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Kohelet Yeshiva Receives
$12 Million Gift
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
O n June 16 at Kohelet Yeshiva’s
22nd annual gala on its
Merion Station campus,
school benefactors announced a gener-
ous gift : $12 million for future expan-
sion plans.

Longtime Kohelet donors David
Magerman and Scott Seligsohn teamed
up to provide $8 million and $4 million,
respectively, according to school offi -
cials. Th ey made the donation because
the Main Line institution continues to
grow and will need more classrooms to
keep growing.

Th e school that started in 2000 in the
basement of a JCC with 15 students,
per its website, now has an entire cam-
pus, a K-12 operation and more than
300 students. Its combination of Torah
study and secular education appeals to
modern Orthodox families who want
their children to build a strong Jewish
foundation that can help them succeed
in the secular world.

“Each division is attracting students
far and wide,” said Lori Salkin, the sec-
retary of the school’s board of directors
and the chair of its development com-
mittee. “Having a facility to house all
that is an incredible dream that we’ll
now be able to perform.”
Perhaps no one believes in the
Jewish-secular mission of the school
more than Magerman himself. Th e
Merion Station resident, who runs a
venture capital fund called Diff erential
Ventures and belongs to the Shtiebel
of Lower Merion, sent all four of his
kids to Kohelet Yeshiva. Th e older two
David Magerman speaks at Kohelet Yeshiva’s 22nd annual gala on June 16 in
Merion Station.

Shira Yudkoff for Kohelet Yeshiva
graduated, but the younger two remain
students there.

It was his belief in the school that
drove Magerman to help transform it
into what it is today. In 2016, he made
a $30 million donation that paved the
way for Kohelet to become more than
just a high school.

Th at same year, Kohelet Yeshiva
High School merged with the Yeshiva
Lab School to add an elementary oper-
ation to its program. Th en in 2017, the
community opened Kohelet Yeshiva
Middle School to create “a seamless
K-12 highway of innovative Jewish
education,” as the school’s website
describes it.

Finally, in September of 2019,
Magerman paid for a 30,000-square-
foot K-8 building, on top of his previ-
ous $30 million donation.

“We built this school, and if you
build it they will come,” said Salkin,
who by next year will have four of her
own kids in the Kohelet system. “I have
neighbors who moved from California
to come to bring their kids to Kohelet.”
Magerman, though, was not always
this invested in Jewish education, or
Judaism in general. About 15 years ago,
he experienced a sort of midlife crisis.

6 JULY 14, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
He realized that his growing children
would soon start to ask him about the
meaning of life, and that he wouldn’t
have a good answer.

“What answer am I going to give
besides whoever gets the most toys
wins?” he said.

So, he started reading Torah, study-
ing Talmud and observing the Sabbath.

Over his fi rst 5-7 years, he increased his
learning to a few hours a week. Th en he
tried to start applying his Jewish prin-
ciples as he lived his life.

By 2014, he was ready to move from
Gladwyne to Merion Station so he
could walk to his synagogue. He also
completed his transition to a full obser-
vance of the Sabbath.

Magerman may not have fi gured out
the meaning of life, exactly. But he
could at least tell his kids where to look.

“I found truth in what I learned,” he
said. “Th e things I do on a moment by
moment basis are because I’m doing
mitzvahs that God commanded.”
Th e philanthropist adopted educa-
tion as a cause because he wanted to
help other young people fi gure out
where to look, too. He referred to Torah
as “medicine for the soul.” He believes
children need to grow up with it so



they can live “Torah-informed lives.”
Th is is essential even in a secular
society, according to Magerman. He
thinks that the two pillars of education
are strong secular schooling and deep
Torah study. Combining those is the
best way to “achieve God’s purpose for
us,” he said.

“It’s like, why do we breathe? Th is
is what I believe we’re put here for,”
Magerman added. “To learn Torah and
to follow the mitzvot, and to be a light
in society.”
School offi cials do not yet have a
specifi c plan for how they will use
Magerman’s and Seligsohn’s recent gift .

Th ey just know that more classrooms
will be part of the plan.

Th e next step, as Salkin explained,
is talking to the hundreds of Kohelet
families about what they might like to
see. Aft er that, school offi cials will have
to present their plans to Lower Merion
Township for approval.

On one early July day alone, Salkin
got four new emails from prospective
school families.

“We have dreams of extreme
growth,” she said. JE
jsaff ren@midatlanticmedia.com
From left: Debra Magerman, David Magerman and Scott Seligsohn
Shira Yudkoff for Kohelet Yeshiva
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