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Our Mission

ShalomLearning is a non-profit organization that meets the evolving educational needs of today’s Jewish community in an engaging, relevant, affordable, and accessible way. We instill a love of lifelong learning where students, teachers, parents, and the community embrace Jewish values in the modern world.

Our Story

As a lifelong innovator in the educator space, Devin Schain saw opportunities to improve the experience his kids and future generations have in Hebrew school. He realized many educators in the space had limited time and resources to create a modern, engaging experience for today’s youth.

He wanted his kids to understand and appreciate their Jewish heritage and grow up connected to their culture in a meaningful way. He founded ShalomLearning in 2011 to create a community where Jewish education could thrive. 

ShalomLearning created an online, innovative teaching curriculum, which was a revolutionary concept in 2011. ShalomLearning provides the technology, content, and professional development that synagogues, families, and Jewish communities need to teach Jewish values and Hebrew to children in a relatable and engaging way.

Devin Schain with wife and three kids

Meet Our Team

Heidi Lovitz

Heidi Lovitz

Senior Managing Director

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Rafi Glazer

Rafi Glazer

Director of Operations

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Michele Rosenfield

Michele Rosenfield

Director of Educational Technologies

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Miri Volchegorsky

Miri Volchegorsky

Program Manager

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Shira Sender

Shira Sender

Director of Client Care and Teacher Support

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Board of Directors

Devin Schain ShalomLearning Founder

Devin Schain

Founder, Board Chair

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Jerry Herman

Secretary

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Steven Guttentag, Ph.D

Treasurer

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Doug Lynch

Board Member

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Rabbi Sarah Tasman

Board Member

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Advisory Board

Rabbi Sid Schwarz

Senior Fellow at Hazon: The Jewish Lab for Sustainability

Dr. Sarah Steinberg

CEO, Frogstone Strategies

Dr. Michael Horn

Chief Strategy Office, Entangled Group and Co-Founder, Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation

John Katzman

CEO, The Noodle Companies

Daniel Pianko

Partner, University Ventures

Joshua Troderman

Former CEO, ShalomLearning, 2014-2020

Great Leaders Built a Great Curriculum

We are grateful to everyone who has contributed to the development of the ShalomLearning curriculum. The curriculum development team has been instrumental in engaging students in a way that imparts critical skills while building a lifelong love of Judaism and Jewish learning.

Leaders in Jewish Education and Education Technology advised the foundations of our curriculum in the early stages.

  • Dr. Erica Brown, Director of Mayberg Center for Jewish Education and Leadership.
    Site: www.ericabrown.com
  • Andrew Rosen, CEO at Interfolio, Inc.
  • Rabbi Sid Schwarz, Senior Fellow at Hazon: The Jewish Lab for Sustainability.
    Site: www.rabbisid.org
  • Dr. Jonathan Woocher z”l, Senior Fellow at Lippman Kanfer Foundation for Living Torah

The ShalomLearning curriculum is organized around seven core Jewish values that infuse our traditions (both ancient and modern) with wisdom and meaning. The project began in 2010 using the pedagogic principles of Understanding by Design (UBD), by Jay McTighe and Grant Wiggins.

  • Jill Allenberg Stepak
  • Aliza Sperling
  • Rabbi Shmuel Feld
  • Rabbi Yakov Majeski
  • Mariana Haroun
  • Tammie Rapps
  • Barry Krasner
  • JoHanna Potts
  • Rebecca Weisman
  • Avi West
  • Meredith Woocher

 

As ShalomLearning program grew, so did the curriculum. The following writers contributed to the release of our third-grade curriculum in 2015, our seventh-grade curriculum in 2016, and our second-grade in 2017. 

  • Adam Bellows
  • Rabbi Melissa Bellows
  • Rabbi Danielle Eskow
  • Amy Goldberg
  • Heidi Lovitz
  • Leah Maas
  • Rachel Meytin
  • Laura Naide
  • Jennifer Newfeld
  • Dana Kanter Prottas
  • The Bible Players

We also want to thank all of the ShalomLearning educators who teach the program and share their valuable feedback, which drives the ongoing improvements to the curriculum.  Our editors invest significant time and effort in incorporating this feedback.

  • Heidi Baker
  • Eliana Bernard
  • Liana Brodsky
  • Rachel Besser
  • Mindy Gold
  • Debi Himelfarb
  • Rabbi Janice Mehring
  • Becky Oliver
  • Natalie Klein-Raymond
  • Michele Rosenfield
  • Jade Sank
  • Shira Sender
  • Marci Serfaty
  • Shani Sicherman
  • Alisa Silverman
  • Cheryl Vogel
  • Daniel Young
  • Alison Zimbalist
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© 2024 ShalomLearning. All rights reserved.
Website by CMG Digital Media
ShalomLearning is a registered 501(c)3 public charity, Federal EIN 26-2818594.

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About

Programs

Resources

© 2024 ShalomLearning. All rights reserved.
ShalomLearning is a registered 501(c)3 public charity, Federal EIN 26-2818594.
Website by CMG Digital Media

Heidi Lovitz

Senior Managing Director

Heidi Lovitz is an innovative Jewish educator, education administrator, and curriculum developer. She has 30+ years of experience including:

  • Family Educator Congregation Beth Elohim in Acton, MA
  • Director of Jewish Life and Learning at Camp Tevya in Brookline, NH 
  • Director of Education and Programming at Temple Beth Abraham in Nashua, NH. 
  • Founder of the Havayah program connecting teens from Boston, Haifa, and Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.

Heidi has a BA in communication studies from the University of Massachusetts and a Master of Jewish Education from Hebrew College. She enjoys theatre, music, reading, gardening, biking, and hiking. Heidi lives with her husband Peter in Westford, Massachusetts, and has two adult children.

