Photo taken by Ethan Herman.
Mr. Adam Tilove, Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy’s (HBHA) new Head of School, is one of many new faculty and administrators joining HBHA in the 2019-2020 school year. Before moving to Kansas City from Providence, R.I., Tilove was the head of the Jewish Community Day School of Rhode Island and then the owner of a small business. In the previous school year, while HBHA was looking for a new Head of School, Tilove was also looking for a change, and found it at HBHA.
“I came out here and what I discovered was that it’s a really lovely community,” said Tilove. “[T]here’s pride in the Jewish community [here].”
As Head of School, Tilove takes note of “tremendous administrators and teachers,” and the dedication with which they do their jobs. A typical day for Tilove can involve multiple meetings with both faculty and administrators. Being new to the community, one of Tilove’s primary goals for his first year is to learn the names of students and parents in order to build relationships.
“It’s very easy when you are a head of school to get stuck in your office,” says Tilove. “There’s [always] plenty of office work to do.”
However, Tilove frequently makes sure to get out of his office and do some teaching himself. Before arriving at HBHA, Tilove always had a love of teaching, and he said that “it felt like I was doing really important work, and that my life made a difference to people, and that was valuable.”
Tilove has previously taught kindergarten, second grade, fourth grade, middle school math, and middle school Jewish Studies. His favorite class to teach was Jewish Studies. He says that Jewish Studies isn’t just one subject, but rather it is a combination of multiple subjects like history, ethics, and economics. Tilove says that “a Jewish day school provides an opportunity to reach parts of the human being that a regular school can never reach.”
A colleague of Tilove’s once observed: “The only non renewable resource is time.” Tilove takes these words to heart by being in a profession which allows him to hone in on his passions every day: Judaism, entrepreneurship, and education.
One of Tilove’s favorite quotes is from Abraham Lincoln: “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the ax.” Tilove takes great care in doing his job in all its facets. He says that one of the most satisfying parts of his job is that he can hear feedback and then implement changes for the betterment of the school. One example is HBHA’s new Hakarat Hatov where students and teachers recognize kind acts of others within the school, regardless of grade.
The HBHA community welcomes Mr. Tilove and his family to Kansas City and is looking forward to a great new year.
