Mrs. Rich is studying for a master’s degree in human genetics.
New Jewish bioethics teacher will channel inspiration from her high school days
Bringing a love of both science and Judaism to Shalhevet, Mrs. Bracha Rich has joined the Judiac Studies faculty and will teach a first-ever Jewish Bioethics class.
The class will be specifically for 12th-graders, and will have a strong emphasis on genetics.
“I have always been in sciences and now I’m moving a little bit to bioethics which is just a different take on science, but I have loved science my whole life,” said Mrs. Rich.
Born in Chicago and raised in Toronto, Mrs. Rich has been living in Los Angeles for almost nine years.
She has been a teacher for seven years, most recently at YULA Girls High School, where she taught STEM, Biology, Chemistry, Engineering, and Earth Sciences.
Mrs. Rich said that her passion for science and teaching came from one of her own high school teachers, Dr. Peter Salmon at Tiferes Bais Yaakov in Toronto.
“I loved learning from him,” she said. “He inspired me. And I wanted to teach in the Jewish community and give back science education the way I got it — and specifically, instil a love of science and learning to my students, just like I got when I was in school.”
Besides science and teaching, Mrs. Rich enjoys an array of different hobbies including knitting, pottery, design and traveling. She has visited five out of the seven continents; North America, Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe.
Mrs. Rich is currently working on a master’s degree in human genetics and genetic counseling at Keck Graduate Institute at the Claremont Colleges.
She looks forward to accomplishing many things this upcoming school year.
“My biggest thing will be to, first of all, make amazing relationships with the students at Shalhevet,” she said, “and get to know the school, this amazing community.”
“But from a learning side, just giving them an appreciation for kind of complex biological or bioethical topics — understanding how halacha and ethics and legalities and science kind of all come together.
“And then understanding that complexity and that nuance, and to get everyone excited about science. Because that’s my goal always — to get everyone excited about learning.”