Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Forward 50 2017

Kathy Manning

Jewish Educational Trailblazer

At a time when many Jewish organizations insist on going it alone, even though they struggle for money and members, what happened last year in the day school community defied the norm: Five well-established, distinct organizations representing diverse religious streams and approaches actually decided to meld into one. Key to this development was Kathy E. Manning, a veteran communal leader who became the founding chair of Prizmah: Center for Jewish Day Schools.

Manning, 60, was the first woman to chair the board of the Jewish Federations of North America. She initially turned down a request to join Prizmah; after serving, twice, as the chair of her children’s day school in Greensboro, North Carolina, Manning thought she had had enough.

But then, she wrote, “I realized that what was envisioned was something much bigger than I had imagined: an organization that can strengthen and enhance day schools across the country and across the spectrum.”

Prizmah hosted more than 1,000 people at a three-day conference in February and is expanding the programs and resources offered to its members.

Manning is an immigration lawyer and is active in the Greensboro arts community. As a college student, she was one of the founders of Harvard College’s first women’s a cappella group, an experience that resonates with her communal work today. As she once said: “Many of us love to sing solos, but there is something powerful about being part of a large group working together for a common purpose.”

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.