Rabbi Joshua Kahn has been named head of school at the Marsha Stern Talmudical Academy/Yeshiva University High School for Boys (MTA). The appointment is the culmination of an extensive international search that involved parents, faculty, alumni, board members and YU administrators.
“MTA has been on a trajectory of excellence for several years,” said Richael Joel, Yeshiva University’s president. “Rabbi Kahn’s appointment continues the direction that Rabbi Michael Taubes has taken us on, and Rabbi Kahn will take us to the next place.”
Rabbi Kahn is a graduate of YU’s Yeshiva College, Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary, and Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration, where he is pursuing a doctorate in education. Most recently, he has served as the associate principal of Judaic studies and dean of student life of Torah Academy of Bergen County, where he pioneered initiatives like the Senior Mentoring and Beit Midrash Programs and organized chesed and disaster relief missions, in addition to teaching Bible and Jewish law courses. He is known for building strong relationships with students and parents and was successful in streamlining many administrative processes to make them more intuitive, transparent and effective.
“A supreme gentleman and a talmid chacham who studied in the Yeshiva’s bais hamedrash, Rabbi Kahn is one of the few people well positioned to succeed at the very hard act to follow of Rabbi Taubes, and will no doubt further Rabbi Taubes’s accomplishments and vision,” said YU Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Yaakov Neuburger. “Rabbi Kahn’s charming and very attentive style endears himself to students and parents all the while uncompromising in his expectations of his students and of his own educational goals. His impressive professional skills coupled with his keen insight and his absolutely genuine concern for the individual student will continue to make the yeshiva a most sought-after school for our children and a flagship yeshiva high school for our community,” he said.
Current Head of School Rabbi Taubes will remain at MTA in the role of Rosh Yeshiva.
“Rabbi Kahn enjoys an outstanding reputation as a true ben Torah and as a devoted mechanech,” Rabbi Taubes told the Jewish Link. “I am especially impressed that he has been involved in a leadership capacity in many different areas relating to yeshiva high school education, as this gives him the broad understanding and experience needed to effectively guide a school such as ours, serving the young men from our various communities with the unique program of Talmud Torah, General Studies, and extracurricular opportunities which we offer. I look forward to working with him for the benefit of our yeshiva and its students.”
“Rabbi Kahn brings a well-articulated vision for academic and cultural excellence to MTA, the only yeshiva high school on the campus of an established university,” said Miriam Goldberg, chair of Yeshiva University High Schools. “He has a deep caring for the complete well-being and happiness of our students. He is driven towards excellence and has the unique ability to inspire all those around him to that same standard.”
“From the very first meeting, he impressed the search committee with his thoughtfulness and vision, and the committee and Board are excited at the prospect of his leadership as we enter the next chapter of this school’s storied history, building upon the accomplishments of Rabbi Taubes,” said Joshua Jacoby, executive director of YU High Schools. “We’re excited to have Rabbi Kahn at the helm just as the school enters its second century.”
