Priority-1's Torah Academy

Priority-1 was founded in 1987 with the goal of developing improved methods to enhance the effectiveness of Jewish education and to address the needs of students being left behind in the main-stream Yeshiva system. A new generation of students brought along a new set of challenges. The Yeshiva system works to deal with many of the issues that come up, but there are too many students that don’t have the inspiration and appreciation for the benefits and positive experiences of living a life of Torah and Yiddishkeit. Innovative and practical methods were developed by Rabbi Shaya Cohen, in his experience as an educator, first as the founding principal of educational institutions in the San Fernando Valley, near Los Angeles, California and then expanded upon as the founder of Priority-1. This experience was coupled with a deep rooted mission to serve the Jewish community, ingrained during Rabbi Cohen’s years of tutelage under Rav Henoch Leibowitz Zt”l, the Rosh HaYeshiva of Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim.