(Courtesy of Ma’ayanot) Ma’ayanot Yeshiva High School for Girls’ annual scholarship dinner, being held virtually on March 6, will celebrate “Chazak V-Ematz”—the joy, creativity and strength of the Ma’ayanot community during this challenging year. Ma’ayanot students, staff, faculty, and parents all rose to the occasion with ingenuity and community spirit. Ma’ayanot has been open every school day, and able to continue its rigorous academic program, caring teacher-student personal relationships and dynamic student activities. Students are happy and grateful to learn together with their friends and build personal connections with their teachers, and appreciate the incredible resourcefulness of the programming team that allowed the fun, camaraderie and Torah spirit of Ma’ayanot to flourish more than ever.
Mrs. CB Neugroschl, Ma’ayanot’s head of school, reflects with appreciation on the incredible devotion and support of the Ma’ayanot community. “The creativity and full-hearted dedication of our faculty and administration is mind-blowing. We’ve made hundreds of plans, and our teachers have approached every challenge, and every day, with remarkable courage. We have seen an incredible spirit of support, resilience and generosity, unifying us during this difficult time!”
The annual scholarship dinner raises funds to enable Ma’ayanot to continue to provide a dynamic and inspirational community of growth for our daughters, the Jewish leaders of tomorrow. This year (2020-2021), Ma’ayanot’s scholarship fund will give out over $2 million in financial aid, ensuring that every young Orthodox Jewish woman in our community has the opportunity to receive an exemplary education and the accompanying co-curricular activities offered at Ma’ayanot.
Ma’ayanot strives to nurture the interests of all students and provide intellectual challenge in and out of the classroom. Ma’ayanot’s highly qualified faculty maintains a collaborative learning environment rich in growth and development. Ma’ayanot’s pioneering STEAM studies and co-curricular learning options, including Torah enrichment, humanities enrichment and interdisciplinary days, have added breadth and depth to our students’ learning experiences. Ma’ayanot students have won national and regional competitions in science and STEAM, received National Merit and other College Board recognition annually, excelled in national and regional Torah learning opportunities and published award-winning individual essays and student publications.
Ma’ayanot offers top-notch academic rigor combined with joyous and meaningful engagement in learning, and seamless support and guidance in all areas—religious, academic and social—to bring students successfully from the first day of high school to Israel, college and beyond. Ma’ayanot proactively and thoughtfully helps students identify their individual interests, make meaningful choices and find opportunities to develop and share their talents. Students lead school publications, academic teams, performing arts societies, school committees and student-created crews, which creates a culture of empowerment, discovery and self-expression for each and every student. As sophomore Aleeza Goldberg put it, “The variety of Ma’ayanot’s co-curricular options lets each student show her strengths in many areas; we don’t have to limit ourselves.” In this challenging year, as every year, Ma’ayanot steadfastly continues to implement its unique educational vision of facilitating students’ personal growth, so that they may be joyful and inspired members of klal Yisrael.
The theme of this year’s dinner, Chazak V-Ematz, highlights the strength and resolve of those who supported the Ma’ayanot community as it faced the challenges of opening a school during a global pandemic. Many unique individuals enabled Ma’ayanot to open its doors to provide in-person learning to our daughters safely, creatively and with Ma’ayanot’s trademark warmth and hominess.
Mrs. Rachel Feldman will receive the L’eila U-L’eila award for professional leadership. Mrs. Feldman, our fearless executive director, went straight to work and literally moved walls in order for Ma’ayanot to reopen and allow for socially distant classroom space and sanitary conditions. Her rock-solid reopening plan ensured that Ma’ayanot students could return to their home away from home safely. In her 12 years of service to Ma’ayanot, Mrs. Feldman’s creativity, innovation, organization and work ethic have enabled Ma’ayanot’s campus to function beautifully in all seasons and circumstances.
Nurse Tali Feder became the school’s first line of defense against COVID-19, along with the medical committee, helping each family on a case-by-case basis to review and decide what is best for that individual family and for the Ma’ayanot family. Ma’ayanot will bestow Mrs. Feder, along with the entire Ma’ayanot medical committee, Dr. Burt Appel, Dr. Howie Friedman, Dr. Lorie Greenberg and Dr. Dora Suldan with the Nedivut Lev award for community service.
Our parent honorees this year are Rabbi Shaul and Mrs. Sarah Robinson, fixtures of Lincoln Square Synagogue on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, exemplify an appreciation for Ma’ayanot’s unique educational offering and environment, which has allowed their five daughters to thrive within and beyond our doors. They will be receiving the V’kalakhta Bi’drakhav award for rabbinic leadership.
Please consider supporting this vital campaign and join us in expressing hakarat hatov for the incredible dedication and commitment of Ma’ayanot’s administration, faculty and volunteers, all of whom gave countless hours of their personal time to allow Ma’ayanot to safely open and operate our campus.
You can make a donation by going to www.maayanotdinner.com or email Beth Nussbaum at [email protected].
