Shalhevet High School

Shalhevet High School is a co-ed, college-preparatory, Modern Orthodox Jewish high school in Los Angeles, California. It is a division of Shalhevet School, the only Modern Orthodox K-12 school in California. In the high school, boys and girls follow the same Judaic curriculum,including Talmud, which is unusual for Orthodox Jewish high schools, and a full program of visual arts, music, drama and athletics is offered in addition to the dual curriculum of secular and Judaic studies. Created in 1992 by Jerry Friedman, Ed. D., the school's founding headmaster, and Steve Bailey, Ph.D., the school developed a modified version of the Kohlberg-Gilligan "Just Community" template, which it hoped would become a national model for progressive education in an Orthodox Jewish setting. A fundamental principle is that moral development can be taught through the presentation of "moral dilemmas," which create in students cognitive dissonance that leads to moral growth; another is that a limited school democracy makes students stakeholders in the values the institution seeks to promote. Shalhevet has about 400 students in grades K - 12 as of 2008-09 and is led Rabbi Elchanan Weinbach, its second headmaster, who took over in July of that year on Dr. Friedman's retirement. Mr. Phu Tranchi is High School General Studies Principal.

Seventeen years old as of 2008-09, Shalhevet is unique because of its somewhat democratic nature and its emphasis on moral development. The high school holds an hour-long, weekly, student-led Town Hall at which current events, school issues and other controversies are discussed. These meetings occasionally have outside speakers, such as U.S. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), and have ranged over topics from Darfur and Tookie Williams to Kanye West's controversial music videos. Most discussions concern school-related issues, however, such as dress code, grade and exam policies, and student elections. A school constitution empowers an Agenda Committee, which sets the Town Hall agenda, manages elections, and oversees the other committees; a Student Activities Committee, responsible for pep rallies, movie nights and other social events; a Fairness Committee, where students can, for example, challenge faculty decisions; and a Constructive Consequences Committee, responsible for consequences as called for by the Fairness Committee. All committees have student, faculty and administrative representation.

Shalhevet's debate teams, led by Mr. Christopher Buckley, Mr. Keith Nadel, Ms. Melanie Berkey, and Mr. Tranchi, have won many awards in Model Congress and Model UN events around the U.S. It has twice-yearly drama productions led by Ms. Emily Chase, a fall mainstage production and a spring production consisting of one-act plays written and directed by students.

Shalhevet's award-winning student newspaper is The Boiling Point, published seven times per year. It is written, edited, and laid out by students of the high school, with help from Mrs. Joelle Keene, the paper's faculty advisor. It has won awards from the National Scholastic Press Association, Columbia Scholastic Press Association, and Quill & Scroll International Honorary Journalism Society. Mrs. Keene serves on the National Board of Judges of the Columbia Scholastic Press Association.

Notable Faculty

Rabbi Aaron Parry, author of The Idiot's Guide to Understanding the Talmud, and The Idiot's Guide to Hebrew Scripture

Rabbi Ari Leubitz, Associate Rabbi of [B'nai David-Judea]

Notable Alumni

Coby Linder, the drummer of the alternative rock band Say Anything, is a graduate of the 2003 class.

Zvika Krieger, national political correspondent, The New Republic; former Middle East correspondent, Newsweek, Shalhevet High School Class of 2002

[http://www.new.facebook.com/inbox/?src=fftb#/profile.php?id=1063890119&ref=ts Jonathan Linder] , brother of the drummer of the alternative rock band Say Anything.