The National Conference of Yeshiva Principals (NCYP) of Torah Umesorah (TU) is one of the divisions of the multi-faceted umbrella organization serving the interests of Jewish education in North America and beyond. TU’s training and mentoring programs, its teacher centers, placement services, publications, professional development, community development and much more fuel the chinuch fire for as many as 760 Torah schools across the continent.

One of the organization’s most effective resources is the NCYP. The conference’s rank and file consist of hundreds of member principals across North America who turn to the NCYP for assistance and advice when issues arise and who see themselves as connected to a large, professional support group.

At the head of the group is the NCYP board— essentially a think tank comprising a number of veteran principals—most from the greater New York vicinity—who meet periodically throughout the school year to mull over the premier chinuch issues of the day. The group now has nearly 20 individuals, including a number of new additions to its ranks, but the number is growing.

(Of special note is the addition, almost a decade ago, of the women’s division of the NCYP by the late Chaya Newman whose vision breathed life and charted the course for the initiative. The current head of the NCYP women’s division is R. Zimmerman.)

Among the new members of the NCYP are Rabbi Daniel Price, head of school at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey in River Edge; and Rabbi Asher Yablok, head of school at Torah Academy of Bergen County in Teaneck, New Jersey.

What emerges from NCYP’s board meetings often helps form directives and policies for the future endeavors of the parent organization—and all from behind the scenes. These meetings provide a vital forum for principals to network, to benefit from the sharing of both challenges and techniques with which to deal with them. The primary objective of the NCYP, however, is not geared for the participants themselves but rather for the benefit of the broader TU family.

One of the planned innovations is the possible set-up of a mentoring system whereby novice principals might obtain guidance from veterans via the NCYP. Another very active aspect of the NCYP is the system of networking conducted through email. Menahalim send questions to Rabbi Zev Meisels, currently principal in the Dallas Torah Day School, the head of this networking project, who relays them to hundreds of participants. Responses are then submitted and circulated. This provides what can only be referred to as “pilpul chaveirim,” a crucial tool for the acquisition of knowledge.

The NCYP was first established in the 1950s, and by the mid 1970s Rabbi Moshe Possick was heading it. The director for the past decade is Rabbi Shea Ryback, who also heads the men’s division of the Lakewood TU Teacher Center and is the coordinator for numerous TU events and gatherings, such as the national convention.

Rabbi Mordechai Besser, veteran menahel, a long-time member of the NCYP and the most recent addition to the executive staff of TU, avers, “The scope that is offered by the beautiful diversity represented in the NCYP allows for a wealth of perspectives in coming up with solutions that are not only based on Torah, but also shaveh l’chol nefesh, of universal appeal.”