Pentecostal Teacher Becomes Head Administrator at Yavneh Academy in Dallas, Texas

November 5, 1999

Source: The San Diego Union-Tribune

On November 5, 1999, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported that Donald Ray O'Quinn, an Irish-American Pentecostal physics teacher, was chosen to become head administrator of Dallas' only Jewish high school, Yavneh Academy, in March 1999. O'Quinn was chosen for his credentials and for his reputation as an inspiring teacher. Rabbi Michael Cytrin helps O'Quinn to run the Academy and oversees Yavneh's classes in Jewish faith, history, and law. Cytrin stated: "I can lead him [O'Quinn] through the labyrinth of the Jewish world, and I just let him do what he does best in running the school." Classes at Yavneh Academy are taught in the centrist Orthodox tradition, though the school is open to Jewish students of all backgrounds. The school is co-ed, but students are segregated by gender for religious classes. O'Quinn remarks that he has not felt constrained as a Christian leading a Jewish school: "It's enhanced my understanding of my own beliefs and teachings."