Our Team
Yoeli Schwartz : Founder/Finance/Fundraiser
Yoeli was born and raised in Eretz Yisroel. Now lives with his family in Golders Green, is a governor at Peninim school and works in the food-catering industry at Reichs. Yoeli is well known for his generous heart & optimism which has been so instrumental in founding Legadel.
Yitzi Lerner : HR/General
Yitzy was born and grew up in the Golders Green Community. Works in property management and has been involved with special needs for over 20 years. Is on the Kisharon board of governors, and is involved in a number of other communal projects. Yitzi has a specialty in facilitating good networking and is happy to do what he can for Legadel in order to make a difference for children across the community
Shani Lisser : Education
Shani was brought up in Stamford Hill and educated in Lubavitch Primary and Secondary school. After attending Old Gateshead Seminary she married Mr Moishe Lisser and settled in Golders Green. After many years in the Shaitel industry Shani joined her husband in his business, Hermolis.
Shani’s passion is helping ‘at risk’ children and their families rehabilitate and has to date fostered many children whilst raising her own. She has nurtured the children and their parents through the process and is proud of the change she sees thereafter. Shani is also a member of the Chevra Kadisha, birth support coach and a Co-founder of Chana.
Shani has joined the Legadel trustee team as a mentor for parents who are struggling to function as they bring up their children. In instances where families are noted to need input themselves Shani will offer support and assistance.
Reb Aron Denderowitz : Education
Rabbi Denderowitz is a veteran educator who has been teaching in the Jewish North West London community for over 40 years. Is a master story-teller and has had an active role in community organizations such as Pirchim & Yeshivas Masmidim. He is particularly passionate about supporting children in mainstream classrooms that are failing in their education, as a result of learning difficulties, emotional issues or a difficult family background. Over the years, he has mentored many young people who were at risk of falling out of the system, often keeping up with them long beyond their school years and guiding them through work and marriage
Faigy Gross : Education
Faigy is a co-founder of Legadel who had a vision to create an organisation where every child is given the best opportunities to succeed in life.
As a Hebrew reading specialist who has worked in schools in the UK and abroad, Faigy understood the necessity of providing children with short term interventions to enable them to keep up with the mainstream classroom levels.
Through her wide spread experience in this field, Faigy has developed a strong passion to ensure there is no stigmatism in relation to receiving therapy and that every child going through the system receives a happy and pleasant school experience.
Jodi Kelly
Jodi Kelly has many years’ experience and knowledge of speech, language and literacy therapy and, after qualifying in The Spalding Method® in 2005, joined the Spellit Practice, where she received additional training from Vicki Selwyn-Barnett. Jodi’s role within the Spellit Practice is in the capacity of Specialist Literacy Practitioner where, in addition to successfully teaching The Spalding Method®, she uses a specialist handwriting scheme. She has been instrumental in developing Spellit’s unique Four-Phase Literacy Program in conjunction with Vicki Selwyn-Barnett. As the Specialist Literacy Practitioner for the Spellit Practice, Jodi has developed excellent working relationships with Special Educational Needs Co-ordinators and attends a number of local schools on a regular basis.
By offering individual assessment and treatment programs, Jodi has achieved excellent results (with a high referral rate) in the remediation of children with literacy difficulties and dyslexia, particularly involving handwriting development, reading fluency, sentence structure, creative narrative and spelling. Jodi is committed to continued professional development through training courses and special needs conferences and to helping children with a wide range of literacy issues.
Faigy Gross
Faigy is a Hebrew reading specialist teacher. She holds a diploma from the Advanced Study Centre Jerusalem in “Reading methods”, as well as being trained and mentored by Nava Rozin in assessing and reading remediation for mild/moderate learning difficulties.
Faigy is committed to constant professional development through training courses in the UK and abroad (USA and Israel). She works mainly with children in the primary school ages that are having difficulty catching on to the reading taught in the main stream class.
Faigy has worked in Jerusalem and London in various schools and on a private basis. Faigy has setup Hebrew reading support programs in schools, thereby training and mentoring other teachers.
Rabbi Dr David Roth
As a senior school teacher, David encountered a range of adolescents whose educational needs were not adequately met or identified in their early years at school. David decided to further develop his knowledge and skills in this area and enrolled and trained as an Educational Psychologist with the University of East London and with the Educational Psychology team at Norwood/Binoh Children Services.
Since March 2011, he has been working independently administering psychological assessments covering cognitive, behavioural, social and emotional aspects of development as well as multi-agency work with other professionals and working with school staff & parents in a consultative capacity.
David has a BSc. (Hons.) in Psychology from the Open University and holds a Professional Doctorate in Child and Educational Psychology and is registered with the Health Care Professions Council & chartered with the British Psychological Society.
David feels privileged to be part of this wonderful community initiative and work collaboratively with Legadel’s multi-professional team.
Rivka Steinberg: EHCP Liaison officer
Rivka spent many years working in scientific research, working in both Imperial College and UCL. Her interest in improving the quality of education and health services for children with SEND, developed when her eldest daughter was diagnosed with a physical disability in 2005 and with it the requirement to become an advocate for all her needs. She trained with IPSEA (Independent provider of SEND legal advice) and worked as an Advice Line volunteer developing a good knowledge of the SEND legislation and has used her broad knowledge and skills gained over many years to advise parents and Barnet local authority on SEND matters. She facilitated the development of the Barnet Parent Carer Forum, (set up to help improve services for children and young people with SEND), moving it from a small group to a voluntary organisation that is now widely recognised and respected across Barnet services and other voluntary organisations. She has also worked in both primary and secondary schools to gain an inside view of the reality of SEND provision both within the mainstream and specialist provision.
Her personal and professional experiences have seeded a desire and passion to share the knowledge acquired in her own journey and to work closely with leadership to support Jewish schools and enable all children and young people to achieve best educational outcomes. She believes the end goal for all children is to gain the appropriate independence when they leave school and to lead a high quality of life regardless of their disability.