Longtime principal of Hillel Academy resigns
"I’m ready for a change but I’m going to miss it every day. It’s such a wonderful place.”
Hillel Academy of Pittsburgh has announced the resignation of Principal and Educational Director Rabbi Sam Weinberg.
The announcement was made in an April 10 email from Daniel Kraut, the school’s chief executive officer. Kraut said that Weinberg was stepping back from his duties as principal and educational director immediately but will remain with the school until the end of the academic year.
Yikara Levari will serve as interim principal and educational director as the school searches for a permanent replacement. Levari has been with Hillel for 20 years, spending the last 12 as the girls’ assistant principal, grades 5-12.
Weinberg has been employed at Hillel for 16 years — 13 as principal and educational director; one year as principal for both the boys’ and girls’ high school and middle school; and two years as the principal of the boys’ school. Previous to his time with Hillel, he was the director of student life at the Ramaz School in New York.
Even before his employment with Hillel, Weinberg was familiar with the school. He was a student there as a youth growing up on Beacon Street in Squirrel Hill before leaving for Yeshiva University in New York City, where he received a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in education and administration. He also received his smicha there.
Weinberg said he has loved his time at the school but felt it was time for a change.
“I love Hillel. I care deeply about it,” he said. “Where I am personally, in my life, I’m ready for a change but I’m going to miss it every day. It’s such a wonderful place.”
Weinberg shepherded the school through challenging times, including the Oct. 27, 2018, Pittsburgh synagogue shooting; the COVID pandemic, which forced the closure of schools across the country; the deaths of two students; and the Oct. 7 Hamas attack in Israel.
During his tenure, Hillel realized a list of positive improvements, including a nearly 150% increase in school enrollment; the completion of the Yitzy Sutofsky Campus, which opened at the start of the 2024-25 school year and includes a new main building and the Herman Lipsitz Boys High School and Middle School Bartlett building; a new student services program that includes mental health and student education services; the expansion of the Hillel Academy B’not Sherut program to include two Hillel Academy shlichim families from Israel; the creation of the new “Mesivta track,” providing a Yeshiva learning experience for students; and a new four-star rated Keystone Stars early childhood program.
The school’s athletic program also grew during Weinberg’s tenure to include boys and girls middle and high school track, running and basketball teams, and a boys high school baseball team.
Yitzhak Mandelbaum, president of the school’s board of directors, said Weinberg “had a holistic vision of what Hillel Academy could be.”
Weinberg, he said, was open, sympathetic and understanding to the needs of the school and the community.
As an example, Mandelbaum pointed to Weinberg’s work during COVID, a time when not everyone in the school agreed on how Hillel should react.
“He heard all those concerns,” Mandelbaum said. “He was in the school constantly. When there was remote learning, he worked to make sure that there was at least something available, where other schools closed and had nothing to offer. And then he led the charge to reopen.”
Mandelbaum said that Weinberg demonstrated during his tenure that each student mattered and that the school did its best to serve all students.
As important as traditional academics, Mandelbaum said that Weinberg worked to ensure the school’s Judaic programs and Talmudic studies were on par with yeshivas across the country. And, he said, the rabbi strove to build competitive boys and girls sports programs.
Weinberg, he said, cared deeply and was empathetic, and that’s something to which students responded.
“He spoke to students. I had times the kids would come home and tell me, ‘Rabbi Weinberg was in our class today speaking to us.’ That said to me he was trying to connect with parents and students during critical times.”
Mandelbaum said that Weinberg’s leaving is bittersweet because it creates an opportunity for new leadership and for the school to build on Hillel’s legacy, which grew under the former principal.
Weinberg isn’t sure what the future will hold, he said. He’s going to do some consulting and said he has some small projects already lined up.
What he’ll remember most, he said, are the moments he spent with the students, “whether it was on a high school retreat or a basketball tournament with the kids, or when they were hosting a Purim party or telling a story at our Shabbat oneg.”
He even fondly recalls the sad times that forced the school to come together as a community.
“The Tree of Life shooting and during COVID, when Yitzy Sutofsky passed away and Raffi Breen passed away, we all supported each other through the tragedies. Those were very meaningful,” he said.
Hillel Academy has not announced its plans to secure a permanent principal and educational director. PJC
David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.
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