An Advocate for a Better World
“At Touro, we create advocates for social justice and community activism. We live by the motto that one person really can make a difference.”
My hope for our students is that they see the beauty and the depth and the sophistication of Judaism. I'm very excited about helping children discover themselves, while they connect and engage to Jewish values and to our people. Each child and each person is different.
We therefore, need to create different portals, different opportunities, different windows of engagement, so students who go through this school could connect with Judaism in a way that is meaningful to him or her. So we can no longer think about our curriculum as a rollover, conveyor belt, pass along, kick the ball down the road curriculum.
It has to be innovative enough to adapt to some of the changes that are taking place in a broader society. If we can create students that graduate from day school, a persona that they're going to engage the world around them, at the same time project an inner goodness, which is driven and informed by the best core values of Judaism, we have been successful in our mission. They have so much goodness that lies ahead of them.
Abandoned by his father when he was a small child, Dr. Steven Huberman was raised by his disabled mother for most of his life. “If it wasn’t for my guidance counselor and social worker, I never would have made it,” he says.
Now, the successful product of the social work system is educating the next generation of social workers. As founding dean of Touro College Graduate School of Social Work since its inception in 2006, Dr. Huberman is a passionate advocate for social justice.
“In Hebrew, we call this Tikkun Olam, perfecting the world. We may not be able to complete the task, but—as it says in the Talmud—we’re not relieved from trying.”
And try he does. When he grew up in the 60s, it was common to rally in the streets in support of civil rights. Now, in 2015, he says he wants to bring that sense of social justice back. “I want to create good troublemakers,” he says. “Troublemakers for social justice, troublemakers for community activism. At Touro's Graduate School of Social Work, we focus on creating change agents—trying to empower others to improve lives.”
