Our Work

Faculty Beit Midrash empowers educators to become thought leaders by providing opportunities for practical and collaborative learning through research, scholarship, discussion, and writing.

Jewish Sexual Ethics with Ms. Shuli Taubes Featuring Rabbi Shmuel Hain and Ms. Shuli Taubes

This special episode of the Grand Conversation is devoted to the subject of teaching Jewish sexual ethics at SAR high school and in the broader modern orthodox community. Rabbi Hain speaks with Ms. Shuli Taubes, the author of This Too is Torah, SAR High School’s tenth grade beit midrash program on Jewish sexual ethics, values and practice.

Posted January 31, 2025 & Featuring Rabbi Shmuel Hain and Ms. Shuli Taubes

It’s Deeper than College Admissions: A Conversation with Professor Daniel Markovits Featuring Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz and Rabbi Tully Harcsztark

American Jews have benefited greatly from access to higher education and the professional pathways it opened to them. Today, here is a great deal of concern about the culture and climate for Jews and Zionists on campus. But our students are still striving for acceptance into competitive universities, and we still see our students struggling with the endless demands of the college admissions process, one that seems to get more daunting with every year. Even as we reconsider whether our community should remain bought in to this system, is there any way to rethink how we define, demonstrate, and reward merit? Is it possible to enjoy the benefits of striving for excellence without all of the costs that our current system imposes? Professor Daniel Markovits of Yale Law School, author of The Meritocracy Trap: How America’s Foundational Myth Feeds Inequality, Dismantles the Middle Class, and Devours the Elite, speaks with Rabbi Tully Harcsztark and Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz about the nature of problem, how we got here, and what we might do about it. * This was recorded prior to October 7th, 2023.

Posted January 9, 2025 & Featuring Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz and Rabbi Tully Harcsztark

Lifnai V’Lifnim/Vaad with Rabbanit Lisa Schlaff & Ms. Shira Schiowitz Featuring Rabbi Shmuel Hain, Rabbanit Lisa Schlaff, and Ms. Shira Schiowitz

In this episode of the Grand Conversation, Rabbi Shmuel Hain discusses SAR High School’s Vaad program with Rabbanit Lisa Schlaff and Ms. Shira Schiowitz. Vaad enhances the spiritual growth and meaning making of our faculty and students by devoting one period a week to their inner world. Listen to find out how SAR HS teachers and students develop the skills and dispositions to support one another in their religious and emotional journeys. SAR High School’s Vaad program was developed in partnership with Lifnai V’lifnim, an organization dedicated to deepening connections and transforming relationships with oneself, with others, with community and with Torah and God.

Posted November 21, 2024 & Featuring Rabbi Shmuel Hain, Rabbanit Lisa Schlaff, and Ms. Shira Schiowitz