“No matter what, he let me know that he believed in me,” says Tuchman, who took over from Maria Cohen as director of the Oakland Hebrew Day School in August.
Some of the best educators he’s known were problem students when they were young, says the rabbi. Invariably, these troubled youngsters were helped by an enlightened teacher who then became a role model.
Principal Muschel’s approach made a deep impression on Tuchman, and he strives to adopt the same open-mindedness with the youngsters under his tutelage.
“A child has to know that he can succeed,” he says. “There are no exceptions to that.”
As a teenager, Tuchman enjoyed working with children a few years younger than himself; and then, during a sophomore year abroad in Israel, he was involved with an organization called Achi that organized social programs for young Ethiopian immigrants.
Working with Ethiopian Jews, says Tuchman, “helped me to codify a lot of points to myself about my own religiosity and commitment.”
His two years in Israel were a time of introspection, during which he asked himself where his true purpose lay. Although he was studying computer science at the time, it was his knack for working with children, and his love for this labor, that occupied his imagination.
Back in the United States, Tuchman received ordination from Yeshiva University and simultaneously did graduate work in Jewish education. In order to maintain more immediate contact with his subject, he worked as a junior high school adviser.
Walking around Oakland Hebrew Day School with Tuchman, it’s easy to see his pride in the place. He points out menorot that the children have made for Chanukah, and shows off a kitchen where a teacher is making the sour bread called injera so that students learning about Ethiopia can experience that country’s cuisine.
The school, which is currently kindergarten to fifth grade, has been adding a grade each year. Its curriculum is unique, says Tuchman, in that it fully integrates Judaic and Hebrew studies with a secular program. For instance, at the beginning of the year, second-grade students did a unit on sounds that was inspired by learning about the shofar in Judaic studies.
The school accepts children from all Jewish backgrounds. This makes for a rich cultural mix and interaction, says Tuchman.
“We live in the East Bay, one of the most diverse places in the country, and we are diverse too.”
He estimates that currently, about 40 to 50 percent of the school’s population is Orthodox.
Tuchman believes the school equips children to make informed decisions about their lives. “We don’t judge anybody,” he says.
Two basic rules are that dairy lunches should not be shared and that food brought in for class consumption must meet the school’s kashrut guidelines. But nobody checks what’s in anyone’s lunchbox.
“It’s a self-regulating system,” says the rabbi.
Parents are encouraged to participate in the school in whatever way they can, and they are always welcome in the classroom.
“We like to think of the school as a family,” says Tuchman.
This family’s patriarch is actively involved in its members’ welfare. As he walks around the school, two girls run up to the rabbi and request that he find them a large piece of cardboard. Children run out of their classroom to pose with the director in front of the planets they have made from papier-mâché.
“I love what I do,” Tuchman beams. “And, hey, I even get paid for it.”