It was an eventful first year for Rabbi Dr. Hillel Broder as the head of school at Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, dealing with the challenges of a post-Oct. 7 landscape, working on implementing new programs while overseeing an expanding student body and finding time to pursue his biggest passion of teaching.
Broder, a Berman alum, is now in his 18th year of high school education and has been implementing new programs, including a scholars initiative, restricting the use of phones during school hours, beginning an accreditation process and spending time working with the community to support each other after Oct. 7.
Broder has been focused on collaboration with school staff, parents and students as the start of a long-term partnership to provide the best educational experience with a focus on Modern Orthodox values.
“Whatever change we will do, we’re going to do it together. That for me has been an important piece [of my ongoing work]. A leader is here to serve and support and leadership is best accomplished through collaboration, through the depth of the work with the other leaders in the school,” Broder said.
Broder said that one of the biggest, exciting changes from his previous job working as a division principal in New York is his new role of supporting teachers across various levels of
the school.
Broder is a very hands-on administrator, as he said he’s never gone a year without teaching at least one high school class, and he describes his leadership philosophy as being “a lead learner and a lead teacher.”
“I’m still working on the business side of things and the political frame. My ongoing passion is to learn alongside students and teach alongside teachers,” Broder said.
Having that collaboration and relationships with the staff, some of whom were Broder’s former teachers, was immensely helpful in the aftermath of Oct. 7, when the school community had to come together and work through a very difficult year.
Broder said that the school had to change its priorities and focus on advocacy, prayer, campaigns, rallies and supporting over a dozen refugee children.
The accreditation process was put on hold and Broder said that the “more abstract goals on education were put on the shelf,” as he and the school supported teachers called into military service and any other challenges that arose.
“A crisis can reveal the strength of leadership. And this is a school community that was well-positioned to respond well. I mean people supported one another, people grieved with one another,” Broder said. “This was an effort that we felt we had to do.”
The school also experienced growth under Broder, with an increase of 61 students for the 2024 school year, bringing the total to 792 students from nursery to 12th grade. Broder said the influx of new students is an exciting opportunity and unprecedented change, with record high enrollment in almost every division.
He added that the school spent the previous year building a new wing that now houses all second-grade students, and the growth is something they are going to strongly support.
“We’re excited about it. We do think we can sustain it of course; we want to refine it. We want to ensure that everybody understands that we’re a strong Modern Orthodox school and the values that accompany that education,” Broder said.
And Broder has made educational changes to solidify the school’s position in showcasing itself as a strong Modern Orthodox institution and community with the new Upper School Harry and Zelda, z”l, Sloan Scholars Program that encourages students to live an integrated life with Torah and modernity informing and enriching each other.
Broder said that he began piloting this program when he arrived and it’s something that he feels can be a “crown jewel” for the school that exemplifies their greatest values.
When looking back on the past year, Broder said that coming back to the community he grew up in has been an amazing experience and that there’s still a lot of learning and growing that he and the school will do.
He added that schools are “fundamentally imperfect places” and that a lot of his work going forward will be focused on returning to core values.
It’s a mission that Broder is ready to continue taking on as he moves into his second year in the community he now gets to call home again.
“This has been a dream. This work has been a real opportunity to return to my childhood home. On a personal level, it’s been incredibly meaningful to return to a community that I knew was a wonderful place to grow up. On a professional level, I felt from day one that this has been an incredible match,” Broder said.
