Torah Academy of Bergen County celebrated the achievements of 89 graduating seniors this past Monday evening, June 14. While the program was originally planned as an outdoor event, the rainy forecast meant a last-minute pivot to an indoor celebration. An elegant dessert reception took place in the transformed hockey gym, which was adorned with twinkle lights and votives, before the graduate processional.
After the national anthems, salutatorian Noam Barenholtz provided the invocation, followed by divrei bracha from Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Yosef Adler and Ezra Baron’s valedictory address. Singer Pinny Schachter took the stage to perform a medley of “Birkat Habanim” and “Ribono,” which accompanied a montage of the students throughout the years. This year, the graduates were given the opportunity to vote on a class speaker. Ezra Ratner shared charming and witty reflections on the past four years before it was the faculty’s turn to reminisce in the featured video presentation. Head of School Rabbi Adelman’s charge to the graduates was followed by the presentation of diplomas by retiring principal Arthur J. Poleyeff, who ascended the stage to a standing ovation. While awards had been given out prior to graduation at Senior Dinner, the newly established Arthur J. Poleyeff Temimut Award was announced and presented to Daniel Kroopnick for demonstrating superior commitment to the values instilled at TABC. The evening concluded with a benediction from co-salutatorian Yair Levie and a moving rendition of Birkat Kohanim sung by Sidney Langer, father of graduating senior Levi Langer. The program was punctuated throughout the evening by humorous short videos which featured Rav Yitz Rabovsky, director of Student Activities and Athletics, and popular rebbe and mechanech Rabbi Jonathan Kessel, interviewing the seniors about things they would miss about TABC, wouldn’t miss about TABC and advice they’d impart to incoming freshmen.
The 89 members of the Class of 2021 join the ranks of thousands of distinguished TABC graduates and a close-knit alumni community. Mazal tov!
