By 
Soille Hebrew Day School’s next chapter
By L’CHAIM Staff
There is a new energy in the hallways of Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School.
As students begin another year of learning, friendships and Jewish growth, they are being welcomed by a leadership team that is beginning a journey of its own. With a new Head of School/Rabbi, new Principal, new preschool Director and new Board President, Soille is entering a significant new chapter—one that its leaders say will honor the school’s deeply rooted traditions while looking confidently toward its future.
For a Jewish day school, however, change is about more than new faces and new titles. It raises a larger question: How does a school embrace new ideas while preserving the values that have defined it for generations?
At Soille, the answer begins with what has always been at the heart of the school—its children.
“A Jewish day school gives children roots from which they can grow,” says Rabbi Benjamin Geiger, Head of School.
Soille combines a deeply rooted Orthodox Torah foundation with warmth, openness and a strong sense of family. For more than 60 years, the school has served San Diego’s Jewish community and welcomed families with different backgrounds and levels of observance into a shared educational home.
“Our children are entering a world filled with extraordinary opportunities, but also with confusion, loneliness, antisemitism and competing messages about who they should be,” Geiger says. “Soille offers our students a deeply rooted sense of identity: the knowledge that they are part of an ancient and continuing story, that Torah can guide their choices, and that they belong to a people and a community that loves and needs them.”
Rabbi Geiger joined the school leadership team this year alongside Principal Sarah Evanston-Atkinson, a veteran educator who comes to Soille with deep experience in teaching, curriculum and instructional leadership.
“Every Soille student deserves consistently strong instruction, clear expectations, meaningful engagement, appropriate challenges and teachers who are continually refining their craft,” Evanston-Atkinson says.
Leaders and staff have placed an emphasis on intentionality in education this year, alongside a deep commitment to building lifelong learners with a strong sense of self; that they can carry with them well after leaving the school.
These initiatives are connected by one goal: creating a school where excellent systems support excellent teaching, teachers feel supported in their growth, and every child is both challenged and known.
Early Learners
Helmed by Preschool Director Elena Galante, early learners at Soille understand a sense of community and connection through Jewish values and traditions that are naturally woven throughout their day.
“We want to build a foundation of confidence, curiosity, kindness, and a love of learning,” Galante says. “Most importantly, we want them to feel connected—to their teachers, their friends, their school, and their Jewish community.”
Children in the preschool program gain a strong sense of identity and belonging rooted in Jewish experiences.
“We introduce Judaism in ways that are joyful and meaningful to young children—through songs, stories, holidays, Shabbat, Hebrew and everyday acts of kindness,” Galante says. “In this way, children experience Judaism rather than simply learning about it. We want their earliest Jewish memories to be filled with happiness, warmth and a sense of community.”
At Soille, children experience Judaism not as an occasional activity, but as a joyful and natural way of living.
“Students pray, learn Torah, speak Hebrew, celebrate, ask questions, struggle with ideas, perform acts of kindness and grow within a community,” says Rabbi Geiger. “That lived experience gives them the confidence to enter the wider world without leaving their Jewish identity behind.”
Rich Curriculum
For the 2026-27 school year, elementary classrooms will implement Wit & Wisdom, a literacy curriculum that asks students to think deeply about literature, wrestle with complex ideas, support their thinking with evidence and learn how to engage thoughtfully with other people’s ideas. Eventually, these students will put these skills to use by participating in powerful Socratic seminars, according to Evanston-Atkinson.
“One of our goals is to illuminate the connections that already exist between General Studies and Judaic Studies—both in instructional best practice and in the organic overlaps of content, values, and messaging,” the Principal says.
Whether the instructional text in front of a student is the Torah, a great work of literature or a traditional academic text, the foundations of meaningful learning require many of the same skills. Soille students are encouraged to ask thoughtful questions, examine ideas closely, make connections, engage in meaningful discussion and ultimately understand how what they are learning applies beyond the classroom.
“Learning becomes valuable and enduring when we make the right instructional moves to help students carry it with them,” Evanston-Atkinson adds.
Lifelong Connection
Board President and Soille San Diego Alumni Yigal Adato recalls his years at the school as a student fondly, and credits the education he received with his strong sense of self today.
“Soille gave me much more than a strong education, it gave me conviction” Adato says. “My Judaism is strong, I know exactly who I am, and I have never had to question where I belong. Now, to come back as board president and help shape the school for the next generation is incredibly meaningful. I want our children to leave Soille with that same confidence, deeply rooted in who they are and prepared to lead.”
Board members are tasked with supporting the Soille team to be able to offer exceptional secular academics, a powerful Judaic education, outstanding teachers, strong enrollment and a school culture that develops confident, kind, capable young people. With the new leadership team in place, Adato says he sees tremendous opportunity for growth at the school.
“Our biggest opportunity is to create a school culture where parents never feel they have to choose between an exceptional secular education and an exceptional Jewish education,” he says.
It’s a sentiment echoed by Rabbi Geiger, who says the relationship between Torah, Jewish education and academic excellence as different expressions of the same responsibility.
Torah learning teaches children to examine language carefully, ask questions, consider multiple interpretations, defend an idea, listen to another perspective and continue struggling with something they do not yet understand. At the same time, excellence in mathematics, literacy, science, technology, history, and the arts prepares children to understand and contribute to the world.
“Academic excellence is not only about scores or future opportunities, important as those may be,” Rabbi Geiger says. “It is about teaching children to think deeply, work responsibly, and use their abilities well.”
At Soille, a Jewish day school education is not simply a secular education with Jewish subjects added to the schedule. It shapes the environment in which a child develops their identity, values, friendships, habits, and understanding of the world.
“We take seriously the responsibility to educate the whole child,” Rabbi Geiger says. “We want children to be challenged academically, supported when they struggle, and recognized for their individual strengths. At the same time, we want them to experience the warmth of Jewish community and the beauty and joy of Torah.”
To learn more about Soille San Diego Hebrew Day School, visit hebrewday.org.
Comments