Head of the Class    

Torah schools today don’t have it easy.

They’re suffering from teacher shortages, money shortages, greater expectations from parents, children with cognitive or emotional challenges and lessened attention spans. Complicating the picture, at least in New York, is the threat Torah schools are facing from the New York State Education Department (NYSED) to compromise the independence of yeshivos and impose a curriculum antithetical to Torah.

But the Education Department doesn’t know who it’s up against. Rabbi Dovid Nojowitz, a soft-spoken man — the type who tends to listen more than talk and has no affection for the limelight — has, as head of Torah Umesorah, emerged as an unapologetic fighter for the hundreds of institutions under his purview.

“I’ve always known Reb Dovid to be a leader,” says Rabbi Chaim David Zweibel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America. “But now, in the face of the NYSED challenges, I know him as a front-line soldier.”