Temima Keeps FOCUS, Adds Asst. Principal

By Tova Norman

This year at Temima, the Richard and Jean Katz High School for Girls, students will meet a new assistant principal, Shira Rubin.

With over 10 years of administrative experience, Rubin will supervise general studies teachers, expand blended learning and help steadily increase technology use in the classroom.

Temima’s general studies curriculum expands and adapts regularly to give students as many educational opportunities as possible.

After the pilot year last year, Temima once again received funding from the Jewish Women’s Fund of Atlanta for a career and self-discovery curriculum called FOCUS (Finding Occupations, Careers, Universities, Success) to help the graduates be better prepared for life after high school.

While the general studies program continues to advance to meet student needs, it is the Torah education that sets Temima students apart.

“They have to be prepared in every way as well as every other American teenager, but there is this added dimension,” Principal Miriam Feldman said. “They have to focus on continuing to carry Judaism into the future. … Without them it will not be inculcated into the next generation.”

A Temima student is expected to focus not only on her studies, but also on her life purpose as a Jewish woman.

“She has to do everything everyone else does and much, much more,” Feldman said. “Her life has to be focused on meaning.”