and yeshivot perform every single day.
We must invest in it, protect it, and celebrate it because the future of the Jewish people depends on it.
At the end of the day, it is imperative that we credit our day schools and yeshivot with producing our future leaders. In fact, a world absent these institutions is one that will never experience the power, impact and influence of its leaders which is a sine quo non for a Jewish community’s future viability, vitality and resiliency.
