Central welcomes new head of school, CB Neugroschl

By Michael Orbach

Chaya Batya Neugroschl has joined Central, the Yeshiva University High School for Girls, as head of school.

Neugroschl, whose Czech name is pronounced like the town of New Rochelle with a ‘g’ in the middle, is well aware of the challenges students will face in pronouncing her name.

“The day I came to visit, I heard some of the kids practicing,” Neugroschl laughed on Tuesday afternoon, the week before school began. “Obviously that’s to be expected in the very beginning; I’ve been doing it for many years,” adding, that “Spelling it never happens that easily on the first try.”

Prior to joining Central, Neugroschl served as assistant principal and co-director of general studies at SAR High School in Riverdale. Before that she was director of admissions at Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls in Teaneck, N.J., where she also taught Jewish history and philosophy.

Neugroschl grew up in the Lubavitch community in Crown Heights, which she called a wonderful experience and where she gained a “deep appreciation for what it means to responsible for the destiny of the Jewish people.” But she knew a life in Chabad wasn’t quite right for her. Instead of traveling to the premier Lubavitch girls’ seminary in Australia, Neugroschl opted to learn at the Michlalah seminary in Israel.

“I really needed to learn much more,” she said about her decision. “My Jewish education had not reached the place that I would be comfortable with and have enough depth in order to live the kind of life I wanted. I went to Israel, really striking out on my own, and I stayed in Michlalah because I knew it had very hands-on learning. I spent a good portion of the time recognizing what I didn’t know.”

From Michlalah, Neugroschl went on to graduate from Yeshiva University’s Stern College for Women, attain a Masters degree in Medieval Jewish History at YU’s Bernard Revel Graduate School and spend two semesters at Harvard. “It was very clear that those were the formative experiences in shaping the rest of my life - shaping my commitment in education, in yahadus, hashkafa and helping me build a new foundation in the YU community and the Modern Orthodox one,” said Neugroschl.

The focus that she aims to bring to Central is one she has had throughout her career. “I think that high school is one of the most transformative opportunities kids have,” Neugroschl explained. “They’re learning more about themselves than people recognize and even though high school programs are traditionally built around subjects, ultimately the real goal is to help our students help themselves and understand what they think and what their contributions will be.”

Under her leadership, students at Central will continue to perform original research in scientific laboratories around New York; others will spend six weeks on the Ulpana Israel Exchange with the “finest yeshiva high school” in Israel. The Torah U’Mada Scholars Circle, with its intensive study of Jewish and Western texts, will continue.

“The orientation is ... to help our students learn to think ‘Jewish’ - to think about things in an integrated way by giving them the strength of what Torah U’mada offers: a sense of personal integrity, not two bifurcated domains that people learn to live with,” Neugroschl explained. “One of the core values of YU and Central is understanding that Torah U’mada is l’chatchilah [a preferred, more stringent approach]. We embrace the great opportunities we have in the world.”