Recognizing student accomplishments

The Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR) High School’s annual Celebration of Excellence was held on May 19. During this night, we came together and celebrated the students’ accomplishments during the current school year.

It began with a welcome by General Studies Principal, Naomi Lippman, who spoke about the significance of the event. She expressed the pride she has for each student who was being recognized. Current National Honor Society President, Justin Lish, and Vice President, David Fleschner, played major roles in the evening's program. They were followed by the candle lighting ceremony.

For each candle, a student was chosen to say a few words about the title of the candle it was lit. The candle of Achievement was represented by Emily Kornblum, the candle of character, Marc Gottlieb, the candle of commitment, Joshua Plaut, the candle of creativity, Raquel Wietschner, the candle of dedication, Jennifer Moskowitz, the candle of scholarship, Maxwell Greenstein, the candle of service, Menashe Oved, the candle of Torah, Israel Lallouz, and I lit the candle of leadership.

Student of the Year, Perrin Rudensky, gave an insightful speech as the keynote speaker.  Joan Parmet, director of College Guidance, presented awards to outstanding students in science, social studies, leadership, and technology. The Bausch and Lomb Honorary Science Award was given to Rachel Sacks, the

Fredrick Douglass and Susan B. Anthony Award was given to Gila Schein, the Xerox Award for Innovation and Information Technology was given to William Silber, the Lawrence Association Award was given to Jordan Cohen, and the George Eastman Young Leaders Award was given to yours truly.

Dr. Rena Bonne, chair of the English department, then awarded two students, Perrin Rudensky and Rachel Wasserman, with the Barnard Book Award, and math chairman, Mr. Neil Bernstein, presented certificates to the math research participants. Rabbi Gedaliah Oppen gave a Dvar Torah with a message appropriate for the evening.

Afterwards, the presidents of each honor society read the names of everyone who was inducted that night into the Spanish, Hebrew, French and Art honor societies. Co-presidents of those respective groups are Alyssa Weingrofsky and Boaz Bruger,  Asaf Cohen and Dina Sarikov, Zachary Rindenow and Julian Sternberg and Matthew Hoenig and Emily Hoschander.

Lippman and Rabbi Oppen introduced the members of the National Honor Society and the Hatmadah Enrichment Program, Karen Wolf, associate director of college guidance, introduced the Principals’ Honor Roll inductees, and Rabbi Jordan Nadelbach, director of student activities, introduced the Chesed Honor Society members. Students are inducted based on their grade point average and the hours they have committed to a specific activity. New National Honor Society president and vice president, Rachel Sacks and Jeremy Schneider, said the pledge for everyone to repeat and blew out the candles, which signaled the ceremony’s end.

In conjunction with the awards ceremony, a special annual art exhibit was on display that presented all of the work the students had completed during the year in both art and computer graphics. Everyone was impressed with all of the pieces that were displayed. The exhibit was made possible by the hard work of Dale Malekoff, director of HAFTR’s Art Institute, and Wendy Friend, the computer graphics teacher. Malekoff and Friend are dedicated to their students to help them have the opportunity to create something great.

As the school year ends on June 3, this is my last HAFTR Highlights column. I truly enjoyed the experience. It has been an exciting year filled with wins and losses, cultivating a unique experience that allowed each student to grow academically and personally. I wish everyone a great summer.