Jane Taubenfeld Cohen

Jane Taubenfeld Cohen was in the ninth grade when she was faced with a test harder than any she had yet experienced in school. She was asked to tutor three boys who presented classroom behavior problems and were having trouble learning Hebrew. She was a brought in as a last resort toward keeping them in the afternoon school until they reached their B’nei Mitzvah.

Jane began meeting the three boys in the library of the shul. The threesome, caught up in the games that Jane created for them, forgot not to be interested in Hebrew school. Without knowing it, Jane’s work in differentiated instruction began that day, when she went home and created a workbook for each boy geared towards his individual learning style. She was excited about her new job, and they were excited about their new teacher. That relationship lasted for two years, and, in many ways, it launched her career.

Jane’s career in Jewish education was nurtured and ultimately secured by three incredible mentors. Challenged and guided by these individuals, Jane developed the skills that have made her the superb educator she is: from Rabbi David Molignor z”l, Director of the Mador counselor training program at Camp Ramah, she gained a well-defined personal theology and philosophy; from Mildred Gelbloom, head of a preschool program who guided Jane in her first job after graduate school, she learned how to talk to children with respect and acquired an awareness of their God-like qualities; and from Esther Karten, who worked at the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Boston, she learned that careful planning was a crucial part of making her dreams become reality. Jane is the beneficiary of people who identified her talent, believed in her, and encouraged her to become the best she could be in the field of Jewish education.

In 1990, Jane and her husband joined two other couples in founding a Schechter school in their community. For the past 17 years, as co-founder and Head of the South Area Solomon Schechter Day School, Jane has made a lasting impact on alumni, the student body of kindergarten through eighth graders, a devoted faculty and staff, a loyal parent body, and the Greater Boston community. Jane has also had significant impact on the national Jewish education scene in at least three key areas. She has revolutionized how Jewish day schools engage students who have special learning needs through the creation of a culturally receptive, differentiated teaching model and a supportive, skills-rich environment where these special students are embraced and inspired to achieve their fullest potential. Through her widely emulated L’Chaim Project, she has helped redefine the goals for international Holocaust education in Jewish day schools, creating an educational focus on the triumphant lives of survivors and their connection to day school students and the broader community. Not least, Jane has brought genuine innovation to the task of successfully managing a day school in the arenas of educational leadership, faculty mentoring and coaching, and admissions.

Jane and her husband, David, now live in Sharon, Massachusetts and have two daughters, Sara and Rebecca. She has come a long way from the shul library where she encountered her first real test.