Jen Lev
“School was my happy place as a child, as hard as I had to work. I had the most incredible teachers. Camp and shul were huge, my life was a bubble. Everything felt so good so that even though I didn’t have this burning desire to be a teacher necessarily, I felt that if I could impart that love of being Jewish on anybody from a young age without it being forced, that was the driving force,” shares current Netivot Vice Principal and NESS Supervisor Jen Lev. Jen holds a degree in Jewish education (encouraged by her parents to pursue) as well as a masters degree in second language development and curriculum development. “I never, ever, ever looked back. My Hebrew was fantastic and I was a grades 3-4 Hebrew teacher for a million years.”
“I’ve also had other careers; after 13 years of teaching I decided I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom. I hosted an event for Hebrew U at my home, and they needed a Toronto director, so I learned fundraising, planned events… they had phenomenal initiatives so it was very easy to connect and the community was very involved at the time. Then, situationally I had to go into a family business which then morphed into owning a business. So I owned a manufacturing company where I manufactured steel and fiberglass entrance doors. I learned so much, all kinds of things, eventually realizing that just wasn’t where I wanted to be… closed it… and at the same time was hired at Netivot : an ability to come back to doing what I loved most! I’ve been given a gift that did not feel like a gift at the time. The fact that I was out of the field while I was in the trenches with my own kids, and now I’m back at a different stage. I’m at a place in my career where I can be a bit more present.”
When asked what feels different about teaching again after years away, Jen replies, “Educational pedagogy is open to everybody now and it felt like before you had to dig deeper. So sometimes it’s more challenging but also sometimes more exciting because it keeps you on your toes; you have people bringing things to you that you may or may not have thought of before. You see kids in a different light, because you see more of them : the way they behave in school, parents share ; it’s a trifecta of school-home-student.
Jen has held different positions at Netivot. She says “the kids keep it fresh, every day is fresh. That’s the key; I work for kids! And that’s the most exciting part of the entire thing. Something that brings me tremendous joy is being able to work with students to teach them to advocate for themselves, being able to work with teachers to learn how to address students, how to work together as a group, how to listen to ideas, take feedback. The newness every day!!
“I think it’s really important that we share with our kids, that while you feel the pressure to decide what you want to do right away, and you have to know what you want to be when you grow up, things change. And change sometimes can be really, really scary, but so healthy and so good. And as parents, we have plans, and dreams and ambitions for our kids, but sometimes we have to let them lead. And remember that they’re exactly where they need to be at this moment.”
Jen is married to Ted Starkman, they are parents of 3 adult children “who get along so beautifully, so every now and then we can just sit back and say. Ok, we did it! We’re good!”
