Webinar Recording: Tuition Discounts for Jewish Communal Professionals
Come hear from two different Jewish day schools talk about their decisions to offer meaningful tuition discounts to Jewish communal professionals and the impact of these decisions on student enrollment.
Recorded on Wednesday, January 30, 2019
11:30am-12:30pm ET / 8:30-9:30am PT
with Dan Perla, Senior Director of Financial Vitality at Prizmah
David Bryfman, Chief Innovation Officer, The Jewish Education Project
Chaim Heller, Head of School, San Diego Jewish Academy
Laura Simon, Director of Admission, Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School
About our speakers:
Dan Perla As Director of Financial Vitality at Prizmah, Dan oversees a variety of training programs that help day schools optimize their revenues and achieve greater financial stability. Prior to joining Prizmah, Dan served as the Vice President for Program and Strategy at The Foundation for Jewish Camp and as a program officer in day school finance at the AVI CHAI Foundation. Dan spent nearly 18 years in the financial world. He worked as a security analyst and portfolio manager at leading investment firms, including Iridian Asset Management, Centurion Investment Group, and Soros Fund Management. Dan was privileged to serve as a Wexner Heritage Fellow and currently serves as board chair of Yeshivat Chovevei Torah. He also serves on the boards of Mechon Hadar and SAR Academy, and the advisory board of the Jewish New Teacher Project. Dan is a graduate of NYU’s Stern School of Business and has master’s of business administration in management from The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
David Bryfman is the Chief Innovation Officer at The Jewish Education Project. David completed his Ph.D. in Education and Jewish Studies at NYU, focusing on Jewish adolescent identity development and experiential Jewish Education. He is also a graduate of the Wexner Graduate Fellowship Program. Prior to moving to New York, David worked in formal and informal Jewish educational institutions in Australia, Israel, and North America. David was the primary author of the 2016 research report titled Generation Now: Understanding and Engaging Jewish Teens Today. David’s current work focuses on bringing innovative strategies and creative thinking to Jewish education.
Chaim Heller is well known to the Northern California Jewish day school community, serving as the Head of School at Brandeis Hillel Day School, a K-8 pluralistic school with campuses in Marin and San Francisco, beginning in 2005, and before that as the Head of the San Francisco Campus beginning in 1995. During his tenure at BHDS, Chaim presided over increased enrollment in San Francisco from 269 to capacity (400), and helped both campuses grow to a combined current enrollment of 575, the largest in BHDS history. More importantly, he helped secure Brandeis Hillel Day School’s reputation as one of the Bay Area’s most inventive and educationally excellent independent schools. Chaim has been successful in building a strong school community among the BHDS families, and he is most proud of the Sukkot outdoor educational experience to Yosemite that he has planned and led, which has been attended by over 2,000 BHDS parents, students, faculty and staff over the past 12 years. Prior to serving at BHDS, Chaim served as Head of School at Morasha, an Orange County, Jewish day school, where he achieved impressive results in both educational quality and enrollment during his 5 year tenure.
Laura Simon has been the Director of Admission at the Joseph and Florence Mandel Jewish Day School since 2005. Previously, she was a stay at home mom. Prior to her role as a mom, she was the Women’s Division Director at the Cleveland Jewish Community Federation and the Religious School Principal at Temple Israel of Hollywood in Los Angeles, CA. Laura graduated from The Ohio State University in 1991 with a Bachelor of Arts in Judaic Studies. Afterwards, she went to Hebrew Union College and received a joint Master’s Degree in Jewish Education and Jewish Communal Service. In her free time, Laura enjoys being with her family (including 2 dogs) traveling, fiber arts, walking, gardening and reading.