The New York Times profiled Shimon Waronker, a Chabad-Lubavitch Chasid who commutes daily from his home in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, N.Y., to head Junior High School 22 in the South Bronx.

Waronker, a military veteran and native Spanish speaker from South America, was appointed principal of the troubled public school in 2004. Since then, he’s instituted an honors program, the city has removed the school from its list of 12 most dangerous institutions, and J.H.S. 22 earned an A on its new school report card.

“It’s an entirely different place,” Schools Chancellor Joel I. Klein told the Times. “If I could clone Shimon Waronker, I would do that immediately.” …