Our Work

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.

“On this special episode of the Grand Conversation, Rabbi Shmuel Hain hosts a discussion with Rabbi Jonathan Kroll and Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz about the upcoming presidential election. In this polarized moment, how has SAR High School tried to foster an environment where all members of our community, staff and students, can engage in political discussion with civility and respect?

Transcript Notes: Election Education: A Presidential election provides an opportunity for our students to explore important issues that affect the future of our country. While the political theater is often full of divisiveness we believe that our students can engage issues civilly and with deep respect for each other. A committee of staff members is coordinating educational programming for our students over the course of the next few months. During in-service we shared this draft of an affirmative set of principles that guide the way we as a community approach the election.”

SAR educators, Dr. Rivka Press Schwartz, Ms. Sarah Medved, and Ms. Rebecca Glassberg, who have experimented with different forms of ungrading–removing teachers’ grading power in the classroom and making students responsible for their own learning–talk about their experiences, what brought them to ungrading, and the anticipated and unanticipated outcomes.