Rav Teitz Mesivta Academy, commonly known as RTMA or JEC High School, is a Yeshiva high school located in Elizabeth, New Jersey and a branch of the Jewish Educational Center. Founded in 1955 by Rabbi Pinchas Mordechai Teitz, RTMA adheres to the tenets and practices of Orthodox Judaism. It is one of the country's earliest and leading Modern Orthodox Yeshiva high schools. RTMA's dual curriculum offers courses in Torah studies, as well as college preparatory academics. Most of its students reside in the Orthodox Jewish communities of New Jersey and New York. The school has been accredited by the Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Secondary Schools since 2008 and is accredited until January 2024.
As of the 2019–20 school year, the school had an enrollment of 145 students and 26.1 classroom teachers (on an FTE basis), for a student–teacher ratio of 5.6:1. The school's student body was 100% White.
Mission
Guided by the principle of "Torah Im Derech Eretz," RTMA educates its students on the importance of actively engaging the modern world while remaining committed to Torah values. The pillars of its educational curriculum are centered on Limudei Kodesh and secular studies. The Limudei Kodesh curriculum consists of a broad range of courses ranging from shiurim on Nevi'im and contemporary Halacha to a Beis Midrash program with an intensive focus on Gemara. With regard to secular studies, the overarching goal is to provide an education that thoroughly prepares students for studies on the college level and beyond.
History
The Jewish Educational Center was the keystone of Rabbi Pinchas Mordechai Teitz's life mission to create a community that would synthesize Judaism and modernity. Following his death in December 1995, Rabbi Teitz's obituary in The New York Times outlined his legacy and, by extension, the history of RTMA:Rabbi Pinchas Mordechai Teitz was a scion of a line of rabbis stretching back centuries. He was born in Latvia and trained in rabbinical seminaries in Lithuania. He arrived in the United States in 1933 for what he thought would be a yearlong lecture tour. Instead, he stayed to marry Bessie Preil, daughter of Rabbi Elozor Mayer Preil, the rabbi of what was then a small Orthodox community in Elizabeth. He succeeded his father-in-law in the rabbinate upon Rabbi Preil's death in the 1930s. Since then, the community, founded in 1881, has grown to some 5,000 people affiliated with five synagogues under one united rabbinate. Rabbi Teitz established that rabbinate and the family tradition is upheld by his son, Rabbi Elazar Mayer Teitz, who has been his associate since 1958. The Jewish Educational Center he founded [in 1941] made Elizabeth the fourth American city, after New York, Boston and Baltimore, to offer a full-range Jewish and secular education. It consists of the elementary Yeshiva, along with Mesivta Academy, a high school for boys, and Bruriah High School for girls. Together, they have more than 900 students. When he founded the Jewish Educational Center, the preamble of its bylaws promised that it would become something for Jewish communities throughout the United States to emulate. Its success was recognized by the Government of Israel in 1968, when it singled out Elizabeth as a model Jewish community and presented it with a medal.Since the obituary was published, the Jewish Educational Center has continued to attract approximately 900 students per year, approximately 200 of which attend RTMA. The Jewish community that Rabbi Teitz established in Elizabeth continues to flourish and many of its members send their children to Jewish Educational Center schools.
Academics
Secular studies curriculum
Core requirements
English: 8 semesters, comprising courses such as Language Usage, Composition, Survey of American Literature, Survey of English Literature, Survey of Work Literature Mathematics: 8 semesters, comprising courses such as Algebra I, Algebra II, Geometry, Precalculus, Calculus, Business Math Social Studies: 6 semesters, comprising courses such as Global Studies/World History, U.S. History I (Colonial Period through the Civil War), U.S. History II (Civil War through current affairs) Sciences: 6 semesters, comprising courses such as Biology, Physical Science, Chemistry, Physics and/or Psychology Language: 6 semesters of either Hebrew or Spanish Jewish History: 2 semesters, courses cover the history of the Jews from Medieval Times through the development of the modern state of Israel