Hillel Director Earns Teaching Award

Harvard Hillel Executive Director Bernard Steinberg was recently honored with the Covenant Award—a prize celebrating Jewish educators who have impacted Jewish life by taking an innovative approach to education.

Sponsored by The Covenant Foundation—which aims to “recogniz[e] the diversity of strengths within the field of Jewish education in North America,” according to the organization’s website—the award is given to three people each year.

“My understanding of this award is embedded in the word ‘covenant.’ A covenant is a Jewish idea from the Bible, and its meaning has to do with the value of interdependence, the centrality of relationships, and commitment to purpose. So to me, my work at Harvard is all about those values and ideas, first and foremost with students,” Steinberg said.

Steinberg’s students praised his excellent work as both a teacher and a mentor.

“I know very few people who have worked so tirelessly, generously, and passionately to create excellence in the Jewish community, primarily through Jewish young people,” said Charles W. Herman, a former Graduate School of Education student who studied under Steinberg at the Pardes Institute of Jewish Studies in Israel and has known Steinberg for 34 years.

In addition to working with students at Hillel, Steinberg also co-teaches the course “Moral Leadership: Self, Other, and Action” at the Harvard Kennedy School and serves on the faculty of the Wexner Heritage Foundation.

“He’s an educator, but he’s also a mentor, and he’s a mentor that speaks to the entire person,” said Chana M. Solomon-Schwartz ’06, who interacted with Steinberg during her time as president of Hillel.

“The things I’ve learned from him are as relevant in my Jewish life as they are in my professional life, how I approach my studies, and how I live my life overall,” she added.

Kennedy School Lecturer Marshall L. Ganz ’67, one of Steinberg’s colleagues, echoed Solomon-Schwartz’s sentiments, noting that “it is this deep humanity, caring, and wisdom that informs all Bernie does. He thus illuminates not only with his inspiration, not only with his ideas, but, most of all, with his deeds. Is this not what excellence in Jewish education is all about?”

—Staff writer Keren E. Rohe can be reached at keren.rohe@college.harvard.edu.