08/27/2026
Dear Masor School Community,
I wanted to take a moment to say welcome. Welcome back, if you're returning to us. And welcome, if this is your first semester at AJU.
I want to tell you about something that happened this past weekend. While touring colleges in Philadelphia with my daughter, she and I visited the Weitzman Museum of American Jewish History. We found ourselves standing in front of case after case of letters, ritual items, and photographs spanning over 360 years of American Jewish history. Some of the items were from Jewish life before the time of the Declaration of Independence, which was signed in Independence Hall just a few hundred yards from where we stood.
As we slowly walked by the displays, here's what struck me: none of these items survived by accident. Every single object in that museum exists today because someone, generation after generation, chose to pass it on. They chose to teach it forward; like we do here in the Masor School.
To those of you just starting, you're adding a link to a chain that goes back further than any of us can really trace. You bring something new to the chain; your questions, your experiences, and your convictions.
To those of you returning, by showing up again, semester after semester, that's its own kind of building. Quiet and steady, perhaps building the kind of thing that ends up in a museum, generations from now.
The Pirkei Avot does not start with a law or a value. It starts with a chain: “Moshe kibel Torah mi’Sinai” - Moses received the Torah at Sinai - “u’mesarah l’Yehoshua” - and he handed it to Joshua. Joshua handed it to the elders, who handed it to the prophets, and so on.
The Mishnah could have opened anywhere, yet it opens with handing something down.
Isn’t that what our work is really about? We do not simply pass along information. Teaching and learning are living things, passed from one set of hands to the next. Along with that, we trust that the next person will carry the learning and make it their own, and pass it forward.
So this year, as we teach, learn, and prepare to lead, I want you to know that we’re not just covering material. We’re not just getting through a syllabus. Every one of us is part of a chain, entrusted with carrying something forward and helping to build a strong, visible Jewish future.
I wish you all a meaningful year ahead.
-Jay Greenlinger
Dean of the Masor School for Jewish Education and Leadership
