Welcome to
The Shalem School
The Depth of Tradition. The Rigor of Mathematics.
About Us
The Shalem School seeks to produce students that represent the ideal of the educated Jewish person of virtue: prepared for high-level intellectual work and steeped in the literature, ethics, and praxis of Jewish tradition.
Shalem sees the ultimate achievement of academic training as clarity of thought. To that end, its mission is to develop in students the intellectual creativity, incisiveness, and work ethic that have been the hallmarks of Talmudic scholarship for centuries and which form the basis of success across disciplines. It offers a rigorous curriculum with a special emphasis on mathematics and the classics of Hebrew literature from its inception to the modern period.
Shalem considers ethical behavior and discipline as essential to personal development. Students study how Jewish scholars have applied abstract notions of virtue to concrete actions and become familiar with the contours of Jewish living and practice.
Meet The Teachers
Dov Dukhovny
Head of School; Gemara, Mathematics
Dov Dukhovny studied at the yeshivos of the Mir (Brooklyn), R. Zvi Kaplan, and BMG, and has a BA in mathematics from Rutgers-New Brunswick. He moved to Palo Alto in 2017 to join the Jewish Study Network, and opened The Shalem School in the fall of 2020.
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Asher Coleman
Jewish History, Mussar
Rabbi Asher Coleman studied at the yeshivos of Long Beach, R. Dovid Soloveitchik, and BMG. He now lives in Palo Alto with his wife and children, where he is a member of the Jewish Study Network and teaches a broad range of Torah classes for adults.
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Yitzchok Feldman
Mishna Berura
Rabbi Yitzchok Feldman has been the rabbi of Congregation Emek Beracha in Palo Alto for 25 years. Originally from Evanston, Ill, he graduated with a degree in English literature from Yale College in 1985, and then spent 10 years in Jerusalem Yeshivot. He is the author of Shemen Zayis Zach, a portrait of one of his teachers in Jerusalem.
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Dovid Holtzberg
Rambam, Navi, Hebrew
Rabbi Dovid Holtzberg was born in Jerusalem, Israel. He received his rabbinical ordination in 2000 from the Central Chabad-Lubavitch Yeshiva of Brooklyn, New York. He lives with his wife and 6 children in Monterey, California where he is the local Chabad Rabbi and previously taught Hebrew at the Defense Languages Institute.
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Zalman Levin
Tanya
Coming soon
Avigdor Ashtar
Gemara
Coming soon
Marian Concus
Music Theory
Marian Concus plays flute and piccolo for Santa Cruz and Fremont Symphonies, and has played for the Boise Philharmonic, Central City Opera (Denver), Maxwell Street Klezmer Band (Chicago), and Adama (Paris, France). Ms. Concus holds a degree in Flute Performance from the New England Conservatory and spent two years in Michel Debost’s flute master class in Paris, France, and did undergraduate coursework in music at University of California, Berkeley. She is currently on the faculties of Bellarmine College Preparatory School and Almaden School of Music and Art.
Scott Goldberg
Music Performance
Scott Goldberg has been playing and teaching guitar for over fifty years. He studied jazz and improvisation at Cal State Hayward, and also has training in classical guitar, music theory, and arranging. He has won awards for his work in production and engineering, and has worked with a wide variety of musicians from Motown bassist Tony Newton to Allman Brothers founder Dickie Betts.
Greg Perry
Discrete Math, Computer Science
Greg Perry studied mathematics, graduating with a BA from Harvard and an MA from UC Berkeley. Later, he worked as a software developer at Lockheed and EBay, and served a term on his local city council. He currently lives with his family in Mountain View and referees soccer games for fun.
Afnan Nicola-Asmar
Biology
Afnan Nicola has taught chemistry and biology for over ten years in both public and private schools in Israel. She has a B.Sc in Chemistry from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and an M.Sc in Science Education from the Technion in Israel. She really enjoys teaching and loves to see her students grow in their understanding of science. Outside teaching she enjoys discovering new places and spending time with her kids and family.
Daniel Silverman
English, European History and Literature
Daniel Silverman has been teaching and tutoring English and history in Bay Area private schools for 8 years. He earned a BA in History and French at Amherst College and an MA in French Literature at the University of Pennsylvania. He loves teaching students how to savor classic literature.
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Admissions
