SARASOTA, FL – Hershorin Schiff Community Day School is pleased to announce that it has hired Rabbi Anat Moskowitz to work on staff. She will serve in a part-time capacity, performing outreach to the community and leading K-8 Shabbat services as well as assisting with the planning of special services and events, advising on curriculum, and guiding students, families, and teachers on Judaic issues and beyond.
Prior to coming to Sarasota, Rabbi Moskowitz served as the rabbi for Congregation B’nai Torah in Westminster, Colo. for a decade and as a teacher and rabbi at Denver Jewish Day School. She and her husband moved to Sarasota in 2019.
“I’m a pulpit rabbi but I’ve always been interested in Jewish day schools,” she says, noting that, before her ordination in 1999, she had previously served as a day school teacher, rabbi, and middle school principal. “To me, there’s no Judaism without the kids – a day school is the most important part of any community to me.”
Rabbi Moskowitz is particularly impressed by the school’s mosaic of Judaism, with every kind of Jew at every level of affiliation as well as non-Jews who are seeking a Jewish-based education, guided by Jewish values. She also feels the school’s project-based learning philosophy is “brilliant,” noting that she was impressed during her tour by how busy, happy, and socially engaged the students seemed to be as well as how “delightful” the teachers were. “There is a lot of joy in this school,” she says.
In the coming year, Rabbi Moskowitz hopes to get the wider community more interested and engaged in, and supportive of the school. She would like to get the children involved with public-facing events at a variety of venues so that all ages and all faiths can see the value of the day school in our community. She would also like to get the school’s alumni re-engaged to help the community understand how the pluralistic philosophy and project-based learning set up students for success.
“We are pleased to welcome Rabbi Moskowitz to our team to support our Jewish curriculum and programming for students, families, and our teaching team,” said head of school Dan Ceaser. “It is our hope that we will find support from the community to make this a full-time position in the future – this will be especially important as we move to our new campus and explore year-long Jewish programming opportunities.”
Rabbi Moskowitz received her BA in Psychology from California State University Long Beach, two master’s degrees in Hebrew Letters and Rabbinic Studies, California Teachers Credential, and rabbinic ordination from the University of Judaism.
She has been involved with a wide range of Jewish and social services organization and advocacy groups. She also has a long history of involvement with children in the foster care system and those who fell through the cracks. She and her husband took in foster kids in Colorado, and she is currently volunteering as a Guardian Ad Litem. She and her husband have four grandchildren from Rabbi Moskowitz’s two step-children.
For more about Community Day School, go to communityday.org or call 941-552-2770.
About Hershorin Schiff Community Day School
The mission of the Hershorin Schiff Community Day School, which serves students in preschool through eighth grade, is to impact the world by creating a community where children of all faiths demonstrate integrity, academic excellence, and a desire to improve the world. Community Day offers a rigorous, project-based academic program in a diverse and vibrant learning environment rooted in the Jewish values of honesty, integrity, mutual trust and respect. For more information, visit the website at communityday.org or call (941) 552-2770.