ט׳ אדר ה׳תשפ״ו | February 25, 2026
Is the Default Good Enough for Our Girls?
Every parent wants their daughter to thrive. The question is what kind of high school environment actually makes that happen.
Rivky has been a shlucha in a small Midwestern town for twelve years. She and her husband have built something real there: a Chabad house, a community, a life. Their kids have grown up knowing everyone on the block, spending Shabbos around a table full of guests, watching their parents pour themselves into their mission.
And now her oldest daughter is finishing eighth grade.
There’s no Chabad high school in their town. There never will be. So Rivky does what shluchim parents everywhere do. She opens her laptop late one night, pulls up a list of schools, and starts asking around. She wants a place where her daughter will grow, where the learning is real, and the warmth is genuine, where the adults actually know her child.
She wants intentional chinuch. She just needs to find it.
It was a decision Chana Hazan, Shlucha in Milan, had a hard time making. “CGHS Baltimore was really fresh when we decided to send our daughter. It was a gamble. But it turned out to be amazing and beautiful. We’re very happy, we know we made the right choice.”
For families on shlichus, or in any smaller community without a local Chabad high school, this search is one of the most significant moments in raising a frum daughter. The school you choose shapes the friendships she’ll make, the Yiddishkeit she’ll absorb, the person she’ll become. It deserves real thought, real research, and a real answer.
Everything Here Is Intentional
At CGHS Baltimore, nothing about a girl’s high school experience is left to chance. The learning, the atmosphere, the daily rhythm, the way teachers show up: all of it is constantly refined.
“They really evaluate and reevaluate what students need throughout the year,” says teacher and machaneches Chaya Sarah Friedman. “What’s needed for this group of girls, for this moment. They truly take in what the girls and parents say and implement it.”
When parents brought feedback, things changed. When students needed something different, the school responded. “Because they implement what we actually want to see,” says parent Chana Hazan, “chinuch becomes intentional. It’s thought out.”
Every Girl Is Known
CGHS operates with a small cohort, so every teacher knows every girl.
“They have us in mind when we do things,” says Sara Katzenelenbogen, a current student. “They know what we’d want, because they know each of us.”
For Chaya Sarah Friedman, that closeness is the heart of the work. “It’s in the small moments like the good mornings, speaking to a girl after class, and making it comfortable for them to approach us.” She’s present beyond the classroom, in extracurriculars and after-school moments, there for the girls in every sense.
“No one gets lost here,” Sara says simply.
Chassidishe Warmth, Woven Into Every Day
Farbrengens happen regularly, in and out of school. Every Yom Tov has its own program. Shabbos is meaningful, with meals hosted in the homes of local shluchim families. The school has production, shabbatons, trips, chesed, Bnos Chabad, art: a full, rich high school experience shaped by a chassidishe lens.
Principal Miri Levin puts it simply: “The girls expressed how important it was to have a production. They didn’t want to miss out just because it’s a smaller school. And they shouldn’t.”
“There’s a real nice balance,” says Chaya Sara Friedman. “Learning structure, chassidishe warmth, atmosphere. It all comes together.”
Parent Esty Ciment says her daughter found exactly that. “The staff love the girls and they feel it. They’re in it for the real deal.”
A Dorm That Feels Like Home
For boarding students, CGHS maintains a newly renovated dorm, warm and beautifully set up, with a dorm mother and counselors who are genuinely present in the girls’ daily lives.
“It’s cozy and personalized,” says Esty Ciment. “The dorm counselors have been like a big sister.” Chana Hazan adds: “Girls from the class come to the dorm just to hang out, because it became that kind of place.”
Shabbos meals with local shluchim families bring girls into the heart of the community. And for parents far from home, there’s something deeply reassuring about knowing their daughter is held, personally and warmly, by the people around her.
“One time my daughter wasn’t feeling well,” says Esty Ciment, “and they took care of her like their own child.”
Baltimore: A Real Community, Close to New York
CGHS sits within an established, vibrant Jewish community in Baltimore, with the full Chabad infrastructure a family needs. And Baltimore’s proximity to New York makes the distance convenient for out-of-town families.
Registration Is Open for Next Year
Want to see the school for yourself? Book a virtual open house and meet the staff, ask your questions, and get a real feel for what CGHS is about.
CGHS Baltimore is now accepting applications for the upcoming school year. Spaces are limited.
Visit: www.cghsbaltimore.com
WhatsApp/Call: 443-825-9889
Email: [email protected]
Cheder Chabad Girls School and CGHS Baltimore are also presenting their annual production, Re:connect, on Tuesday, March 17 at the Baltimore Museum of Art. Doors open at 5:30 PM, show begins at 6:00 PM. Tickets at cghsbaltimore.com/production.
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