The seeds of school-wide innovation are so often planted by our children, and Beit AI is no exception.  It was from conversations with and observations of our students that we first felt the seismic shift of AI, and it was from our students that we understood early on that we had two distinct choices when it came to generative AI: We could embrace it or we could resist it. Most schools, at the time, were doing the latter.

In the late sixteenth century, the Jewish community of Prague lived in an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear of persecution. According to legend, the community's leader, Rabbi Judah Loew — known as the Maharal — sought to protect his people by bringing a powerful human-like being into existence.

In his nonfiction book Everything is Tuberculosis, John Green argues that tuberculosis is not only a disease of the body, but a pervasive and often hidden force that has shaped the world we live in.

Every year, the High Holidays arrive as a kind of interruption — a pause built into the calendar that asks us to slow down before we speed up again. This year, I'm especially grateful for that interruption, because the conversation around AI in education and college admissions has moved fast, and speed is not always the same thing as clarity.

People often ask me why I became a teacher. Sure, I have the noble answers that I fall back on: “It’s inspiring to work with young people,” or “I want to have an impact on my community.” But the real reason I went into teaching is because I couldn’t imagine my life without a summer break to reset.