Rafi Glazer

Director of Operations

Rafi has extensive experience in the Jewish education space and business operations, including managing relationships with schools, synagogues, and college campuses.  His experience includes: 

  • Israel Programs Director at the Jewish National Fund, an organization that provides Israel programming, including recruiting students for Israel trips
  • Director of Programs at the American Jewish Society for Service, an organization that creates immersive service-learning and social justice programming for Jewish teens 

Rafi has a BA in Political Sciences and Middle Eastern Studies from the University of Rochester. He enjoys rewatching The West Wing and is working on a goal of visiting all fifty states (42 down, 8 to go). He lives in Rockville with his wife Lauren.

Michele Rosenfield

Director of Educational Technologies

Michele is a Jewish educator with extensive experience developing and teaching online education courses.  Prior to joining ShalomLearning, Michele’s experience included:

  • Systems Consultant at Ernst and Young 
  • Account Manager for Automatic Data Processing

Michele has a MA in Jewish Education from The William Davidson Graduate School of Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary, an MBA in Accounting from Fordham University, and a BA in Computer Science from Brandeis University.   Michele and her family reside in Metuchen, NJ.

Miri Volchegorsky

Program Manager

Miri is a passionate Jewish educator, with over 10 years of experience guiding students of all ages through the realms of Hebrew and Jewish studies. As an Israeli native, her cross-cultural upbringing helps her understand the diverse needs of students and families. Her experience includes:

  • Teaching Hebrew, Jewish History, and modern Israeli insights across different U.S. regions and educational settings   
  • Serving as a behavior therapy specialist, educating students with Autism and various learning challenges

Miri has a BA in Psychology and Business Management, along with a certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis. Miri lives in Fort Lauderdale. She loves spending time with her family in the Florida sunshine, traveling, sports, and sharing the authentic Israeli culture with others.   

Shira Sender

Director of Client Care and Teacher Support

Shira has taught Jewish values and Hebrew for over 13 years, including the ShalomLearning curriculum. After seeing firsthand how ShalomLearning enabled her to engage more students and elevate her teaching, she joined the team in 2020 to help other Jewish communities see the same benefits.  Prior to ShalomLearning, Shira’s experience includes:

  • Working as a Crisis Counselor with at-risk youth in Chicago, where she also taught Jewish education
  • Teaching preschoolers in a Jewish Early Childhood Education program 
  • Tutoring religious school students


She has a BA in Psychology and Women’s Studies from the University of Buffalo. Shira lives in the Chicago suburbs with her husband, three young children, and dogs. Shira enjoys nature and outdoor activities, cooking, gardening, and reading.

Devin Schain

Founder, Board Chair

Devin is a serial entrepreneur with more than 30 years of entrepreneurial experience in the education industry.  He has successfully started and sold four companies and invested in more than 40 start-ups and early-stage businesses. Of all his ventures, Devin considers ShalomLearning his legacy and he is passionate about transforming Jewish education to make it engaging and accessible. He currently serves as the Founder and CEO of Student Playbook, which helps students and alumni find jobs and elevate their careers. He is active in Young Presidents’ Organization (YPO) and a dedicated philanthropist, who also founded The Social Sector of Scaling Up. Devin has a BA from the University of Pennsylvania.

Jerry Herman

Treasurer

Jerry has 25 years of senior-level executive positions in the corporate, nonprofit, and startup industries and now focuses on executive leadership coaching to help others maximize their potential and achieve their goals. He enables executives to develop the skills and tools they need to elevate their leadership.  Jerry empowers teams and individuals at all stages of their careers and lives to discover new capabilities.  

Jerry has a JD from Duke University, a Masters in Community Planning from the University of North Carolina, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania. 

Steven Guttentag

Ph.D, Secretary

Steven has 25 years of education experience including designing and deploying technology-based solutions to improve K–12 education and serving as a classroom teacher.  He is currently the CEO of Reading Plus, an adaptive literacy intervention solution that develops silent reading proficiency and confident, lifelong readers. He recently served as an Executive in Residence for investment firm Avathon Capital. He was the President of Connections Academy, an online schooling company he co-founded and sold to Pearson PLC. He has a Ph.D. in Policy and Administration from the University of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in Teaching and Curriculum from Harvard University, and a B.A. from the University of Michigan. 

Doug Lynch

Board Member

Doug has over thirty years working in education innovation. He is currently a professor at USC for executive level doctoral students and runs the country’s most successful education technology incubator. Doug is a frequent keynote speaker on educational entrepreneurship, including 75 national conferences and a Ted Talk on Education Entrepreneurship. As an academic researcher, he has received more than $30 million in grants from federal agencies and philanthropies focused on education innovation. Doug has sat on presidential and gubernatorial boards, including a 10 year stint on board of visitors for the Central Intelligence Agency.  Doug holds a PH.D. and an M.PHIL. in Economics from Columbia University and an MBA iin International Finance from New York University.

Rabbi Sarah Tasman

Board Member

Rabbi Sarah specializes in leading Jewish spiritual, experiential, and mindfulness classes that promote personal and professional development across multiple modalities such as writing, yoga, art, and ritual. She is the founder of the Tasman Center for Jewish Creativity which offers community classes & gatherings, and private spiritual coaching, and life cycle officiation. She is a faculty member at The Adas Israel Community Mikvah and has taught Jewish mindfulness at the Jewish Changemakers Fellowship as well as many congregations and organizations. She is also a Rabbis Without Borders Fellow and member of the Kenissa: Communities of Meaning network. Rabbi Sarah was ordained by the Rabbinical School of Hebrew College in 2012. She holds a master of Jewish Education and a certificate in non-profit management.

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