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Though he acknowledges the difficulty of replacing Rabbi Eli Lapa, the renowned principal at Shalom Torah Academy of Western Monmouth County, Rabbi Moshe Bak views his arrival as the beginning of a new era.

Bak takes the reigns of the school after Lapa recently concluded his 26-year tenure as the school’s principal.

“We are building on the past, but building a new future,” Bak said.

Shalom Torah Academy of Western Monmouth County, located in Morganville, serves infants through 8th grade and is one of the school’s two locations, the other in East Windsor.

Bak was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, where his father was principal of the local day school.

He attended Yeshiva Gedola Merkaz Hatorah Tiferes Mordechai in Montreal, where he received his B.A. in education and then received smicha from Rabbi Shlomo Altusky.

Bak subsequently began teaching 4th grade at the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County on Long Island and later was accepted as a senior leadership fellow at Torah UMesorah, a national network of Jewish day schools.

At Torah UMesorah, Bak became a teacher-trainer and worked on curriculum development. Among the projects he was involved with during his time at the organization was the production of a CD with a Chumash translation and accompanying workshops as well as three teacher-training videos. He also during this time completed the organization’s principal-training program.

Following his three years at Torah UMesorah, Bak served as dean of the Jacob Joseph School on Staten Island.

He has also been involved with the creation of Strategies, a six-year-old organization dedicated to raising the quality of day school teachers; Rayonot, a magazine that deals with the latest trends in Jewish education; and Project Innocent Heart, an organization that seeks to combat child abuse and neglect in the Jewish community by training teachers and clinicians on how to detect such abuse and subsequently address the issue.

Bak is married to Chavie and they are the parents of six children, ages 2-14.

Shortly after Bak moved with his family from Far Rockaway, Queens to Lakewood, where most of his extended family resides, he was contacted by the school to see if he was interested in the open position.

Several months, and many interviews, later, Bak was hired as the school’s new principal.

Though Bak has handed over control of Strategies, Rayonot, and Project Innocent Heart to other individuals after assuming his new position, he said such a tradeoff is well worth it.

“I wouldn’t have given these up if I didn’t think [Shalom Torah] was a winner.”

The school’s mission, Bak explained, is to provide students with a strong education in general as well as Jewish studies.

“The goal is to produce well-rounded American citizens in a warm Jewish and culturally rich background,” Bak said, “Here, students can have not only an amazing academic background in general studies, but also an amazing experience in their Judaism.”

Part of that experience includes immersion in all things Israel.

“I think our children, particularly in America, don’t get enough opportunities to experience eretz Yisrael and ahavat Yisrael.”

In addition to incorporating age-appropriate lessons about Israel, the building will also be labeled with identifying Hebrew words: Delet for door, chalon for window, etc.

“We want to create a mini-Israel here in our building,” Bak said.

Bak said that he wants to create a school environment that connects students to a culture and society that extends back millennia.

“I want the students to walk through the building and feel like they’re part of a tradition that is thousands of years old — to experience Judaism, Torah, and eretz Yisrael,” he said.

“I believe it’s possible and I believe we can do it,” he added.

Such an embrace of the Jewish tradition, Bak explained, does not come at the expense of general academic excellence.

“When I send my child to Jewish day school I want to be sure that they have the same opportunities as a student in a public or other private school,” he said. “Many people think that when they send their child to day school, they have to give up something. The truth is that they don’t.”