Rachel Levitt Klein Dratch has been named the next Head of School of Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy, it was announced recently by the school’s President David Pikoff and Chairman of the Board of Incorporators Bob Zitter.
Dratch will take over as head of the Stamford Jewish day school, which is open to students in pre-K through 12th grade, in August 2021. She succeeds Jacqueline Herman, who is stepping down as head of school after 11 years of service.
“When Jackie Herman told us of her plan to retire as Bi-Cultural’s Head of School, we knew how difficult it would be to find the right person to fill her shoes,” wrote Pitkoff and Zitter in a letter to the Bi-Cultural community announcing Dratch’s appointment. “Under Jackie’s stewardship for the past 11 years, BCHA has developed and thrived as a school known for its warmth and academic excellence. It is with great pleasure that we announce that after a 15-month national search, we have found just that person—Rachel Levitt Klein Dratch.”
Dratch currently serves as director of educational innovation at Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools. At Prizmah, a national network for Jewish day schools and yeshivas headquartered in New York, Dratch was charged with training and mentoring heads of school and senior administrators in day schools throughout the country.
Prior to that she served as director of student life and Israel guidance at Beth Tfiloh Dahan Community School in Baltimore, and as high school dean of students and lower school assistant principal at the Berman Hebrew Academy in Rockville, Maryland. She also served in various administrative capacities at several other day schools throughout the country, among them the Maimonides School and the Rabbi Soloveitchik Institute, both in Brookline, Massachusetts; Ramaz Upper School in Manhattan; and at The Frisch School in New Jersey.
A graduate of Stern College with a bachelor’s degree in Judaic studies, Dratch holds a master’s in Jewish education from the Azrieli Graduate School for Jewish Education and Administration of Yeshiva University.
Although she will officially come on board at BCHA this summer, according to Pitkoff and Zitter, Dratch will soon relocate to Stamford with her husband, Rabbi Mark Dratch, and will spend time in the spring working with Herman and becoming acquainted with students, parents, faculty and prospective families to insure a smooth and seamless transition.
“We look forward to Mrs. Dratch joining the Bi-Cultural family and our community. Over the coming months we will be arranging opportunities for her to meet members of our school and community,” said Pitkoff and Zitter.
“As for our beloved Jackie Herman,” they added, “we look forward to honoring her at our annual Gala on February 28, 2021, with the first ever Walter Shuchatowitz Award for Excellence in Education, as we celebrate all she has done and meant to Bi-Cultural Hebrew Academy.”
While Rachel Dratch may be new to Stamford, her ties to the community are already strong. Rabbi Dratch, who currently serves as executive vice president of the Rabbinical Council of America in New York, is the former spiritual leader of Congregation Agudath Sholom (1997-2005); and their daughter Yolly Faratci and her husband, Yaakov, live in Stamford where they serve as Agudath Sholom’s youth directors. Yaakov Faratci is also a member of Bi-Cultural’s Judaic Studies faculty.
