A legacy of Torah and kindness: Hillel Academy honors former teacher Shirley Dorsey

Naming, study and service remind students how dedicated educator shared Jewish knowledge and values with sweetness and love

A program honoring one teacher’s legacy left participants with an imperative: learn and do.

Before exiting a repurposed gymnasium inside Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh on Dec. 25, attendees were given colorful worksheets containing excerpts from Pirkei Avot and questions prompting intergenerational discussion.

Drawing on rabbinic teachings that the world stands on Torah, service, and acts of kindness, the worksheet asked how children can put this principle into practice, how their actions differ from those of parents or grandparents, and how generations can help one another.

The questions, which encouraged textual analysis of Pirkei Avot (a compilation of ethical teachings originating more than 1600 years ago) in hopes of prompting introspection and connection, reflected the ethos of Shirley Dorsey, a longtime educator who died in 2017.

For 67 years, Dorsey was an elementary teacher at the Jewish day school. Often working with kindergarten, first and second grade students, Dorsey imparted a love of Torah and kindness, according to her daughter Hannah Dorsey.

To this day, students still “remember my mother, and her warmth and smiles, and just loving to teach,” she said.

Bernard Greenberg, left, and Hannah Dorsey are joined by Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh CEO Dan Kraut near artwork created in memory of Shirley Dorsey by Burton Morris. (Photo by Tzvi Friedman)

A “born teacher,” Shirley Dorsey began her tenure at Hillel Academy when it was located on Ellsworth Avenue in Shadyside. After the school moved to Squirrel Hill decades ago, Dorsey continued instructing generations of students both inside the school and out, her daughter said.

Whether through Hebrew school and Sunday school at Congregation Shaare Torah — where she served as Sisterhood president and established tuition-free education — or during routine classroom study or an afterschool “Mitzvos and Middos” program at Hillel Academy, Shirley Dorsey conveyed Jewish knowledge and values with sweetness, Hannah Dorsey said. “Teaching was not a job for my mother. It was part of who she was.”

Through an intergenerational program on Dec. 25, students and guests learned more about “Morah Dorsey” and her continued imprint on the school. Since 2021, Hillel Academy has operated the Morah Shirley Dorsey Middos Program. Chief among its offerings is the Be a Mensch initiative.

Relying on an evidence-based framework to promote positive learning and prosocial behavior, BAM enables students to “teach, model and reinforce positive behavior” through common language and clear expectations, according to Hillel Academy Principal Yikara Levari.

Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh students speak during the Dec. 25 program. (Photo by Tzvi Friedman)

Dressed in colorful T-shirts, representing “houses” dedicated to respect, kindness, unity, leadership and integrity, students explained to guests — through song and dance — how these five values are the hallmark of a Hillel Academy education.

At the heart of these lessons is Shirley Dorsey’s memory, Levari said. She was “magical,” someone who came to work every day and “smiled.”

Hannah Dorsey, who co-taught with her mother for nearly 14 years, said her mother’s guidance continues to be relevant.

“When you’re teaching important things and you’re teaching Torah, you have to get to know your students,” she said. “You can’t fool children. They know if you care for them and you love them.”

That dedication extended beyond the classroom, said Bernard Greenberg, Shirley Dorsey’s brother. “She was a good sister to me, a good mother to Hannah, and I think of her every day. Everything we do, we do in honor of our family who raised us, who took care of us, taught us how to be a good person.”

A generous gift from the Dorsey and Greenberg family will ensure generations of students continue reaping Shirley Dorsey’s lessons, according to Hillel Academy CEO Dan Kraut.

Bernard Greenberg, left, and Hannah Dorsey stand near signage marking the Shirley Dorsey Elementary School Wing at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh. (Photo by Tzvi Friedman)

Before dedicating a renovated colorful elementary school wing in Shirley Dorsey’s name, Kraut told the 150 program attendees, “I think Morah Dorsey taught in every single older room in this building, including downstairs.” To see the building now, complete with this new wing, is the “perfect way to remember Morah Dorsey and how much she’s meant to everybody who went here.”

Faithe Milch, a former teacher at the school whose great-grandchildren attend Hillel Academy, marveled at the space.

“I’m overwhelmed, and impressed and thrilled for Pittsburgh,” she said. “I taught here quite a few years ago and it’s just great.”

Milch said that when she moved to Pittsburgh more than 50 years ago as a young mother, Shirley Dorsey was already a respected educator in the city.

To see someone’s service to teaching so communally valued and celebrated “makes me feel good,” Milch said. “It’s wonderful the way they appreciate here — and they teach that to the children — to appreciate people who you’re involved with.”

Colorful signage marks a hallway inside the Shirley Dorsey Elementary School Wing at Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh. (Photo by Adam Reinherz)

Instilling similar educational lessons continued throughout the day, as the school encouraged students and guests to undertake service projects and study. With parents, grandparents and friends partnering with young learners, small groups scattered throughout Hillel Academy’s buildings. Participants prepared boxes, complete with candles, spices, liturgy and other Shabbat and Havdalah-related items, for delivery to hospital patients and families. Elsewhere, administrators taught classes for guests on the role of kindness in Jewish law. Before the day was complete, an activity encouraged students to probe grandparents for family histories while transcribing the tales.

A particularly unique quality of Pittsburgh is its multi-generational families, Levari said. Asking students to collect anecdotes from relatives helps preserve personal and family events, “some of which even took place at Hillel Academy,” but the project actually promotes something greater. “It’s really giving grandparents and grandchildren a chance just to talk about their lives.”

Tying the day together is a commitment to legacy, the educator continued.

“We all do things in our lives that help shape the next generation. And that’s what Morah Dorsey did,” Levari said. “We have generations of students, of families, who are here spending the day together, learning Torah and doing chessed. That is the continuous chain of education that is Hillel Academy.” PJC

Adam Reinherz can be reached at areinherz@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.