40 Under 40: Harrison Bleiberg

Many people become teachers in hope to give back for the teachers they themselves admired. Harrison Bleiberg has paid this forward not to just his students, but to his fellow teachers as well.

Bleiberg has been a lifelong lover of technology and programing, but “didn’t follow that route,” instead becoming a teacher. But that love of technology led him to create something incredible.

“I decided to create a program that would procedurally generate Hebrew reading worksheets,” said Bleiberg, who noted that traditional ai-generative worksheets did not work very well with Hebrew.

This small project later grew into Ivritsuite, a set of tools for Hebrew teachers to help efficiently and easily teach the next generation.

“It’s very important to me that I never charge for it. I’m not trying to make any money off of it, because I’ve been in the position of being a teacher, frantically googling 20 minutes before a class for free resources – and I want to be that for someone else.”

Since then, he’s worked on other projects, including a Hebrew fontmaker, a math worksheet generator called Mathsheet.io, and a Torah trope tool using Sefaria’s Open API.

“Throughout my career in Jewish education, my goal has been to break down barriers. No one should be shut out of Jewish learning or Jewish life because of a lack of funds or because they don’t fit into a neat box.”

This focus on inclusivity has spread to his other engagements as well, like serving on the board of SOJOURN.

“I think it’s a shame when people do not feel supported by their faith communities, and I wanted to be a part of making people feel welcome.”

He still serves as the full-time Hebrew and Judaics at The Alfred & Adele Davis Academy, where he was actively working while he earned his M.S. in Jewish education from Yeshiva University’s Azrieli Graduate School. He is currently pursuing a doctorate in Early Childhood Education Leadership at American Jewish University.

He mentioned his thankfulness to all of his teachers and family, especially his wife, Emily.