This past week, RYNJ held its annual 4th and 5th grade spelling bee. The room was filled with almost 250 students clamoring to find out who would win this year. The bee was live streamed to parents on the school’s website so that any parent could watch the bee live as it occurred. In the end, Avishai Jutkowitz, 4th grader, and Ezra Lebowitz, 5th grader, won the bee. After that, the winners moved on to the Tri-town Bee hosted by the Women’s League of River Edge.
After winning the RYNJ spelling bee, Ezra Lebowitz found himself at the microphone in the Oradell Public School auditorium. He spelled the difficult word given to him, aesthetic, with calm assertion. The bee was many rounds in, and the stage was filled with chairs, most of them empty, but with a few young spellers still seated among them. The spellers had been taking turns walking up to the microphone and nervously waiting to hear their assigned word. Sometimes this was followed by a, “Can I have the definition?” or “Can you use the word in a sentence?” After spelling the word, the young speller usually looked expectantly at the judges, waiting to hear the fateful verdict. One of the three judges would either say, “That’s correct” (and the speller would march back to his/her chair confidently) or “I’m sorry, the correct spelling is…” (and the speller, with slouched shoulders, would walk offstage to his family, as the audience cheered him/her on).
Throughout the bee, this kippah-clad boy didn’t seem fazed that he was spelling difficult words in front of a large audience, competing against bright kids from around the area, him being the only yeshiva student. Each time it was his turn, Ezra pronounced his given word, spelled it out carefully, and repeated the word. Upon hearing he was correct, he smiled slightly, pleased with himself, and returned to his seat.
In the final round, the other contestants were eliminated, leaving Ezra alone on the stage. If he spelled the next word correctly, he would be the winner. If he misspelled it, the last eliminated contestants would rejoin him on the stage for another round. The word was extravagant. A small, confident grin appeared on Ezra’s face. He knew how to spell it. The letters quickly poured out of his mouth, excited to be released into the air in the proper order. There was a tense pause. The judges weren’t sure about one letter he said. They whispered amongst themselves, made a quick announcement, asking the audience to hold tight, and checked the recording. They played it a few times. And then came the announcement, “He was correct! Ezra, you are the winner!”
His family and 5th grade teacher, Sari Margolis, ran up to congratulate him. Ezra was the champion of the Tri-town bee. Sari Margolis described Ezra at the bee as having “exceptional poise, a wealth of vocabulary words stored in his brain from all the books he reads, and a positive attitude.”
To spell it out clearly, Ezra is a S-T-A-R.
