On March 9th, the Northwest Yeshiva High School (NYHS) board announced their unanimous election of Rabbi Yehuda Gabay as the new Head of School. NYHS is a Modern Orthodox Coed Jewish high school on Mercer Island, Washington. Rabbi Yehuda Gabay will be NYHS’ first Sephardic Head of School in its near 50-year history.
Rabbi Gabay comes to NYHS from the Cincinnati Hebrew Day School where he was the Associate Principal. Prior to his time in Cincinnati, he spent over 15 years in Jewish day schools in both Panama and Costa Rica. Rabbi Gabay has been in the field of education for over twenty years and has led initiatives in Change Management, 21st Century Education, Strategic Planning, Curriculum Design and Active Learning. He has an impressive research agenda and has been a guest lecturer on topics including educational technology, blended learning, project based learning, integrated studies, and differentiated instruction. He brings a balanced and research-based blend of traditional Jewish instruction and innovative trends in Education.
Rabbi Gabay, his wife, Haya, and their two children will join the Seattle community this summer. Both Rabbi and Haya are native Spanish speakers of Moroccan Jewish descent. Mrs. Gabay is from Madrid, Spain, and Rabbi Gabay is from the Dominican Republic. Both grew up with Ladino in their households and respective traditions, in addition to Haketia (a Judeo-Spanish Moroccan language).
Rabbi Gabay expressed his excitement in joining a community with such an entrenched Sephardic tradition. He has been to many Spanish speaking communities including Panama where he was the Judaic Studies Director for 10 years at the Instituto Alberto Einstein. However, the minhagim/traditions were largely of Syrian origin. “My first visit to Seattle was a delight and quite eye opening. I was a Shabbat guest at the home of Ben and Lea Lipman where we sang familiar traditional Pizmonim (Sephardic melodies) together. On Shabbat morning, at Sephardic Bikur Holim, I was thrilled to hear honors being auctioned in Ladino,” he said.
Prior to his visit to Seattle, Gabay knew that the city was home to an active Sephardic community, but he did not realize to what extent, and how aligned it would be with his family’s Sephardic background. “I felt instantly at home. And that feeling was a game changer for me in my desire to move to Seattle and lead NYHS.” He was equally impressed during his first visit to the NYHS campus, where he participated in “a beautiful Shaharit service” led by a Sephardic student leader who he described as having an “excellent command of tefillah including very accurate pronunciation and tradition.”
Jason Feld, NYHS’s outgoing Head of School is thrilled with Rabbi Gabay’s appointment. “NYHS is a special place where we work hard to include minhagim (traditions) from our Sephardic, Ashkanazic and Mizrachi families. With such a vibrant Sephardic community, it is wonderful to have leadership reflective of that in two of Seattle’s oldest Jewish day schools. I expect Rabbi Gabay will be embraced by the whole Jewish community,” said Feld.
Rabbi Gabay is not the first Sephardic Head of School in Seattle. He joins Rabbi Benjy Owen who was raised in the Seattle Sephardic community. Owen was the Dean of Judaics and Assistant Head of School at NYHS from 1996 to 2015, then left the Seattle area to serve as Head of School at the Margolin Hebrew Academy in Memphis, Tennessee. Last summer, Rabbi Owen returned to Seattle to assume the Head of School position at the Seattle Hebrew Academy (SHA), Seattle’s first and oldest Jewish day school. “Of greatest significance to me,” explains Owen, “is for the heads of our community’s schools to lead our schools in building the Seattle Jewish community and educating its children in Judaic and General Studies. A Sephardic Head of School, because of heritage and/or minhag, has an advantage in connecting the school’s mission with the Sephardic families of our city while also reaching out and connecting with the entire Seattle Jewish community.”
Rabbi Owen also noted the harmony that exists in Seattle between the Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities and believes that the appointment of two Sephardic heads of school is an indication of this harmony. Rabbi Gabay’s formal Jewish and secular education is multifaceted. He studied in an Ashkenazic yeshiva which he explains gives him an appreciation for “both worlds”. Like Rabbi Owen, Rabbi Gabay is impressed by the “achdut” (unity) within the Seattle community that is a beautiful and respectful blend of traditions.
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