“Shaker is unique in the sense that it is positioned to tackle some of the things
that many districts struggle with,” he says.
The Glasners settled in the Mercer neighborhood, where they have made a
home with their three young children: Eldad, 6, Noah, 5, and Hannah, 2. Unlike
Brooklyn, there’s space in the yard to play baseball with the kids, and Glasner, who
once ran the New York Marathon, can jog or ride his bike on tree-lined streets past
tranquil lakes. Elana teaches middle school math at Fuchs Mizrachi, a Jewish day
school on Shaker Boulevard.
Glasner’s devotion to family and faith are almost interchangeable. Raised in a
conservative synagogue, Glasner is a founding executive committee member of the
Cleveland Partnership Minyan, a progressive orthodox minyan that meets monthly at
Fairmount Temple in Beachwood. Rabbi Joshua L. Caruso says Glasner was the one
who reached out to his temple to form the partnership. He says Glasner has helped
forge connections with the temple’s weekly Library Minyan, and both minyans share in
food and drink festivities after services.
“David has been a first-class ‘mensch’ in every interaction,” says Caruso, who had
a son graduate from Shaker Heights High School and a daughter there this year. “What
has been really beautiful is that a Reform synagogue and an Orthodox minyan can
share a space out of mutual regard for respective practices. Through my interactions
with David he has demonstrated what mutual cooperation and respect can look
like even when there may be differences in outlook and practice. Everyone can fit
underneath the same tent.”
48 SUMMER 2019 | WWW.SHAKER.LIFE
When fire struck
Fernway Elementary
School, Glasner
led the effort to
successfully relocate
more than 300
students and their
teachers into other
District classrooms.
/WWW.SHAKER.LIFE