Who We Are

Imagine yourselves outside on a beautiful sunny spring day, watching with tears of pride in your eyes as your twelfth-grade children, bedecked in green caps and gowns, stand arm-in-arm with dozens of their best friends. They have recently returned from the journey of a lifetime: eight extraordinary weeks with their classmates and gifted guides, following in the footsteps of our ancestors and immersing themselves in the contemporary societies of Poland and Israel. They are now preparing to graduate from High School and assume the mantle of community leadership for which they have been so diligently prepared. In that moment, who do you want your children to be?

Most importantly, you want them to be caring world citizens of strong character, committed to embodying the values with which they have been imbued throughout their lives. You likely want them to be bright, inquisitive scholars, prepared to discuss the major issues of the day with eloquence. You are eager for them to be confident, accomplished learners, having been challenged by a rigorous curriculum and already accepted to one of the top universities in the country—where they will immediately take on crucial leadership roles in advocacy, journalism, and other areas.

Perhaps you aspire for them to be gifted athletes and supportive teammates, still celebrating a league championship. You may want them to be talented artists, actors, musicians, and public speakers. You might want them to be creative engineers, trained in four state-of-the-art makerspaces to solve the world’s intractable challenges with ingenuity and fearlessness—perhaps with a U.S. patent application or two already under their belts.

In that moment, you might want to ensure that your children are committed members of the Jewish community, skilled in analytical study of our sacred texts and eager to practice with joy. And you likely want them to excel in building relationships, having spent 13 years with adults who are passionately invested in their success and classmates who will remain by their side decades later.

At The Leffell School, we share your vision for the development of your children as multi-talented, community-building, future leaders driven toward the betterment of the world—and by the time our seniors don those green caps and gowns each year, we ensure that they are prepared to embody this vision. Located on two lush, 25-acre campuses in Westchester County and drawing students from the Tri-State area and metro New York City, The Leffell School attracts hundreds of families who choose us from among many of the top schooling options in the world. We are an independent school that is deeply committed to socioeconomic diversity and to meeting the needs of students with a wide range of learning styles. And we are a Jewish day school that is anchored in traditional Jewish observance, culture, text, and language, while embracing a broad spectrum of Jewish ideologies and promoting full immersion in the modern world.

We are driven by a passionate refusal to ask our families to compromise on the elements of a schooling experience that are important to them in order to pursue a Jewish education—and a commitment to ensuring that all members of our community feel on a daily basis that a Leffell School education is the best possible investment they can make for their families.

My colleagues and I look forward to welcoming you for a visit to our campuses—and ultimately to joining you on graduation day, overwhelmed with pride and optimism about the people your children will have become.

L’shalom,
Michael Kay