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Jarrad Saffren | Staff Writer
T he year 2022 was a big one for Mitchell Daar. The longtime
educator got the biggest job of his career, as head of school at
the Perelman Jewish Day School. He also moved with his fiancée
(now wife) from New York City to the Philadelphia area.

For Daar, 37, 2022 was about managing that transition. But in 2023, he
was able to do more than manage. He started putting his stamp on the
pre-K-5 institution that he took over.

After spending his early months on the job building relationships,
Daar could walk through the doors of the school and wave to everyone
he encountered. His team also implemented a geographic scholarship
program designed to expand the Perelman brand to zip codes in which
it may not have been present before. And finally, he was able to reopen
the school community post-COVID, putting kids back in full classrooms
and hosting holiday gatherings and family events.

As the year concludes, Daar is satisfied.

“It’s an incredible community, and it has already allowed for some
changes and will set a foundation for changes in the future,” he said.

Daar was hired in January 2022 and started that summer, after the
2021-’22 school year. When he arrived in the Philadelphia area, he had
to get to know parents, students, teachers and donors. He did that with
12 JUNE 15, 2023 | JEWISH EXPONENT
“satellite dinners in people’s homes,” he
said. “Really making sure I was out there,”
he added.

After that, he started trying to spread
the word about his new institution. He
looked at data from the Jewish Federation
of Greater Philadelphia’s 2019 popula-
tion study and determined that there
were areas with Jewish populations that
were “underrepresented in our school,”
he said. Those zip codes included parts
of Montgomery County, parts of Bucks
County and portions of Philadelphia.

Perelman instituted a $12,000 per-year
scholarship for students from those zip
codes. Daar explained that the school
started the program by retroactively
providing the scholarship to 60 students
already in the school. But in 2023-’24, 15
new kids also will benefit from it. In the
future, Daar is hoping to offer it to more
new students.

“We want to make sure that families far
and wide have access to our incredible
Jewish day school experience,” he said.

In 2022-’23, it was certainly a more
better experience than it was during the
COVID years. Hundreds of people came
out for Chanukah and Purim events,
according to the head of school. Parents,
grandparents and other relatives
attended a multigenerational family
gathering. In early June, the community
hosted a parent kickball game. Before
that, it welcomed in Shabbat at a local
synagogue and held a Shabbat dinner
at which parents cooked for the whole
community. “We’re getting sort of, quote, back to
normal,” Daar said. “We run our program
to the fullest for the first time since
before the pandemic.”
There were other small changes,
too, like an investment in the school’s
enrollment department, the hiring of a
new human resources director and the
implementation of a parent survey on
“everything about our school,” Daar
said. Daar believes that in his first year, he’s
“laid a foundation for future growth.” The
tagline at Perelman’s recent gala was,
“The future starts now.” Next year will
be about “setting a path for that vision of
what it’s going to look like and how we’re
going to execute,” he said.

Daar intends to show Jews in the
community that “we’re the best elemen-
tary school in the Philadelphia area, and
it’s going to be because we’re a Jewish
day school.”
Recently, the former math teacher
taught a math class to a group of fifth
graders. “I was so impressed with the students.

The level of interest mixed with their
appreciation for learning and their knowl-
edge of the subject matter,” he said. “It
was an absolute joy to teach them.” ■
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com Courtesy of the Perelman Jewish Day School
Mitchell Daar