2024 Covenant Award Recipient
Rabbi Judd Kruger Levingston, Ph.D.
2024 Covenant Award Recipient
Rabbi Judd Kruger Levingston, Ph.D.
Director of Jewish Studies and Advisor to the Derech Eretz Honor Council, Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy,
Bryn Mawr, PA
Rabbi Judd Kruger Levingston, Ph.D. is the director of Jewish studies and advisor to the Derech Eretz honor council at the Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in Bryn Mawr, PA. In this role, Levingston supervises and mentors Jewish studies teachers and serves as a member of both the school’s senior administrative team and the department heads’ team. In addition, he oversees all Jewish life programming in the school for holidays, experiential education, community service, and Shabbaton programs.
As director of Jewish studies, Levingston developed a 6th through 12th grade Jewish studies curriculum to align with research about the 21st century skills students need and to emphasize moral education and character development. This curriculum includes medical and business ethics, Tanakh, Jewish history, theology, philosophy, and more.
Levingston is most well-known at Barrack for being the driving force behind the school’s derech eretz (“the way of the land”—acting decorously and with respect) values and culture. He also launched the Derech Eretz Honor Council—a group of elected grade representatives who serve as role models, and cultivate and promote the derech eretz values.
“In each of the settings in which Judd has served, he has brought his commitment to make students ‘good as well as smart,’” said Dr. Carol Ingall, Dr. Bernard Heller Professor Emerita of Jewish Education at The Jewish Theological Seminary, who nominated Levingston for the Award. “And I look forward to seeing how the establishment of an institute for moral leadership further deepens Judd’s already profound impact.”
“Life is filled with these rich, complex, and multifaceted moments where the mundane brushes up against the magical, and we experience so many things at once,” said Levingston, reflecting on the moment when he learned he’d been selected for a Covenant Award.
“I received news of this Award on Yom Ha’atzmaut, which made for a wonderful cap to an important day at school that mixed so many emotions, mimicking life itself. I am grateful to the Foundation, for the people who nominated me, and for all of my colleagues at Barrack, and also grateful to experience it all as I aim to model what it means to live a full life with all its beautiful complexity.”
