Rabbi David Walk

Rabbi David Walk of Stamford is among 44 North American recipients of the 2011 Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.
Founded in 2000 by The Harold Grinspoon Foundation of Springfield, Mass., and joined two years later by The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life in New York, the award has been presented to 600 Jewish educators across North America. The award, administered by Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA), recognizes those professionals whose work enhances the engagement of their students and elevates the visibility of Jewish education.
Born in Malden, Mass., Rabbi Walk graduated from Yeshiva College. He moved to Israel in 1983, where he served in the Israel Defense Forces and was ordained at Yeshivat HaMivtar in Efrat, Israel, where he also taught. Before coming to Stamford, he served as regional director of National Conference of Synagogue Youth (NCSY) in New Jersey and Jewish Agency shaliach to NCSY Southern Region, as well as instructor at Manhattan Hebrew High School in Riverdale, N.Y. and Hebrew Academy of Atlantic County in Margate, N.J. He has also taught at the Hebrew High School of Atlantic City and Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem.
A Stamford resident, he currently serves as director of education at Congregation Agudath Sholom in Stamford. He has taught for a decade at Bi-Cultural Day School in Stamford, where he was honored this year at the school’s 55th-anniversary  celebration with the Jane Shoztic Memorial Award.
He has also been an instructor for the last eight years at the community supplemental Hebrew high school Kulanu: Benson Zinbarg Jewish Education for Teens, a program of United Jewish Federation of Greater Stamford, New Canaan and Darien.
Walk was nominated for the award by Kulanu director Patty Goldstick. “Our school attracts students from a variety of backgrounds, beliefs, and communities in several different towns,” Goldstick says. “Rabbi Walk is an incredibly inspiring and gifted teacher who is able to engage teens with his passion, humor, and love of Judaism. It is truly a privilege to work with him.”
On courses ranging from Jews and sports to Kabbalah to Jewish humor, Walk consistently receives the most positive evaluations from his students, Goldstick says. “He has a following who will study whatever he teaches because they so enjoy learning with him,” she says. “I always look forward to sitting in on his classes and watching how he responds to the students’ questions and concerns of the week. Parents tell me how he has touched the lives of their teens. Graduates of Kulanu come back to visit him and ask about him. He is so deserving of this award because he no doubt makes a lasting impact on so many lives.”
Each awardee receives a $1,000 cash gift from a local funder or organization within their home community, highlighting the local commitment to Jewish education. Another $1,000 professional-development stipend is awarded by The Harold Grinspoon Foundation and The Steinhardt Foundation for Jewish Life, providing opportunities to further improve each educator’s pedagogical practice.
“Teachers are the core of Jewish education, and it is crucially important that they are recognized for their dedicated work and encouraged to further their professional learning,” says JESNA president, Don Sylvan, “JESNA is proud to work with our partners to enable a strong Jewish educational future through these awards.”