This week, RPRY held its annual Toby Mayer Memorial Scholarship Breakfast, awarding Rabbi Steven Miodownik the Educator Excellence Award. The breakfast is in memory of Toby Mayer, a beloved wife and a mother of three RPRY alumni, Alexis (‘04), Carly (‘07), and Jared (‘09). Her legacy of dedication to Jewish values was commemorated through the event.

RPRY’s credo is that no child should be denied a Jewish education due to an inability to pay the full cost of tuition. The scholarship breakfast annually raises funds to meet this need and provide the highest quality Jewish and general education in a warm yeshiva environment to all Jewish children living in our area.

The morning began with attendees enjoying a catered breakfast while listening to the fourth grade choir and Divrei Torah from one of RPRY’s eighth graders, Kivi Davis, and Head of School Rabbi Daniel Loew. One highlight from the breakfast was a video, created by Abie Russ-Fishbane, a current eighth grader, together with Ami Avraham, an RPRY alum and current parent. In the video, current and past students of Rabbi Miodownik’s shared their favorite memories of his class. R’ Jakey Berman, class of 2004, recalled how Rabbi Miodownik “really brought the learning into action and into life” by actively making grape juice/wine after learning about its halachot. Another alum recalled learning Shabbat melachot with Rabbi Miodownik. Instead of Rabbi Miodownik teaching the 39 Melachot in a standard classroom setting, he brought the entire class to a local farm and demonstrated each melacha to them. Several other alumni shared similar sentiments and stories, that by engaging students with hands on learning, Rabbi Miodownik brought Torah to life for them. Rachel Zemble, (‘13), said that his class “changed my life.”

RPRY is honored to award Rabbi Miodownik the Educator Excellence Award, and proud to spark the love for learning Torah in students without regard to financial circumstance with the $240,000 raised thus far.