Press "Enter" to skip to content

Meet the New Teachers

Sivan Livnat

Ronit Ben-Amotz

From Israel to AJA, Hebrew teacher Morah Ronit Ben-Amotz traveled a long way to get where she is today. From the moment that she realized that she loved teaching, Morah Ronit described, “It’s not something specific. I discovered that [teaching] is the thing I want to do in life. I just love it.” Describing her excitement towards joining AJA staff, she noted, “I want to feel like a part of this community.”

Before teaching at AJA, Morah Ronit taught psychology in Israel after receiving her degree there.  In the U.S., she has taught Hebrew at the Epstein School at Chaya Mushka Children’s House. Speaking of her current experience at AJA, she explained how she “already met a lot of amazing people.” She expressed, “I hope to share my knowledge and my skills. I’m really happy to be here, and I really like my job.” 

Hana Hecht

Even at a young age, Mrs. Hana Hecht knew what she wanted to be when she grew up. “I’ve always wanted to be a teacher. Always,” she said. “I was little, and instead of playing house, I played school.” As she progressed through school, Mrs. Hecht was taught by one of the teachers who inspired her to pursue her career track. Her high school junior year history teacher “taught differently, he was exciting, everyone looked forward to his class … It was just so much fun.” Seeing how much he impacted her and her peers, Mrs. Hecht noted, “It was because of him that I wanted to teach history.”

During her undergraduate studies at William Patterson University, Mrs. Hecht double-majored in history and studio art and later received her Masters in Social Studies Education from Rutgers Graduate School of Education. After graduating, she and her husband moved to Richmond, Virginia, where she taught for 16 years in various public schools until she and her husband decided to move to Atlanta “to provide for [their] children a top-rated Jewish education.”

Mrs. Hecht decided to transition from teaching at a public school to a private school for a myriad of reasons, the main one being the difficulty taking time off during Jewish holidays and other cultural differences she experienced in public schools. “I felt comfortable in that I knew what I was doing, and I absolutely love teaching anybody,” she clarified, “but I still felt a little bit like an outsider because the culture of the school didn’t match my own. And so when we moved down here [and] an opportunity came up to teach at AJA, I jumped at it because this is my community. This is my culture. This is who I am.”

Rebecca Winter

While teaching might not be Dr. Rebecca Winter’s primary career, it definitely is one she has “always loved.” After studying at York University for her undergraduate and graduate school, Dr. Winter moved from Toronto to Atlanta to complete her doctorate in clinical neuropsychology at Georgia State University. She has taught at multiple schools before AJA, including an ulpana (a girls-only Jewish school)  in Toronto, Yeshivat Frisch in New Jersey, and college statistics courses. 

“I have always loved teaching, always loved interacting with students in any way,” Dr. Winter explained. “AJA seemed like a really good fit with the school’s strong emphasis on Torah U’Madda and Eretz Yisrael — from a hashkafa perspective it’s right up [my] alley,” she explained. “I loved teaching within the community, getting to know people.”

As a Tanach teacher, Dr. Winter described how “even though I’ve already learned a lot of these books before, I always come away with something new.” She explained how her students help her glean “new insights and perspectives.” Dr. Winter emphasized, “Even though this is not my primary career… it certainly is one of my most favorite things to do.”

Be First to Comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *