Faculty Focus on Daniel Goldman: Fulfilling a Childhood Dream

Daniel Goldman, BT high school’s visual arts instructor, is living his dream…literally.

Mr. Goldman spent seven and a half years as a Senior Industrial Designer and Project Manager in Furniture Production at Donghia Furniture, a New York-based manufacturer of high-end upholstery and case-pieces. At Donghia, Mr. Goldman applied to the world of furniture design the fine arts concepts he learned while earning his degree in Industrial Design from the prestigious Pratt Institute. But towards the end of his career there, Daniel found himself focusing more on the business end of things, rather than the creative process that he loved, and lost his passion for his work.

And that’s when he remembered his childhood dream—teaching.

While contemplating his next career step, he remembered a dream he had in the second grade, where he was explaining to a group of students how water empties down the bathtub drain. Daniel shared that dream with a job counselor. “The counselor explained that a dream one remembers from his or her youth is very portentous and can point the way to future fulfillment. Eventually, it became clear that teaching art and making art were to combine for a new career for me.”

That dream came true at a Beth Tfiloh school open house, which he and his wife attended when applying to send their son to Kindergarten. That’s where Daniel met BT’s Director of Education, Mrs. Zipora Schorr, who saw his potential as a teacher.

Daniel was intrigued by BT’s unique educational approach. “Rather than molding students to conform to a certain ideal, Beth Tfiloh invites the student, as well as members of his or her family, to become active participants in what Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz calls the Jewish family,” he remarks.

He was also impressed with both the depth and breadth of BT’s curriculum, which exposes students to the world beyond school. Especially remarkable to him was BT’s focus on the creative arts. “Music and theater are not merely courses, but institutions.”

It was in the combination of these facets that Daniel recognized the opportunity to offer BT’s students his broad range of knowledge, skills and talents. Since then, he has worked to bring the visual arts to the forefront —to challenge students to produce quality work, and to show their work widely and regularly.

Mr. Goldman admires his students’ drive to learn and to succeed, and he aims to further their personal goals by encouraging their self-expression through art. “BT has a talented student body and we must celebrate their creative success, just as we do their academic success.”