The American Friends of Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh will celebrate its 45th Annual Dinner on Wednesday evening, June 3, 2015 in the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 36 Battery Place, in Lower Manhattan. The Yeshiva will pay tribute to three distinguished couples who have achieved prominence in various endeavors of professional acumen. The featured speaker will be Maran Rosh HaYeshiva HaRav Mordechai Greenberg, shlita.

Rabbi Elisha Rodney and Elisheva Weiss, who will receive the Rabbinic Alumnus Award, serve as Rabbi and Rebbetzin of Merkaz Yisrael of Marine Park. Rabbi Weiss is also a member of the Judaic Studies Faculty of the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway.

Rabbi Weiss learned in Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh during the 1987-1988 year and then received a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Yeshiva College, a Masters Degree from Azrieli Graduate School of Jewish Education and Administration and Semicha from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary.

Rebbetzin Elisheva Weiss graduated from Touro College and has a Masters Degree from Touro College in School Psychology as well as Mental Health Counseling. Elisheva and Reb Elisha are blessed with three children: Meir, Adina and Avigail.

Yitz and Gilla Stern will receive the Ambassadors of Torah Award.

Yitz and Gilla Stern, residents of Teaneck for the past 35 years and natives of Monsey, have been actively involved in the greater Teaneck and Bergen County communities on a number of levels. They have been a part of the leadership of several community-based organizations, including Gilla as a PTA President and Yitz as an executive board member at the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey.

In addition to his work as an administrator at the Bergen County Police & Fire Academy, Yitz is a part-time business professor at Fairleigh Dickinson University and serves as a commissioner on the New Jersey State Commission on Holocaust Education and on the New Jersey-Israel Commission. He also spent twelve years in elected office as a member of the Teaneck Township Council, including one term as Deputy Mayor.

Gilla Stern, a licensed New Jersey realtor with Weichert, helps oversee the operation of the family’s real estate development & management firm. She is a local Bikur Cholim and Chai Lifeline volunteer, while also giving of her time to other local chesed organizations.

They are the proud parents of four children, including Shlomo (KBY 2000 & 2001), and a growing staff of grandchildren.

Yitz and Gilla, expressing gratitude to Kerem B’Yavneh, said: “We continue to see the tremendous impact that the yeshiva has made in the lives of so many young men in and around our community. It is clear that their experiences at KBY, including Shlomo’s, continue to have a tremendous positive impact on their lives and the lives of their families, as they have for many years.”

Michael/MJ and Julie Weingarten will receive the Young Alumnus Award. MJ Weingarten, learned in Kerem B’Yavneh from 2009-2011 and then attended Yeshiva University. He served as the Vice President of the Debate Team, Director of the Music Vs. Fellowship and received multiple awards for excellence in both Talmud and political science. MJ graduated Summa Cum Laude from YU with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and is now focusing on a dual career in the rabbinate and medicine. An avid violinist, he has spent summers volunteering at Camp Simcha and coordinating a leadership training program for underprivileged teenagers. MJ currently serves as the Rabbinic Intern of the Young Israel of Holliswood in Queens.

Julie Weingarten, formerly of Lawrence, NY, graduated from the Stella K Abraham High School and then learned in Sha’alvim for Women. Julie graduated the Copper Union as a chemical engineer and currently works as a new product innovation engineer as Steuben Foods in Jamaica, NY.

Co-Chairmen of the dinner are Emanuel Adler, Benyamin Kaminetzky, and Rabbi Benjamin Kelsen, who are prominent members of the Teaneck community. They promise a exciting and invigorating atmosphere.

Rabbi Ari Katz, Director of the Overseas Program, will articulate words of tribute highlighting the life of Rabbi Aryeh Kupinsky, of blessed memory. Rabbi Kupinsky, an alumnus from the 1989-1990 year, was murdered in the Har Nof Massacre in November 2014.

The current Rosh HaYeshiva is HaRav Mordechai Greenberg. HaRav Greenberg was one of the most outstanding talmidim of KBY’s founding Rosh HaYeshiva, Maran HaRav Chayim Yaakov Goldvicht, zt”l. HaRav Goldvicht introduced the Hesder Program, the Overseas Students Program, instilling thousands of students from around the world with a love of Torah and the Land of Israel, and the Kollel programs preparing KBY students for the rabbinate and to serve as Dayanim on Batei Din.

For further information and to place your ads and dinner reservations, please call the office of American Friends of Yeshivat Kerem B’Yavneh at 718 645-3130 and/or email as follows: [email protected].