Welcome from
the Head of School

Welcome to Brandeis Hillel Day School.  As soon as you walk through our doors, you will notice something different.  Besides the palpable sense of our students eagerly learning, you will find a vibrant and caring community.

This unique atmosphere emanates from our core values, the first of which is to aspire to greatness.  The sages teach us that the quest to be gibor, to be great in what we do, is part of our heritage.  All teachers at Brandeis Hillel see themselves as aspiring to greatness.  We are a school that is committed to expecting that essential quality of striving to excel from each person who teaches or studies within our walls.

But why do we aspire to greatness in teaching? Because then and only then can we look for the greatness - the unique spark, and lifelong gift - that exists in each and every student in our charge. By experiencing and then understanding extreme competence and indeed greatness in our teaching, we can recognize it in our students' learning.

Our mission is to have every student experience the realization of an aspect of his or her fullest potential every year, in every class, and never in the same way because no two teachers are identical, any more than any two students would be."

Our second core value is chesed, or kindness. Imagine building a school that models behavior for the larger community, a school that believes that by being consistently - even radically - kind, respectful, and caring for each other, we can make ourselves and others kinder and better people. Children of all families will be welcomed and valued and treated with kindness by the adult role models they come in contact with every day.

The third core value, stated boldly in our mission statement, is living in a diverse Jewish community. How do we create a school in which we reconcile seemingly incompatible views on many issues to build one encompassing and embracing community? We create it by consciously choosing the heartbeat and vitality of life over the coherence and rigidity of doctrine.

BHDS is a true Jewish community school, a place that admits families and embraces them, regardless of whether they own or rent, whether their family embraces traditional or non-traditional lifestyles, or whether they attend synagogue. It is a place committed to helping each young person use his or her mind well, as we seek to instill intellectual confidence and competence in each child.

For over four decades, focusing on our core values has produced students who succeed at every level.  Our students are accepted into their top choices of high schools, they successfully navigate the challenges of high school and college, and they go on to become accomplished professionals and vital members of their community.

I invite you to join us in continuing the Brandeis Hillel Day School tradition of striving to realize all that is possible within each person's potential.  We aspire for an inclusive community, and we ask - no, we expect - kindness from our faculty and administration, from our trustees and our parents, and, most importantly, from our students.

Warm Regards,

Chaim Heller
Head of School